Chapter 3

Critically reviewing the literature

Lecturer: Trần Thị Ngọc Duy

 Learning outcomes
• By the end of this chapter you should:
• Understand the importance and purpose of the critical literature review to your
research project;
• To be able to adopt a critical perspective in your reading;
• Know what you need to include when writing your critical review;
• Be aware of the range of primary, secondary and tertiary literature sources
available;
• Be able to identify key words and to undertake a literature search using a range of
methods;
 Learning outcomes
• Be able to evaluate the relevance, value and sufficiency of the literature found;
• Be able to reference the literature found accurately;
• Understand what is meant by plagiarism;
• Be able to apply the knowledge, skills and understanding gained to your own
research project.
 Reasons for reviewing the literature
• To conduct a ‘preliminary’ search of existing material

• To organise valuable ideas and findings

• To identify other research that may be in progress

• To generate research ideas

• To develop a critical perspective

 The literature review process

Figure 3.1 The literature review process

Source: Saunders et al. (2003)
 The Critical Review (1)
Approaches used

Deductive – Dien dich

Develops a conceptual framework from the literature which is then
tested using the data

Inductive – Quy nap

Explores the data to develop theories which are then tested against
the literature
 The Critical Review (2)
Key purposes

• To further refine research questions and objectives

• To discover recommendations for further research

• To avoid repeating work already undertaken

• To provide insights into strategies and techniques appropriate to your research

objectives

Based on Gall et al. (2006)

 Adopting a critical perspective (1)
Skills for effective reading

 Previewing which is looking around the text before you start reading in order to establish
precisely its purpose and how it may inform you literature search
 Annotating that is conducting a dialogue with yourself, the author and the issues and the
ideas at stake
 Summarising the best way to determine that you’ve really got the point is to be able to state it
in your words. Outlining the argument of text is a version of annotating, and can be done
quite informally in the margins of the text
 Comparing and contrasting: ask your self how you thinking has been altered by this reading
or how has it affected your response to the issue and themes your research

Harvard College Library (2006)

 Adopting a critical perspective (2)
The most important skills are

• The capacity to evaluate what you read

• The capacity to relate what you read to other information

Wallace and Wray (2006)

 Adopting a critical perspective (3)
Questions to ask yourself

Why am I reading this?

What is the author trying to do in writing this?

How convincing is this?

What use can I make of this reading?

Adapted from Wallace and Wray (2006)

 Content of the critical review
You will need to

• Include key academic theories

• Demonstrate current knowledge of the area

• Use clear referencing for the reader to find the original cited
publications

• Acknowledge the research of others

 Is your literature review critical?
Checklists Box 3.2 and Box 3.3

Complete the checklists to evaluate your literature review

Saunders et al. (2009)

 Structure of the literature review
Three common structures

• A single chapter

• A series of chapters

• Throughout the report

 The key to a critical literature review
• Demonstrate that you have read, understood and evaluated your
material

• Link the different ideas to form a cohesive and coherent argument

• Make clear connections to your research objectives and the

subsequent empirical material

Saunders et al. (2009)

 Categories of Literature Sources
• Primary (published and unpublished)

• Secondary

• Tertiary

Detailed in Tables 3.1 and 3.2 Saunders et al. (2009)

 Literature sources available
Literature sources available

Figure 3.2 Literature sources available

Saunders et al. (2009)
 Journals
• Journals are also known as ‘periodical’ ‘serials’ and ‘magazines’ and are
published on a regular basis. Journals are a vital literature source for any
research. They are well covered by tertiary literature, and good selection
can be accessed from most university libraries (printed or online)
 Refereed academic Journals
• Articles in refereed academic journals (such as Journal of management studies)are
evaluated by peers academic prior to publication, to assess their quality and
suitability, they are usually written by experts in the field. There will be usually be
detailed footnotes, an extensive bibliography , rigorous attention to detail and
verification of information.
• Such articles are written for a more narrow audience of scholars with a particular
interest in the field. The language used may be technical or highly specialized as a
prior knowledge of the topic will be assumed.
 Professional Journals
• Professional Journals (such as People Management) they are produced
for their members by organization such as the chartered Institute of
personal and development (CIPD). They contain a mix of news related
items and articles that are more detailed. However you have to exercise
caution
 Trade Journals
• They fulfill a similar function to professional journals. They are published
by trade organizations or aimed at particular industries or trades such as
carting or mining. Often they focus in new products or services and
news items, they rarely contain articles based on empirical research,
although some provide summaries of research, You should therefore use
these with consideration caution for you research project.
 Books
• Books and monographs are written for specific audiences. Some are aimed at the
academic, with a theoretical slant. Others, aimed at practicing professionals, may be
more applied in their content. The material in books is usually presented in a more
ordered and accessible manner than in journals, polling together a wider range of
topics, they are therefore, practically useful as introductory sources to help clarify
your research question(s) and objectives or research methods you intend to use.
Some academic textbooks such as this one are now supported by web pages
providing additional information.
 Newspaper
• Newspaper are good source of topical events, developments within business and
government, as well as recent statistical information such as share prices, they also
sometimes review recent research report.
• Again you should be careful when you use newspaper in your research project as
newspaper may contain bias in their coverage, be it political geographical or
personal.
• Reporting can also be inaccurate and you may not pick up any subsequent
amendments
 Reports
• Reports include market research reports such as those produced by
Mintel and keynote government reports and academic reports. It is not
easy to get access for these reports as they are not as widely available as
books. It is important to try to assess the authority of the author, and to
beware of personal bias
 Conference proceedings
• Conference proceedings sometimes referred to as symposia, as often
published as unique titles within journals or as books. Most conferences
have a theme that is very specific, but some have a wide-range
overview. Many conferences have associated web pages providing
abstract and occasionally the full papers presented at the conference .
 Theses
• Theses are unique and so far a major research project can be a good
source of further references. Unfortunately, they can be difficult to
locate and, when found, difficult to access as there may be only one
copy at the awarding institution.
 Planning your search strategy
• All our students have found their literature search a time consuming process, which
take far longer than expected. Fortunately, time spent planning will be rapid in time
saved when searching the literature. As you start to plan your search, you need to
beware of information overload!
• One of the easiest ways to avoid this is to start the main search for your critical
review with a clearly defined research question (s), objectives and outline proposal.
 The literature search strategy (1)
Write down

• parameters of your search

• key words and search terms to be used
• databases and search engines to be used
• criteria for selection of relevant and useful studies
And

Discuss these with a tutor (if possible)

 The literature search strategy (2)
• Define the research parameters

• Generate key words

• Discuss your research

• Brainstorm ideas

• Construct Relevance trees - use computer software

 Defining the parameters of your search
 For most research questions and objectives you will have a good idea of which
subject matter is going to be relevant. You will, however, be less clear about the
parameters within which you need to search. In particular, you need to be clear
about the following (Bell 2005):
 Language of publication (e.g. English);
 Subject area (e.g. accountancy);
 Business sector (e.g. manufacturing);
 Geographical area (e.g. Europe);
 Publication period (e.g. the last 10 years);
 Literature type (e.g. refereed journals and books).
 Generating your keywords

 It is important at this stage to read both articles by key authors and recent review
articles in area of your research .This will help you to define your subject matter and
to suggest appropriate key words. Recent review articles in your research area are
often helpful here as they discuss the current state of research for a particular topic
and can help you to refine your keywords. In addition ,they will probably contain
reference s to other work that is pertinent to your research question(s) and
objectives.(Box 3.8) If you are unsure about review articles ,your project tutor
should be able to point you in the right direction. Another potentially useful source
of references is dissertations and theses in your university's library.
 Generating your keywords
• After re-reading your lecture notes and textbooks and undertaking this limited reading you
will have a list of subjects that appear relevant to your research project. You now need to
define precisely what is relevant to your research in terms of key words. The identification
of keywords or ‘research’ terms is the most important part of planning your search for
relevant literature (Bell 2005). Key words are the basic terms that describe your research
questions(s) and objectives, and will be used to search the tertiary literature. Keywords
(which can include authors’ surnames identified in the examination of your lecture notes
and course textbooks) can be identified using one or a number of different techniques in
combination.
 Discussion
• We believe you should be taking every opportunity to discuss your
research. In discussing you work with others, whether face to face, by
email or by letter, you will be sharing your ideas, getting feedback and
obtaining new ideas and approaches. This process will help you to refine
and clarify your topic.
 Initial reading, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks and thesauruses
• To produce the most relevant keywords you may need to build on your
brainstorming sessions with support materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias,
handbooks and thesauruses, both general and subject specific. These are also good
starting points for new topics which may be unfamiliar and for related subject area.
Initial reading, particularly of recent review article, may also be of help here. Project
tutors, colleagues and librarians can also be useful sources of ideas.
 Initial reading, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks and thesauruses
• It is also possible to obtain definitions via the Internet. The online search engine Google
offers a ‘define’(by typing ‘define:[enter term ]’) that provides links to websites providing
definitions. Definitions are also offered in free online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia(see
box 3.9).These are often available in multiple language and, although anyone is allowed to
edit the entries, inappropriate changes are usually removed quickly [Wikipedia 2008].
However, whilst these websites may be useful for a quick reference or in helping to define
keywords, your university will almost certainly expect you to justify the definitions in your
research project using refereed journal articles or textbooks.
 Conducting a literature search (1)
Approaches can include

• Searching tertiary literature sources

• Obtaining relevant literature

• Scanning and browsing secondary literature

• Searching using the Internet

 Conducting a literature search (2)
Searching using tertiary literature

• Ensure key words match controlled index language

• Search appropriate printed and database sources

• Note precise details used – including search strings

• Note the FULL reference of each search found

 Conducting a literature search (3)
• Printed sources

• Databases – use of Boolean logic and free text searching (Table

3.3)

• Scanning and browsing

• Searching the Internet (Tables 3.4 and 3.5)

Saunders et al. (2009)
 Conducting a literature search (4)
Searching the Internet

Saunders et al. (2003)

Figure 3.3 Searching the Internet

 Conducting a literature search (5)
Searching the Internet

Saunders et al. (2003)

Figure 3.3 Searching the Internet (Continued)

 Evaluating the literature

• Define the scope of your review

• Assess relevance and value

• Assess sufficiency
 Recording the literature
Make notes for each item you read

Record –

• Biographic details

• Brief summary of content

• Supplementary information
Sharp et al. (2002)
 Recording the literature

• Bibliographic details (Table 3.6)

• Brief summary

• Supplementary information (Table 3.7)

Saunders et al. (2009)

 Plagiarism
Four common forms

• Stealing material from another source

• Submitting material written by another

• Copying material without quotation marks

• Paraphrasing material without documentation

Adapted from Park (2003), cited in Easterby-Smith et al. (2008)

 Summary: Chapter 3
The critical literature review

• Sets the research in context

• Leads the reader into later sections of the report

• Begins at a general level and narrows to specific topics

 Summary: Chapter 3
A literature search requires

• Three main categories of sources

• Clearly defined research questions and objectives
• Defined parameters
• Use of techniques – ( brainstorming and relevance trees)
 Additional reading
• Introduction to style guides, Appendix E and F.
– Patten and Newhart.