Chapter 3
Critically reviewing the literature
Reasons for reviewing the literature
To conduct a preliminary search of existing
material
To organise valuable ideas and findings
To identify other research that may be in progress
To generate research ideas
To develop a critical perspective
The literature review process
Figure 3.1 The literature review process
The Critical Review (1)
Approaches used
Deductive Develops a conceptual framework from the
literature which is then tested using the data
Inductive Explores the data to develop theories which are
then tested against the literature
The Critical Review (2)
Key purposes
To further refine research questions and objectives
To discover recommendations for further research
To avoid repeating work already undertaken
To provide insights into strategies and techniques
appropriate to your research objectives
Based on Gall et al. (2006)
Adopting a critical perspective (3)
Questions to ask yourself
Why am I reading this?
What is the author trying to do in writing this?
How convincing is this?
What use can I make of this reading?
Content of the critical review
You will need to
Include key academic theories
Demonstrate current knowledge of the area
Use clear referencing for the reader to find the
original cited publications
Acknowledge the research of others
Defining the parameters of your
search
For most research questions and objectives you will
have a good idea of which subject matter is going to
be relevant. You will, however, be less clear about the
parameters within which you need to search. In
particular, you need to be clear about the following
(Bell 2005):
Language of publication (e.g. English);
Subject area (e.g. accountancy);
Business sector (e.g. manufacturing);
Geographical area (e.g. Europe);
Publication period (e.g. the last 10 years);
Literature type (e.g. refereed journals and books).
Generating your keywords
It is important at this stage to read both articles
by key authors and recent review articles in area
of your research. This will help you to define your
subject matter and to suggest appropriate key
words.
Recent review articles in your research area are
often helpful here as they discuss the current
state of research for a particular topic and can
help you to refine your keywords
Another potentially useful source of references is
dissertations and theses in your university's
library.
Generating your keywords
After re-reading your lecture notes and
textbooks and undertaking this limited
reading you will have a list of subjects that
appear relevant to your research project.
You now need to define precisely what is
relevant to your research in terms of key
words.
The identification of keywords or research
'terms is the most important part of
planning your search for relevant literature
(Bell 2005).
Key words are the basic terms that describe
Conducting a literature search (1)
Approaches can include
Searching tertiary literature sources
Obtaining relevant literature
Scanning and browsing secondary literature
Searching using the Internet
Evaluating the literature
Define the scope of your review
Assess relevance and value
Assess sufficiency
Recording the literature
Make notes for each item you read
Record
Biographic details
Brief summary of content
Supplementary information
Recording the literature
Bibliographic details
Brief summary
Supplementary information
Plagiarism
Four common forms
Stealing material from another source
Submitting material written by another
Copying material without quotation marks
Paraphrasing material without documentation