Can Literature Reviews Be Published: Can I Publish on my Own

Published by Alicia Smart at September 27, 2024

A literature review is a piece of academic writing that demonstrates the understanding and knowledge that exists of a given topic. It is an overview of works that have been previously published.

Literature reviews can either be part of a published scholarly work such as a book or a full article on its own. The length of a literature review usually depends on the type of work being done and the topic of study.

The more the topic is studied the longer the literature review will be. Research papers and dissertations also usually have longer literature reviews.

Can Literature Reviews be Published?

Literature reviews can be published. When reviewing the literature on a topic and you gather enough material that can be published then you can publish the literature review if you want.

The main purpose of publishing literature reviews is to inform others mainly experts in a certain field about something beyond the existing literature.

Also, reviews can be used to inform the experts and general audience about future research agendas that have been untapped in that particular topic.

For the literature reviews to achieve they must be clear with a focus directed at specific research problems.

Can I Publish a Review Paper on My Own?

You can publish your literature review in journals yourself. However, you will need to have a regular affiliation. This can be either related to academic research or not. It gives you the guarantee to publish the research even without needing supervisors.

Your review, however, must be of high quality for it to be published in journals. The notion that writing publishable literature reviews is easy is a myth because it is usually not simple to produce the quality needed. Also, data is not unique in literature reviews because it has already been written and published and everyone can access it if they want.

Therefore, you have to find a problem that has not been solved and try to solve it.

How to Publish a Literature Review?

There is no one-fit-all approach to how literature reviews should be published. However, there are typical steps that you can go through if you want to publish one:

Choosing a Journal

Deciding the journal where you will publish your literature review is an important decision that you have to make.

The journal you choose determines the reach and the impact of your literature review.

Also, it helps shape your literature review to build on research that has already been published in that journal. This will help the editors see how it adds value to the conversation in their journal.

Additionally, by choosing a journal you improve the chances of your literature review getting accepted because you will write it based on its specifications, preferences, and audience.

Writing the Literature Review

How you write the review will depend on the journal chosen, the subject area, and the type of paper. While writing the target audience and keywords recommended by the journal should be kept in mind.

Also, all the editorial policies recommended should be followed to the latter when writing the paper. If anything is not clear, it is recommended that you contact the editorial team so that you can deliver a manuscript that is in line with their terms.

Submitting the Manuscript

The process of submitting a literature review varies in different journals. All you need to do is make sure that you have followed the rules that each stipulates in that regard.

Some of the common rules in most journals include following the writer’s instructions, providing an effective cover letter, ensuring data is prepared as required, and appropriately navigating the journal submission system.

To ensure that you have included everything you can use the read-to-submit checklist to avoid any possible errors.

Navigating the Peer Review Process

Peer review is the assessment of the literature review by experts in a particular field. The common things that they judge include the significance, validity, and originality of the paper that you have submitted.

Peer reviewers ensure that the literature review is in line with the recommendations of the journal and that it is ready or not for publication.

They can also return feedback and ask you to improve your paper before it is submitted for publication.

This is a collaborative process where dialogue is recommended between the reviewers and the author to ensure that there is mutual agreement and support to advance the work presented.

The Production

If your literature review is accepted for publication, it will head into production. Before it is produced you may be needed to check and correct the proofs of your article.

Also, you may need to decide whether you want to produce a video abstract to accompany it or not. After this, the review is published and you can access it in the journal and promote it to make sure that it has an impact.

Why Literature Review is Important for Research

Literature reviews are important for research because of the following reasons:

Literature reviews help establish the context for research. They put research into perspective and show how it relates to what has been done before. Gaps in the existing knowledge are also identified and new research questions are formulated

Literature reviews help identify problems. Through literature reviews, researchers identify issues and controversies that exist in particular topics. These problems can be addressed in their work and broaden the scope of research by contributing new ideas

Literature reviews help identify theoretical frameworks. This helps provide conceptual underpinnings of research. They also help clarify the rationale of the study and show how research is linked to existing theories

Literature reviews help identify the experts in particular topics. As a researcher, you will be able to identify the best scholars and researchers on your topic through the literature reviews. As a result, you will have expert knowledge of the content that is available and unavailable under your research topic

Determination of methodologies. Through literature reviews, you can identify successful methods that other researchers used in conducting research which you can also adapt to yours.

Challenges Hindering Publishing of Literature Reviews

Quality of Literature Reviews

Quality is one of the challenges hindering the publishing of literature reviews.

Most people are not able to provide a paper that meets the requirements that many journals require to publish reviews.

Preference

Most journals prefer publishing articles and full research papers instead of literature reviews. When writing a research one is required to include the literature review in them.

Therefore, publishing a literature review on its own is not their preference and many view it as repetition and not ideal.

Failing the Peer-Reviewing Process

One can have a quality literature review and have it not get published because of peer-reviewing experts.

The article can be very good but fails to meet the originality, validity, and significance that peer reviewers require to allow publication.

Change of Demands

What is required when publishing literature reviews changes from time to time? Therefore, if one is not keen on the current demands then the literature review may not be published.

List of 10 Journals that Publish Literature Reviews

Not all journals accept literature reviews or theoretical work but the following do:

American Journal of Play
Creativity Research Journal
Journal of Applied Design
International Journal of Online Pedagogy and Course Design
American Journal of Distance Education
Current Issues in Education
Applied Measurement in Education
Journal of Computing in Higher Education
International Journal of web-based learning and teaching technology
Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration

Alicia Smart

With over 10 years in academia and academic assistance, Alicia Smart is the epitome of excellence in the writing industry. She is our chief editor and in charge of the writing department at Grade Bees.