ICT615
Information Technology Research
Methods
Topic 2
Conducting a literature review
Acknowledgement
of Country
We acknowledge the Binjareb people of the Noongar nation as
the traditional custodians of this country and its waters and that
Murdoch University stands on Noongar country.
We pay our respects to Noongar elders, past and present and
acknowledge their wisdom and advice in teaching and cultural
knowledge activities.
COVID-19
student protocols.
Personal If you’re unwell don’t come
Visit MyMurdoch Student Portal to stay up-to-date. to campus. Stay home, get
Health tested and see a doctor.
If you’re diagnosed with
Please wipe down all
Computer COVID-19 or have been in close
Labs
surfaces after you have Reporting contact with a confirmed case,
used them. stay home and let your unit
coordinator know.
Be kind, respectful and
Behaviour supportive to people in Physical Stay 1.5 metres apart
at all other times.
our University community. Distancing
Leave space for people Wash your hands with
Entering soap and water regularly,
+ Exiting
when entering and Hygiene and cough and sneeze
leaving buildings.
into your elbow.
Readings and resources
• Oates, B. J. (2006) Researching Information Systems and Computing. Chapters 6
4
Learning objectives
After completing this topic you should be able to:
• Describe the objectives of a literature review
• Use Murdoch University library electronic resources to identify and obtain relevant
literature resources
• Cite references using referencing styles commonly used in ICT
• Write a literature review
5
What is a literature review?
The term ‘literature review’ is used in 2 ways:
• May say that you are ‘doing a literature review’ before
conducting a study
• Also used to mean a written summary of the published
literature on a research problem
6
Why conduct a literature review?
• Useful to alert you to unresolved research problems before the
topic has been identified
• When a broad topic has already been selected, helps in the
formulation of appropriate research questions
• Orients you to what is already known so that don’t unintentionally
duplicate effort
• Helps you to develop a broad conceptual context into which a
research problem will fit. The more your study is linked with other
research the more of a contribution it is likely to make
• Can help identify research strategies, specific procedures,
measuring instruments and statistical analyses that might be useful
in your project
7
How to conduct a literature review
• Search – journals, conference proceedings, books. Google Scholar
and library databases provide a good way in (see
[Link]
How-to-use-databases/
)
• Obtain – library – hard copy or electronic, online, inter-library
requests
• Assess – credibility of source
• Read – often no need to read whole article, scan for what you need
• Critically evaluate – relevance to your literature review and
research, quality of research (see evaluation guides in textbook)
• Record – bibliographic details and notes on content and your
evaluation
• Then write …
8
What is a written literature review?
A literature review is a critical analysis of published
sources, or literature, on a particular topic.
The review should describe, summarise, evaluate and
clarify this literature.
It can be a standalone document or part of a thesis,
journal paper or conference paper.
9
Objectives of a standalone written literature
review
A standalone literature review should:
• Enable others to understand the field
• Point to strengths, weaknesses, omissions or bias in the
previous work
• Identify key issues or crucial questions that are troubling
researchers in the area
• Point to gaps that have not previously been identified or
addressed by researchers
10
Objectives of a literature review section in a
paper
A literature review section in a paper should also:
• Establish the need for the research
• Place the researcher’s work in the context of what has
already been published
• Introduce theories that the researcher will test or explore in the
research
• Introduce relevant methods or algorithms
• Introduce research methods or strategies that the researcher will use
in the research
11
Structuring a literature review
A literature review should be organised around
concepts or themes, not structured author by author or
paper by paper.
A matrix can help you organise the literature – eg:
Articles Concepts
Training User System Ease of
Satisfaction Reliability Use
Jones (2010) X
Smith (1999) X X
Wong (2013) X
…..
12
Storing and referencing literature
• Bibliographic management software such as EndNotes is useful for storing
reference details and for facilitating referencing – see
[Link]
• Referencing styles differ between disciplines– IEEE (a numbered style) and APA
(an author date style) are commonly used in ICT publications - see
[Link]
13
Learning objectives revisited
• What are the objectives of a literature review?
• Can you find and obtain relevant published literature?
• Can you cite references using IEEE and APA styles?
• Could you write a literature review?
14
Thank you