Literature Review

Dr. Masunga Iseselo

 Definition of a literature review

A literature review
• is a survey of scholarly articles, books and other sources relevant
to a particular issue, area of research, or theory
• is a summary that provides a short description and critical
evaluation of work critical to the topic.
• Offers an overview of significant literature published on a topic
 Reasons for conducting literature review:
1. For a review paper

2. For the introduction (and discussion) of a research paper,

masters thesis or dissertation or report

3. To embark on a new area of research

4. For a research proposal

 Conducting a literature review will help to:
• Determine if proposed research is actually needed.
– Even if similar research published, researchers might suggest a need for
similar studies or replication.
• Narrow down a problem.
– A literature review can help to understand where to focus.
• Generate hypotheses or questions for further studies
• Background knowledge of the field of inquiry
– Facts, eminent scholars and parameters of the field
– The most important ideas, theories, questions and hypotheses.
• Knowledge of the methodologies common to the field and a feeling
for their usefulness and appropriateness in various settings.
 Outline of Review Process
1. Formulate a problem - which topic or field is being
examined and what are its component issues?
2. Search the literature for materials relevant to the
subject being explored.
• searching the literature involves reading and refining
your problem
3. Evaluate the data - determine which literature makes a
significant contribution to the understanding of the topic
4. Analyze and interpret - discuss the findings and
conclusions of pertinent literature
5. Format and create a bibliography
 Data Evaluation: Selecting literature

• Read widely
• When you read for your literature review, you are actually
doing two things at the same time:
– Trying to define your research problem: finding a gap, asking a
question, continuing previous research, counter-claiming
• As you define your problem you will more easily be able to
decide what to read and what to ignore.
– Before you define your problem, hundreds of sources will seem
relevant.
– However, you cannot define your problem until you read around your
research area.
 How to read the material
• Reading for the big picture
• Read the easier works first
• Skim the document and identify major concepts
• After you have a broad understanding of the 10 to 15 papers, you
can start to see patterns:
– Groups of scientists argue or disagree with other groups.
– For example: Some researchers think X causes Y, others that X is only a
moderating variable
• Narrow your focus
– Start from new material to old, general to specific
– starting with general topic will provide leads to specific areas of interest
and help develop understanding for the interrelationships of research
– Note quality of journal, output of author
 Read the Material Closer
Step 1: Read the abstract
• Decide whether to read the article in detail
Step 2: Read the introduction
• It explains why the study is important
• It provides a review and evaluation of relevant literature
Step 3: Read the Method with a close, critical eye
• Focus on participants, measures, procedures
Step 4: Evaluate the results
• Do the conclusions seem logical?
• Can you detect any bias on the part of the researcher?
Step 5: Take the discussion with a grain of salt
• Edges are smoothed out
• Pay attention to limitations
 Analyze the literature
• Take notes as you read through each paper that will be included
in the review
• In the notes include:
– purpose of the study reviewed
– Synopsis of the content
– Research design or methods used in the study
– Brief review of findings
• Once notes are complete organize common themes together
• Some people construct a table of info to make it easier to
organize their thoughts.
• As you organize your review, integrate findings elicited from note
taking or table-making process
 Organizing Literature review
Study Study aim Sample& Design Data
prevalence collection
methods
Zahra et al, To assess Sample of 353 Quantitative Descriptive
2019 in presence of clients Cross- statistics were
Tanzania depressive recruited sectional used.
symptoms among attending at descriptive PHQ-9 used to
diabetes patients MNH. The study evaluate
at the clinic. prevalence depression
was 87%
Abdullahi S.
Aminu, et al,
2017 in
Southern India

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 Questions to consider in your review
• What do we already know in the immediate area concerned?
• What are the characteristics of the key concepts or the main factors or
variables?
• What are the relationships between these key concepts, factors or
variables?
• What are the existing theories?
• Where are the inconsistencies or other shortcomings in our knowledge
and understanding?
• What views need to be (further) tested?
• What evidence is lacking, inconclusive, contradictory or too limited?
• Why study (further) the research problem?
• What contribution can the present study be expected to make?
• What research designs or methods seem unsatisfactory?
 Construct the literature Review
• Summarize individual studies or articles
– Use as much or as little detail as each merit according to its comparative
importance in the literature
– You don’t need to provide a lot of detail about the procedures used in other
studies
– Focus on the main findings, relevant methodological issues, and/or major
conclusions of other research
• Use five ‘C’s while writing a literature review
– Cite (Keep the primary focus on the literature pertinent to your research problem)
– Compare (arguments, theories, methodologies, and findings expressed in the literature)
– Contrast (What are the major areas of disagreement, controversy or debate?)
– Critiques (Which approaches, findings, and methodologies most reliable, valid or appropriate and why?)
– Connect (How does your own work draw upon, depart from, or synthesise what has been said in the lit.?)
 Organization of the Review
• Overview
– Content - what is covered
– Structure - how it is organized
• Body of the Literature Review
Section 1(As per specific objectives 1)
– The most important topic or a key concept
– discussed and evaluated
– summarized and related to your research project
– Conclusion
• Section 2 (as per specific objective 2)
From each of the section summaries (last paragraph of lit. review)
– highlight the most relevant points
– relate these back to the need for research
– reiterate what these mean for the research design
 Tips for writing literature
• Sentence: Express one idea in a sentence. Ensure that all
subject, verb and object
• Paragraph: group sentence that express and develop one aspect
your topic. Use a new paragraph for another aspect or another
topic
• Consistent grammar: use sentence and paragraph with
appropriate use of comma, colon and semi-colon. Incorrect use of
punctuation can affect the meaning.
• Transition words: use words that links paragraph and which
show contrast and development of your argument. Example:
‘hence’, ‘therefore’, ‘but’, ‘thus’, ‘as a results’, ‘in contrast’,
however’.
 Anatomy of the paragraph
• Topic sentence: This is the topic of the paragraph. Note how it begins
with the linking phrase ‘Despite the …’, referring to the previous
paragraph.
• Supporting evidence and examples with citations: Cite reputable
sources only. Summaries, paraphrases and quotes of all sources need
to be cited.
• Analysis: It is important to provide some analysis –
comparing/contrasting sources, asking questions, or making conclusions
• Concluding sentence: Sometimes paragraphs include a concluding
sentence or a final sentence that links to the following paragraph. Note
that drawing your own conclusion is another example of analysis.
Example of a paragraph
 How to write references?
• Book

• Journal

• Online document
 Format for Citing References: Book #1
Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Title of book (edition if not first).
City: Publisher.
• Book by a single author
• Leshin, C.B. (1997). Management on the World Wide Web.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

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 Format for Citing References: Book #1

Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Title of book (edition if not first).
City: Publisher.

• Book by more than one author

• Cornett, M., Wiley, B.J., & Sankar, S. (1998). The pleasures of
nurturing (2nd ed). London: McMunster Publishing.

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 Format for Citing References

Journal Article
Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal,
volume number (issue number), page numbers.
• Barry, H. (1996). Cross-cultural research with matched pairs of
societies. Journal of Social Psychology, 79 (1), 25-33.
• Jeanquart, S., & Peluchette, J. (1997). Diversity in the workforce
and management models. Journal of Social Work Studies, 43, 72-
85.

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 Format for Citing References

Referencing Electronic Sources

Author, A. (year, month day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper.
Retrieved from home page web address
• Nader, C. (2009, June 19). Mental health issues soar among
children. The Age. Retrieved from http://www.theage.com.au
 Citation Management Tools
• Managing the references you find and use in your review will take
a significant amount of work
• Using a citation management tool like Mendeley or EndNote will
save you much time and effort
• Organize and store references
• Make in-text citations based on required style (example, APA.
Vancouver etc )
• Create a list of references based on required style
 Key message
• A literature review is a survey of scholarly articles, books and other
sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory
• Literature review is conducted to narrow down a research problem,
generate hypotheses or questions and grasp the common
methodology in the chosen field of study
• When writing literature review, only describe the main findings,
relevant methodological issues, and/or major conclusions of other
research
• Structural and grammatical language is crucial for clarity of the
information
• Appropriate citation and referencing style is required as per
institutional guideline