Writing a literature review

This chapter provides some guidance in writing a literature review. It explains why the literature review is considered a central building block for any piece of research. It clarifies the importance of literature review writing skills for academic activities and the skills required to complete a literature review. The chapter deliberates on the structure of the tourism literature. It recommends authors, when writing the literature review, start with the identification of the discipline that a paper fits into and the relevant theory(s). It also explains the steps in conducting a literature review that include identifying the research question, reading and familiarizing with the relevant literature, analyzing and coding recent papers, and final analysis and synthesis. The chapter ends with clarifying the most common types of review that can be followed including a scoping review, bibliographic review and narrative review.