The doctoral student, the dissertation, and the library: a review of the literature

This review examines the topic of dissertation development by integrating the work of practitioners, educators, policy-makers, and information scientists as they relate to completion of doctoral reseach in social sciences. The review discusses the dissertation itself: its nature and purpose, and then presents diverse frameworks for development of the dissertation topic through the literature review process. The behaviors of expert and student researchers with literature review development are presented, followed by the instructional preparation of doctoral students for these tasks by faculty and librarians. The review concludes by examining the need to integrate educational effort across institutional boundaries.