Prof. V.V.

SUBRAHMANYAM,
SOCIS, IGNOU
What?????
 What is a Literature Review
 A literature review is not an annotated bibliography in
which you summarize briefly each article that you have
reviewed.
 While a summary of what you have read is contained
within the literature review, it goes well beyond merely
summarizing professional literature.
 It focuses on a specific topic of interest to you and
includes a critical analysis of the relationship among
different works, and relating this research to your work.
 It may be written as a stand-alone paper or to provide a
theoretical framework and rationale for a research study
(such as a thesis or dissertation).
Contd…
 Situates your research focus within the context of the
wider academic community in your field;
 Reports your critical review of the relevant literature;
and
 Identifies a gap within that literature that your
research will attempt to address.
Points to remember
 It is very important to note that your review should
not be simply a description of what others have
published in the form of a set of summaries, but
should take the form of a critical discussion,
showing insight and an awareness of differing
arguments, theories and approaches.
 It should be a synthesis and analysis of the relevant
published work, linked at all times to your own
purpose and rationale.
 It is an important showcase of your talents of:
 Understanding
 Interpretation
 Analysis
 Clarity of thought
 Synthesis; and
 Development of argument.
In a Nutshell……
 You are expected to provide an analytical overview of
the significant literature published on your topic.
 Place one's original work in the context of existing
literature.
 Interpret the major issues surrounding your topic.
 Describe the relationship of each work to the others under
consideration.
 Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps
in previous research.
 Resolve conflicts among seemingly contradictory previous
studies.
 Determine which literature makes a significant
contribution to the understanding of your topic.
 Point the way to further research on your topic.
Why?????
Purpose of literature review
 The process of conducting and reporting your
literature review can help you clarify your own
thoughts about your study.
 It can also establish a framework within which to
present and analyze the findings.
 After reading your literature review, it should be clear
to the reader that you have up-to-date awareness of the
relevant work of others, and that the research question
you are asking is relevant.
Contd…
 A good literature review, therefore, is critical of what
has been written, identifies areas of controversy, raises
questions and identifies areas which need further
research.
 It ensures that researchers do not duplicate work that
has already been done.
Contd…
 It can provide clues as to where future research is
heading or recommend areas on which to focus
 It highlights key findings
 It identifies inconsistencies, gaps and contradictions in
the literature
 It provides a constructive analysis of the
methodologies and approaches of other researchers.
Simple Caution…..
 However, don’t promise too much! Be wary of saying
that your research will solve a problem, or that it will
change practice.
 It would be safer and probably more realistic to say
that your research will ‘address a gap’, rather than that
it will ‘fill a gap’.
Critical Review
 It is important that your literature review is more than
just a list of references with a short description of each
one.
 Merriam (1988) describes the literature review as:
‘an interpretation and synthesis of published work’.
Published
 Merriam’s statement was made in 1988, since which
time there has been further extension of the concept of
being ‘published’ within the academic context. The
term now encompasses a wide range of web-based
sources, in addition to the more traditional books and
print journals.
Interpretation
 You need to be actively involved in ‘interpreting’ the
literature that you are reviewing, and in explaining
that interpretation to the reader, rather than just
listing what others have written.
Synthesis
 The term ‘synthesis’ refers to the bringing together of
material from different sources, and the creation of an
integrated whole. In this case the ‘whole’ will be your
structured review of relevant work, and your coherent
argument for the study that you are doing .
When????
When to review the literature?
There are three stages at which a review of the literature is
needed:
 An early review is needed to establish the context and
rationale for your study and to confirm your choice of
research focus/question;
 As the study period gets longer, you need to make sure that
you keep in touch with current, relevant research in your
field, which is published during the period of your research;
 As you prepare your final report or thesis, you need to
relate your findings to the findings of others, and to
identify their implications for theory, practice, and
research. This can involve further review with perhaps a
slightly different focus from that of your initial review.
Who????
Who can help you in finding
relevant literature?
 Guide/Faculty , Co-Scholars and Peer Group
 Attending Conference / Workshop
 Information Librarian
 Electronic Searches, Use of Databases from Libraries
 ………
 ………
 ………
How????
5 stages
 Specifying
 Formulation of problem
 Searching
 Collecting the data/material
 Collecting
 Evaluating the data/material
 Analyzing
 Interpreting the data/material
 Writing
 Presentation
Getting Started…
 Reading anything on your research area is a good
start.
 You can then begin your process of evaluating the
quality and relevance of what you read, and this
can guide you to more focused further reading.
 Some questions need to be asked yourself at the
beginning of your reading:
 What is the specific thesis, problem, or research
question that my literature review helps to define?
 What type of literature review am I conducting? Am I
looking at issues of theory? methodology? policy?
quantitative research? qualitative research?
Contd…
 What is the scope of my literature review? What types of
publications am I using (e.g., journals, books, government
documents, popular media)?
 What discipline(s) am I working in ?
 …………….
 ……………
 ……………..
Ways to find relevant material
 Electronic Sources
 Reference list of References
 Online searching (Google Scholar, Furl etc..)
 Manual searching of journals
 Subscription to journals(relevant)
 Requesting Authors
 Conference Proceedings
Identifying suitable literature
and narrowing your search
 Start with a general descriptor from the database thesaurus or
one that you know is already a well defined descriptor based
on past work that you have done in this field. You will need to
experiment with different searches, such as limiting your
search to descriptors that appear only in the document titles,
or in both the document title and in the abstract.
 Redefine your topic if needed: as you search you will quickly
find out if the topic that you are reviewing is too broad. Try to
narrow it to a specific area of interest within the broad area
that you have chosen. It is a good idea, as part of your
literature search, to look for existing literature reviews that
have already been written on this topic.
 As part of your search, be sure to identify landmark or classic
studies and theorists as these provide you with a
framework/context for your study.
Searching
 Title
 Author
 Abstract
 Keywords
 ………
 ………..
 ……….
Analyze the Literature
 Overview the articles
 Group the articles into categories
 Take notes (Note emphasis, strengths and weaknesses)
 Critique the research methodologies used in the studies, and
distinguish between assertions (the author's opinion) and actual
research findings (derived from empirical evidence).
 Identify major trends and patterns
 Identify gaps
 Identify relationships among studies
 Keep your review focused on your topic
 Evaluate your reference list to ensure that it is up to date and has
reported the most current work.
Contd…
 Typically a review will cover the last five years, but
should also refer to any landmark studies prior to this
time if they have significance in shaping the direction of
the field. If you include studies prior to the past five
years that are not landmark studies, you should defend
why you have chosen these rather than more current
ones.
When to Stop?
 Build an Argument, not a library (Rudestam, Newton
(1992))
 Writing while you collect and collecting while you
write (Wellington et. Al (2005))
 Once you are part way through your reading you can
have a go at writing the literature review, in
anticipation of revising it later on.
Writing it up
 It should be framed by your research questions.
 It must relate to your study.
 Present terminology and viewpoints on the topic in an
unbiased and comprehensive manner.
 It must be clear to the reader where it is going: keep
signposting along the way.
 Wherever possible, use original source material rather than
summaries or reviews by others.
 Be in control, not totally deferent to or ‘tossed about by’
previous literature.
Contd…
 Your review must be written in a formal, academic
style.
 Keep your writing clear and concise, avoiding
colloquialisms and personal language.
 You should always aim to be objective and respectful of
others' opinions; this is not the place for emotive
language or strong personal opinions.
 If you thought something was rubbish, use words such
as "inconsistent", "lacking in certain areas" or "based
on false assumptions"!
Contd…
 When introducing someone's opinion, don't use
"says", but instead an appropriate verb which more
accurately reflects this viewpoint, such as "argues",
"claims" or "states".
 Use the present tense for general opinions and
theories, or the past when referring to specific research
or experiments.
Contd…
 Be selective. Ask ‘why am I including this?’
 It is probably best to treat it as a research project in its
own right.
 Engage in a dialogue with the literature, you are not
just providing a summary.
 Often the literature review will end up with statement
of research question(s).
Use reporting verbs…
 Your attitude towards works that you present, either in
support or against your topic, through the use of
reporting verbs which allow the writer to convey
clearly whether the claims in the outside work are to
be taken as accepted or not. Use reporting verbs to
indicate
 Positive assessment (advocate, argue, hold, see);
 Neutral assessment (address, cite, comment, look at);
 Tentative assessment (allude to, believe, hypothesize,
suggest); or
 Critical assessment (condemn, object, refute).
Structure to be followed…
 Literature Review must be well structured.
 Chronologically; although be careful not just to list items; you
need to write critically, not just descriptively;
 By theme; this is useful if there are several strands within your
topic that can logically be considered separately before being
brought together;
 By sector e.g.: political background, practice background,
methodological background, geographical background, literary
background;
 By development of ideas; this could be useful if there are
identifiable stages of idea development that can be looked at in
turn;
 By some combination of the above, or by another structure you
create.
Summarize using Tables or Concept
Map
 Galvan (2006) recommends building tables as a key way to
help you overview, organize, and summarize your findings,
and suggests that including one or more of the tables that
you create may be helpful in your literature review.
 If you do include tables as part of your review each must be
accompanied by an analysis that summarizes, interprets
and synthesizes the literature that you have charted in the
table.
 You can plan your table or do the entire summary chart of
your literature using a concept map (Using Inspiration
etc.,)
Using tables…
 Tables can be useful within a literature review when
you are comparing other kinds of material. For
example, you could use a table to display the key
differences between two or more:
 possible theoretical perspectives
 possible methods
 sets of assumptions
 sample profiles; and
 possible explanations
Reference List
 Almost all academic writing will need a reference list.
 It should be properly maintained and indexed.
 Proper organisation of reference list will help the
researcher in finalizing the overall thesis references-
list.
Reviewing your literature review
 What is the balance between description and comment?
 Have I missed out any important dimension of the
argument, or literature?
 Have I supported the development of each step in my
argument effectively?
 Is the material presented in the most effective order?
 Are there places where the reader is left with unanswered
questions?
 Is every element of my research question supported by the
preceding material?
Contd…
 Have I explained to the reader the relevance of each
piece of evidence?
 Is there any material that is interesting but which does
not contribute to the development of the argument?
 Have I explained adequately the justification for this
research approach / topic / question?
 Are my references up to date?
 How effective is my linking of all the elements?
Finalizing…
 Beware of becoming too attached to your writing.
 You need to be ready to cross out whole paragraphs or
even whole sections if they do not pass the above tests.
 If you find that what you’ve written is not in the best
order, then re-shaping it is not a huge problem.
 It may be mainly a case of cutting and pasting material
into a different order, with some additional
explanation and linking. If this produces a more
relevant and streamlined argument it is well worth the
effort.
Final Checklist
(Courtesy: University of Melbourne)
 Selection of Sources

Have you indicated the purpose of the review?

Are the parameters of the review reasonable?
Why did you include some of the literature and exclude
others?
Which years did you exclude?
Have you emphasized recent developments?
Have you focused on primary sources with only selective
use of secondary sources?
Is the literature you have selected relevant?
Is your bibliographic data complete?
 Critical Evaluation of the Literature

Have you organised your material according to issues?

Is there a logic to the way you organised the material?
Does the amount of detail included on an issue relate
to its importance?
Have you been sufficiently critical of design and
methodological issues?
Have you indicated when results were conflicting or
inconclusive and discussed possible reasons?
Have you indicated the relevance of each reference to
your research?
 Interpretation

Has your summary of the current literature

contributed to the reader's understanding of the
problems?
Does the design of your research reflect the
methodological implications of the literature review?
References
 Blaxter L., Hughes C. & Tight M. (2001) How to research. Buckingham:
Open University.
 Merriam S. (1988) Case study research in education: a qualitative
approach. San Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass.
 Rudestam K. & Newton R. (1992) Surviving your dissertation.
London:Sage.
 Taylor D. & Procter M. (2008) The literature review: a few tips of
conducting it. Health Services Writing Centre:University of Toronto.
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-
writing/literature-review
 Wellington J., Bathmaker A., Hunt C., McCulloch G., & Sikes P. (2005)
Succeeding with your doctorate. London:Sage
 Study Guide, Doing a literature review, Student learning Development,
University of Leicester, 2009.
 Galvan, J. (2006). Writing literature reviews: a guide for students of the
behavioral sciences ( 3rd ed.). Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.
 Thank You

Email: vvsubrahmanyam@ignou.ac.in