Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1. What is a literature review?

 It is an interpretation and synthesis of published works.
 The 'literature review' is the part of the thesis/research where
there is extensive reference to related research & theory.
 It is where connections are made between the source texts that
you draw on and where you position yourself and your research
among these sources.
 The literature review is where you identify the theories and
previous research which have influenced your choice of research
topic and the methodology you are choosing to adopt.
 You can use the literature to support your identification of a
problem to research and to illustrate that there is a gap in
previous research which needs to be filled.
 The literature review, therefore, serves as the driving force and
jumping-off point for your own research investigation.
 The term 'literature review' also refers to the process involved in
creating the review that appears in your research, dissertation or
thesis.
2.2. Why do we need a literature review?
 To gain an understanding of the existing research and debates
relevant to a particular topic or area of study, and to present that
knowledge in the form of a written report.
 It helps the researcher build his knowledge in his field
 It helps the researcher to learn/identify about important
concepts, research methods, and techniques that are used
in his field.
 It will also help the researcher to gain insight into how
researchers apply the concepts learned in real world problems.
e.g., our assignment exercises
 Helps to explain:
 What research question(s) are you asking?
 Why are you asking it/them?
 Has anyone else done anything similar before?
 Is your research relevant to research/practice/theory in your field?
 What is already known or understood about this topic?
 How might your research add to this understanding, or challenge
existing theories and beliefs?

Generally , literature review has the following purposes;

 It provides a historical background for your research;
 It gives an overview of the current knowledge
 It explains your research position relative to contemporary
debates, issues and questions in the field
 It provides a discussion of relevant theories and concepts which
underpin your research;
 It introduces relevant terminology and provides definitions to
clarify how terms are being used in the context of your own
work;
 It describes related research in the field;
 It shows how your work extends or challenges this, or addresses a
gap in work in the field;
 It provides supporting evidence for a practical problem or issue
which your research is addressing; and
 It justifies the significance of your work and contribution
2.3. How to carry out a literature review?
 Literature reviews entail the following processes:
 finding suitable literature,
 assessing it,
 summarizing it and
 synthesizing it.
 First, decide what ‘suitable literature’ is, should be related to
your topic, geographical or time relation matter but not
necessary
 A researcher is advised to be as specific as possible about what
literature s/he wants to include in the review, otherwise it will
end up with too many studies to read.
 Next, assess each study. The following questions will help to
assess the studies:
1. Is it highly relevant to the research question?
2. Is it objective and unbiased?
3. Is it accurate? If you find difficult to check for accuracy, choose
published articles in reputable journals
4. Is it well written?
5. Is it a reliable source of evidence (e.g., published in reputable
journals)?
6. If it is research article, is it robust?
7. Is it recent? If not, is it still relevant?
 If you can answer yes to all these questions, include the study
in the review.
 After the researcher has summarized all the studies, look across
the summaries and think about the following questions:
 What key themes have emerged?
 What do the studies disagree and agree on?
 Is there any consensus in the literature?
 Are there any gaps in it?
 If there are gaps, which of the gaps can you address?

These are the points you would elaborate in your literature review
and attempt to connect with your current research
2.4. Types of literature review
1. Argumentative: This form examines literature selectively in order to
support or refute (a) an argument, (b) deeply imbedded assumption,
or (c) philosophical problem already established in the literature.
 The purpose is to develop a body of literature that establishes a
supporting or contrarian viewpoint.

2. 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 or matched
 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.
3. Historical Review: Historical reviews are focused on examining research
throughout a period of time,
 often starts with the first time of an issue, concept, theory, phenomena
emerged in the literature,
 then traces its evolution over time within the scholarship of a discipline.

4. Systematic Review: This form consists of an overview of existing

evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question,
 uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and critically
appraise relevant research, and
 collect, report, and analyze 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?“  it tries to establish this from
literature
5. Methodological Review: A review does not always focus
on what someone said it [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).
 It enables researchers to draw on a wide range of knowledge
ranging from the conceptual level to practical documents for use
in fieldwork
 Covers areas of:
 ontological (concept & subject category relations) &
epistemological (theories in methods) consideration,
 quantitative and qualitative integration, as well as
 sampling, interviewing, data collection and data analysis methods.
 It helps highlight many ethical issues which we should be aware
of and consider as we go through our study.
6. Theoretical Review:
The purpose of this form of literature review is to concretely
examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to
an issue, concept, other theories, phenomena.
 The theoretical literature review helps to establish:
 what theories already exist,
 the relationships between them,
 to what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and
 develop new hypotheses to be tested.
 Most often this form of literature 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 single theoretical concept
or a whole body of related theories or framework.
2.5. Literature Review Organization Approaches
The literature review can be organized by:
 Time relation:
 1920s, 1940s, pre-1970s, post 1950s. etc.
 Colonial era, Cold-war era, post great depression etc.
 Related Theories:
 Keynesian, neo-classical, etc.
 import-substitution, export-promotion, etc.
 Geography,
 African market, East Asian economies, European market, etc.
 Temperate zone diseases, tropical diseases, etc.
 Results/Arguments,
 Supporting, Refuting, Neutral/inconclusive, etc.
 Temperate zone diseases, tropical diseases, etc. (in health/biology
research)
 Policies,
 Protectionist, Interventionist, non-interventionist, etc.
 Command economies, market economies, etc.

 Political ideologies ,
 Liberal Democracies, Social Democracies, developmental states,
etc.
 Multilateralism, bilateralism, unilateralism, etc.

Such clear organization helps:

 the researcher draw clear pattern and any gaps, and
 readers to follow/understand the lirterature review very easily