Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Literature Review
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Introduction
To quote the words of Jankowicz (2005, p. 161):
“…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 to describe what has been published, and to marshal
the information in a relevant and critical way”
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What is Literature Review Cont’d
It is a critical and evaluative account of what has been
published on a chosen research topic.
Its purpose is to summarise, synthesise and analyse the
arguments of others.
You should describe and analyse the knowledge that
exists and what gaps occur in research related to your field of
interest. (This should clarify the relationship between your
own research and the work that has previously been done.)
It should reveal similarities and differences, consistencies
and inconsistencies and controversies in previous research.
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What Literature Review is not
It is not primarily an argument for the importance of what it is
you are researching. While it is necessary to explain what is the
primary purpose of your research, the reader of a literature
review will assume that the need for undertaking the research
has already been established.
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Forms of Literature Review
Two forms of literature review are usually conducted for
different reasons (Sharp et al, 2002)
1. The preliminary review which helps the researcher to
generate and refine research ideas. This review usually
does not form part of the research project proper
2. The critical review, which forms part of the research
project, helps the researcher
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The Purpose of the Critical Literature
Review
Reviewing the literature critically provides the foundation
on which a research is built.
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Reasons for conducting Literature
Review Cont’d
5. To help avoid simply repeating work that has
been done already
6. To sample current opinions in newspapers,
professional and trade journals, thereby gaining
insights into the aspects of your research
questions and objectives that are considered
newsworthy
7. To discover and provide an insight into research
approaches, strategies and techniques that may
be appropriate to your own research questions
and objectives
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Literature Review Process
The process can be likened to an upward spiral culminating into the
final draft of a written critical review. The processes are:
State the research problem/questions and objectives
Define the parameters for your search
Generate and refine key words for the search
Conduct literature search
Obtain literature
Evaluate the literature: determine which literature makes a
significant contribution to the understanding of your work
Record the relevant literature
Start drafting the literature review: this should involve
description, analysis and synthesis
The process may be repeated a number of time to come out with a
critical review report
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Conducting the Literature Review
Literature reviews should comprise the following elements:
An overview of the subject, issue or theory under
consideration, along with the objectives of the literature
review
Division of works under review into categories (e.g. those in
support of a particular position, those against, and those
offering alternative theses entirely)
Explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies
from the others
Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their
argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make
the greatest contribution to the understanding and
development of their area of research
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The Content of Critical Literature
Review
The content of the critical literature review need:
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Evaluating the Content of Critical
Literature Review
Ask if you have:
shown how your research question relates to previous research
reviewed
assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the previous research
reviewed
been objective in your discussion and assessment of other
people’s research
included references that is counter to your our opinion
made reasoned judgements about the value and relevance of
others’ research to your own
highlighted those areas where new research (yours!) is needed to
provide fresh insights and taken into account in your arguments.
justified clearly your own ideas
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The Structure of the Critical Review
Three common structures are identified. The literature review
can be written in:
1. A single chapter
2. A series of chapters
3. Throughout the project report as you tackle various
issues
For dissertation, adopt a single chapter approach with the
following components:
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical and
3. Empirical
15 4. Concepts, Constructs and Operational definitions
Conducting Theoretical Review
Theoretical literature refers to the various theories or
abstractions expressing the ideas and concepts on a subject
matter.
To conduct a theoretical literature review:
Identify the key themes
Identify your variables of interest if any
Identify and discuss the theories bordering on the variables
Synthesize and evaluate these theories with respect to your
hypothesis or proposition, or thesis or research question
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Conducting Theoretical Review
Cont’d
Create a mind-map of the theories to write about
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Sources of Information for
Theoretical Literature Review
Text Books
Book Reviews
Peer reviewed Journals
Accredited scholarly publications
Web (scholarly search engines)
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Empirical Literature Review
After the theoretical literature look for published
scholarly research evidence in respect of the key
theories in your work.
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Concepts and Constructs
A Concept is a generally accepted collection of
meanings or characteristics associated with certain
phenomenon, events, objects, conditions, situations or
behaviors.
The definition must specify the characteristic and how they are
to be observed.
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Presentation of the Literature Review
Three different approaches can be adopted if there are no
institutional regulation or requirement. These are:
1.Chronological: present the information according to when
they were published [from the most recent to the earliest or
vice versa]
2.Thematic: information is organized along topic(s) or
issue(s), rather than the progression of time. However,
progression of time may still be an important factor in a
thematic review.
3.Methodological: presentation focuses on the "methods" or
“strategies” the researchers or writer used
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Planning your Literature Search
Strategy
The planning should include:
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Defining the Parameters of your
search
You need to be clear on the following:
Language of publication
Subject area
Business sector
Geographical area
Publication period
Literature type
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Generating your Key words
Could use one or a number of different techniques in
combination:
Discussion with colleagues, your project tutor and
handbook
Initial reading
Dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias and handbook
Mind mapping
Brainstorming
Relevance tree
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Conducting your literature search
The literature search could be conducted using a
variety of approaches:
Tertiary literature sources
Literature referenced in books and journals
Scanning and browsing secondary literature in
your library
Searching using the internet
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Sources of Information
1. Untested opinion
2. Self-evident truth
3. Authoritative source (documents from authoritative
sources)
4. Literary works
5. Scientific method
6. postulations
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Sources of Literature
Primary Secondary Tertiary
Reports Books Indexes
Theses Journals Abstracts
E-mail, Memos, Newspapers Catalogues
minutes Encyclopedia
Some government
Conference proceedings Publications Dictionaries
Company reports Bibliographies
Unpublished Citation Indexes
manuscript sources
Some government
publications such as
white paper etc.
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Evaluating the Literature
Evaluating the literature gathered involves defining the scope of your review and
assessing the value of the items that you have obtained in helping you to answer your
research questions. Ask yourself the following questions:
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?
Is the context sufficiently different to make it marginal to your research questions
and objectives?
Have you seen references to this item (or its authors) in other items that were useful?
Does the item support or contradict your arguments?
Value
Does the item appear to be biased?
What are the methodological omissions within the work?
Is the precision sufficient?
Does the item provide guidance for future research?
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Thank You
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