Reviewing the literature

Dr. Abdelhamid Kotb

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Introduction

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The literature: is all sources of published data on a
particular topic.
 The literature refers to all sources of secondary data
that are relevant to your study.
 Secondary data are data collected from an existing
source, such as:
 e-resources, such as academic journal databases and the
Internet
research reported in books, articles, conference papers,
and reports, …etc.

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A literature search: is a systematic process with a view to
identifying the existing body of knowledge on a
particular topic.
 The purpose of the literature search is to collect as many
relevant items of literature as possible and read them.
 Searchingthe existing literature is greatly facilitated
these days by the availability of powerful tools such as
Google Scholar and extensive databases such as Web of
Knowledge, Scopus, etc.
These should quickly help you locate review articles in your
discipline.
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A literature review: is a critical evaluation of the
existing body of knowledge on a topic, which guides the
research and demonstrates that the relevant literature
has been located and analysed.
 Reviewing the literature involves locating, reading,
and evaluating previous studies as well as reports of
casual observation and opinion.
 Therefore, a literature review is not merely a
description of previous studies and other material you
collected during your literature search but requires a
critical analysis.
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The critical analysis in a literature review involves:
 Evaluation of sources: Examine the reliability, credibility,
and validity of the research.
 Are the methods sound? Are the conclusions justified by
the data?
 Comparison and contrast: Look for similarities and
differences between the studies.
 How do different authors approach the topic? Are there
conflicting theories or results?
 Identification of gaps: Highlight what the literature has
not yet addressed or areas where evidence is weak,
indicating a need for further research.
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The critical analysis in a literature review
involves:
 Discussion of implications: Consider the practical or
theoretical implications of the research findings.
 What do they mean for the field, and how do they
contribute to the broader understanding of the topic?
 Contextualization: Relate the literature to the
research question or problem.
 How does each piece of research fit into the broader
discussion?

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 In order to ensure that your literature review is up to
date, you will continue to search the literature until
you submit your dissertation or thesis.

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Functions of a Literature Review

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literature review is an integral part of the research
process and makes a valuable contribution to almost
every operational step.
• It has value even before the first step; that is, when
you are thinking about a research question that you
may want to find answers to through your research
journey.
• In the initial stages of research, it helps you to
establish the theoretical roots of your study, clarify
your ideas, and develop your research methodology.

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• Later in the process, the literature review serves to
enhance and consolidate your own knowledge base
and helps you to integrate your findings with the
existing body of knowledge.
Since an important responsibility in research is to
compare your findings with those of others, it is here
that the literature review plays an extremely important
role.

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At the proposal stage, a preliminary review of the
literature helps develop your subject knowledge and
provides a context for your research questions.
 A preliminary review is relatively brief and usually
focuses on seminal works and the main theories (if
appropriate to your paradigm).
 A seminal work is a landmark study that presented a
new idea of great importance or influence in the field.

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When you write a full review of literature for your
dissertation or thesis.
 you will also need to demonstrate an appropriate level
of intellectual ability and professionalism.
 At that stage, your literature review will be large
enough to occupy at least one chapter (more than one
if the literature is large or your study has been
designed as an comprehensive review of the
literature).

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In summary, a literature review has the following
functions:
 it brings the reader up to date with current knowledge
on a topic;
 it locates a gap in research and provides a theoretical
background to your study.
 it provides a justification for undertaking the study
and helps you establish the links between what you
are proposing to examine and what has already been
studied.

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In summary, a literature review has the following
functions:
 it demonstrates your knowledge on the current status
of a field;
 it provides evidence (through citations) to support
your claims, thus affording you a greater credibility.
 It enables you to show how your findings have
contributed to the existing body of knowledge in your
profession.
 It helps you to integrate your research findings into
the existing body of knowledge.
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Reading and analysing the literature

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Once you have located a number of sources that may
potentially be relevant to your research, you need to
decide what to read and why.
◦ Start by simply scanning the content to find sections
or keywords that provide the information you are
seeking.
◦ Then proceed with skimming, namely reading through
parts of text that give you an overview on content.
◦ And finally, move to in-depth reading from beginning
to end. Just make sure this latter activity is only
devoted to the papers that really matter to your
project.
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Critical Voice: A key aspect of carrying out a literature
review consists in critically assessing the work of other
scholars. For this purpose, you need to develop your own
critical voice which implies
looking for evidence that supports a claim;
checking that the authors' conclusions follow from sound,
logical arguments;
assessing what implicit or explicit assumptions have been
made, if any;
verifying whether the authors' claims match those of other
scholars or indeed your own evidence or knowledge.

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It is important that you develop your skills as a critical
reader.

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 You need to adopt a systematic approach when
analysing the literature.
 Many researchers find it useful to start by identifying
the themes in the articles they have collected and
then conducting a thematic analysis.
 Example of a thematic analysis of IT studies based on
the technology–organisation–environment framework
(extract)

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Example of a thematic analysis of IT studies based on the
technology–organisation–environment framework (extract)

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 The key purposes of a literature review is to
present a critical overview on the current state of
knowledge on a given topic or research area.
 Sometimes, this can be a difficult task especially
when previous work has been extensive.
 In such cases, preparing a literature review matrix
can prove invaluable.
 The matrix is merely a table that lists a series of
specific research questions or aspects of interest
and their corresponding “results" as obtained in
previous studies.
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Implications
For practice
Implications for
Future research
Conclusions
Analysis &
Results
Methodology
Research
Question(s)/
Hypotheses
Theoretical/
Conceptual
Framework
Author/
Date
 Creswell (2014) suggests that designing a map of the
literature can be a useful preliminary step as it helps
you summarise previous studies.
 You could use a mind map or a hierarchical diagram to
help you organise the literature and show where your
study fits in.

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 Writing the literature review can seem a daunting
task and you need to bear in mind what you are
trying to achieve.
 The main purposes of a literature review are as
follows:
 to demonstrate command of the subject area and
understanding of the research problem by identifying
previous studies and their contribution to knowledge.
 to describe the relationship between previous studies
and explain conflicts in the findings of contradictory
previous studies.

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 The main purposes of a literature review are as
follows:
 to identify gaps and deficiencies in the literature and
justify your research topic, design, and methodology.
 to demonstrate your literature searching skills and
ability to summarise and synthesise the literature.

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literature review can take up one of four possible forms:
A traditional (or narrative) review is probably the
most common type. It provides a summary of a
selected body of literature as a comprehensive
background on a current research topic.
A systematic review, by contrast, provides a rigorous
and well-defined approach to reviewing all literature in
a given subject area.
A meta-analysis review represents a statistical
analysis of a large body of quantitative finding

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literature review can take up one of four possible forms:
A meta-synthesis consists in a non-statistical analysis
to integrate, evaluate, and interpret findings from
qualitative studies.

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 Unlike other sections or chapters of your thesis (or
research paper), the literature review does not have a
standardized format.

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How to write a literature review
The best way to approach the task of writing a
literature review is to organize your work around the
following successive steps:
1. Identify the research question your study aims to
address,
2. If applicable, break down individual components of
your research question.
3. Consider the order in which you need to present
the information to your readers based on the
knowledge they already possess.

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4. Map out the main point of each paragraph and support
each with relevant references. Keep revising the order
of ideas until everything flows in a logical way.
5. Keep a clear writing direction: whenever you struggle
to write, take that as an indication that you may have
to do some more work to create a detailed plan of
action.
6. Citing other people's work. When citing other people's
work, use paraphrasing rather than direct quotations
and always provide a reference on any results, graphs,
theory, or ideas sourced from someone else.
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In general, any claim or statement must be backed up by
sufficient evidence, except if it forms “common
knowledge” in the field.

It is important that you develop your skills as a critical

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Structure of your critical review
1. Start at a more general level before narrowing down to
your specific research question(s) and objectives;
2. Provide a brief overview of key ideas and themes;
3. Summarize, compare and contrast the research of the
key writers;
4. Narrow down to highlight previous research work most
relevant to your own research;

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Structure of your critical review
5. Provide a detailed account of the findings of this
research and show how they are related;
6. Highlight those aspects where your own research will
provide fresh insights;
7. Lead the reader into subsequent sections of your
project report, which explore these issues.

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Guidelines for Writing a LR
Don’t attempt to cover everything written on your topic
You will need to pick out the researches that are most
relevant to the topic you are studying
You will use the studies in your LR as “evidence” that your
research question is an important one.
Find researches or articles relevant to each of the variables
being studied.
Find articles that explain the relationship between these
variables is a top priority.

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 You will need to plan how you will structure your
literature review and write from this plan.
 Topic Order—organize by main topics or variables so
you will have a title related to each variable.
 Then emphasize the relationship between variables
which is the main “problem”.
 You can organize as follows:
General-to-Specific Order—(Also called the funnel
approach) Examine broad-based research first and then
focus on specific studies that relate to the topic

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 To sum up you need to have :
A title for each variable with definitions
A title with the relationships between variables that end up
with a research question.

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Plagiarism is the act of taking someone’s words,
ideas, or other information and passing them off as
your own because you fail to acknowledge the
original source.
 It is a form of academic misconduct that is taken very
seriously, as it is the equivalent of stealing intellectual
property.
 Plagiarism of this type is easily avoided if you follow the
rules of one of the standard referencing systems.

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Plagiarism includes:
1. Using another person’s works or ideas (for example
copying and pasting texts, images)without proper
citation OR using another person’s ideas without
proper citation.
2. Passing off someone else’s work as your own.
3. Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks.
4. Quoting, summarizing, and quoting someone else in
your work without citing the original source.

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Plagiarism includes:
5. Changing words or phrases while copying the
structure of a source without crediting the original
source.
6. Citing sources, you did not use!

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 Self-plagiarism: is the act of reusing your own
published words, ideas or other information and
passing them off as new because you fail to
acknowledge the original source.
 Most universities now require students to submit their
work via online systems that incorporate sophisticated
plagiarism-detection software, so there is a high risk of
getting caught if you cheat.

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 Review isn’t logically organized.
 Review isn’t focused on the most important
variables of the study.
 Review doesn’t relate to the study.

 Too few references or outdated references.

 Review reads like a series of disjointed article

 Recent references are omitted

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 Unprofessional language: avoid the appearance of
cheekiness or emotional appeal.
 Don’t plagiarize! Be extremely careful with your
paraphrasing
 Too many quotations: only quote those elements
which need the utmost precision.
 Lack of fluency and cohesiveness: your literature
review should not read like a list of facts.
Use transitions to develop fluency.

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