Four reasons why you should consider a literature-based dissertation
In this blogpost, I’ll tell you what a literature-based dissertation is and explain these four reasons why you should certainly consider one:
It avoids the logistical issues of research-based dissertations;
It minimises the ethical considerations associated with research-based dissertations;
It opens up a wider range of topics;
It provides more time flexibility.
What is a literature-based dissertation?
In a literature-based dissertation, your entire dissertation is a literature review. It’s a big, bad, pumped, supercharged literature review! You take your research question and do a thorough, critical, strategic review of the literature around that question.
Your original contribution to knowledge – or where you fill the gap – is with new insights into your topic that you will generate as a result of your critical synthesis of the existing literature.
Think of your literature-based dissertation like making a lovely piece of crochet. You draw upon different strands and threads of the existing literature, some of which might never have been connected before. You crochet them all together to create new, innovative insights into your topic.
Above is the structure of a literature-based dissertation compared to research-based. There are two things you need to notice about this.
They don't have a chapter called the Literature Review, because the entire thing is a literature review. It doesn’t make any sense to have a Literature Review chapter! Instead, you have a series of themed chapters - usually between three and five - each critically examining a specific area of the literature. You draw them all together to answer your research question.
Literature-based dissertations don't have a separate Methodology chapter either. Instead, your Introduction chapter will include a section in which you provide an overview of your approach to your dissertation, explaining your strategy for finding and critically reviewing the literature.
Four key benefits of literature-based dissertations
(1) Avoids logistical issues of research-based dissertations
Primary research studies, especially ones that depend upon other human beings doing things for you – like completing your online questionnaire or doing an interview or a focus group – come with risks. Namely, that people won’t do those things!
Participants can withdraw or not turn up in the first place. Questionnaires can go unanswered.
You might be relying on a gatekeeper to get you access to a group of participants or documents. Everything seems to be going fine. They’ve agreed to do it and it’s all lovely. But then they ghost you, they stop replying to your emails, they go off sick from their job.
This can happen and has happened in research projects - to me, to my colleagues, to the students I’ve supervised. You might have to come up with a plan b, a plan c, and plan d.
It might be that the thing you want to do, no matter how much you think you’ve thought through what might go wrong and planned accordingly, is just not do-able once you get into it.
Unanticipated things happen. That can create a lot of stress. That’s not going to happen with a literature-based dissertation because the only human you are really relying on is yourself there are no participants. Which brings me onto the next point around ethical approval.
(2) Minimises the challenges of ethical approval
Ethical approval is the process your college or university uses to make sure the research done by its staff and students respects people’s rights and freedoms and minimises the risk of harm. This involves checking that people are able to give their informed consent to participate in the research, that their privacy is respected, that they know what will happen to their data.
When you have no participants - as is the case in a literature-based dissertation – the ethical side of things is not quite so onerous. In some universities, you might not need to apply for ethical approval for a literature-based dissertation at all.
However, it is important to note that I am not saying ethical considerations are non-existent in literature-based dissertations – they are simply less extensive. You will still need to be mindful of ethical issues like your own well-being. For example, many of my past students have done literature-based dissertations on topics like homicide, domestic abuse and sexual violence. Reading a lot of literature about sensitive topics like this can be distressing to say the least, so you’ll need to consider how you’re going to look after yourself in the process. Don’t forget that.
(3) Opens up a wider range of topics
A literature-based dissertation enables you to choose a topic where a primary research study is never going to be approved by any ethics committee.
I have lost count of the number of students who wanted to do a criminology dissertation about serial homicide and wanted to interview serial killers or write to them and get them to fill in a questionnaire. Yeah, that ain’t happening! Also, I’ve had many students wanting to do research focusing upon children or vulnerable adults.
It’s a shame to throw topics like this in the bin if they’re something that you’re genuinely interested in and passionate about. Literature-based dissertations give you an opportunity to still study these topics, but in a different way. If you go on to do a masters or a PhD on that same topic, having done a literature based dissertation on it, you are in an incredibly strong position because you will know the literature around this topic like the back of your hand.
(4) Provides more time flexibility
A literature-based dissertation offers a much more flexible timetable than a research based one.
In a research-based dissertation, there are milestones that you need to hit. Securing ethical approval by a certain date. Doing your data collection in a particular time frame, Ensuring you’ve had x number of responses or done x number of interviews by a cut-off point. Your dissertation journey is mapped out, there are time windows in which you have to get specific things done.
In a literature-based dissertation, it is much less constrained. You can have periods where you hunker down and work intensively for hours, days, weeks even, on your dissertation, then you can take your foot off the gas for a while. As long as you’re working on it regularly, you can get it done by the submission date, all good.
Some people like to work in bursts when they feel like it, then take a step back. That can be a problem with a research-based dissertation because if you’re in a period where you’re not really feeling it, but you’re having to force yourself to work on it because there’s a milestone you need to hit, that ain’t good.
The flexibility in a literature based dissertation can work well for you if you have an unpredictable job or side hustle, caring responsibilities for children or relatives, a fluctuating health condition of your own – all things that don’t sit well with a fairly rigid research timetable. There might be a lot of noise going on in your life. You might not be able to predict what’s going to happen and when you’ll need to put your attention elsewhere.
I’m not saying Don’t do a research-based dissertation!
Those are the four key benefits of a literature-based dissertation but before I bring this blogpost to a close – I want to say one important thing. I am not trying to put you off doing a research-based dissertation! I’m not.
I think it’s important that all students have the option to do a research based dissertation, to craft their own study, collect their own data. It can be an amazing, transformative experience.
If you’re thinking, “I still want to do a research based dissertation, I’m determined!”, knock yourself out, go for it! Fantastic.
However, it’s not the only option that open to you.
If a research based dissertation doesn’t sound like it’s your jam, you have an alternative.
If you fail to secure ethical approval for your research-based study, you have an alternative.
If something happens in your life that means you’re not going to be able to finish the research-based study you started, you have an alternative.
I hope you’ve found this blog helpful, if you would like more dissertation advice and tips on topics like this, become a Degree Doctor insider and sign up for my email list. Click on the button below to join - it’s completely free!
If you want me to walk you through your literature-based dissertation one step at a time, I have produced this self-study guide! Complete it in your own time, at your own pace, using the PDF worksheets to plan out - and write up - your own dissertation.
