Literature Review

Presentation for CTU Doctoral StudentsBy Olga Koz, Regional Librarian & CTU Doctoral

student

Outline• Resources/Literature• Sources/Collections, databases• Advanced Searching • Organizing • When to stop

Learning materials, bibliographies & tutorials at: Literature Review at http://careerd.libguides.com/CTU/LR

What is the Literature Review

• Review of scholarly sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theoretical framework

• A synthesis of studies on any given topic• It analyzes reports of primary or original scholarship Purposes of the literature review

Theoretical framework of the proposed study

Revealing Gaps

Current status of research Finding variables

Support the purpose of your study

Seminal works, leading scholars

(Lunenburg, 2008)

Example of a stand alone LR

Sources/types of literature

Included

Monographs

Articles (peer-reviewed, scholarly journals)Dissertations/theses (limited)Conference papers

Research reports

Research reviews

Meta-analysis

Not includedUndergraduate level textbooksArticles from trade, popular magazines (practitioner’s articles)Government and organizational reportsData sets (statistics)White papers

Academic Practitioner’s Academic vs. Practitioner’s article

Criteria Academic/Scholarly Practitioner’s/Trade

authorship Scholars/researchers Professionals/staff writers

content Research results, reviews of the research (review articles)

Practitioner’s experience or observation

purpose To share research and scholarship with the academic community

To inform people in a business or industry about relevant news, trends, and products

audience Scholars, students Professionals

review Peer-reviewed, editorial board Editor

reference bibliographies None

appearance Limited illustrations

Collecting works

Literature Search

Seminal works Citation indexesMentor, expert recommendationsBibliographies, literature reviews, textbooks, encyclopedias

Related publications Pearl growing techniqueCitation searching using Citation Indexes

New studies Set up Articles AlertsRSS feedsTopical journals and conferences monitoring

CTU Library guide to LR

Libraries provide web-scale discovery tools

Or you can search one database a time

Searching for literature reviews Other

keywords: systematic review, meta-analysis

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses - the best place to find an example of LR in dissertations

Searching for bibliography

Ebsco databases allow to limit search by document type

Searching for peer-reviewed article

What is a scholarly or academic or peer-reviewed article?

See the guide to Scholarly article at carrered.libguides.com/ctu/sch_article

Searching for practitioner’s article

Trade publications

Reports, industry overview

You know the name of the

journal

Pearl growing

affiliations, journalsCollect keywords, subject headings, the names of

frequently cited researchers, book titles,

related theories, quotations, methods, affiliations, journals

References

AuthorArticle

subjectsJournals,

affiliations

Citation searchingGoogle Scholar

Scopus

Web of Science

Monitoring research

• Creating alerts• RSS feeds• Journals• Experts

Organizing

Do not build a libraryWrite while you

collecting

When to stop

• It is important to keep control of the reading process, and to keep your research focus in mind. Rudestam and Newton (1992, pp. 9) remind us that the aim is to ‘Build an argument, not a library’.

• It is also important to see the writing stage as part of the research process, not something that happens after you have finished reading the literature. Wellington et al (2005, pp.80) suggest ‘Writing while you collect and collecting while you write.’

Is exhaustive possible?Deciding how wide to cast the net is a critical step in conducting a review. Cooper (1988) proposes four coverage scenarios: exhaustive review, exhaustive with selective citation, representative and sample & purposive sample

References

• Koz, O. & Phillips , A. (2011) Writing literature review [web site]. Retrieved from http://coloradotech.libguides.com/LR

• Rudestam, K. E. & Newton, R. R. (1992). Surviving your dissertation: A comprehensive guide to content and process. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.

• Cooper, H. M., & Cooper, H. M. (1998). Synthesizing research: A guide for literature reviews. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

• Machi, L. A., & McEvoy, B. T. (2009). The literature review: Six steps to success. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press.