Teaching and learning components in an MPhil research : literature review on regional flood frequency analysis

Literature review is an important component of the learning and teaching associated with a higher degree research (HDR) study. As a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) student in civil engineering at Western Sydney University, the first important task by the first author was conducting a literature review on her research topic - Regional Flood Frequency Analysis (RFFA) under the guidance of her supervisors. Accordingly, this paper presents challenges and opportunities in the literature review on RFFA faced by the first author. A literature review in RFFA field covers relevant scholarly journal articles, book chapters, conference papers and other relevant online sources and provides an overview, summary, analysis and interpretation of each source. Furthermore, a successful literature review interprets old researches and identifies critical knowledge gaps to create a path for a new research and outcomes. It has been found that publishing a literature review in an international journal needs significant knowledge, writing skills and commitment from the research student and his/her supervisors to make it comprehensive, complete and innovative.