Chapter 3:

•Research Question
•Purpose of a Literature Review
•Potential Research Sources
•Writing a Literature Review
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

• Explain the purpose of specifying a research question.

• Identify different sources of ideas for research topics.

• Summarize the reasons why conducting a literature review is

helpful.

• Describe the steps in collecting sources for a literature review.

• Discuss how to approach writing a literature review.

• Relate the basic organizational structure of a literature review.

 Choosing a Research Question
• The initial step in designing an empirical
research project is to choose a research
question
– limited only by whether the questions is
• significant to our understanding of politics and
government
• observable
• political
Importance of Research Questions
Research questions help writers
• focus their research by providing a path
through the research and writing process.
• avoid the “all-about” paper and work toward
supporting a specific, arguable thesis.
 Choosing a Research Question
• Political scientists investigate diverse
phenomena
• Research question may focus on the political
behavior of:
– Individuals
– Groups
– Institutions
– Political jurisdictions
 Choosing a Research Question
• In most cases research questions focus on the
relationship—that is, the association,
dependence, or covariance of the values of
one variable with the values of another.

• In others, research questions may be

descriptive, factual or normative.
 Choosing a Research Question
• Research questions may originate from three
sources:
– Personal (life experience or observation)
– Nonscholarly (journalistic accounts)
– Scholarly (academic articles and books)
Scholarly Journals
Scholarly Journals
 Purpose of a Literature Review
• A literature is a body of related work on a
topic.

• A literature review is a systematic examination

and interpretation of the literature for the
purpose of informing further work on a topic.
What is Literature Review?
Literature Review
 Purpose of a Literature Review
• A literature review has many complementary
purposes including:
1. learning about what others have and have not
investigated
2. developing general explanations for observed
variations in a behavior or a phenomenon
3. identifying potential relationships between
concepts
 Purpose of a Literature Review
• A literature review has many complementary
purposes including:
4. identify researchable hypotheses
5. learning how others have defined and measured
key concepts, identifying data, developing
alternative research designs
6. discovering how a research project is related to
the work of others.
 Potential Research Sources
• The most important characteristic about a
literature review is that it should meet the
purpose and scope of the project—rather than
reviewing a specific number of sources.

• Review the sample literature review in the

textbook for an example of a well-written
literature review.
 Potential Research Sources
• Electronic databases like Web of Science,
Google Scholar, or JSTOR will allow you to
locate sources quickly and efficiently.
• Begin with simple keyword searches.
• Then search for work cited in the work you
find.
• Reading article abstracts, book prefaces, and
book reviews are also efficient methods.
 Potential Research Sources
• To organize and write an effective literature
review—focus on concepts, ideas, and methods
shared across the literature.

• Do not summarize what individual authors wrote

about a topic.
 Potential Research Sources
• Identifying and writing about commonalities and
differences can be more interesting and of higher
quality.

• Look for common research questions, data,

hypothesis, theories, etc. and discuss the
similarities and differences.
 Potential Research Sources
• The goal is to integrate previous research along
conceptual and methodological lines to explain
how previous work fits together and how the
current project fits into that literature.

• A good literature review will demonstrate how

your project fits into the literature.
 Conceptualization
• The process of developing clear, rigorous,
systematic conceptual definitions for abstract
ideas/concepts.
• Conceptual definition: A careful, systematic
definition of a construct that is explicitly
written down.
 Conceptualization
• Conceptualization is the process of thinking
through the various possible meanings of a
construct.
• We need clear, unambiguous definitions of
concepts to develop sound explanations.
• Boundaries are necessary!
 Operationalization
• The process of moving from a construct’s
conceptual definition to specific activities or
measures that allow a researcher to observe it
empirically.
• Operational definition: A variable in terms of
the specific actions to measure or indicate it in
the empir- ical world.
Conceptualization vs Operationalization
 Online Resources
get the edge on your studies at
https://edge.sagepub.com/johnson8e

• Take a quiz to find out what you’ve learned;

• Test your knowledge with key term flashcards;
• Explore data sets to practice your skills.