Q: What is the difference between literature review and recommendations?
A literature review is a critical summary of all the published works on a particular topic. Most research papers include a section on literature review as part of the introduction. Often, the Discussion section too includes a critical review of selected studies for the purpose of comparing their results with those of the study at hand.
Recommendations are generally a part of the Discussion or Conclusion. Recommendations are basically what you tell your readers about the kind of actions that should be taken as a result of your findings. This could be with regard to policy, practice, theory, or further research. For instance, you can make recommendations on subsequent research that can be conducted based on the findings of your study, especially, if there is an interest in generalizing the findings beyond the study’s parameters. You may have identified gaps in the literature that should be addressed, and to which your study may not have contributed.
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