About me

Effective Literature  Professor of Information Management at University of the

Review in Research
Dr. Khalid Mahmood
Professor
University of the Punjab
Punjab, Pakistan
 Post-doctoral research fellow at University of California, Loss
Angeles, USA
 150+ publications
 Supervised many doctoral, M.Phil. and master theses
 Worked for various research journals as editor, reviewer and
editorial board member
 Conducted many trainings on research writing and publishing

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Acknowledgment Literature review - Definition

 I have prepared this presentation with the
help of many books, presentations and
Websites.
 I pay my sincere gratitude to all authors,
professors and experts for their efforts and
contributions.
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 A body of text that aims to review the critical points of
current knowledge on a particular topic
 A comprehensive survey of publications in a specific field
of study or related to a particular line of research
 A summary of existing published literature made by
experts who select and weigh findings available from the
literature
 A summary and interpretation of research findings
reported in the literature
 A process and documentation of the current relevant
research literature regarding a particular topic or subject
of interest
Purposes of literature review Purposes of literature review…
 Define and limit problem  Select promising methods and measures
 Develop familiarity with topic  Knowledge of and insight into specific research designs for
 Limit research to a subtopic within larger body of knowledge investigating a problem
 Place study in historical perspective  Awareness of specific instruments, sampling procedures, and
data analyses
 Analysis of way in which study relates to existing knowledge
 Relate findings to previous knowledge and suggest future
 Avoid unintentional and unnecessary replication
research needs
 Awareness of prior studies so as to avoid unneeded replication
 Relating prior research to what is known places current study in
 Replication is reasonable if it is needed to verify prior results, perspective
investigate results that failed to be significant, or relate problem
 This knowledge allows researcher to focus problem on what is
to a specific site
not known
 Develop research hypotheses
 Suggestions for specific research hypotheses

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When we need to do a
Literature review designs literature review
Narrative review Selective review of the literature that broadly covers  At the beginning of the research project
a specific topic.  Proposal
Does not follow strict systematic methods to locate
and synthesize articles.
 Chapter 2, 1 & 3
Systematic review Utilizes exacting search strategies to make certain
that the maximum extent of relevant research has
been considered.
 Constantly update during research
Original articles are methodologically appraised and
synthesized.
Meta-analysis Quantitatively combines the results of studies that are
 When writing discussion and conclusion
the result of a systematic literature review. chapters
Capable of performing a statistical analysis of the
pooled results of relevant studies.
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What is literature Three types of literature
 Books  Audio-visual material
 Journals  CDs/DVDs
 Conference papers  Electronic databases
 Theses and  Government reports
dissertations  Magazines
 Bibliographies  Newspapers
 Maps  Grey literature
 Internet  Interviews and other
 Indexes/Abstracts unpublished research
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Steps in narrative review Searching and finding literature

 Identifying a topic
 Searching and finding literature  Bibliographic information, abstract and full
 Evaluating literature text
 Reading literature critically  Formal and informal sources of literature
 Analyzing literature  Print and online literature
 Synthesizing literature
 Writing and presenting literature review

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Evaluating literature Critical reading
 Evaluation for relevance  Passive vs. active reading
 Index of a book, chapter or section headings,  Previewing
abstract of an article, introduction and
conclusion, references or bibliography  Reading
 Evaluation for reliability  Taking notes
 Audience, authority, bias, currency, scope  Responding critically

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Analyzing literature Synthesizing literature

 Varying definitions of key terms
 Methodology used
 Enough evidence for claims?
 Findings consistent with those of similar
studies?
 How does each reading relate to your topic
and purpose?
 Define your argument/thesis.
 Identify major trends or patterns emerging
from the readings.
 Reassemble your notes based on the results
of readings, using organizational aids such as
post-its, flags, etc.
 Create a detailed topic outline

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 Sample topic outline
Psychological Aspects of Organ Donation: Individual and Next-of-
Kin Donation Decisions
I. Introduction
A. Establish importance of topic (cite
statistics on scarcity of organs).
B. Delimit the review to psychological
components of decisions.
C. Describe organization of the paper,
indicating that the remaining topics in
the outline will be discussed.
II. Individual decisions regarding posthumous
organ donation
A. Beliefs about organ donation
B. Attitudes toward donating
C. Stated willingness to donate
D. Summary of research on individual
decisions
III. Next-of-kin consent decisions
A. Beliefs about donating others’ organs.
B. Attitudes toward next-of-kin donations.
C. Summary of research on next-of-kin
consent decisions
Writing and presenting literature review
 A general organization looks like a funnel
 Broader topics
 Subtopics
 Studies like yours
Synthesizing literature…
IV. Methodological issues and directions for
future research
 Note on your topic outline relationships among studies:
A. Improvement in attitude measures and which researchers, what page, etc. support each point?
measurement strategy.
B. Greater differentiation by type of
 Note consistency of results from study to study.
donation.
C. Stronger theoretical emphasis.
 Note discrepancies among studies and provide possible
D. Greater interdisciplinary focus. explanations such as dates of studies, different
V. Summary, Conclusions, and Implications methodologies.
A. Summary of points I-IV.
B. Need well-developed theoretical
models of attitudes and decision
 Note landmark studies and if replicated.
making.
C. Current survey data limited in scope
 Note how individual studies help illustrate or advance
and application points to need for
more sophisticated research in
theoretical beliefs.
the future.
 Note gaps or areas needing more research.
D. Need more use of sophisticated data
analytic techniques.
E. Conclusion: Psychology can draw from
 Make sure your detailed outline follows a logical
various subdisciplines for an understanding
of donation decisions so intervention
sequence of topics and subtopics. This will give your
strategies can be identifiable. Desperately
need to increase the available supply of
literature review the coherence it needs.
donor organs.
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How to organize studies
 Chronological
 By publication date
 By trend
 Thematic
 A structure which considers different themes
 Methodological
 Focuses on the methods of the researcher, e.g.,
qualitative versus quantitative approaches
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 Making links between studies Summary table
Agreements  It is useful to prepare.
 Similarly, author B points to…  Such a table provides a quick overview that allows the
 Likewise, author C makes the case that… reviewer to make sense of a large mass of information.
 Author D also makes this point…  The tables could include columns with headings such
 Again, it is possible to see how author E agrees with author D… as
 Author
Disagreements  type of study
 However, author B points to…  Sample
 On the other hand, author C makes the case that…
 Design
 data collection approach
 Conversely, Author D argues…
 key findings
 Nevertheless, what author E suggests…

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Citation Sample Environment Method Conclusions

Summary table of literature
Atmospherics in service environments

Colour
Bellizzi, Crowley and
Hasty (1983)
125 Adults Furniture store Laboratory
experiment
Photographic
Warm and cool colours created different emotional
responses. Customers view red retail environments as
more negative and unpleasant than blue.
Citation styles
slide
simulations
Bellizzi, & Hite
(1992)
70 Adult women
107 Students
Televisions
shown with
Laboratory
experiments
Study based on PAD affect measures and approach-
avoidance behaviours.
 Information prominent citation
different colour
backgrounds
Photographic
slide
More positive retail outcomes occurred in blue
environments than red. Example:
Furniture stores simulations

Music
 For viscoelastic fluids, the behaviour of the time-dependent
Smith and Curnow 1100 Retail store Field Time in store reduced with loud music but level of sales
stresses in the transient shear flows is also very important
(1966) Supermarket experiment did not. (Boger et al., 1974).
shoppers
Milliman (1982) 216 Shoppers Supermarket Field The tempo of background music influenced the pace at
experiment which customers shopped. Slow tempo music slowed
customers down but resulted in increased volume of
sales.
 Author prominent citation
Hui, Dubé and Chebat 116 Students Bank branch Laboratory The positive impact of music on approach behaviours is Examples:
(1997) - waiting for experiment mediated by an emotional evaluation of the environment
service. Video
simulation
and the emotional response to waiting. Pleasurable music
produced longer perceived waiting times.
 Close (1983) developed a simplified theory using an
Lighting
analogy between heat and mass transfer and the
Areni and Kim (1994) 171 Shoppers Wine store Field The investigation found that brighter in-store lighting
equivalent heat transfer only case.
experiment influenced shoppers to examine and handle more of the
merchandise in the store
 Several authors have suggested that automated testing
Summers and Hebert 2367 Customers Hardware store Field Confirmed Areni and Kims (1994) results. Increased should be more readily accepted (Balcer, 1989; Stahl,
(2001) Apparel store experiment levels of lighting will produce arousal and pleasure and
increase the approach behaviours of customers.
1989; Carver & Tai, 1991).
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Reporting verbs Verb tenses – Present
 Argue
 Assert  Note  A statement about what the thesis, chapter or
 Assume  Object section does
 Challenge  Observe
 Persuade Examples:
 Claim
 Propose  This thesis presents a report of an investigation into …….
 Contend
 Contradict  Prove  This chapter thus provides a basis for the next.

 Describe  Purport  In this section, the results from the first set of experiments are
 Dispute  Recommend reported.
 Emphasize  Refute  A statement of a generally accepted scientific fact
 Establish  Reject
Examples:
 Examine  Remark
 There are three factors that control the concentration of
 Find  Suggest
aluminum in seawater.
 Maintain  Support
 The finite rate coefficients have an effect on heat transfer through
a horizontal porous layer.
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Verb tenses – Present Verb tenses – Past

 A review of current research work, or research work
of immediate relevance to your study.  Report the contents, findings or
Example:
 Schulze (2016) concludes that hydraulic rate has a significant
conclusions of past research
effect on future performance.
Examples:
 Comments, explanations and evaluative statements
made by you when you are reviewing previous  Haberfield (1998) showed that the velocity of many
studies. enzyme reactions was slowed down if the end product
Examples: had an increased paramagnetism.
 Therefore, this sequential approach is impractical in the real
world where projects are typically large and the activities from  Allington (1999) found that the temperatures varied
one stage may be carried out in parallel with the activities of significantly over time.
another stage.
 The reason for this anomalous result is that the tests were done
at low hydraulic rates at which the plastic packing was not
completely wetted.
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Verb tenses – Present perfect
 In citations where the focus is on the research area
of several authors
Examples:
 Several studies have provided support for the suggestion that
the amount of phonological recoding that is carried out depends
on orthographic depth (Frost, 1994; Smart et al, 1997; Katz &
Feldman, 2001, 2002).
 Joint roughness has been characterized by a number of authors
(Renger, 1990; Feker & Rengers, 1997; Wu & Ali, 2000).
 To generalize about the extent of the previous
research
Examples:
 Many studies have been conducted in this field.
 Few researchers have examined this technique.
 There has been extensive research into.........
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Best of luck for your
research endeavors!
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A good literature review is…
 Focused - The topic should be narrow. You should only present
ideas and only report on studies that are closely related to topic.
 Concise - Ideas should be presented economically. Don’t take any
more space than you need to present your ideas.
 Logical - The flow within and among paragraphs should be a
smooth, logical progression from one idea to the next
 Developed - Don’t leave the story half told.
 Integrative - Your paper should stress how the ideas in the studies
are related. Focus on the big picture. What commonality do all the
studies share? How are some studies different than others? Your
paper should stress how all the studies reviewed contribute to your
topic.
 Current - Your review should focus on work being done on the
cutting edge of your topic.
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