6 The Literature Review
The literature review is important because:
• It describes how the proposed research is related to prior research in statistics.
• It shows the originality and relevance of your research problem. Specifically, your
research is different from other statisticians.
• It justifies your proposed methodology.
• It demonstrates your preparedness to complete the research.
6.1 What is a literature review and why is it necessary?
• Your dissertation is a substantial and lengthy piece of professional work that must
satisfy a number of academic requirements. The literature review is one of these
important academic requirements.
• The literature review is a critical discussion and summary of statistical literature that
is of ‘general’ and ‘specialized’ relevance to the particular area and topic of the research
problem in statistics.
• You should spend a lot of time on your literature review because if you do it well, you
can use most of it in your dissertation.
• In a weak literature review, the Ph.D. student did a poor job of reviewing the relevant
literature. It can be poor because there are too few references or the student does not
adequately summarize the important results in the cited references. Keeping organized
notes will help prevent a weak literature review.
• Every statement in a literature review must be supported either by a reference to
published statistical literature.
• In a literature review, you do not present all of the details found in the references.
For example, you can state a theorem, but you do not have to present a proof of the
theorem. That is, you can (in general) assume the results in the published statistical
literature are established facts. By providing the source of the reference, your advisor
and committee can go to the original reference for all of the details.
• In your literature search you will:
– discover what statistical knowledge exists related to you research topic
– increase your statistical knowledge in your research area
– find gaps (and possibly errors) in published research
– generate new original ideas
– avoid duplicating results of other statisticians
– justify the relevance of your proposed research
49
, • A literature review in a proposal is usually ≥ 20 pages. It should be long enough to
convince your committee that you have thoroughly explored the research topic.
Why is a literature review necessary? The literature review performs a number of
important functions:
• It demonstrates to a Ph.D. committee that the student has read a large amount of
statistical literature to prove that the student is aware of the wide range of research
in theory and methodology related to the proposed research topic.
• It provides proof to a Ph.D. committee that the student has an deep understanding of
the published statistical research related to the topic of the dissertation.
• It should convince the Ph.D. committee that the student can communicate this under-
standing of the statistical literature and its relationship to the proposed research.
• It should support the originality and relevance for the Ph.D. research problem.
– This is done by identifying specific gaps in the statistical literature. That is, the
student identifies statistical questions that have not been answered and problems
that have not been solved.
– By identifying gaps in the statistical literature, the student can justify the origi-
nality of the proposed dissertation research. The originality can be an extension
of research that has been published or a modification of existing methodology or
theory that can be used to perform the Ph.D. research.
• In the proposal you will emphasize or stress the originality of the dissertation. With-
out a good literature review, you cannot convince your committee that that the pro-
posed research is original.
• A dissertation may be unacceptable because the Ph.D. student does not clearly show
that the research problem is original due to a poor literature review.
• Remember: the Literature Review is more than a summary of publications. It provides
evidence that your research will be an original and relevant contribution to statistics.
Recommendations:
• Writing the Literature Review is not a simple task. It requires good organization.
Specifically, you need to develop efficient time management and note-taking skills.
• You also need to be focused on assessing what is relevant to your proposed research,
and what is not relevant (irrelevant). You do not want to include anything in the
Literature Review that is not related to the proposed research.
• You should write notes regarding what you are reading as you read it. Do not wait,
because if you do wait, you will almost certainly have to read it again.
• While reading, keep notes about the assumptions made and the important results.
This will save you time later.
• In journal articles, the important results are briefly summarized in the Abstract. This
gives you information about what to look for as you read the paper.
50
The literature review is important because:
• It describes how the proposed research is related to prior research in statistics.
• It shows the originality and relevance of your research problem. Specifically, your
research is different from other statisticians.
• It justifies your proposed methodology.
• It demonstrates your preparedness to complete the research.
6.1 What is a literature review and why is it necessary?
• Your dissertation is a substantial and lengthy piece of professional work that must
satisfy a number of academic requirements. The literature review is one of these
important academic requirements.
• The literature review is a critical discussion and summary of statistical literature that
is of ‘general’ and ‘specialized’ relevance to the particular area and topic of the research
problem in statistics.
• You should spend a lot of time on your literature review because if you do it well, you
can use most of it in your dissertation.
• In a weak literature review, the Ph.D. student did a poor job of reviewing the relevant
literature. It can be poor because there are too few references or the student does not
adequately summarize the important results in the cited references. Keeping organized
notes will help prevent a weak literature review.
• Every statement in a literature review must be supported either by a reference to
published statistical literature.
• In a literature review, you do not present all of the details found in the references.
For example, you can state a theorem, but you do not have to present a proof of the
theorem. That is, you can (in general) assume the results in the published statistical
literature are established facts. By providing the source of the reference, your advisor
and committee can go to the original reference for all of the details.
• In your literature search you will:
– discover what statistical knowledge exists related to you research topic
– increase your statistical knowledge in your research area
– find gaps (and possibly errors) in published research
– generate new original ideas
– avoid duplicating results of other statisticians
– justify the relevance of your proposed research
49
, • A literature review in a proposal is usually ≥ 20 pages. It should be long enough to
convince your committee that you have thoroughly explored the research topic.
Why is a literature review necessary? The literature review performs a number of
important functions:
• It demonstrates to a Ph.D. committee that the student has read a large amount of
statistical literature to prove that the student is aware of the wide range of research
in theory and methodology related to the proposed research topic.
• It provides proof to a Ph.D. committee that the student has an deep understanding of
the published statistical research related to the topic of the dissertation.
• It should convince the Ph.D. committee that the student can communicate this under-
standing of the statistical literature and its relationship to the proposed research.
• It should support the originality and relevance for the Ph.D. research problem.
– This is done by identifying specific gaps in the statistical literature. That is, the
student identifies statistical questions that have not been answered and problems
that have not been solved.
– By identifying gaps in the statistical literature, the student can justify the origi-
nality of the proposed dissertation research. The originality can be an extension
of research that has been published or a modification of existing methodology or
theory that can be used to perform the Ph.D. research.
• In the proposal you will emphasize or stress the originality of the dissertation. With-
out a good literature review, you cannot convince your committee that that the pro-
posed research is original.
• A dissertation may be unacceptable because the Ph.D. student does not clearly show
that the research problem is original due to a poor literature review.
• Remember: the Literature Review is more than a summary of publications. It provides
evidence that your research will be an original and relevant contribution to statistics.
Recommendations:
• Writing the Literature Review is not a simple task. It requires good organization.
Specifically, you need to develop efficient time management and note-taking skills.
• You also need to be focused on assessing what is relevant to your proposed research,
and what is not relevant (irrelevant). You do not want to include anything in the
Literature Review that is not related to the proposed research.
• You should write notes regarding what you are reading as you read it. Do not wait,
because if you do wait, you will almost certainly have to read it again.
• While reading, keep notes about the assumptions made and the important results.
This will save you time later.
• In journal articles, the important results are briefly summarized in the Abstract. This
gives you information about what to look for as you read the paper.
50
