ABSTRACT
Elements to cover in the Introduction of a stand-alone literature review are described throughout all guidelines in this chapter. Note that in a thesis or dissertation, the introduction to the topic is usually a separate chapter that precedes the literature review and may be longer than other types. Consider points for longer reviews such as Guidelines 7.6, 7.9, and 7.10 in these cases. In research reports, the literature review might be labeled under a heading as its own section of the article directly after the introduction, or the introduction and literature review may run together as one introductory section before proceeding to the research methods, and then findings and discussion of the research (see Guideline 7.11). Meta-analyses use similar strategies for introductions, but because they treat the literature as data, they place more emphasis in describing the methods by which the included literature was identified (see Guideline 7.4). Guideline 7.2: Essential elements in the Introduction are (a) identifying
the topic and (b) establishing its importance.
