Coursework-Literature Review

Dr. AJAI KUMAR JAIN

PhD, [Link], MBA, LLB,MBBS
 CONTENTS
• WHY LITERATURE REVIEW?
• SIGNIFICANCE OF LITERATURE REVIEW
• WHAT IS LITERATURE REVIEW?
• HOW TO WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW?
 JUST DO IT!
• ROL-WHY?
• SIGNIFICANCE OF ROL
• WHAT IS ROL?
• WHAT ROL IS NOT?
• TYPES OF ROL
• HOW MUCH ROL-TITLES?
 PURPOSE OF LR IS
1. To Provide a context for the research
2. Justify the research
3. Ensure the research hasn't been duplicated before
4. Show where the research fits into the existing body of
knowledge
5. Enable the researcher to learn from previous theory on the
subject
6. Illustrate how the subject has been studied previously
7. Highlight flaws in previous research
8. Outline gaps in previous research
9. Show that the work is adding to the understanding and
knowledge of the field
10. Help refine, refocus or even change the topic
 WHY? LITERATURE REVIEW
• Literature reviews provide you with a handy
guide to a particular topic. If you have limited
time to conduct research, literature reviews can
give you an overview or act as Comprehensive
knowledge of the literature of the field is
essential to most research papers.
• A crucial element of all research degrees is the
review of relevant literature. So important is this
chapter that its omission represents a void or
absence of a major element in research (Afolabi
1992).
 REASONS FOR ROL INCLUDE
(Bourner (1996)
A) to a stepping stone.
B) For professionals, they are useful
reports that keep them up to date
with what is current in the field.
C) For scholars, the depth and breadth
of the literature review emphasizes
the credibility of the writer in his or
her field.
 ROL PROVIDE SOLID BACKGROUND
FOR RESAERCH PROJECT BY

• identify gaps in the literature

• to avoid reinventing the wheel
• to carry on from where others have already
reached
• to identify other people working in the same
fields
• to increase your breadth of knowledge of your
subject area
• to identify seminal works in your area
• to provide the intellectual context for your own work,
enabling you to position your project relative to other
work
• to identify opposing views
• to put your work into perspective
• to demonstrate that you can access previous work in
an area
• to identify information and ideas that may be
relevant to your project
• to identify methods that could be relevant to your
project
 PURPOSE OF LITERATURE REVIEW IS
• to convey to the reader what knowledge and
ideas have been established on a topic, and
what their strengths and weaknesses are.
• The literature review must be defined by a
guiding concept (e.g. your research objective,
the problem or issue you are discussing or
your argumentative thesis).
•
 Overview/ key writers/ methods
• A literature review gives an overview
of the field of inquiry: what has
already been said on the topic, who
the key writers are, what the
prevailing theories and hypotheses
are, what questions are being asked,
and what methodologies and
methods are appropriate and useful.
 A CRITICAL LIT. REVIEW

•shows how prevailing

ideas fit into your own
thesis, and how your
thesis agrees or differs
from them.
 Purposes of literature review ARE
• Place each work in the context of its
contribution to the understanding of
the research problem being studied
• Describe the relationship of each work
to the others under consideration
• Identify new ways to interpret, and
shed light on any gaps in previous
research
 PURPOSE CONTD..
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly
contradictory previous studies,
• Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent
duplication of effort,
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional
research, and
• Locate your own research within the context of
existing literature.
 CONCISELY PURPOSE IS
1. To Provide a context for the research
2. Justify the research
3. Ensure the research hasn't been duplicated before
4. Show where the research fits into the existing body of
knowledge
5. Enable the researcher to learn from previous theory on the
subject
6. Illustrate how the subject has been studied previously
7. Highlight flaws in previous research
8. Outline gaps in previous research
9. Show that the work is adding to the understanding and
knowledge of the field
10. Help refine, refocus or even change the topic
 SIGNIFICANCE OF LIT. REVIEW
• Give a new interpretation of old material or
combine new with old interpretations,
• Trace the intellectual progression of the field,
including major debates,
• Depending on the situation, evaluate the
sources and advise the reader on the most
pertinent or relevant, or
• Usually in the conclusion of a literature review,
identify where gaps exist in how a problem
has been researched to date.
 WHAT LR IS NOT?
• Literature Review is not a essay or research
paper but a part of it.
• Does not state or prove your main points
• It is not just a descriptive list of the material
available, or a set of summaries.
 What is LR
• Major works about
• On narrow topic reviewed
Reviewed means
• A snapshot
• Major concepts
• Relationship between snapshots
• timeline
 WHAT IS LITERATURE ?
• "The Literature" means the major writings - especially
scholarly writings - on the topic. Depending on your
field "the literature" can include all sorts of things:
journal articles, books, published essays, government
reports, and so on.
• The main thing is that "the literature" is the body of
scholarly, professional information that is used by
professionals and scholars working on that topic area.
• So a literature review is a summary of previous
research on a topic.
 WHAT IS REVIEW?
• In this case, "Review" usually means an
overview summarizing major parts and
bringing them together to build a picture of
what's out there.
OR
• It is supposed to have a deep analysis and
discussion.
• Literature reviews can be a subsection of
something bigger or can stand alone
 LR AS A SUBSECTION
• They tend to be after the Introduction but before the Research
Methods section or any in-depth discussion and analysis of the
issue.
• They may be incorporated into a Background section, or can
come just before or after the Background.
• Examples of literature reviews as a sub-section include:
– A component in a larger research project or paper
– A chapter in a thesis or dissertation
– A mandatory section if you want to write and publish a
scholarly journal article
– The analysis of existing research performed before a
research proposal
– A component in the background or justification when
applying for grant money
LR as a stand-alone bibliographic essay

– A literature review as a class assignment

on its own, to understand and write up
current research on a topic
– An analytical essay synthesizing an
annotated bibliography into a formal
paper
– A "review article" that you write to publish
in a scholarly journal
 Cooper, H. M. (1988), "The structure of knowledge synthesis",

• a literature review uses as its database reports of

primary or original scholarship, and does not report
new primary scholarship itself.
• The primary reports used in the literature may be
verbal, but in the vast majority of cases reports are
written documents.
• The types of scholarship may be empirical, theoretical,
critical/analytic, or methodological in nature.
• Second a literature review seeks to describe,
summarize, evaluate, clarify and/or integrate the
content of primary reports."
 DEFINATION
• A literature review may be purely descriptive, as in an
annotated bibliography, or it may provide a critical
assessment of the literature in a particular field, stating
where the weaknesses and gaps are, contrasting the
views of particular authors, or raising questions.
• Such a review will not just be a summary but will also
evaluate and show relationships between different
materials, so that key themes emerge.
• Even a descriptive review however should not just list
and paraphrase, but should add comment and bring
out themes and trends.
 DEFINATION
• A literature review is an evaluative report of
information found in the literature related to your
selected area of study. The review should
describe, summarize, evaluate and clarify this
literature.
• It should give a theoretical base for the research
and help you (the author) determine the nature
of your research. Works which are irrelevant
should be discarded and those which are
peripheral should be looked at critically
• A literature review is more than the search for
information, and goes beyond being a
descriptive annotated bibliography.
• All works included in the review must be read,
evaluated and analyzed , but relationships
between the literature must also be identified
and articulated, in relation to your field of
research.
 DEFINATION
• In writing the literature review, the purpose is
to convey to the reader what knowledge and
ideas have been established on a topic, and
what their strengths and weaknesses are.
• The literature review must be defined by a
guiding concept (eg. your research objective,
the problem or issue you are discussing, or
your argumentative thesis). It is not just a
descriptive list of the material
 DEFINATION
• A literature review surveys scholarly articles,
books and other sources relevant to a particular
issue, area of research, or theory, and by so
doing, providing a description, summary, and
critical evaluation of these works.
• Literature reviews are designed to provide an
overview of sources you have explored while
researching a particular topic and to demonstrate
to your readers how your research fits into the
larger field of study.
 How many references to look for?
• Your supervisor or tutor should specify a
minimum number of references. Generally
speaking, a reasonable number of references
in a literature review would be:
• Undergraduate review: 5-20 titles depending
on level.
• Honors dissertation: 20+ titles.
• Master’s thesis: 40+ titles
• Doctoral thesis: 50+ titles.
 4 COMPONENTS OR STAGES OF LR
Development of the literature review requires
four stages similar to primary research
1. Problem formulation—which topic or field is being
examined and what are its component issues?
2. Literature search—finding materials relevant to the
subject being explored
3. Data evaluation—determining which literature
makes a significant contribution to the
understanding of the topic
4. Analysis and interpretation—discussing the findings
and conclusions of pertinent literature
 ELEMENTS OF LR
Literature reviews should comprise the following elements:
• An overview of the subject, issue or theory under
consideration, along with the objectives of the literature
review
• Division of works under review into categories (e.g. those in
support of a particular position, those against, and those
offering alternative theses entirely)
• Explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies
from the others
• Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their
argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make
the greatest contribution to the understanding and
development of their area of research
 CRITERIA TO ASSESS LR
In assessing each piece, consideration should be
given to:
• Provenance—What are the author's credentials? Are the
author's arguments supported by evidence (e.g. primary
historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics, recent
scientific findings)?
• Objectivity—Is the author's perspective even-handed or
prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent
information ignored to prove the author's point?
• Persuasiveness—Which of the author's theses are most/least
convincing?
• Value—Are the author's arguments and conclusions
convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any
significant way to an understanding of the subject?
•
 TYPES OF LIT. REVIEW
• Argumentative Review
• Integrative Review
• Historical Review
• Methodical Review
• Systematical Review
• Theoretical Review
 Argumentative Review
This form examines literature selectively in order to support
or refute an argument, deeply imbedded assumption, or
philosophical problem already established in the literature.
The purpose is to develop a body of literature that
establishes a contrarian viewpoint. Given the value-laden
nature of some social science research [e.g., educational
reform; immigration control], argumentative approaches to
analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and important
form of discourse. However, note that they can also
introduce problems of bias when they are used to to make
summary claims of the sort found in systematic reviews.
 Integrative Review
•
Considered a form of research that reviews,
critiques, and synthesizes representative
literature on a topic in an integrated way such
that new frameworks and perspectives on the
topic are generated. The body of literature
includes all studies that address related or
identical hypotheses. A well-done integrative
review meets the same standards as primary
research in regard to clarity, rigor, and replication.
 Historical Review
Few things rest in isolation from historical
precedent. Historical reviews are focused on
examining research throughout a period of
time, often starting with the first time an
issue, concept, theory, phenomena emerged
in the literature, then tracing its evolution
within the scholarship of a discipline. The
purpose is to place research in a historical
context to show familiarity with state-of-the-
art developments and to identify the likely
directions for future research.
 Methodological Review
•
A review does not always focus on what someone said
[content], but how they said it [method of analysis]. This
approach provides a framework of understanding at
different levels (i.e. those of theory, substantive fields,
research approaches and data collection and analysis
techniques), enables researchers to draw on a wide variety
of knowledge ranging from the conceptual level to practical
documents for use in fieldwork in the areas of ontological
and epistemological consideration, quantitative and
qualitative integration, sampling, interviewing, data
collection and data analysis, and helps highlight many
ethical issues which we should be aware of and consider as
we go through our study.
 Systematic Review
• This form consists of an overview of existing
evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated
research question, which uses pre-specified and
standardized methods to identify and critically
appraise relevant research, and to collect, report,
and analyse data from the studies that are
included in the review. Typically it focuses on a
very specific empirical question, often posed in a
cause-and-effect form, such as "To what extent
does A contribute to B?"
 Theoretical Review
The purpose of this form is to concretely examine the
corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an
issue, concept, theory, phenomena.
The theoretical literature review help establish what theories
already exist, the relationships between them, to what
degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to
develop new hypotheses to be tested.
Theoretical review is used to help establish a lack of
appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are
inadequate for explaining new or emerging research
problems.
The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical concept or a
whole theory or framework.
 HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR
LITERATURE REVIEW
• ChronologicalofEvents
• By publication
• conceptual categories
• Methodological
•
 ChronologicalofEvents
If your review follows the chronological method,
you could write about the materials according to
when they were published. This approach should
only be followed if a clear path of research
building on previous research can be identified
and that these trends follow a clear chronological
order of development. For example, a literature
review that focuses on continuing research about
the emergence of German economic power after
the fall of the Soviet Union.
 ByPublication
• Order your sources by publication chronology,
then, only if the order demonstrates a more
important trend. For instance, you could order
a review of literature on environmental
studies of brown fields if the progression
revealed, for example, a change in the soil
collection practices of the researchers who
wrote and/or conducted the studies.
Thematic(“conceptual categories”)
Thematic reviews of literature are organized
around a topic or issue, rather than the
progression of time. However, progression
of time may still be an important factor in
a thematic review.
For example, a review of the Internet’s
impact on American presidential politics
could focus on the development of online
political satire.
Thematic(“conceptual categories”)
• While the study focuses on one topic, the
Internet’s impact on American presidential
politics, it will still be organized
chronologically reflecting technological
developments in media.
• The only difference here between a
"chronological" and a "thematic" approach is
what is emphasized the most: the role of the
Internet in presidential politics.
• Note however that more authentic thematic
reviews tend to break away from
chronological order. A review organized in this
manner would shift between time periods
within each section according to the point
made.
 Methodological
•
A methodological approach focuses on the methods
utilized by the researcher.
• For the Internet in American presidential politics project,
one methodological approach would be to look at cultural
differences between the portrayal of American presidents
on American, British, and French websites.
• Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the
Internet on a particular political party.
• A methodological scope will influence either the types of
documents in the review or the way in which these
documents are discussed.

• HOW TO WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW

OtherSectionsofYourLiteratureReview
•
Once you've decided on the organizational method for your
literature review, the sections you need to include in the
paper should be easy to figure out because they arise from
your organizational strategy. In other words, a chronological
review would have subsections for each vital time period; a
thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors
that relate to the theme or issue. However, sometimes you
may need to add additional sections that are necessary for
your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of
the body. What other sections you include in the body is up
to you but include only what is necessary for the reader to
locate your study within the larger scholarship framework.
• Here are examples of other sections you may need to include
depending on the type of review you write:
• Current Situation: information necessary to understand the topic or
focus of the literature review.
• History: the chronological progression of the field, the literature, or
an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the
body of the literature review is not already a chronology.
• Selection Methods: the criteria you used to select (and perhaps
exclude) sources in your literature review. For instance, you might
explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed articles and
journals.
• Standards: the way in which you present your information.
• Questions for Further Research: What questions about the field
has the review