PUB 220: SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH

LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER TWO

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Learning objectives

At the end of this topic you will be able to;

 Understand the meaning of literature review
 Explain the purposes of the literature review in research
 Carry out a literature search
 How to review the selected literature
 How to develop theoretical and conceptual frameworks.

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Learning objectives

 What is literature review?

 What are the types of literature review?

 When should it be conducted?

 Why should it be conducted when conducting a research?

 How is it conducted? how should it be conducted?

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What is literature review?

 A literature review is an examination of scholarly sources on a

specific topic and link to the current project. The scholarly works include,
books, papers, a book chapter, thesis, researches etc.

 It is a search and evaluation of the available literature in your given

subject or chosen topic area.

 It is an overview of the previously published works on a specific

topic.

 It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify

relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research.
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What is literature review?

 A literature review is the process in the research that establishes a

familiarity with a body of knowledge and creates the
credibility of the work.

 A literature review is the process in the research that integrates and

summarizes what is known about a subject.

 Good literature review demonstrates that you have learnt from others
and that your research is a starting point for new ideas.

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Types of literature reviews

1. Narrative Review of the Literature/ traditional reviews

provide a broad overview of a research topic with no clear
methodological approach.
Information is collected and interpreted unsystematically with subjective
summaries of findings.
Authors aim to describe and discuss the literature from a contextual or
theoretical point of view.
Although narrative reviews do not necessarily adhere to rigorous
standards, results of the search, selection, and assessment procedures
must meet the referees’ and editors’ criteria.

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Types of literature reviews

 Systematic reviews are sometimes referred to as “best-evidence

syntheses” or “practice-based research syntheses” (Dunst, 2009), “a
review of the evidence on a clearly formulated question that
uses systematic and explicit methods to identify.
 This is a thorough, comprehensive, transparent, and unbiased review
of the literature undertaken according to a clearly defined and
systematic approach (Aveyard, 2010; Neely et al., 2010).
 A high-quality systematic review is described as the most reliable
source of evidence for guide.

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Types of literature reviews

 Meta-analytic reviews/ quantitative systematic reviews

 Is a systematic review of a focused topic in the literature that
provides a quantitative estimate for the effect of a treatment
intervention or exposure.

 It provides a statistical approach to measure the effect size and

impact of the aggregate studies relevant to the research question
(Sun, Pan, & Wang, 2010; Vetter, 2003).

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When should it be conducted?

 Reviewing the literature is a continuous process.

 It begins before a research problem is finalized and continues until

the report is finished.

 it is time consuming but it is also rewarding.

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Why should literature review be
conducted?
 Why? in order to acquaint/get informed yourself with the available
body of knowledge in your area of interest.
 assist readers in under-standing the whole body of available research
on a topic,
 informing readers on the strengths and weaknesses of studies within
that body (De Los Reyes & Kazdin, 2008)

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Why reviewing literature?

 Specifically in relation to your own study, the literature review can help
in four ways. It can:
1. bring clarity and focus to your research problem;
When reviewing the literature you learn
what aspects of your subject area have been examined by others,
what they have found out about these aspects,
what gaps they have identified and
what suggestions they have made for further research.
All these will help you gain a greater insight into your own research
questions and provide you with clarity and focus which are central to a
relevant and valid study.
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Why reviewing literature?

2. Improve your research methodology;

 It helps you to explore the methodologies used by others to find
answers to research questions similar to the one you are
investigating.
 It tells you if others have used procedures and methods similar to the
ones that you are proposing,
 It informs which procedures and methods have worked well for them
and what problems they have faced with them.
By becoming aware of any problems and pitfalls, you will be to select the
best methodology for your study.

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Why reviewing literature?

3. Broaden your knowledge base in your research area;

 The most important function of the literature review is to ensure you
read widely around the subject area in which you intend to conduct
your research study. It is important that you know
 what other researchers have found in regard to the same questions,
 what theories have been put forward and
 what gaps exist in the relevant body of knowledge.
Another important reason for doing a literature review is that it
helps you to understand how the findings of your study fit into
the existing body of knowledge.

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Why reviewing literature?

4. Contextualize your findings.

Undertaking a literature review will enable you to compare your findings
with those of others and answer these questions. Obtaining answers to your
research questions is comparatively easy: the difficult part is examining
how your findings fit into the existing body of knowledge.
 How do answers to your research questions compare with what others
have found?
 What contribution have you been able to make to the existing body of
knowledge?
 How are your findings different from those of others?
It is important to place your findings in the context of what is already known
in your field of enquiry.
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Why reviewing literature?

 It provides a theoretical background to your study. (theoretical roots).

 It helps you establish the links between what you are proposing to
examine and what has already been studied.

 It helps you to clarify your ideas and develop your research

methodology.

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Why reviewing literature?

 It enables you to show how your findings have contributed to the

existing body of knowledge in your profession.

 Later in the process, during the write-up of your report the literature
review serves to enhance and consolidate your own knowledge base
and helps you to integrate and compare your findings with the
existing body of knowledge (that is, to either support or contradict
earlier research).

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How should it be done?
Process of developing a good LR
 A literature review is a process that involves a series of carefully
executed and time-consuming steps (Neely et al., 2010). These steps are
based on a peer reviewed protocol so that the process can be replicated
when necessary (Hemingway & Brereton, 2009).

 The initial step of any literature review involves defining the specific
and unambiguous statement of review objectives or a research
question (Neely et al., 2010). In other words, You should have a
specific research problem.
 There is a danger in reviewing the literature without having a reasonably
specific idea of what you want to study. Hence, you should try broadly to
conceptualize your research problem before undertaking your major
literature review.
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Process of developing a good LR

 1. clearly provide specific research problem

 A good research question/ research topic/ specific research
problem acts as a guide, clearly providing focused structure for the
literature review process (Aveyard, 2010).
 Formulation of an appropriate research topic enables the reviewer
to develop a plan of action for the literature search.
 If you do not have it, you should review the literature in your broad
area of interest with the aim of gradually narrowing it down to what
you want to find out about. After that the literature review should be
focused around your research problem.

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Process of developing a good LR

2. Identify the Relevant Information:

 The second step of the review process involves establishing inclusion
and exclusion criteria based on the variables of interest within the
research question. This is done only one is able to identify all relevant
information/key words to be used in the literature search.
 To identify key information, it is imperative that you have at least
some idea of the broad subject area and of the problem you wish to
investigate, in order to set parameters for your search.
 This means knowing the characteristics of the subject population as
well as variables relevant to the objective or research question. These
variables are rigorously used to select studies for the review process
(Hemingway & Brereton, 2009).
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Process of developing a good LR

 Interestingly, identifying the variables, keywords, and definitions can

result in revisions prior to actual analysis of the aggregate studies.
 There are sources that you can use to prepare a bibliography: books;
journals and the Internet.
Books: You can find information with regard to your specific research
problem from books. They are a central part of any bibliography,
however, they have their disadvantages as well as advantages.
 The main advantage is that the material published in books is usually
important and of good quality, and the findings are ‘integrated with
other research to form a coherent body of knowledge.
 The main disadvantage is that the material is not completely up to
date, as it can take a few years between the completion of a work.
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Process of developing a good LR

Journals
 You need to go through the journals relating to your research in a similar
manner.
 Journals provide you with the most up-to-date information, even though
there is often a gap of two to three years between the completion of a
research project and its publication in a journal.
 You should select as many journals as you possibly can, though the
number of journals available depends upon the field of study – certain.

 As with books, you need to prepare a list of the journals/articles you want
to examine for identifying the literature relevant to your study. This can
be done in a number of ways.
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Process of developing a good LR

3. Conduct the Literature Search Logically,

 Conduct the search with the identified keywords.
 A careful literature search necessitates the use of many search engines,
electronic databases, and websites.

4. Reviewing the selected literature

 Now that you have identified several books and articles as useful, the next step
is to start reading them critically to pull together themes and issues that are of
relevance to your study.
 Unless you have a theoretical framework of themes in mind to start with, use
separate sheets of paper for each theme or issue you identify as you go
through selected books and articles. The following example details the process.

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Process of developing a good LR

5. Screen All and Exclude the Irrelevant Studies

 When all papers are compiled and abstracts are read, the next step is
to identify those studies potentially relevant to the research question
(Hemingway & Brereton, 2009; Neely et al., 2010). After the studies
are screened and the irrelevant ones excluded, then relevant papers
are screened again to ensure consistent relevance to the research
question and all identified variables.

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Process of developing a good LR

6. Scrutinize the Relevant Studies

The next step occurs when remaining studies, the full-text relevant papers,
are carefully read for their details and eligibility.
At this point, the reviewers can ensure that those studies selected for
inclusion are consistent with the research question and protocol. While going
through the literature you should carefully and critically examine it with
respect to the following aspects:
 whether the knowledge relevant to your theoretical framework has been
confirmed beyond doubt.
 The theories put forward, the criticisms of these and their basis,
 The methodologies adopted (study design, sample size and its
characteristics, measurement procedures, etc.) and the criticisms of them.
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Process of developing a good LR

7. Developing a theoretical framework

 It is important to set factors by reviewing the literature in relation to
some main themes pertinent to your research topic.
 As you start reading the literature, you will soon discover that the
problem you wish to investigate has its roots in a number of theories
that have been developed from different perspectives.
 The information obtained from different books and journals now
needs to be sorted under the main themes and theories.
 By highlighting agreements and disagreements among the authors
and identifying the unanswered questions or gaps.

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Process of developing a good LR

 You will also realize that the literature deals with a number of aspects
that have a direct or indirect bearing on your research topic. Use
these aspects as a basis for developing your theoretical framework.
 Your review of the literature should sort out the information, as
mentioned earlier, within this framework. ( set out your framework)
 Unless you review the literature in relation to this framework, you will
not be able to develop a focus in your literature search: that is, your
theoretical framework provides you with a guide as you read.

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Process of developing a good LR

 Literature pertinent to your study may deal with two types of

information:
 1. universal;
 2. more specific (i.e. local trends or a specific programme).

 In writing about such information you should start with the general
information, gradually narrowing it down to the specific.

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Process of developing a good LR

An example in reviewing the selected literature

The author recently examined, the extent of ‘community
responsiveness’ in the delivery of health services in ZZ city.
Before evaluating the extent of its use, pertinent literature relating to
‘community responsiveness in health’ was identified and reviewed.
Through this review, many themes emerged, which became the basis of
developing the theoretical framework for the study.

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Process of developing a good LR

 Out of all of this, the following themes were selected to construct

the theoretical framework for the evaluation study:
 Community responsiveness: what does it mean?
 Philosophies underpinning community responsiveness.
 Historical development of the concept in Australia.
 The extent of use in health planning?
 Strategies developed to achieve community responsiveness.
 Indicators of success or failure.
 Seeking community participation.
 Difficulties in implementing community responsiveness.
 Attitude of stakeholders towards the concept of community responsiveness.
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Developing a theoretical framework – the
relationship between mortality and fertility

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Theoretical framework for the study
‘community responsiveness in
health’

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Process of developing a good LR

8. Developing a conceptual framework.

 The conceptual framework is the basis of your research problem.
 It consists of the theories or issues in which your study is rooted.
 It stems from the theoretical framework and usually focuses on the
section(s) which become the basis of your study.
 It describes the aspects you selected from the theoretical framework
to become the basis of your study.
 the conceptual framework is focuses on indicators to measure and
relates to the specific research problem.

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Process of developing a good LR

For instance, in the example cited above, the theoretical framework

includes
 the theories that have been put forward to explain the specific
problem. For instance, from the community responsiveness, the
conceptual framework is focused on indicators to measure the
success or failure of the strategies to enhance community
responsiveness.
 Hence the conceptual framework grows out of the theoretical
framework

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Sample of outline of a literature
review
 Examples of subheadings based on the above research titles.

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