Literature Review and

Referencing
Why is reviewing literature
important?
 This is the most crucial part of research, often
constituting a separate chapter or section.
 It usually provides the basis on which you
justify :
 the research questions and the research
design.
 The data collection techniques,
 Data analysis as informed by literature.
 Why do we need to review existing
literature?
 To know what is already known about your
area of interest,
 To revise and refine your research questions,
 To develop an argument about the significance
of your research and to show where it leads.
 To bring clarity and focus to your research
problem.
 To learn from other researchers’ mistakes and
avoid making the same mistakes,
 Help to develop an analytical framework,
 It may lead you to consider the inclusion of
variables in your research you might not
otherwise have thought about,
 It may suggest further research questions for
you,
 It will help in interpretation of your findings
Review of existing literature should help to
identify the following
• What is already known about the area;
• The concepts and theories relevant to the
study;
• Appropriate research methods and strategies
employed in the study area,
• The significant controversies in the study area,
• Any inconsistencies in the findings relating to
the area of study.
• Identify the strengths and deficiencies
perhaps in terms of methodology or credibility
of the conclusions;

The major question is, “HOW BEST CAN A

NEW STORY BE TOLD, TO REFLECT THE
AUTHOR’S POSITION IN RELATION TO
EXISTING LITERATURE?”
 Dimensions to the critical review of
literature
• Golden-Biddle and Locke (1993,1997)
distinguished two processes in which
literature can be conveyed:
i) Constructing intertextual coherence: refers to
the way in which existing literature is
organised and presented, demonstrating how
contributions to literature relates to each
other and the research reported .
 The techniques used
 Synthesised coherence:- putting together unrelated
work (theories and conceptual frameworks) into
one thing.
 Progressive coherence:- building up of an area of
knowledge around which there is considerable
consensus.
 Non-coherence:- recognising that there have been
many contributions to a certain area of study, but
there is considerable disagreement among
practitioners.
ii) Problematising the situation:- when literature is
subverted by locating a problem. This can be done
by:
 Showing incompleteness (or a gap) in literature,
 Identifying inadequacies in existing literature and
suggesting alternative perspectives or frameworks
that can improve a phenomenon.
 Giving an alternative perspective that is superior to
literature that seems wrong, misguided or incorrect.
General dimensions to literature review
• Critic of rhetoric:- evaluation of literature with
the effective use of language.
• Critique of tradition:- questioning (with
justification) the conventional view in literature
on a topic or research question,
• Critique of authority:- questioning of a
dominant view in literature,
• Critique of objectivity: questioning the extent
to which the literature is value-free
• Systematic review
• Traditional narrative reviews
• Meta-analysis
• Meta-enthnography
 Evaluating the extent to which literature
review is critical
• Identify relevant and important theories on a
given research question,
• Review research by experts in a given research
area,
• Be balanced, & discuss all dimensions of the
debate to point out areas of agreements/
disagreements,
• Be objective & make a reasoned judgement
about value and relevance of research by others.
• Show how your research question relates to
previous research reviewed,
• support all arguments with evidence and correct
referencing,
• Distinguish clearly between facts and opinions,
• Identify patterns and trends in literature to bring
out directions of research,
• Literature reviewed should be up-to-date, clear
with complete references and related to
research questions/objectives.
 How do you highlight areas for further
research
 Where there are inconsistencies in previous
research,
 Where there are omissions or bias in published
studies,
 Further testing of research findings is needed,
 Evidence is unavailable, inclusive, limited or
contradictory.
Include most recent, relevant and important
theoretical and empirical studies on the chosen
research topic.
 Which literature is relevant?
• Identify, locate, read and review classical or
seminal literature on your research topic, that
is,
 Cited frequently by many authors,
 Described as pioneer, landmark, or path-
breaking,
 Recently published literature that build up on
previous researches.
 Organising literature review
• Begin at general level and narrow down to the
research question/objective,
• Provide an overview of key ideas and themes in
the review,
• Summarise, compare and contrast the various
studies,
• Narrow down to focus on studies most relevant
studies to your study,
• Give details of these studies and show their
relationship.
• Point out those areas in literature where your
study will contribute,
• Put arguments in a coherent manner with ideas
linked logically,
• Use sub-headings to guide the reader,
• Assess whether the context of the item differs
from your research context,
• Establish whether the item supports or
contradict your own argument.
 Sources of Literature
 Primary sources
a) Reports produced by private and published
organisations whose recommendations may
trigger further research.
 May be difficult to access,
 Not well indexed in tertiary literature,
 were not peer-reviewed
 Primary sources of literature
b) Conference proceedings (symposia)
 Published as unique titles in journals e.g
journals of African economies,
 Most have a specific theme under which
presentations must fall,
 Provides a rich collection of papers on current
research and researchers working on various
topics, some of which will be published later in
refereed journals.
c) Thesis or dissertations.
 Secondary sources of literature
a) Journals (periodicals, serials, magazines)
 Peer-reviewed academic journals are good in
quality and suitability,
 Are published regularly and are accessible in
print version or online via subscription ,
b) Books or monographs
 Are targeted at particular audiences eg
academics, professionals but may be outdated.
c) Newspapers and magazines
 Good source of current topics of concern but
may contain inaccurate reports and statistics
due to biased coverage.
 Tertiary sources of literature
 These are tools for locating primary and
secondary literature.
 These include:
 Indexes, abstracts, catalogues, bibliographies
 Encyclopaedia e.g sage encyclopaedia for
social science research methods.
 Dictionaries
 Internet search using search engines
 The rhetoric in writing
• Use of words to show similarity, consensus,
disagreement, importance or gaps in literature.
 Similarity:- also, again, in addition to, similarly,
alike, agree
 Disagreement:- contradicts, on the other hand, in
contrast, differs, at odds, unlike, counter, debate
 Evaluation:- pioneering, important, influential,
fails to consider, ignores, overlooks, limited to,
confined to, restricts attention to etc.
 Paraphrase using own words.
 Question
• The manager of ABC Corporation (a cellphone
distribution company in Zimbabwe) was concerned
about the monthly sales revenue realised by the
organisation. ABC pvt ltd seem to have done
everything in terms of marketing its business. A
meeting was urgently convened to deliberate on this
issue, and it was unanimously agreed that a research
be commissioned to this effect.
• Suppose that you have been chosen to carry the
research:
1. Suggest a possible title for this research.
2. Rewrite the problematic issue using your own words
3. Develop at least 3 possible research questions (and
their corresponding objectives) which the study seeks to
answer.
4. Formulate appropriate hypotheses for this study.
5. If you were the CEO of this company, would you
recommend own research or outsourcing?
6. Why is it important to develop a research plan before
undertaking this research?
7. Extensive review of literature is inevitable when
carrying out a research of this nature. Discuss.
8. Analyse the potential usefulness of this proposed study
9. suggest the most appropriate research approach for a
study of this nature and justify your choice.