Lecture 9: Literature Review

Learning outcomes

• understand the importance and purpose

of the literature review
• understand the literature review process
• know about academic plagiarism
• know about critical perspective of
literature review
What is a literature review?
The selection of available documents (both published
and unpublished) on the topic, which contain
information, ideas, data and evidence written from a
particular standpoint to fulfil certain aims or express
certain views on the nature of the topic and how it is to
be investigated, and the effective evaluation of these
documents in relation to the research being proposed.
(Hart, 2011: 13)
It is an account of what has been published on a
particular topic and what is know and not know.
Why conduct a literature review?
• To gain an understanding and knowledge of previous
research in an area of interest
• Identify research possibilities
• Enable refinement of research questions and objectives
• To gain a broad understanding of the subject area
– What are the main issues? What is the state of debate?
• Identify what has not been researched in your area of
interest
• Determine what research methods have been used and
their appropriateness
• Identify potential for alternative perspective or approach
• Avoid replicating what has already been done
Why conduct a literature review?
• To map the intellectual territory
– What have people done? Where are the boundaries?
Can I stretch these boundaries?
• To identify research debate with a suitable gap that can
lead to originality of the study
• To develop a critical viewpoint on the chosen topic through
critical literature review.
• To identify future directions for research
 Why conduct a literature review?
In Jankowicz’s (2005:161) words
There is little point in reinventing the wheel .
. . the work that you do is not done in a
vacuum but builds on the ideas of other
people who have studied the field before
you. This requires you describe what has
been published, and to marshal the
information in a relevant and critical way.
 The role of the literature review in
your research
• Allows you to generate ideas for a research topic /
question / hypothesis
• Through a literature review you can:
• Build a flow by linking themes together
• Gaps in the knowledge - Gaps can help you build
research questions
• Prevents reinvention of the wheel
– Replication, extension, expansion
• Discover research recommendations
• Evaluate what is ‘hot topic’ in a particular area
 The role of the literature review in
your research – Con..d
• The literature review is the idea generator!
• The literature review tells the reader the background
of the topic, what has been done and what the gaps
are in the literature that you intend to exploit
• The literature review will also give you a feel for
methodology [although methodology is a separate
section in the research proposal]
Some of the questions a literature review can answer
(Hart, 2009: 14)
What are the key concepts,
What are the key theories and ideas?
sources?

What are the

What are the major issues epistemological and
and debates about the ontological grounds for
topic? the discipline?
My Research Topic
What are the political What are the main
standpoints? questions and problems
that have been
addressed to date?

What are the origins and

definitions of the topic? How is knowledge on the
subject structured and
organised?

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A literature review is not…
• a list describing or summarising one piece of literature after
another
• an attempt to collect the largest possible number of sources
• a descriptive list of authors and topics
• a ‘must-do’ task isolated from the rest of the project
• a selection of sources that confirm what you are proposing
• a summary of other reviews
• plagiarised or copied from elsewhere – all texts must have
been read by you!
Problems in a literature review
• Dumping
– Put everything in, with no attempt to differentiate what is
relevant
• Too descriptive / lack of analysis
– No reflective / evaluative aspects: just copying what the
author says
• No synthesizing
– No particular themes or order, lacking flow and coherence
• Failing to identify an appropriate gap and linking it to
the research question
Problems in a literature review
• There is no ‘magic number’ on the amount of literature you
must read – explore!
• The more you read, you will begin to notice certain themes
and ideas
– You may want to organise your literature along these
themes
– The themes can help you structure your literature
review
• organize the literature review into sections that present
themes or identify trends.
Required skills for literature review

• Literature searching
• Reading and critical appraisal/evaluation
• Organising – leads to research
question(s)
• Synthesising - results into a summary
• Identifying areas of controversy
• Formulating research questions
The
Literature
Review
Process
 The literature review process
• define the parameters to your research
question(s) and objectives.
• generating key words and conducting your first
search
• read and evaluate them record the ideas and
start drafting your review.
• redefine your parameters more precisely.
 The literature review process con-d

• undertake further searches, keeping in mind

your research question(s) and objectives.
• each subsequent search will be focused more
precisely on material that is likely to be
relevant.
• at the same time, refining your research
question(s) and objectives in the light of
reading
Planning a literature review
• Before you start, identify:
1. The parameters of your search
2. The key words you intend to use
3. The databases you will use
4. How you are going to decide what is good, and
what is… not so good, selection of criteria
• Beware of information overload!
Planning a literature review con..d
1. The parameters of your search
– Subject areas and subtopics
• Start broad and narrow down? Start small and build up?
– Publication period
• Past ten years? Past fifty years? Everything ever written?
– Geographical scope
– Literature type
• Note: you may need to repeat this many times,
for different parameters
Planning a literature review con..d
2. The key words you intend to use
– Keyword guide
– ‘Five key words associated with the topic’
– Your research question
3. The databases you will use
– Library has a good collection of e-databases for you to
use
– Library catalogue
– Google Scholar / Google
– Publisher journal websites
Planning a literature review con..d
• Sources of literature
– Use journal rankings to identify well-ranked /
reputable journals in your area
– Use the Scopus Journal Ranking to find out more
about the journal
– Identify key academics / scholars in the area
– Use reports from well-known agencies / think-tanks
– Use reputable newspapers
– SSRN – http://papers.ssrn.com is a good working
paper resource
Planning a literature review con..d
• Sources of literature
-Working papers - are ‘baby’ journal articles:
drafts that have not undergone the peer
review process (Be careful when you cite /
use working papers)
- Check that they are written by known
academics / people who have published in the
area
– Also lists papers from conferences

Once you begin the search, you will face the risk of information overload. Use
your differentiation strategy to decide which articles / sources are useful and
which are less useful. When in doubt – ask a lecturer / academic in the area
 Planning a literature review con..d

Relevance
Tree – A
Structured
Literature
Search
Mind Map example

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4. Evaluating the literature
• Read all the literature that is closely related to
your research question(s) and objectives.

• Assessing relevance and value - depends on

your research question(s) and objectives
4. Evaluating the literature con---d
Checklist for evaluating the relevance and value of literature to
your research:
Relevance
• ✔ How recent is the item?
• ✔ Is the item likely to have been superseded?
• ✔ Are the research questions or objectives sufficiently close
to your own to make it relevant to your own research (in
other words, does the item meet your relevance criteria for
inclusion)?
• ✔ Is the context sufficiently different to make it marginal to
your research question(s) and objectives (in other words, is
the item excluded by your relevance criteria)?
4. Evaluating the literature con---d
Checklist for evaluating the relevance and value of
literature to your research:
Relevance
• ✔ Have you seen references to this item (or its
author) in other items that were useful?
• ✔ Does the item support or contradict your
arguments?
4. Evaluating the literature con---d
Checklist for evaluating the relevance and value of
literature to your research:
Value
• ✔ Does the item appear to be biased? For example,
does it use an illogical argument, emotionally tone
words or appear to choose only those cases that
support the point being made?
• ✔ What are the methodological omissions within
the work (e.g. sample selection, data collection, data
analysis)?
4. Evaluating the literature con---d
Checklist for evaluating the relevance and value of
literature to your research:
Value
• ✔ Is the precision sufficient? Even if it is imprecise it
may be the only item you can find and so still of
relevance!
• ✔ Does the item provide guidance for future
research?
 Evaluating the literature review
• Your literature review should demonstrate:
– An awareness of the key theories / main ideas in
the area you are studying
– You are up-to-date with the most recent
developments in the field
– A clear understanding of the main contributions of
the papers that you cite
– A gap in the research area, which is linked to your
research question
Organise and record the literature
• It is important that you have a strategy to
organise and record the literature that you find:
– ‘Old school’ method: pen and paper (and index cards!)
– Tech method
• Use spreadsheets / databases for record keeping
• Use dedicated software like Endnote, Mendeley
– Mix of both
• Do you download first? Read on screen? Print?
Up to you!
Synthesizing your literature
Synthesis is defined as combining a number of different
parts or ideas to come up with a new idea or theory.
§ Identify common themes
§ Show how approaches to the topic have changed
over time
§ Compare and contrast theoretical positions
§ Describe general trends
§ Identify and explain discrepant (disagree) or
contradictory findings

• What if themes contradict one another?

Plagiarism
‘Presenting the work and ideas of other people
and passing them off as your own, without
acknowledging the original source of the ideas
used’. Easterby-Smith et al. (2008:50)

Park’s (2003): Four common forms of

plagiarism:
1. Stealing material from another source and
passing it off as your own
Plagiarism
Park’s (2003): Four common forms of plagiarism:
• 2. Submitting a paper written by someone else (e.g.
a peer or relative) and passing it off as your own
• 3. Copying sections of material from one or more
source texts, supplying proper documentation
(including the full reference) but leaving out
quotation marks, thus giving the impression that the
material has been paraphrased rather than directly
quoted;
• 4. Paraphrasing material from one or more source
texts without supplying appropriate documentation
 Putting Literature on your
Dissertation
Beginning of dissertation – to justify your research
question

Literature review section

Empirical section – reference to others who have done

similar tests

End of thesis – evaluation of your findings, comparison

with literature
The literature review is an integrated part of the whole project

• The literature review flows throughout the whole of a

research project such as a Masters dissertation, PhD thesis or
academic journal article …
Any Question?