Literature review
description
Transcript of Literature review
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.