WHAT IS LITERATURE REVIEW?

The aim of literature review is to highlight what has been done so far in the field
of interest and how your findings relate to earlier research. The review of
literature also indicates the following:
(a) Approaches;
(b) Methods;
(c) Variables used; and
(d) Statistical procedure.
Of foremost importance in a literature review is the findings itself. In the field of
ICT, compiling literature review has always been a challange. This is due to the
nature of computing and information field which go through tremendous
changes and new findings within a short period. The review gives an overview
on findings based on previous research work done at the time of research period.
The review also traces the general patterns of the findings and the conclusions
that can be made based on the finding

THE IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE REVIEW

Reviewing literature can be time-consuming and daunting. However, it is always

rewarding. A review of literature has a number of functions in research
methodology,

The following are the main importance of literature review:

(a) Improve your Research Methodology

Literature review helps you to acquire methodologies used by other
researchers to find and solve research questions similar to the ones you are
investigating. It will explain the procedures other researchers used and
methods similar to the ones you are proposing. It will give you an idea
whether the methods other researchers used worked for them and what are
the problems they faced. By doing a review of literature, you will become
aware of pitfalls and problems and could strategise well to select a
methodology that you feel will suit your research work better.

(b) Focus on Research Problem

Review of literature could help you shape your research problem because
the process of reviewing the literature helps you to understand the subject
area better and thus helps you to conceptualise your research problem
clearly and precisely. In addition, it also helps to understand the
relationship between your research problem and body of knowledge in
your research area.

(c) Cater to Knowledge Base for Research Area

One of the most important objectives of literature review is to ensure that
you read widely around the subject area in which you intend to conduct
research study. It is fundamental that you know what others are doing in
your field of interest or the similar topic you have been working on as well
as understanding theories that have been put forward and gaps that exist in
the particular field. [Link] and PhD candidates are expected to be experts in
their area of study, therefore a thorough review of literature helps to fulfil
this expectation.

(d) Contextualising Research Findings

Obtaining answers for your research questions is easy. The difficulties lies
in how you examine your research findings in the existing body of
knowledge. How do you answer your research questions compared to what
other researchers concluded? What is the new knowledge contribution from
your research work? How are your findings distinguished from those of
other researchers? To answer these questions, you need to go back to the
review of literature. It is important to put your findings in the context of
what is already known and understood in your field of research.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE PROCEDURES

Step 1: Search the Existing Literature in your Research Area of Interest Once you choose your
topic of interest, make sure it is a well-researched area and well studied which could give you
more lines of research to choose from. Narrow your topics so that you can cover in depth.
Comprehensive and narrowness of topic go hand in hand. Now, you can proceed to search the
existing literature. To effectively search literature, have in mind some idea of the broad subject
area and tthe problem you wish to investigate. The first task would be compiling a bibliography
in your research area.
The sources include: (a) Indices of Journals ( e.g. ACM, IEEE Transcations and Elsevier ) (b)
Abstracts of articles (e.g. Dissertaions Abstracts International, Emerald and IT Knowledge Base)
(c) Citation indices(e.g. ProQuest and Scopus)

Step 2: Review the Literature Obtained Once you have identified several journals and books,
the next thing to do is to start reading them critically to pull together themes and issues that are
associated with your research topic. Read and read! That is the bottom line of doing a review. If
you do not have a framework or theme to begin your research with, use a separate paper to jot
down the main points you extract from journal articles and books. Once you create a rough
framework, you may slot in the extracted information accordingly. As you read further, do some
critical review with particular references to the following aspects: (a) Note the theories put
forward, critics, methods used (sample size, data used, measurement procedure) (b) Note
whether the knowledge relevant to your designed framework has been confirmed beyond doubt
(c) Find differences of opinions among researchers and jot down your opinions about their
validity (d) Examine the gaps that exist in the body of knowledge
 Step 3: Develop a Theoretical Framework Reviewing the literature can be a never-ending task.
You must know that with the limited time you have to complete your research, it is important for
you to set the boundary and parameters by looking into literature relevant to your research
topic. Every information you obtain from literature sources must be sorted out accordingly with
the themes and issues you put in your framework. Unless you review the literature with regard
to the framework you developed, you will not be able to develop a focus in your literature
search. This means your theoretical framework will provide you a base and guide to read
further. The best practice would be to develop a framework first and then dive into literature
search or vice versa. Of course, as you read more about your research area, you are likely to
change the framework. Do not worry much about this because it is part of a research process.

Step 4: Writing up the Literature Review Now, the final task would be compiling and writing all
the literature you read and reviewed. Begin your review with some theme or points that you
want to emphasise. Organise and list all the themes you would like to discuss and relate.
Organisation is of utmost importance and make the structure known to your reader. While
writing, identify and describe various theories relevant to your field and specify gaps in body of
the knowledge in that area. Proceed to explain recent advances in the area of study as well as
current trends. Note that in the field of ICT research, current trends are always given great
importance. We describe, do comparison and evaluate findings based on: (a) Assumptions of
research (b) Theories related to the area of study (c) Hypotheses (d) Research designs applied
(e) Variables selected (f) Potential future work speculated by researchers

EVALUATING JOURNAL ARTICLES

Step 1: Read and Understand the Abstract (a) What was the research about? Are the objectives
or aims of the study specified clearly? (b) Was the design used described? (c) What are the
reasons for understanding the research?

Step 2: Read and Understand the Introduction (a) You should keep in mind that the author is
assuming that the reader is an expert in the field and has some background knowledge about
it. (b) References made may be short and brief because it is assumed that you know the people
in the field (e.g. if you are exploring „search engine usage in ICT‰ then names like Larry Page
or Sergey Brin must be known to you.) (c) Do some critique on the research questions whether
it is applicable to the theme mentioned or not.

Step 3: Read the Methodology Section (a) This section describes the methods used to collect
data and the background of the subjects used. (b) You should be able to do some critique on
whether the subjects selected is clear (c) Are the issues of validity and reliability discussed? (d)
If the topic was design and development, was the framework explained in sufficient detail?
Could it have been done in another way?

Step 4: Read the Results Section (a) This section desribes the connection between the results
and the research questions or hypotheses (b) It also reports results relating to the research
questions and other statistically significant results (c) Were the results clearly reported and
presented? (e.g. usage of tables and graphs) (d) Do the results reflect predictions made in the
Introduction section?

Step 5: Read and Understand the Discussion Section (a) This section describes main findings
and relating it to the Introduction section. (b) It also speculates reasons for the results. (c) You
need to identify what are the weaknesses or limitations identified by the author or something
you found but was not mentioned. (d) You must analyse whether the authorÊs way is the only
way to interpret the predicted results (a good researcher would look into this aspect to justify
his/her findings firmly).