What is a literature survey?

Hey everyone, today is our Researcher's Day and hence we will be discussing something that holds a lot of importance in our proposal and thesis. 

Yeah, it's in the title.

LITERATURE SURVEY.

I had a huge question mark on my face when I had to make my proposal and my guide told me.

"Start with your literature first, it takes a lot of time" 

And I was like.. What to survey? What literature? Is it like reading classical novels about the scientists or something?

But sadly that wasn't the case.

So what is a literature survey?

This question is a little tricky to answer, but I will try my best. Let's see how far we can get.

Literature Survey, simply put is collection of research  papers that hold any slightest relevance to your research. More the literature survey, the more your topic will be considered strong and something to work upon. If you don't have enough research papers on your research (at least the one you are carrying out in your post grad) then I assume you will be facing some hard time in front of your examiner. 

This is why a lot of universities give a certain number as a lower limit of research papers you require to put in your LS. In my university I had 25 as minimum for proposal and 45 for thesis. If you are lucky enough to have more, then you can put as much as you like. I added around sixty.

What is it's significance?

Well, it supports your research like a scaffold. You can use it to show what earlier researchers did and compare it to what you are doing and it also comes handy to the examiner to check the methodology, protocols, results etc. and spot the difference or similarities. Also it helps to show the different applications and various fields where a particular research can be applied. It doesn't matters if you have carried out the particular application or method, just put it to show your research's foot in every area and try to project it like the great Alexander.

When do I start collecting the papers?

Umm, if possible start doing it right when you start with your research because it gets really frustrating when you have to do it at the time of your proposal. Start with it beforehand and keep it almost ready so that later you have enough time to think for writing your methodology, plan of action, expected outcomes, etc.

What type of research papers should I include?

Take my word, include anything particular to your topic. For eg. in my research I had to carry out the isolation of an organism from oil spilled area. So I included paper not only that mention the same area but also from water samples, food samples, sputum samples etc. I was carrying out acid precipitation and solvent extraction so I collected papers that used a lot of other extraction methods too. I was carrying out anti-adhesion of pathogens as my application, but I gathered a lot of other applications and that too from different organisms and likewise. So I advice that you too try not to stick only to your organism or the method that you are using. It narrows the research. Of course, wherever possible and necessary, try to highlight how your's is better or unique.

How do I compile and present my literature survey?

There are a lot of way to do this, but personally I like to segregate it on the basis of different step that you incorporate in your research. As in if your research involves isolation of an organism, then club all the papers that highlight different sources of isolation and put in under one head line. Then put a headline and club all the papers of screening, if any. Then go for optimization, then production, then extraction,etc. I like to bold the particular author and the year and put it right at the start. But you can always personalize it the way you like :)

Hope I covered most of the things and praying that it helps you. 

Feel free to ask any question, cuz I will be more than happy to answer them.

Lots of love.

High six :D

-Staph <3