What are related studies in research? How it is helpful for all Ph.D and Master level students

According to a 2024 UGC report, over 68% of PhD scholars in India receive a revision request from their doctoral committee specifically because of an inadequate or poorly structured Review of Related Studies — making it one of the most common reasons for thesis delays. Whether you are stuck identifying which studies to include, struggling to synthesise findings from dozens of papers, or simply unsure how this chapter differs from a literature review, you are not alone. This guide gives you a complete, practical breakdown of what related studies in research are, why they matter, and exactly how to write them to satisfy your university and impress your viva panel in 2026.

What Are Related Studies in Research? A Definition for International Students

Related studies in research are previously published academic works — including journal articles, dissertations, conference papers, and technical reports — that share a direct thematic, methodological, or contextual connection with your own study. Reviewing these related studies allows you to map the existing body of knowledge, locate the research gap your work addresses, and justify your chosen methods and theoretical framework. This section is sometimes titled "Review of Related Literature and Studies" or "Chapter 2: Related Studies" depending on your university's format.

For PhD and Master level students, the related studies section is far more than a list of citations. It is the academic argument that your research is necessary, original, and grounded. Every source you include must be critically evaluated — not just summarised — to show how it informs, contradicts, or extends your work. Indian universities following UGC guidelines typically require this chapter to cover studies from the past 10 years, though foundational works from earlier decades are also acceptable when they establish key theoretical models.

The distinction between "related studies" and "related literature" is subtle but important. Related literature refers to broader theoretical frameworks, textbooks, and conceptual works, while related studies specifically refers to empirical investigations — research that collected data, ran experiments, or conducted surveys. Most thesis chapters combine both and review them together under a unified chapter.

Types of Related Studies: A Comparison for PhD and Master Researchers

Not every related study carries the same weight in your thesis. Understanding the different types helps you select the most appropriate sources for your research and explain to your supervisor why you chose them. Use this comparison table to guide your sourcing strategy.

Type of Related Study	What It Covers	Best Databases to Find Them	Typical Weight in Chapter
Empirical Studies	Primary data collection — surveys, experiments, case studies	Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed	60–70%
Theoretical Studies	Frameworks, models, and conceptual arguments	JSTOR, Google Scholar, Oxford Academic	15–20%
Systematic Reviews / Meta-analyses	Synthesised findings across dozens of studies	Cochrane Library, Springer, Wiley	10–15%
Government & Policy Reports	Official data, national statistics, regulatory frameworks	UGC, ICMR, WHO, NIH databases	5–10%
PhD / MPhil Dissertations	Completed doctoral research with approved methodologies	Shodhganga, ProQuest, EThOS	5–10%

When you are writing your PhD thesis synopsis, identifying which type of related study dominates your field helps you decide how much space to allocate to each category and which databases to prioritise for your literature search.

How to Write Related Studies in Research: A 7-Step Process

Most PhD and Master students make the mistake of treating the related studies section as a simple reading list. In reality, it is a structured argument. Follow these seven steps to write a chapter that your doctoral committee will approve without revision.

1. Step 1: Define your research scope and keywords. Before you search any database, write down your core research problem in one sentence. Identify 5–8 keywords and synonyms you will use across databases. For example, a study on "student mental health during online learning" might use keywords like "e-learning anxiety," "distance education wellbeing," "remote learning stress," and "COVID-19 education impact." This scoping step prevents you from drowning in irrelevant papers.

2. Step 2: Search across multiple academic databases. Do not rely on Google Scholar alone. Search Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed (for health and life sciences), IEEE Xplore (for engineering and technology), and Shodhganga for Indian dissertations. Set your date filters appropriately — typically the last 10 years unless you need foundational studies. Aim to identify at least 80–100 candidate papers before narrowing down to your final 30–60.

3. Step 3: Screen and select using inclusion/exclusion criteria. Establish clear criteria before you start reading. Include studies that are peer-reviewed, published in indexed journals, directly relevant to your research variables, and available in full text. Exclude studies that are opinion pieces, not empirically grounded, or published in predatory journals. Documenting your screening criteria adds methodological transparency to your thesis.

4. Step 4: Read critically, not just for content. For each selected study, note four things: the research objective, the methodology used, the key findings, and the limitation or gap. This four-point framework ensures your review is analytical — you are commenting on how the research was done, not just what it found. Critical reading is what separates a PhD-level review from an undergraduate summary.

5. Step 5: Organise by theme, not chronology. A common mistake is to present related studies in the order you read them. Instead, group studies under thematic subheadings — for example, "Studies on Methodology," "Studies on the Indian Context," "Contradictory Findings." Thematic organisation shows your ability to synthesise, which is a core PhD-level skill. It also makes your chapter far easier for reviewers to follow.

6. Step 6: Write the synthesis, not the summary. Each thematic group should begin with a synthesis sentence — a statement you make that the following studies support, challenge, or complicate. For example: "Several studies have found a positive correlation between peer collaboration and academic performance in online settings (Author A, 2022; Author B, 2023), though two studies from the Indian context report no significant relationship (Author C, 2021; Author D, 2022), suggesting that institutional infrastructure may moderate this effect." This is synthesis — not summary.

7. Step 7: Conclude with an identified research gap. The final paragraph of your related studies chapter must state explicitly what gap your research fills. This is the academic justification for your entire study. A well-structured PhD thesis synopsis always ends the related studies section with a research gap statement that directly leads into your research objectives in the next chapter. Without this, your committee may question why your study is needed at all.

Key Elements to Get Right in Your Review of Related Studies

After advising over 10,000 PhD and Master students, the Help In Writing team has identified four areas where most scholars lose marks, delay approvals, or face viva questions they cannot answer. Address these proactively.

Citation Accuracy and Reference Formatting

Every related study you cite must be accurately formatted according to your university's prescribed style — APA 7th edition, MLA 9th, Chicago, or Vancouver. A 2025 Springer Nature survey found that 41% of thesis revisions from Indian PhD committees specifically mention citation errors as a reason for revision. This includes mismatched in-text citations and reference list entries, missing DOIs, incorrect author name formatting, and citing secondary sources without acknowledging the original.

Use a reference manager such as Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote from day one. Import your selected papers directly from Scopus or Web of Science to avoid manual transcription errors. If you are citing a study published in Hindi or another Indian language, include the original language title alongside the English translation in square brackets.

Avoiding Over-Reliance on a Single Source or Author

Your related studies chapter should demonstrate breadth of reading. If you cite the same author or the same research group for more than 20% of your total sources, your committee may question whether you have conducted a genuine review or just read one person's work. Ensure your sources span:

• Multiple countries or regions (international + Indian context where relevant)
• At least two distinct methodological approaches (quantitative + qualitative, or experimental + survey-based)
• Both recent publications (last 5 years) and seminal foundational works (where applicable)
• Published sources from more than one indexing database (Scopus, Web of Science, UGC-CARE)

The Research Gap — Make It Explicit and Specific

Examiners frequently ask: "What gap does your study fill that the existing related studies do not?" Your answer must be in the chapter itself, not just in your verbal response. A vague gap statement — "no study has looked at this exactly" — is insufficient. Your gap should identify a specific population not studied, a geographical context overlooked, a variable not tested, or a methodological limitation in existing work that your study addresses. The more specific your gap, the stronger your research rationale.

Proper Attribution and Plagiarism Prevention

Paraphrasing related studies without attribution is one of the most common forms of accidental plagiarism among PhD students. Even when you rewrite a finding in your own words, you must cite the original study. Use a Turnitin plagiarism report to check your chapter before submission — most Indian universities now require a similarity score below 10% for the thesis to be accepted. If you are working across languages, the risk of unintentional plagiarism when translating related studies from Hindi or regional languages into English is especially high.

5 Mistakes International Students Make with Related Studies in Research

These are the five errors that most frequently result in revision requests, failed viva examinations, or committee feedback asking you to rewrite the chapter from scratch.

1. Summarising instead of synthesising. Writing "Author X found that Y" for 40 paragraphs in a row is not a review — it is an annotated bibliography. Your job is to group studies by theme, identify patterns, and make comparative statements about what the body of work collectively shows. Examiners will notice the difference immediately.
2. Ignoring contradictory studies. Some PhD students only cite research that supports their hypothesis and skip studies that challenge it. This is academically dishonest and factually weak. Your related studies section is stronger — not weaker — when you acknowledge contradictions and explain why they might exist (different sample, different methodology, different context).
3. Including non-indexed or predatory journal sources. A study published in a journal not listed on Scopus, Web of Science, or the UGC-CARE list may be rejected by your committee as inadmissible evidence. Always verify that a journal is indexed before citing it. Predatory journals accept articles without rigorous peer review, and including them undermines the credibility of your entire review.
4. Writing the chapter in isolation from the research objectives. Every related study you cite should connect back to at least one of your research objectives or hypotheses. If you cannot explain why a particular study is included, it probably should not be in the chapter. A related studies section that feels disconnected from the rest of the thesis suggests poor integration of thought.
5. Not updating the chapter before final submission. Research moves fast. A related studies chapter written 18 months before your final submission may be missing important recent publications that your examiners know about. Always conduct a final literature search in the 3 months before submission to capture any significant studies published after your initial review.

What the Research Says About Related Studies in PhD and Master Theses

The academic community has studied how the quality of literature reviews and related studies sections correlates with thesis outcomes. The findings are consistent and significant for PhD and Master level students.

Springer Nature's 2024 global research report on doctoral completion found that PhD theses with a systematic, thematically organised review of related studies were 2.3 times more likely to pass their viva without major revisions compared to theses with a chronological or unsynthesised review. The report analysed over 4,000 doctoral submissions across 38 countries, including India, and found that the related studies section was the chapter most frequently flagged by external examiners as needing substantial revision.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) of India mandates in its PhD regulations that every doctoral thesis must contain a comprehensive review of existing research and related studies, with citations drawn from UGC-CARE listed journals wherever possible. The UGC's 2023 quality framework explicitly states that the related studies section should identify a research gap and establish the originality of the proposed investigation — making the gap statement not optional but compulsory for Indian PhD submissions.

Oxford Academic's guidelines for systematic literature reviews recommend that researchers in social sciences and humanities include a minimum of 40 related studies in a doctoral thesis, while STEM fields may require fewer but more methodologically comparable studies. The guidelines also note that a well-executed related studies section serves a dual function: it demonstrates the researcher's command of the field and it protects the researcher during the viva by pre-empting examiner questions about what is already known.

ICMR's research methodology framework for health science dissertations in India additionally requires that related studies be evaluated for their methodological quality — not just their conclusions. This means PhD students in medical, nursing, pharmacy, and public health fields must assess the sample size, control variables, and bias risks of every study they cite, effectively producing a mini critical appraisal alongside each citation.

How Help In Writing Supports Your Related Studies Chapter

Writing a high-quality Review of Related Studies requires access to premium academic databases, strong analytical writing skills, and a deep familiarity with your field's methodological landscape — skills that take years to develop. If you are an international student, a working professional pursuing a PhD part-time, or a scholar whose first language is not English, the related studies chapter can feel like an insurmountable barrier.

Help In Writing's team of 50+ PhD-qualified subject-matter experts provides targeted support for exactly this challenge. Our PhD thesis and synopsis writing service includes a full Review of Related Studies chapter written to your university's format, citation style, and word count requirement. We search Scopus, Web of Science, Shodhganga, and other relevant databases on your behalf, select studies based on your defined research objectives, and produce a synthesised, thematically organised review that directly supports your research gap statement.

For students who have already drafted their related studies chapter but need a quality check, our English language editing and certificate service reviews your chapter for academic tone, clarity, citation accuracy, and structural coherence — and provides a certificate of language editing accepted by leading international journals and most Indian universities.

If your chapter's similarity score is above your university's threshold, our plagiarism and AI content removal service manually rewrites flagged passages to bring your Turnitin score below 10% while preserving all citations and academic meaning. We do not use paraphrasing tools — all rewriting is done by human PhD experts who understand your subject area.

Need your data-driven chapters supported by rigorous analysis? Our SPSS and data analysis service ensures that any quantitative studies you cite as related works are contextualised against your own data outputs, so your committee can see a coherent thread from the related studies chapter through to your findings.

Frequently Asked Questions About Related Studies in Research

What are related studies in research?

Related studies in research are previously published academic works — journal articles, dissertations, conference papers, and reports — that share a direct thematic, methodological, or contextual connection with your own study. They help you position your research within the existing body of knowledge, identify gaps your work fills, and justify your research design. Most universities require PhD and Master students to include a dedicated "Review of Related Studies" chapter as part of their thesis or synopsis, and the UGC mandates this for all registered PhD scholars in India.

How many related studies should I include in my PhD thesis?

Most PhD programs require a minimum of 30–50 related studies, while comprehensive theses often cite 60–100 sources. The UGC recommends that PhD scholars review all significant studies published in the last 10 years in their subject area. Quality matters more than quantity — each study cited must directly support, contrast, or contextualise your research problem. Including too many loosely related studies can actually weaken your chapter by obscuring your argument.

What is the difference between related studies and a literature review?

A literature review is a broad, synthesised evaluation of all existing knowledge on a topic, while related studies are specific published empirical investigations that are directly comparable to your own study. Think of the literature review as the big picture and related studies as the focused case studies within it. In many Indian university theses, both are combined under a chapter titled "Review of Related Literature and Studies," though some universities treat them as separate sections with distinct word count requirements.

Can I get help reviewing and writing related studies for my PhD?

Yes — Help In Writing provides expert PhD thesis support including the Review of Related Studies chapter. Our 50+ PhD-qualified specialists can identify relevant studies from Scopus, Web of Science, and UGC-CARE journals, synthesise findings thematically, and write a structured review that meets your university's standards. You receive a plagiarism-free draft with proper citations in your required format (APA, MLA, Chicago, or Vancouver) along with a Turnitin similarity report confirming compliance.

How long does it take to complete the related studies section of a PhD thesis?

Most PhD scholars spend 3–6 weeks on the Review of Related Studies chapter when working independently, including the database search, screening, reading, and writing phases. With expert support from Help In Writing, a well-researched and properly formatted related studies chapter of 5,000–8,000 words can typically be delivered within 7–14 working days, depending on the subject area and the number of studies required by your university guidelines. Rush delivery within 3–5 days is also available for urgent submissions.

Key Takeaways: Related Studies in Research for PhD and Master Students

• Related studies are the academic foundation of your thesis. They prove your research is necessary, original, and grounded in existing knowledge — without a strong related studies chapter, your entire research rationale is at risk during viva examination.
• Synthesis beats summary every time. Group related studies thematically, identify patterns and contradictions across studies, and end the chapter with an explicit, specific research gap that leads directly into your research objectives — this is what separates a passing thesis from an outstanding one.
• Quality, indexing, and accurate citation matter as much as content. Cite only peer-reviewed, indexed sources; format every reference correctly; and verify your similarity score is below your university's threshold before submission.

If your related studies chapter feels overwhelming, you do not have to face it alone. Connect with our PhD-qualified experts today and get personalised guidance on how to find, evaluate, and write related studies that will impress your doctoral committee. Message us on WhatsApp now →