Literature Survey, Literature Review and Critical Review

In most of the post-graduate and higher education institutes, the review paper writing constitutes the critical part of projects. Usually, the need for the literature review is translated in the form of identification of the problem or what is peculiarly called the research gap. Even if your projects are directly suggested by your supervisor as in case of many premier institutes - it is asked to go through the available literature. In fact, an excuse for the literature review is even mentioned as getting the latest knowledge in the field.

So before we begin, we need to identify what does literature mean? Literature can be said as any material whether print or electronic, which is authentic and verified by various experts in the field and provides logical, relevant and accurate information. Literature can be in the form of following matters:

1. Journal Paper 
2. Conference Proceedings 
3. Web Articles 
4. Books and Handbooks 
5. Magazine Articles 
6. Case Studies
7. Patents 
8. Materials from designated bodies – Law Articles, Data from Ministry of Region, etc. 
9. Thesis and Report 
10. Working Paper or any other material

Usually, people consider Literature Survey, Literature Review and Critical Review all as the same but they are significantly different from each other, usually while considering for publication literature review and critical reviews are excepted.

Literature Survey

It is nothing but a summary of all the materials that you have gone through for the current research. The literature survey is done to achieve one or more of the following objectives:

• To get the relevant information, data, theory and/or equations 
• To revisit the past knowledge
• To know the current extremes of the topic being considered
• To identify who are the pioneers or experts in the field
• To know which companies or industries are active with the topic

Literature Review

It is a more than just referring the documents as in case of literature survey. It encompasses the SWOT analysis of the topic in the field of study, it is usually done to identify the loopholes in the current area of knowledge and also to identify possible ways to troubleshoot the same. The literature review is always preceded by a literature survey. It is undesirable for someone doing a literature review to state the published material as incorrect, identifying loop-holes is different from criticizing a published work. For the literature review, it is suggested to go through a paper via three filter pass. After every stage, the desirability of paper with respect to the research area has to be justified. 

1. Go through the title, abstract and conclusion
2. Quick go through across the paper
3. Detailed study of the paper

Critical Review

It comprises of giving feedbacks, summaries as well as suggestions to already published articles. The critical review is always done by experts in the field. As a student, it is never suggested to give a critical review. Critical reviews are even requested by the authors of the paper itself to identify the gap between the theoretical aspects given in the paper and practical aspects of the industry. In fact, peer review or blind reviews are also segments of critical review. The critical review requires line – by – line study in fact even reading in between the lines of every article being considered. 

It is recommended that one should go through a variety of already written literature surveys or reviews before start writing of your own. This will help you understand the cohesiveness of language, how to be lucid with your words and presentation style of content. It is also advised to make sure that your work is plagiarism free and free from grammatical as well as linguistic error.