Chapter 2: CONDUCTING THE LITERATURE SURVEY

Abstract:

Good research always includes a thorough information or literature survey. RESEARCH TOOLBOX assists researchers with identifying literature sources as well as capturing, structuring and retrieving literature information. Your literature survey is also now easily integrated with the rest of the research process.


1. What is the value of a thorough literature survey? 

The literature survey serves many important purposes. These include broadening your horizons, preventing yourself from "re-inventing the wheel" and establishing the "need" for your research. According to Paul Leedy¹: "The more knowledgeable you are, the better you can understand your problem."

Where possible, it is always a good principle to build on the work of others. An outstanding example of this principle is the mathematical research conducted to prove "Fermat’s Last Theorem". Fermat was a 17^th century French jurist, whose theorem was an extension of the theorem of Pythagoras.

Thousands of the best mathematicians tried in vain, for more than 350 years, to prove this theorem. It took Andrew Wiles² eight years to harness and unify the entire breadth of mathematics to eventually achieve this goal in 1995! Without the perfect literature review, it would never have been possible.

Another interesting example is from molecular biology. Nobel Laureate Francis Crick said of the time he spent with James Watson discovering the structure of DNA³, "It seems a ridiculous short period of work, but all the hours and hours of reading and discussion that led to the final model really should be included."

The negative effect of incomplete literature surveys can be well illustrated with several examples. Various well-known researchers wasted a lot of their research efforts by "re-inventing the wheel".

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