Bad and good practices on Literature Review

There are different practices on Literature Review (LR), some bad and some good. I list them below from bad to good:

1. As a list of readings with brief descriptions; that is, a kind of annotated bibliography
2. An explanation of the search process of finding relevant literature
3. A survey on relevant writing and research works on the topic under investigation
4. As a vehicle of learning the relevant concepts and viewpoints on the topic under investigation
5. As a facilitation to investigate the topic, clarifying the context and supporting the methodology to be employed in the investigation by the student.
6. To discuss the literature as a major part of your research report; this is considered as the highest level of conceptions in the investigation by the student

Note:

• Literature sources: textbooks, academic articles, dissertation reports
• Review efforts: describe, explain, compare and contrast, evaluate and select, synthesize
• Literature elements: concepts (and their definitions), viewpoints, findings, methodologies used, experience gained, information gaps, major intellectual curiosity/ queries, points of debates
• Literature review outcomes: inform research design, research objectives and questions, analysis & evaluation efforts.

Reference
Bryman, A.and Bell, E. (2007) "Chapter 4: Getting Started: reviewing the literature",  Business Research Methods, Oxford University Press

Also see my article on literature review