Role of review of literature in research process

Role of Review of Literature in
Research Process
Dr.C. Krishnan Chalil
Professor & Dean,
Central University of South Bihar
Gaya

Workshop Objectives
After listening to this workshop, you should be able to
understand:
 What is meant by literature review?
 Functions of the literature review
 Steps in reviewing literature
1-2

Research
Process
Formulate a
Question
Select an Appropriate
Research Design
Collect Relevant Data
Interpret Findings
Publish Findings
Review the Available
Literature

Remember ………
 A literature review is not series of annotations (like
an annotated bibliography).
 Galvan (2006:72) captures the difference between
an annotated bibliography and a literature review
very well: "...in essence, like describing trees
when you really should be describing a forest. In
the case of a literature review, you are really
creating a new forest, which you will build by
using the trees you found in the literature you
read."
[Galvan, J. (2006). Writing literature reviews: a
guide for students of the behavioral sciences ( 3rd
ed.). Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing].

What a Literature Survey is?
 A literature review is not an annotated
bibliography in which you summarize briefly each
article that you have reviewed.
 While a summary of the what you have read is
contained within the literature review, it goes well
beyond merely summarizing professional
literature.
 It focuses on a specific topic of interest to you
and includes a critical analysis of the relationship
among different works, and relating this research
to your work.
 It may be written as a stand-alone paper or to
provide a theoretical framework and rationale for a
research study (such as a thesis or dissertation).

Literature Review
 is the documentation of a comprehensive review
of the published and unpublished work from
secondary sources of data in the areas of
specific interest to the researcher.
 The literature review is an integral part of the
entire research process and makes a valuable
contribution to almost every operational step.

Purpose:

Literature Reviews vary from discipline to
discipline as well as across assignments, but
generally a good literature review is designed
to help you answer 2 questions:

What do we know about this particular issue,
theory or subject?

What do we not know about this particular
issue, theory or subject?

Ensures that one is not "reinventing the
wheel".

A literature review has a number of
functions
 Bring clarity and focus to your research
problem
 Improve your methodology
 Broaden your knowledge base in your
research area
 Contextualise your findings
1-10

Bring clarity and focus to your research
problem

 The literature review can play an extremely
important role in shaping your research problem
 It also helps you to define the relationship
between your research problem and the body of
knowledge in the area.
1-14

Improve your methodology
Literature review
 acquaints you with the methodologies that have
been used by others to find answers to questions
similar to the one you are investigating.
 Tells you if others have used procedures and
methods similar to the ones that you are
proposing, which procedures and methods worked
well for them and what pitfalls they have faced with
them.

Broaden your knowledge base in your
research area
 Literature review ensures you read widely around
the subject area in which you are intend to
conduct your research study.
 It is important to know what other researchers
have found in regard to the same or similar
questions, what theories have been put forward
and what gap exit in the relevant body of
knowledge

Contextualise your findings
 Literature review helps identifying how your
findings compare with the existing body of
knowledge.
 How do answers to your questions compare with
what other have found? What contribution have
you been able to make to the existing body of
knowledge? How your finding different from
others?

In Brief, Literature Review helps to-
-----

Evaluate the context of scholarly material for its
contribution to the understanding of the research
thesis being studied.

Explain the relationships between each of the
works under deliberation.

Identify gaps in previous research.

Define new ways to interpret research within a
discipline.

Address conflicts found in
contradictory research previously conducted.

Identify the need for additional research.

Types of Literature Reviews
 Argumentative Review
 Integrative Review
 Historical Review
 Methodological Review
 Systematic Review
 Theoretical Review

Ways to Organize Your Literature
Review
 Chronologically by Events
 Methodologically
 Thematically (“conceptual categories”)

Some questions to help you
analyze the research:

What was the research question of the study you are
reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?

Was the research funded by a source that could
influence the findings?

What were the research methodologies? Analyze its
literature review, the samples and variables used, the
results, and the conclusions. Does the research seem
to be complete? Could it have been conducted more
soundly? What further questions does it raise?

If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that
is?

How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this
study been cited?; if so, how has it been analyzed?

Step 1: Search for relevant
literature
 Some useful databases to search for journals and
articles include:
 Your university’s library catalogue
 Google Scholar
 JSTOR
 EBSCO
 Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
 Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
 EconLit (economics)
 Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

Step 2: Evaluate and select
sources
 For each publication, ask yourself:
 What question or problem is the author addressing?
 What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
 What are the key theories, models and methods? Does
the research use established frameworks or take an
innovative approach?
 What are the results and conclusions of the study?
 How does the publication relate to other literature in the
field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established
knowledge?
 How does the publication contribute to your
understanding of the topic? What are its key insights
and arguments?
 What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
research?

Step 3: Identify themes, debates, and
gaps
 To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and
structure, you need to understand the connections and
relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on
your reading and notes, you can look for:
 Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do
certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
 Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the
literature?
 Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources
disagree?
 Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or
studies that changed the direction of the field?
 Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there
weaknesses that need to be addressed?

Step 4: Outline your literature
review’s structure There are various approaches to organizing the
body of a literature review. You should have a
rough idea of your strategy before you start
writing.
 Chronological
 Thematic
 Methodological
 Theoretical

Step 5: Write your literature
review
 Like any other academic text, your literature
review should have:
 an introduction,
 a main body, and
 a conclusion.
 What you include in each depends on the
objective of your literature review.

Identification of Problem/Objectives
 Has to find its roots in the emerging issues from
literature.
 A problem statement should be presented within a
context, including a discussion of the conceptual or
theoretical framework in which it is embedded.
 If framed in the context of a general, rambling
literature review, the research question may appear
trivial and uninteresting. But placed in the context of
a very focused and current research area, the same
research question seem to be important to the
reader.
 The statement of purpose or objective should
provide a clear, specific and accurate synopsis of
the overall purpose of the study.

Format for Citing References
23
Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Title of book (edition
if not first). City: Publisher.
Book by a single author
 Leshin, C.B. (1997). Management on the World
Wide Web. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

24
Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Title of book (edition
if not first). City: Publisher.
Book by more than one author
 Cornett, M., Wiley, B.J., & Sankar, S. (1998). The
pleasures of nurturing (2nd ed). London:
McMunster Publishing.

25
Journal Article
Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Title of article. Title of
Journal, volume number (issue number), page
numbers.
 Barry, H. (1996). Cross-cultural research with
matched pairs of societies. Journal of Social
Psychology, 79 (1), 25-33.
 Jeanquart, S., & Peluchette, J. (1997). Diversity in
the workforce and management models, Journal of
Social Work Studies, 43, 72-85.

Referencing Electronic Sources
Author, A. (year, month day). Title of article. Title of
Newspaper. Retrieved from home page web
address
 Nader, C. (2009, June 19). Mental health issues
soar among children. The Age. Retrieved from
http://www.theage.com.au

Thanks to all
krishnan@cusb.ac.in

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