A question many students ask early on is, how long should a dissertation literature review be? While there’s no universal rule, most universities expect the literature review to take up around 20–30% of the total dissertation word count.

For example, in a 10,000-word dissertation, this means the literature review will usually be about 2,000–3,000 words. This gives you enough space to critically analyze key sources, identify research gaps, and build a strong theoretical foundation for your study.

Rather than chasing a specific word count, focus on structure, synthesis, and critical thinking. A clear and well-organized dissertation literature review will always be more effective than a longer section filled with summaries.