Research Paper VS Review Paper:

Purpose:

In a research paper, author/s intent to conduct and report a detailed, original research study. It present the author’s unique investigation of a specific research question. While in a review paper, author/s intent to critically analyse previously published literature on a specific topic.

Base on?

A research paper is based on original research that has been conducted by the paper’s authors. This is known as primary literature. While a review paper is based on existing published articles; it does not report any original research. This is known as secondary literature.

How is it written?

A research paper reports each step of the study in detail. It also includes a discussion of the possible implications of the results of how the study contributes to existing literature and suggestions for further research. While a review paper identifies and reports commonalities between the results of the chosen studies. With a balance perspective, the authors analyse available information from publishes work & report any problems with or gaps within the existing literature.

How long should it be?

A research paper depends on the word count specified by the journal but word limit usually ranges between 3000 to 6000 words. While for a review paper, it usually ranges between 3000 to 5000 words. In some cases, a longer or relatively short review paper might also be published, depending upon the journal.

A literature review is an assessment of sources in the chosen topic of research.

It is a critical summary of all the published works on a particular topic.

It is a overview of current knowledge, identify relevant theories, methods and gaps in the existing research.

It is a collection of the most relevant and significant publications regarding that topic.

Refer the steps of writing a good literature review in the previous post.

Step 1: Search for relevant literature

Broaden your search area;

Reflect RQ

Review a number of texts that most closely pertain to your topic and position

Wraps up with a clear thesis statement

Step 2: use the right keywords

Search the library catalogue, subject specific databases and other search tools to find sources that are relevant to your topic.

The literature review can be organized by study topic, building information about the topic through definitive academic contribution.

Step 3: identify theme, debates and gaps

What is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed? Where do sources disagree?

Articulates the purposes of your new project, which is to either fill in a gap in current research or to provide the next step in researching the topic.

Step 4: Develop review logically

Provide the context for that publication’s importance by tying its main points to your thesis, hypothesis, or project statement. How does it relate? Establish its relevance to the discussion. Refer to many types of sources to support the argument (such as journals, books, websites or newspapers).

Step 5: Writing literature review

1. Transform general problem statement to a specific problem statement.
2. Catch your reader’s attention quickly to the issues that your proposed project will address and providing the reader with a concise statement of the proposed project itself.
3. Clearly outlines the problem addressed by a study and identify the purpose of the research project you will propose.
4. Characteristics of good problem statement: i. Addressing the gap; ii. Lead to further research; iii. Significant to contribute to the existing research; iv. Contribution of the research based on research problem.
5. Five steps in writing problem statement: i. Background information; ii. General problem statement; iii. Scholarly support; iv. Specific problem statement; v. Concluding commentary.

Introduction is at the beginning of a text while literature review is located after the introduction or background.

Introduction is the part that introduces the main text to the readers while literature review critically evaluates the existing research on the selected research area and identifies the research gap.

Introduction have elements such as background, outline of key issues, thesis statement, aims and purpose of the paper and definition of terms and concepts while literature review have summaries, reviews, critical evaluations, and comparisons of selected research studies.

The content structure of a thesis’s introduction:

1. Introduction to the introduction: a short version (of only a few paragraphs) of the thesis’s aims, research questions, contribution, objectives and findings.
2. State the topic and aims of the thesis in more detail.
3. Provide a brief review of the literature related to the topic (this will be very brief if you have a separate literature review chapter).
4. Define the terms and scope of the topic.
5. Critically evaluate the current state of the literature on that topic and identify your gap.
6. Outline why the research is important and the contribution that it makes.
7. Outline your epistemological and ontological position.
8. Clearly outline the research questions and problem (s) you seek to address.
9. State the hypotheses (if you are using any).
10. detail the most important concepts and variables.
11. Briefly describe your methodology.
12. discuss the main findings.
13. discuss the layout of the thesis.

1st Year PhD:

Q1: PhD Topic should be decided and 10 pages proposal should be done

Q2: 10 pages proposal reviewed and confirmed by supervisors and move to next step which is doing your chapter 1 to 3 proposal (usually around 80 pages), do consequently and submit to supervisors to review chapter by chapter. Seek help if having problems.

Q3: Continue completing full proposal

Q4: Prepare for proposal defense and start to write review paper (focusing for chapter 2)

2nd Year PhD:

Q1: Go for proposal defense (practice well with Mock Defense) and do the corrections if needed. Start to submit review paper.

Q2: Proposal corrections all done and confirmed. Work on preparing lab for Science and Engineering such as algorithm.

Q3: Start pilot test/ model training for engineering and start to write conceptual paper.

Q4: Start to accumulate results from lab, done preparation for benchmarking. Submit conceptual paper to journal.

3rd Year PhD:

Q1: Full data collection/ done benchmarking process/evaluation process/comparison process. Data analysis, redo data collection/evaluation if needed. Start analysis.

Q2: Complete chapter 4 and 5. Request your supervisors to review immediate. Write technical paper with result and submit to high impact journal (WoS Q1 or Q2). Proofread thesis.

Q3: Full draft of thesis should be done by you and finalized by supervisors. Prepare submission to Viva (Ensure practice well with Mock Viva session).

Q4: Attend Viva, do the corrections and submit final thesis. Done!

Ensure your indexation preference: SCI/SCIE/SSCI/ESCI/PubMed/Scopus etc.
Make a list of available journals in your subject area and survey the type of articles published in them. Compare quality of your articles to those published in these journals and then make a list of journals with a suitable impact factor range.
Make sure the aims/scope of the journals match that of your study.
Check for the types of articles published by the journals.
Check all the other aspects of the journal such as peer-review process, instructions to authors, open access options, audience/readership of the journal, information about the publisher, time for peer review, acceptance/rejection rates etc.

Pros

it helps to correct the natural limitation of our memories and of the intuitive glosses that we might place on what people say in interviews

it allows more thorough examination of what people say

it permits repeated examinations of the interviewees’ answers

it permits repeated examinations of the interviewees’ answers

it opens up the data to public scrutiny by other researchers, who can evaluate the analysis that is carried out by the original researchers of the data (that is, a secondary analysis)

it therefore helps to counter accusations that an analysis might have been influenced by the researcher’s values or biases

it allows the data to be reused in other ways from those intended by the original researcher

Cons

it introduces a different dynamic into the social encounter of the interview, and recording equipment may be off-putting for interviewees.

transcribing is a very time-consuming process. It also requires good equipment, usually in the form of a good-quality tape recorder and microphone but also, if possible a transcription machine. Transcription also very quickly results in a daunting pile of paper.

-No Compelling Reason. Lack compelling reason for the research. Many students lack a compelling reason for the investigation of the problem.

-Lack of Persuasion. Not persuasive enough for identify problem as a basis for the study. They can’t sell the problem as a basis for the study.

-Clarify. Lack of clarify about the problem. Because of the lack of clarify this pervades the dissertation. Thus, failure to identify gaps in the prior research as a basis for the investigation.

-Topic of Choice. Poor topic choice for researching a problem is a problem. for example, you do not want to pick a topic such as problem on “Basket Weaving” if there is no basis for the problem nd investigation.

-Problem Nexus. There is a nexus issue with the problem under investigation and the research. Many doctoral students do not make the connection between the problem and the basis for the study. hus a poor problem statement is written.

-Failure to Develop a Clear Problem Statement. This is the blame for us in the academic community. There is always a clear purpose statement but there is never a clear problem statement.