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Writing a Literature Review

Evaluating and describing

other people’s work

                          

1. What is a literature review?

2. How do I decide what goes where?

3. Learning From Secondary Research

4. Evaluating Primary Research

5. Additional information

1: What is a literature review?

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What is a literature review?

A description of your topic area, supported by references

A summary, discussion and critical analysis of academic work related to your research question

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What can you gain from literature reviews?

Ideas about which approaches are likely to work, and which are the best

If you find something similar, you can get– Ideas for how to implement your deliverable

– Ideas for how to evaluate your deliverable

The best ways to do things– E.g. the fastest search algorithm

Justification for the approach that you are taking

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What can you gain from literature reviews?

Knowledge of what everyone else has done so that you don’t exactly replicate it– Without a literature review you risk reinventing the

wheel– If you find something similar you may have to

slightly change what you are doing to make it novel, or build upon what you found

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Organising the review

In a separate chapter– The normal approach, used in this module

In several chapters– If it is the main part of the thesis, or very important

Incorporated throughout the thesis as and when needed– In addition to either of the other two approaches– Perhaps incorporating individual facts from books

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Overall Structure [Very important]

In this module, we insist on a 3 part approachPart 1: Overview of your chosen broad topic

– The field that contains your research questionPart 2: Explanation of your sub-area

– The area containing your research questionPart 3: In-depth analysis of research relevant to your

research question– Critical evaluation of the primary research papers directly

related to your research question

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Overall Structure

Broad Topic

Specialist sub-area

Relevant

Primary

research

Your research questionAdd your research topics

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Melding the Structure

The three parts of the review need to be melded together by explaining:

how part 2 fits inside part 1 how part 3 fits inside part 2

2. How do I decide what goes where?

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Conceptual models to help understanding

Conceptual models can help you understand how the different research fits together– Helps you decide upon an appropriate structure

Choose a technique that you are comfortable with– Spider diagram of the different papers?

– Research territory map?

– List of keywords?

– Write and repeatedly rewrite the review (rapid prototyping)

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The literature review process

The literature review process should help shape– what you do, and– how you do it

You should be prepared to change your mind or alter your approach in response to what you discover

Always write up the literature review soon after reading the papers – otherwise you may forget what you have read

The finished review should also shape how others perceive the quality/value of your work

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The literature review process

From Dawson

– The essence of

computing projects

The first role of

a literature review

is often to learn

the topic.

3: Learning From Secondary Research

Secondary research includes books, research summaries and literature reviews

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Secondary Research

Books, literature reviews and web pages can give an overview of a research area

These can help you to learn what a research area is about before having to read primary research

Literature reviews should always start with reading secondary research, if possible

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Reading books

Not enough time to read many books all the way through– Can still use as a reference source, just read relevant

chapters/sections

Books tend to be less controversial and may also summarise the pros and cons of topics discussed (i.e. like a mini-literature review)

The introduction of a relevant book should summarize the research area

4: Evaluating Primary Research

Primary research is research papers containing new findings - not a literature review

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Your evaluation 1

Read the abstract and conclusions first– Is it really relevant and useful to you?– Summarise how it is useful

Read the whole paper– Are the methods correct?– [BOUNDARIES] Is the scope of the study appropriate for your

use?– Make sure that you understand the findings

[CONCLUSIONS] Read the abstract and conclusions again– To make sure that you have understood the results and their

context

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Your evaluation 2

[LIMITATIONS] The discussion of limitations– Should be near the end of the paper

– Read to make sure that the findings really apply to the situation in which you are using them

How significant is the work?– Does it make a major contribution?

– How does it complement other papers?

BOUNDARIES, LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSIONS

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Multiple Papers

Need more than one paper about important pointsDiscuss points of agreementDiscuss points of difference

– In computing there can be differences of opinion, but should not be big differences of fact

– The papers may try different techniques to solve the same problem

– Must use your own opinion on differences, but try to argue your case

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Selective reading

What to do if you do not understand the paper– Too complex maths– Too much terminology– >>Consider reviewing the outcomes of the research and not

the technical details [black box approach]When to just read the abstract

– If it is clear that the paper is not relevant.– Can still cite the paper in the literature review if it is near to

being relevant and explain briefly why it is not relevant• This shows that you have done a better literature review

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Common mistakes 1

Your own opinions without backup, no matter how strongly you believe them (it does not count!)– E.g. Microsoft is good/rubbish

Discussing irrelevant literatureShort literature reviews

– Have not demonstrated the literature review skill

– Have not shown that you understand the context of your work

Not targeting the review at an appropriate audience

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Common mistakes 2

Not joining the literature together into a coherent whole

Using chronological order, unless necessary Including poor reference sources without commentToo smallNot targeting the review to the research questionMissing an important reference

– Your work is seriously undermined if you write about something as though you are the first, but someone else has already published on the subject

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Swales’ perspective

"not sufficiently theme-based""not structured according to the issues"

"insufficiently informed by the research hypotheses"

"boringly chronological" "just describe each piece of research one by one without adequate linkage"

5: Additional information

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Plagiarism

Plagiarism is passing off somebody else’s work as your own

In a literature review you are discussing other people’s work so must clearly reference it

In this module you must NEVER copy an entire phrase or sentence even if it is in quotes and properly referenced– If you cannot describe something in your own words then

you must not include it in your literature review. If you paraphrase other people’s ideas you still need

to reference them

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Referencing your work

You MUST reference your workThis means giving the author name and

publication date for all ideas and facts you have used (Harvard format)

List the sources at the end (Harvard format)Failure to reference your work is Plagiarism

and is an automatic fail.

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Harvard reference style

You must follow the university Harvard stylehttp://asp.wlv.ac.uk/Level5.asp?UserType=6&Level5=316

5 (OR Google Harvard site:wlv.ac.uk)

Smith (1999) says that C++ is faster than Java.C++ is faster than Java (Smith 1999).SMITH, T. (1999) Programming. Programming Journal,

21(5), pp. 61-73.SMITH, R. (1999) Programming. London: Birkett

Computing.Do not use numbers in brackets [1] – this is not Harvard.

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References and Bibliography

Reference list– List of books, articles etc. that you have cited in

your thesis

Bibliography– List of books, articles etc. that you have not cited

but have used in some way

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Writing tips

Structure to present an argument, discussing similar papers together– Do not list the papers and write separate reviews

Explain the useful information that each paper gives and compare and contrast to other similar papers

Build an argument that will support the main aim of your thesis– What you are doing/How you are going to do it/Why you are

doing it Show how what you are doing is different to what has

been done before

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Exercise

Write a literature review for your chosen sub-area of your chosen topic. It should be a minimum of 2 sides of A4 (typed) and properly referenced (Harvard)

It does not need to be targeted at your research question because you do not have one yet [But use the first 2 parts of the 3 part structure]

As a practical consideration, you will not have time to get inter-library loans, so can focus on immediately available sources (e.g. Web, ACM)

Cover 5-10 papers for this assignment and the 20 most relevant for the main module assignment

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Exercise Structure

Broad Topic

Specialist sub-area

Use 3 headings: 1) Broad Topic, 2) Transition, 3) Sub-area

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Main module assignment

Guidelines for literature review componentLike a funnel with a few broad papers to set the

context for the area and then to narrow down to focus on a specific issue.

E.g. Intelligent Agents.– First level is what they are and what areas they are

being used in (~5 papers)– Second layer is to pick one area and consider different

types being used (~8-10)– Third layer would be highly focused on a specific issue

within that area (e.g. primary research) (~5-7)