Information and literature review Some tricks and tips Tom Vandenbosch

Purpose of a literature review To find out what other scholars are writing about your topic To learn methods and approaches that are appropriate for your study To learn appropriate theory to underpin your work To highlight gaps and under-researched areas, to identify current debates and controversies To help focus your research and sharpen and refine your research questions (last bullet) Indeed, after a literature search and review the focus of the research may change or be slanted somewhat differently.

Purpose of a literature review To avoid reinventing the wheel, to demonstrate to your audience that your contribution is new – different from everyone else’s Nobody will believe you unless you can demonstrate through the literature review that you know what everyone else has done In an MSc: to demonstrate that you can do an effective literature review Important question: “How can I demonstrate my skills through my project???”

Types of information sources Secondary sources Bibliographies, indexes and abstracts that you can use to help you to find the Primary sources Full text of articles, books, government reports, etc. that you need to read for your research project

Aim of your literature search To retrieve information of direct relevance to your research To avoid being sidetracked or overloaded with material of only peripheral interest

Planning your literature search You should consider at an early stage some search parameters, e.g. How far back will you look for material? The last five/ten years? Do you plan to read material about a particular geographical region only? What type of material do you want to trace? Books, journals, theses, government reports, Internet resources? Do you want material only in Kikuyu, in English or in other languages?

Overall structure of academic literature Research Topic Specialist sub-area Relevant primary research Your research question

Literature search model Example: you may be researching the academic performance of mature students in higher education Higher education Mature students This is the kind of figure that it is useful to bear in mind if you are carrying out an on-line search. You can enter as many subject keywords as you think are relevant for each component of your topic. The search engine will combine the subject terms for you when you perform your search. Academic performance

Literature search model Mature students Higher education 5% Specialist area 10% 5% 50% 10% 10% 5% 5% Academic performance

Sources for Literature Reviews Internet Use keyword searches in Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/ Digital Libraries Need to use keyword searches to identify relevant articles Libraries Look through the list of journals and browse the books on the shelves to find relevant ones

Strengths and weaknesses of different sources Books vs. journal articles vs. conference proceedings vs. the Internet Which tend to be the best for Currency? Authority? Understandability? Academic papers are quality controlled – many are rejected as being incorrect or uninteresting

Literature search techniques Keyword search To find topically relevant information from digital libraries, databases, or the Internet Good in most cases Chaining Tracking references and citations to find articles relevant to a topic Good where the topic is very small Browsing To sift through collections of potentially relevant text Good where there are many relevant books/articles, but only a few can be selected Keyword search was subject search

Selecting keywords Organize your topic into subject groups or sets Analyze the keywords in each subject group or set to try to find as many relevant search terms as possible Use a thesaurus which lists synonyms and related words, to help you think of broader and narrower terms (and alternative spellings). Some computer databases have an on-line subject thesaurus which you can use to find additional terms during your search

Selecting keywords: an example Set 1: mature students OR adult education OR adult learning OR continuing education OR non-traditional students OR lifelong learning AND Set 2: academic performance OR academic achievement OR academic ability OR learner outcomes AND Set 3: higher education OR colleges OR universities OR post-secondary education Taking the topic “academic performance of mature students in higher education” which we illustrated earlier as an example, your list might expand considerably. If you use ‘AND’ with ‘OR’ (known as ‘Boolean operators’) you can see how the sets can be combined logically to retrieve the references that contain all three elements as illustrated earlier. As you search, you will probably amend your list to include additional keywords or you may jettison broader terms that retrieve large numbers of references too general to be of use. It may be only at this point that you can define what you don’t want. It can be helpful when you find a relevant reference to note down any subject headings, sometimes called ‘identifiers’ or ‘descriptors’ that have been used to index it.

Citations and references As you write up your research, you will use a citation to indicate in your text the source of a piece of information References give details of books, articles and any other types of material that you have cited in your text A bibliography is a list of works that you have read or consulted during the course of your research but have not necessarily cited

Referencing Referencing is a standardized method of acknowledging sources of information and ideas that you have used in your assignment in a way that uniquely identifies their source Direct quotations, facts and figures, as well as ideas and theories, from both published and unpublished works must be referenced There are many acceptable forms of referencing (e.g. Harvard referencing style)

Creating a bibliography Word processor OpenOffice.org Writer MS Word Bibliographic software package EndNote Pro-Cite Reference Manager By hand

Evaluating sources Is the source you are using respected in your field? Has the author’s name been cited by others, or have you seen it listed in other bibliographic sources? Are vital points referenced for you to check? Are the references up to date with current development in your field?

Literature review Ideally, the bulk of your reading should come early in the investigation In practice a number of activities are generally in progress at the same time and reading may spill over into the data-collecting stage of your study You need to take care that reading does not take up more time than can be allowed, but it is rarely possible to obtain copies of all books and articles at exactly the time you need them, so there is inevitably some overlap

Literature review Reading about your topic may give you ideas about approaches and methods which had not occurred to you It may also give you ideas about how you might classify and present your own data It may help you to devise a theoretical or analytical framework

Literature review As you read, get into the habit of examining How authors classify their findings How they explore relationships between facts How facts and relationships are explained

Literature review Methods used by other researchers may be unsuitable for your purposes But they may give you ideas about how you might categorize your own data, and ways in which you may be able to draw on the work of other researchers to support or refute your own arguments and conclusions

Critical review of literature Only relevant works are mentioned Review is more than a list of ‘what I have read’

Critical review of literature Uses of references Justify and support your arguments Allow you to make comparisons with other research Express matters better than you could have done Demonstrate your familiarity with your field of research

Critical review of literature Abuses of references Impress your readers with the scope of your reading Litter your writing with names and quotations Replace the need for you to express your own thoughts Misrepresent other authors

Monitor your progress The following should occur as you progress Increase in knowledge of the subject Increase in general knowledge of the specialist topic Increase in your specialist vocabulary Increase in confidence that you can complete the task

Structuring/organizing your literature review One approach is to treat the literature review as a funnel. Begin with an overview of the broad, conceptual research ("the big picture") Gradually narrow the discussion to a more detailed description of the few studies that are directly related to your research The role your study plays in extending the research of others should "pop out of the bottom of the funnel" at the conclusion of the literature review.

Structuring/organizing your literature review Try to follow a concept-by-concept approach in presenting the literature review, not a study-by-study approach. This means putting the emphasis on the results of the study, not the author.