Writing the Review of Literature in a Thesis. Literature review is the search and critical appraisal of existing literature on a topic. It helps in formulating a research question after finding a knowledge gap. The research topic … Expand. View 2 excerpts, cites background. Reading in preparation for writing a PhD thesis: Case studies of experiences.
Abstract The paper presents stories of how a group of doctoral students chose the key disciplinary literature that they read in preparation for their thesis-undertaking RT. The stories were … Expand. How to Write a Literature Review. Learning how to effectively write a literature review is a critical tool for success for an academic, and perhaps even professional career.
Being able to summarize and synthesize prior research … Expand. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred. If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.
If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:. A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.
Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion. What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach. Example of a paragraph in a literature review Body image issues have been widely associated with social media usage, particularly in young women.
The relation between media depictions and body image concerns is well-established; a meta-analysis by Grabe, Ward and Hyde concluded that exposure to mass media is linked to body image dissatisfaction among women. However, in an era of rapidly changing digital technologies, the mass media paradigm is no longer adequate for understanding how people engage with images, and the findings of older studies like this one may not be generalizable to younger generations.
In light of this changing landscape, researchers have become increasingly interested in the specific effects of social media. Perloff theorizes that the interactive aspects of social media may influence its impact on body image, and mentions that young women are among the most active social media users. Across these studies, there is consistent evidence that body image issues are influenced not by social media usage in general, but by engagement with the visual and interactive aspects of these platforms.
Nonetheless, there is a lack of robust research on more highly visual social media HVSM such as Instagram and Snapchat that have gained more recent popularity among younger generations. In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.
Not a language expert? This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review. A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources such as books, journal articles, and theses related to a specific topic or research question. Different types of research Some of the specialist literature accessed may well be the data or the object of study. Research which uses literature as the data for the study is often referred to as 'armchair' or 'library-based' research and is common in fields such as law, history and literature.
Briefly to clarify this distinction in the way the literature may be used, it is helpful to differentiate between two types of research. For many researchers, their data come from conducting interviews, doing experiments, observing behaviour, etc. This can be referred to as empirical research, where the researcher is actively going out into the field or working in the laboratory to explore and to discover new information.
An alternative kind of research occurs when the data set consists of documents or texts. In this second scenario, the literature itself provides the source of data and therefore is the focus of analysis. Of course, there are some research projects which combine both empirical and library-based research. For example, a researcher investigating patent law might combine both an analysis of the relevant legal documents with interviews with legal practitioners who interpret the laws and regulations.
Having summarised the main types of information sources that you are likely to consult, in this section we move on to consider the main tools you can use to initiate your searches for this information. It is important to spend some time becoming aware of and familiar with the search options available to you as the efficient use of these tools is an essential part of the research process. In both systems, books are categorised according to subject with specific shelf numbers allocated.
The catalogue is likely to be a computer database which can be accessed on the university network. Hence, if you have access to a university computer or an Internet connection you do not actually have to be in the library to use it for your searches. Most operate in a similar way, allowing you to conduct key word searches by subject, author or title. It is a good idea to spend some time becoming familiar with how to carry out efficient searches in your library catalogue in order that you make use of its full potential.
Ask a librarian for advice if you need to. It is a freely available catalogue that enables you to conduct wider searches than possible on an individual university library catalogue and locate where resources are held. More libraries, including some specialist libraries and collections are being added all the time. National catalogues Many countries have their own national catalogues which list all the publications available in the country.
This catalogue operates from the British Library, which has a copy of all the publications available in the UK. Links are provided to aid access to the full texts of these articles and papers. The resource is freely available to members of subscribing educational institutions and the National Health Service in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Email alerts and RSS feeds can be set up so that you receive up-to-date information when new articles and journals are added to the database.
It provides a link to OPACs of other universities around the world as well as to many other Internet resources. Searches can be made by subject, author and key word. This can be a useful way of searching for the most recently published books in a field. Bibliographical databases University libraries have subscriptions to a multitude of different electronic databases and electronic journals.
You usually need university username and password details to access these. A bibliographical database is an organised list of publications in a particular subject area. The publications included vary between different databases but their main focus is usually on journal articles and conference papers. Bibliographical databases of systematic literature reviews are also becoming an increasingly important source of information. On your university library web pages, it will be possible to search for relevant databases for your subject area and generally speaking you will be able to find a description of each one either on the library web page or when you first access the database.
In many cases, an abstract will also be provided which gives a summary of the work and you will be able to link to an electronic version of the full text. This is because access may depend on your university subscription to the electronic journal concerned. Originally databases such as these were available in printed form and, depending on your research, you may still need to consult printed collections of abstracts and indexes if searching for older sources.
As mentioned, by logging in as a user to your library web page, you will find the range of databases available which relate to your subject area. And because different databases tend to vary with their rules for searches and their use of Boolean operators, it is advisable to use the help menu on an individual database to get tips on efficient approaches to adopt when devising key word combinations.
Internet search engines Search engines are very large databases. They trawl a large number of other databases and web sites to look for information to create their own database of web pages.
Within a particular search engine, you can look for information by entering key words in the 'search' box.
A series of web documents is then retrieved. The most popular and plausible results usually appear first on the list and you can select the ones that look most relevant for your purposes.
Different search engines collect information in slightly different ways, so it is a good idea to become familiar with more than one. You can see the variation by trying out the same key word searches in two or more search engines and comparing the results. Use the site-specific help menu and advanced search option on each one to help you develop efficient searching techniques.
It is therefore important to use web-based information cautiously and evaluate it carefully before citing it in your academic writing. Google scholar also provides information on where and how you can obtain the texts you are looking for.
Open access databases: the Open Archive Initiative A number of open access repositories of information are now available on the Internet. This is a database of open access journals from a range of different subject areas. An increasing number of journals are being added to this directory. A user can gain access to the full text of many of the articles in the journals which are listed. This is a publicly available version of Medline which provides information in the field of health and medical sciences.
Through professional organisation web sites such as these, it is possible to discover the key authors for your field of research, thus helping to ensure you have identified all the significant literature.
The process of conducting a literature search In this part of the chapter, the actual process of doing a literature search is considered. In the above section, the focus was on the electronic possibilities for ensuring your search is comprehensive and complete. Serendipity, the fortuitous and unexpected discovery of something useful, is another important aspect of literature searching.
You may find a key source when browsing along the shelves in the library, when chatting to a colleague at a conference or after clicking on a different tag on a social bookmarking site. Despite the convenience of being able to access the literature you need from your desk or even your mobile phone, you may still enjoy browsing the shelves and looking at the printed volumes. It is a good idea to start your literature search with a visit to your university library.
For example, if you are investigating a fairly specific and unusual issue, you may need to read documents which are not in your own university library. To access them you will probably have to make use of the interlibrary loan facility and order books or copies of articles from a central resource, such as the British Library Document Supply Centre. Find the shelves in your university library which have the books most closely connected to the topic you wish to research.
A general key word search for your subject in the library catalogue will direct you to the shelves you need. Books will help give you an overview and broad understanding of the field, and help you to identify a more specific topic and key words for more detailed and refined searches. Also remember that libraries usually have separate shelf sequences and locations for oversized books. Once you have identified the various relevant physical locations of books related to your topic, return regularly and browse along these shelves as you may come across unexpected titles that could be useful.
At different points in your research, you will have varying priorities in your mind and different titles may strike you as being important at different times. Electronic books or ebooks are widely available through university libraries now, so also make full use of the online catalogue to find out which ones your library stocks and how to access them.
In a similar way, become familiar with where the journals are shelved. Identify the journals which you think are likely to be most relevant for you and look at the new issues regularly. Journal articles cited in books will help lead you to the key journals in your field. Most journals are now available online so it is possible to download articles onto your own computer. As you explore these pages, you will find they offer a wealth of resources and advice as well as access to catalogues and links that will take you all over the world searching for information in the virtual sense, of course.
If you are studying at a distance, the online potential of libraries will offer you the means to do much of your literature searching from your own computer or other mobile device with Internet access.
Increasingly, smart phones such as BlackBerrys and iPhones are also being used for Internet browsing although the small size of their screens is a disadvantage. Consult colleagues and your supervisor Consult your supervisor and colleagues for references that will introduce you to the field but do your own searches as well. If, however, you feel uncertain about what you are doing and begin to feel lost or overwhelmed, ask your supervisor or a librarian for help.
Some journals publish review articles which give a synthesis of research and theory in a particular area in the form of systematic literature reviews. Your supervisor may be able to direct you to such an integrative review if there is a relevant and recent one which relates to your intended topic. The identification of key words involves the selection of nouns and adjectives which most accurately describe the content that you are looking for.
Use the key words specified in articles you read to help you devise further key word searches for yourself. But be aware that even when using key words you may miss articles.
The authors of a particular article may have chosen key words to describe their work that are different from the ones you have selected for your search, even though the article may be on the theme that you are looking for.
It is therefore important to try out a number of different key word alternatives and combinations. Keep a record of all your key word searches and where you conduct each one to avoid repeating the same searches at a later date. The systems you can use for organising your searches and reading are discussed in Chapter 5, while Chapter 4 discusses how to cope with the quantity of reading and how to be selective about which texts you actually access from your searches.
The snowball technique As you read around the subject, you are likely to redefine the focus of your research, which may lead to new or revised key word searches. You will begin to recognise familiar authors and cited texts in the bibliographies of the books and articles that you are reading, and will therefore start to look for more specific texts in catalogues and journals. The snowball technique, when you follow up references from the bibliographies of the texts you read, is well used.
In my experience, extending the scope of your reading by the snowball technique tends to be more common than key word searches as the research becomes more focused and the researcher becomes more familiar with the literature in the field. As the literature search is a process that will go on for the entire period of your research it is important to keep a record of the steps that you work through.
Table 3. It is possible to make your key words searches more sophisticated by using Boolean logic. This system is named after the English mathematician George Boole Different catalogues, databases and search engines have slight variations in the way they use Boolean logic operators so it is worth checking on their help menus or advanced search options for details.
The basic principles of three of the most useful logical operators - AND, OR, and wildcards - are described here. By combining words with AND, a search will be made for documents that contain both these words. Sources that include only one of these words will be ignored. For example, if you enter obesity AND teenagers, the documents retrieved will contain both the words obesity and teenagers.
Similarly, by combining words with OR, a search will be made for documents which contain either of these words. The use of OR is helpful when there are two very similar terms and you wish to broaden the search to find texts which use either word: for example, youth OR teenagers.
In this case, the documents retrieved will contain either the word youth or the word teenagers. The wildcard symbol replaces a character or characters in a word.
It can be used with a root word so that all variations of the word will be searched for, or within a word so that alternative spellings will be included.
Wildcard symbols vary, so check in the relevant help menu to confirm which you should use on a particular database or search engine. As noted above, you will be able to conduct the most efficient searches by looking at the advanced search or help menus on the catalogues, databases, subject gateways and search engines you are using.
They offer you different ways of inputting your key word searches. For example, if doing an advanced search using the search engines Google or Google Scholar, the AND, OR, and NOT functions appear using the following wording: Find articles with all the words; with the exact phrase; with at least one of the words; without the words see Screenshot 3.
Used with permission. By setting up RSS feeds, the latest information comes to one location rather than you having to access each journal, web page, blog, etc. The news reader constantly checks your selected news sites, databases, blogs and journals for new content and 'feeds' this to your reader. RSS feeds are a helpful method for receiving the most recent information and this is valuable for ensuring that your literature review is current.
Hence, RSS feeds should be set up carefully and each one should be scrutinised to assess its relevance for your topic area. Another technique for receiving updates involves email alerts. You can register to receive email alerts from some publishers' web pages, journals and databases to match the search criteria that you specify. These alerts will arrive in your email inbox.
Sites such as this one offer a very different way of finding, accessing, recording and retrieving information and also a way of creating and extending research communities so that the process of collecting relevant literature is not such an isolated activity. This enables us to access a web site at a later date with a single click on the 'favourite' link we have created.
The limitation of traditional bookmarking is that it is tied to a specific computer and often to an individual user. On CiteULike, bibliographical details are added automatically and personal 'tags' or key words can be created for categorisation purposes.
Comments and ratings can be made about the papers added. In terms of searching for literature, 'tagging' is essential as a user can search for all articles with a particular tag, thus finding other related papers and connecting with others with similar interests who have used the same tags. It is possible to see who else has bookmarked the same article and access their libraries to identify other papers.
First, RSS feeds can be set up so that you receive notification of new postings and second, bibliographical links can be exported to reference management software such as EndNote see Chapter 5. There are, however, some potential disadvantages to the use of a social bookmarking tool. In addition, a personal library on a social bookmarking site could become yet one more online location to monitor and update. Thus, for your own research, you must make choices about which resources suit your own purposes and preferences best.
Social bookmarking offers the potential of an online research community which may or may not suit your own needs and research context. Task 3. In particular, it is important to keep a clear record of which key word searches you have conducted and in which catalogues, databases, subject gateways and search engines.
As noted, completing the checklist is an ongoing task. If you are in the early stages of your research, it is important to familiarise yourself with the type of record you will need to keep.
If you have already started your literature searches, make sure you have adopted a comprehensive record-keeping system, such as indicated in Table 3. T hink of a key word search that you wish to do in relation to your topic, e.
Try your key word search in your library catalogue, an electronic database for your subject area, and an Internet search engine such as Google Scholar. Make a record of all the useful 'hits' on Table 3. TABLE 3. Let us first of all consider the reasons why reading is such an important part of the research process. We have identified some of the reasons already when thinking about the purposes of a literature search in Chapter 3. At first, it is not unusual to feel overwhelmed by the quantity and variety of literature available.
An important way to cope with the large quantity of reading is to adopt efficient approaches and techniques, first in the selection of the most relevant material to read and, second, when actually reading these texts in detail. If you have a clearly defined purpose in your mind when you read a text, it will help you adopt the most appropriate strategies for the circumstances.
At different stages in the research process, we read for different reasons. In the first instance, our reading is exploratory; we want to find out more about the topic and explore ideas in a fairly free-ranging way.
At this point, you read for more specific information, such as to find evidence and authority to back up your assertions, contrasting definitions on a particular concept you are using, or reasons for the choice of a particular research method. In fact, not only do we read in different ways depending on our purpose at a particular point in time but also it is common to revisit key sources of information as you will find you take different things from a text according to your focus at a specific moment in the research process.
It is, of course, a strategy which can be used flexibly according to your individual preference and purpose for reading at a particular time.
Box 4. It is helpful, in addition to the SQ3R framework, to consider in more detail the techniques you might use to work through the above steps. Survey: skim and scan A central purpose of surveying a text is to identify whether it is relevant for you to read in depth. After skimming, you should be in a good position to decide whether the source is suitable for a more comprehensive reading.
If you are looking for a specific piece of information in a text, you can scan to find what you require. For example, it could entail looking for key words in the index of a book to find specific page numbers which cover the topic you are searching for, or it might mean casting your eye over the text itself to spot key words which indicate coverage of the information you want.
When you find the important point you are looking for, you can read this part more slowly and carefully. An everyday example of scanning is looking for a phone number in telephone directory or checking a train time on the screen at the railway station. To prepare yourself to read the text interactively, think about what you already know about the topic; if appropriate, personalise the topic by relating it to your own experience, and predict what you think the text is going to tell you by formulating questions that you hope it will answer.
If you are finding it difficult to understand a text, it may be useful to go back to reading less complex material such as introductory textbooks on a topic to build up your background knowledge. This helps you to develop a framework within which to fit more complex information that is new to you.
The note-taking techniques suggested in the section below are relevant at this stage and it is important to find an approach which suits you. You may be in a position to annotate a hard copy of the text with key words in the margin and highlighter pens. If this is the case you may or may not decide to take additional notes as well. For these occasions it is helpful if you have a tried and tested system which works for you see following sections on Techniques for note taking and Making connections between different texts.
We tend to have expectations about how a text will be organised which can help us find the information we need quickly. Section headings indicate the content to follow. In a scientific text, one might expect the following sequence of information: introduction, problem, hypotheses, methods and experiments, results, discussion and conclusion. When taking notes, it can be useful to make a diagram of the structure of the text to illustrate visually how the information connects together.
If you are finding it difficult to digest the content of a text and realise you have to keep rereading pages to extract the meaning, you may find it helpful to break it down into more manageable chunks.
The length of a 'manageable chunk' will vary according to the density and language difficulty of the material. It might be a paragraph, a section or a chapter. Recall and review After each manageable chunk, recall and review your reading by writing a sentence summarising what you have just read. This is likely to ensure you understand and remember the content of the text. Effective summarisation is discussed in detail see Techniques for writing a summary. Does the cultural and historical context have an effect on the author's assumptions, the content and the way it has been presented?
Increasing your reading speed Because of the quantity of reading you will have to do for your research, it is important to read as quickly as is comfortable for you without jeopardising your comprehension of the material. A very important way to speed up your reading overall is to adopt the efficient strategies outlined above so that you are reading in the right way for your purposes at a particular time: i.
However, a certain amount of regression is a normal part of the reading process as we often look back to check our understanding. You can look them up in the dictionary later if they are important for your comprehension of the text. Avoiding plagiarism To expand briefly on the final point above, there are a number of different ways in which plagiarism can occur but the type being referred to here is the use of a cited author's exact words with no or little attempt at rephrasing.
Unless these words are part of a direct quotation, this is plagiarism even if the source author is acknowledged in the correct way. Therefore it is essential that you are able rephrase and summarise the points you are taking from source material.
When plagiarism occurs, it can result in work being failed or even expulsion from a course of study. It is important to acknowledge the work of others in a respectful way following established conventions. Techniques for note taking Features of effective notes Effective notes are ones that are easy for you to understand at a later time. They generally make use of: key words, e. Make a note of every detail that you will need for the bibliography so that you do not have to search for any of the information at a later stage.
If you are including direct quotations, page numbers are essential. In addition, more details are provided on writing bibliographies. Three main formats for note taking Annotating a hard copy of the text If you have your own copy of a text, use a high-lighter pen to mark significant points. Write key words in the margins to signal important items. Use Post-it stickers to mark important pages in a book. Pattern notes These take the form of a spider diagram or a mind map, where you put the central idea in the middle of the page and branch out from this with the main themes and sub-themes of the text that you are reading see Figure 4.
MindGenius has a facility whereby you can set up prompt questions, such as those suggested for critical reading, and address these as you create your mind map. Linear notes Use headings and subheadings to distinguish between the main ideas and the subsidiary information in a text see Example 4. Your own comments In whatever form you take your notes, it is important to include your own comments; however, it is also essential to distinguish clearly between the ideas from the text and your own observations.
It's especially useful for budding researchers unfamiliar with crafting literature reviews that support strong theory development and empirical testing. I recommend it to every first-year doctoral student' - Michael R. I was a little disappointed. I am now looking for another book.
It has a lot of examples of written parts out of a literature review. However, I need something that is easy to read and gives much more clear information. A good beginner book with an overview of the aspects of literature review By CE I am torn on how I ultimately feel about this book because it was required for a class in a PhD program. The book itself is not one that I would have normally purchased because a lot of the information is taught or easily accessible in other resources.
However, since it is required for the course we have to read it out of order which might be why I felt that it was a waste of the book.
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