Literature review – Purpose

1) Broaden your knowledge base in your research area

2) You need to know where we are and where the gaps are
3) Help identify trends
Literature review 4) It is convenient to know what are the hot research topics in
the area
5) Contextualize your findings
6) How your results fit into the existing body of knowledge
7) How do your results differ from others

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Aim of this section Literature Review

• defines and clarifies the issue(s) or problem(s) specified
• Understand the purposes and aims of literature reviews
• summarizes previous investigations in order to inform
• Understand the elements of the literature review
the reader of the state of current research
process with regard to selecting appropriate resources
and searching • identifies relations, contradictions, gaps, and
inconsistencies in the literature,
• Apply advanced searching strategies as part of
conducting your own literature review • and suggests the next step or steps in solving the
problem
• Document and manage the results of your searches

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Purpose What is meant by the term literature?

• The literature review surveys key academic works in your field
of research, such as books, refereed journal articles, and • A collection of published information/materials on a particular
postgraduate theses. area of research or topic, such as books and journal articles of
academic value.
• The review should summarise, analyse, categorise and
compare the most significant works - it does not need to • Your literature review does not need to be inclusive of every
cover everything that has been written on the topic. article and book that has been written on your topic because
that will be too broad.
• It should clearly demonstrate the gap or problem that your
research project will address by outlining both the strengths and • Rather, it should include the key sources related to the main
the limitations of previous research. debates, trends and gaps in your research area.

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 Selection
Literature is
• Electronic databases / websites • The review should be selective. A common
• Government reports and reports from other organisations mistake is to comment on everything you have
• Statistical handbooks read regardless of its relevance.
• Journal articles • Your criteria should always include:
• Theses • relevance to your study
• Conference proceedings
• importance to the field.
• Monographs
• Empirical studies

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What is meant by the term review? The Introduction

To review the literature means to be able to identify: • The introduction may:
• what has been established, discredited and accepted in • contextualise the review
your field
• identify the key terms and concepts
• problems or issues that remain unsolved
• summarise overall trends
• emerging trends and new approaches
• how your research extends, builds upon, and departs • justify the selection of literature
from previous research. • outline the structure of the review itself.

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Example: Literature Review Introduction

What is meant by the term review? • The technical literature of trickling filters is very extensive. This is evidenced by the
literature search and critical analysis published by Dow (1971), which cited over
5,600 references in the literature published up to 1968. An exhaustive review of the
• A literature review should not include every single literature is thus beyond the scope of this work.
source that you have read.
• The aim of this chapter is to provide, through selective reference to some of the
• It’s important to be selective about the sources you literature, a clearer understanding of the different microbiological, chemical and
physical processes that occur within trickling filters. Experimental observations of
choose to address. various trickling filter phenomena are reviewed, and there is discussion of the
sometimes conflicting conclusions about the mechanisms of trickling filtration that
have been drawn from the empirical evidence.
• Ensure the sources you analyse are directly relevant to
your research question(s) and topic. • The chapter is divided into two parts. The subject of the first is the biological film
which is the site of the biological oxidation of organic matter from the wastewater,
• It’s important also that you think critically about the and is thus the heart of the process of trickling filtration. The formation and structure
of the biofilm (or slime layer) is outlined, and the different processes which occur
credibility and reliability of sources. within it are discussed. The remainder of the chapter is devoted to a consideration
of the operating variables which determine trickling filter performance.

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Brainstorming for your literature review
10 steps in literature review
• Write down responses to the following questions. Your answers might
take the form of brief dot points or you might prefer to write more • While organizing the map, prepare short summaries of the key ideas
extensive responses. conveyed by each relevant article.

• 7. Use the most relevant articles to find other relevant literature (following
• Have scholars attempted to address the research gap or problem that the references included in those articles). Try to identify relevant groups of
I intend to explore? researchers / authors (“schools of thought”).
• If so, how have they attempted to address it? Can I place them into • 8. Digest all collected ideas, concepts, findings (read the most relevant
articles again, now in detail); try to organize and criticize them. For specific
different categories? topics consult research reports, PhD thesis, etc.
• If not, why not? • 9. Try to relate your work to the existing literature.
• 10.Plan a structure for the literature review synthesis; think of original
ways of summarizing the ideas (what can be your added-value).

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10 steps in literature review Comprehensive Literature Review

• Identify a set of keywords (try also synonyms) to search via Google or
specialized database.
• 2. If you are not yet very familiar with the subject, try to identify first
surveys / overviews (or even books) that give a general overview of the
topic. Then turn to journal articles and then to conference papers.
• 3. Try to select a set of 40 – 50 articles in order to help you get a first view
of the topic.
• 4. Do a “fast reading” (without spending time with details) of these
articles, just trying to filter what seems useful for your work or to give you
a first global “picture”.
• 5. Based on the useful literature, start elaborating a literature map, which
gives you a visual picture of groupings of literature per subtopic.

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Searching for articles

Key Words
• Essential for searching the literature. • Articles published in peer-reviewed journals are perhaps the most
important source of literature.
• Must be both general and specific. • These can best be found by searching subject databases and multi-
disciplinary databases such as Web of Science and Scopus.

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Searching for articles Searching for Data
• Published or unpublished bibliographies • search for data on portals developed by different organisations and
• Next: Academic journals, conference proceedings, government governments.
reports, books etc., must be tapped depending on the nature of the • Eg for water and sanitation, the International Water and Sanitation
problem. Centre, IRC.
• Remember one source will lead to another. The earlier studies, if any,
which are similar to the study in hand, should be carefully studied.

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The issue of reliability Searching for Data

• When making a literature survey …
• Scopus
• … pay special attention to the reliability of the sources
Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed
• Is it coming from a prestigious journal? research literature containing references from over 19,000 titles from
• Was it presented in a peer-reviewed conference? more than 5,000 international publishers in the following fields:
scientific, technical, medical and social sciences fields and arts and
• Are there other related references?
humanities.
• Is it from a recognized group?
• Web of Science
• Use Wikipedia with caution Bibliography which contains the following databases: Science Citation
• ... A good starting point to get a general idea Index from 1900-, Social Sciences Citation Index from 1956-, Arts &
Humanities Citation Index from 1975-.
• ... But then seek more reliable and identified sources

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How can you tell? Searching for Data

• Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)
• Length of title Google Scholar provides you a single entry to search across
• References (and their quality) many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts
• Author’s name and affiliation and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional
societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.
• Evidence that the paper has been reviewed and revised.
• Because of its vast breadth it can be difficult to perform a
• Date of submission & date of publication. subject search, as an overwhelming amount of results are
• The paper includes a review of previously published work. shown. However Google Scholar is an excellent tool for
• Conclusion contains a critical reflection on the contents of the article. procuring references, finding the most highly-cited papers,
author searches, etc.

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Literature Review & your research evaluation Writing the Main Body
• Towards the end of your dissertation [or paper] you will refer back to • Group research topics according to common elements and back
literature review up main points with research
• – Do your findings confirm those of others? • Focus on recent data where possible – scientific fact
changes/develops over time!
• – Does your work extend that of others?
• Summarize individual studies or articles with as much or as little
• – Does your work provide new meaning to the work of others? detail as is relevant – detail denotes significance!
• – Does your work break new ground? • Tackle one key point per paragraph so as not to overwhelm the
reader
• – Does your work raise issues about the methodological choices made
in previous studies? • Use sub-headings to group your topics. Use diagrams, figures,
tables where appropriate
• – Does your work challenge existing ideas on your subject?

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How to structure a scientific literature review? Tackle 2-3 key points per section…

• Introduction: An overview of the topic under

consideration, along with the objectives of the literature
review.
• Main body: Critical analysis, evaluation of topically
relevant research/data; Break into sub-headings
• Conclusion: Summarise the key points from your
review
• Literature Review: Word count: Introduction = 10% Main
Body = 80-85% Conclusion = 5-10%

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Introduction A literature review is not

• It is usually easier to write this after the main body… • A descriptive summary of relevant texts
• Introduce your topic by highlighting the core scientific facts that
are well backed up and widely accepted
• Presented as a list in which you discuss each text
• Highlight the importance of the review – are you highlighting
in turn
agap in research area? New perspective? • Simply a collection of texts that you think are
• What is the core aim of this review? To compare and contrast interesting or every text that you have read.
conflicting evidence? To identify under-examined aspects of the
topic?
• Tell the reader what you are going to talk about…

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A literature review is NOT General comments on relevant literature
• Definitely not the result of “copy & paste” ! • The literature on X has highlighted several …
• Plagiarism More recent attention has focused on …
A large and growing body of literature has investigated …
• Even if properly referenced, what is the relevance? Much of the literature since the mid-1990s emphasises the …
• Copying sentences and making small changes is not acceptable Much of the current literature on X pays particular attention to …
There is a large volume of published studies describing the role of …
• Not a simple (weakly linked) concatenation of excerpts from others ! The existing literature on X is extensive and focuses particularly on
…
• “Author X said bla bla.... On the other hand, Y defends that bla bla ... A considerable amount of literature has been published on X. These
• Furthermore Z introduced bla bla .... and W agrees with ....” studies
Previous research findings into X have been inconsistent and
• Not a pedagogic text book ! contradictory (Smith, 1996; …).
• Who is your reader?

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Critical Thinking Identifying a study’s weakness

• Move from Description to Analysis! • Smith fails to fully define what …
• Description • Jones fails to acknowledge the significance of …
• Reproducing information • ..the author overlooks the fact that X contributes to Y.
• Summarising texts - accepting details, results etc. • ..what Smith fails to do is to draw a distinction between …
• Analysis – deconstructing information in order to: • ....another weakness is that we are given no explanation of how …
• Challenge assumptions; perspectives • ..no attempt was made to quantify the association between X and Y.
• Show limitations in studies, exceptions to cases • ..the main weakness of the study is the failure to address how …
• Highlight under-examined aspects of research • ..the study fails to consider the differing categories of damage that …
• ..the research does not take into account pre-existing … such as …
• ..the author offers no explanation for the distinction between X and Y.
• ..Smith makes no attempt to differentiate between different types of X.

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Identifying a study’s weakness

What should I be asking?
Smith / the paper
• Why is the author choosing to use the evidence presented?
• specify …
• Is there a hidden agenda? (eg. financial gain) • fails to
• account for …
• Are the sources reliable and objective? does not
• analyse how …
• Is there bias present? makes no attempt to
• ascertain whether …
• Have all of the points been cited?
• distinguish between …
• Is there information missing?
• explain the meaning of …
• Are there conflicting opinions/conclusions?
• address the question of …
• And most importantly…. Do I agree with these
opinions/conclusions? • assess the effectiveness of …
• consider the long term impact of
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 Literature Survey: A Trap to Avoid
Highlighting inadequacies of previous studies
• It is possible to spend almost all of one’s time in literature review
• Previous studies of X have not dealt with … • It is easy to convince oneself that by doing this one is working hard
• Most studies in the field of X have only focused on … and accomplishing something. The truth of the matter is that nothing
• Most studies of X have only been carried out in a small number of will come of it unless the scholar is an active reader and listener and
areas. However, much of the research up to now has been unless the scholar assigns him/her time to develop his/her own ideas,
descriptive in nature … too.
• Research on the subject has been mostly restricted to limited • It is impossible to ``finish a literature review and then start research."
comparisons of … New literature is always appearing, and as the scholar’s depth and
• Although extensive research has been carried out on X, no single breadth increases, he/she will continually see new connections and
study exists which … related areas that must be studied.
• The experimental data are rather controversial, and there is no
general agreement about …
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A good literature review Literature review

• Integrate a set of ideas that were previously dispersed and turn
them into a coherent framework
• Clarify concepts that were only partially present in other works
• Introduce a new / original (fresh) look into the subject
• Show a critical perspective and some “personal touch” (how you see
the current state of the art)
• Identify gaps / unsolved issues
• Focus on the essential (namely what is relevant for your work)
• But at the same time try to give a broad perspective in order to
properly “locate” your work
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Annotated Bibliography / Lit Review

• An annotated bibliography evaluates a number of sources (presented
separately within a series of isolated paragraphs)
• a literature review connects and brings together a number of sources,
often within single paragraphs and sentences.
• An annotated bibliography functions as a list, with little opportunity
to connect sources.
• a literature review necessitates the juxtaposing, comparing and
contrasting of sources.
• Creating an annotated bibliography is a useful step towards
completing a literature review, and it is a useful note taking method.

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