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Conducting Research Projects Guide: Literature Review

Guidance is provided to students engaging in empirical research projects for internships and post-graduate study

Literature review introduction

A literature review is a summary of the existing research and current understandings of your topic.
It allows you to:       describe how all the research fits together
position your research within existing knowledge
identify gaps in the literature
comment on contradictory views in the literature
comment on the contribution of each source to the problem you are researching.
 
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Types of literature reviews

Argumentative Review:  a selective use of literature to support or disprove an argument.  It can be affected by bias.
Integrative Review:  generates new frameworks and perspectives by combining existing work.
Historical Review:  places research in an historical context.
Methodological Review:  examining methods used to highlight potential ethical issues to be considered.
Systematic Review:  collects, reports and analyses all research about a specific research problem.
Theoretical Review:  review of theories used to understand a research problem.

Systematic review

The purpose of a systematic literature review is to identify, evaluate and summarise the findings of existing research on a particular topic (Bettany-Saltikov & McSherry, 2016).  Unlike a narrative review, the systematic review uses a more scientific approach to reduce the occurrence of bias through ensuring research included is both rigorous and valid in methodology and that the highest quality of research approaches have been used.

Selecting research:

Selecting research articles takes a lot of time, so make sure you leave plenty of time for this part of the process.

When selecting research articles to study, only include those articles that address your research question.  

Searches should be restricted to published, peer-reviewed, academic sources held in academic databases such as EBSCOhost (Jesson et al., 2011).

Systematic review process:

Data Sheets

Example of a datasheet for articles INCLUDED in a systematic review:

(Jesson et al., 2011, p. 118).

 

Example of a datasheet for articles EXCLUDED from a systematic review:

(Jesson et al., 2011, p. 119).

Writing a literature review

Literature reviews have a different tone to essays and reports.  Following are some brief hints about how to write a literature review.
 
Use evidence:  you will need to include citations for every source you use.
Be selective:  use only literature that is relevant to your research question.
Quotes:  use direct quotes sparingly.
Summarize and synthesize:  place similar information together by theme, then relate to your research.
Keep your own voice:  try to begin and end each paragraph with your own ideas.
Use caution when paraphrasing:  accurately represent the author's ideas in your own words while keeping the same meaning.
 

(Joyner et al., 2018).

Searching for literature

When searching the literature:
1.Define your topic: be specific
2.Think about your audience.  Who is going to read your review?
3.Identify some criteria for what to include in your search.
4.Search the literature
Take notes in your own words as you read.
Note down possible direct quotes (and their page numbers), but keep these to a minimum
Note down citations and references for later

5. Evaluate all your sources.  Do they help you answer your research question?  Are they current and reliable sources?

Structure of a literature review

Introduction:

1.Introduce your topic.  Outline the main idea or thesis of the review.
2.Outline the main points that will be covered in the review.
3.Identify how you performed your literature search.  What databases did you use?  Did you search the library catalogue for books? 
 
Body Paragraphs:
•Use subheadings to separate out each theme.
•Present each new theme or point in a new paragraph.
•Link what you read with your own argument.
•Identify the strengths and weaknesses, gaps, similarities and differences between the studies.
Think about:
The theoretical literature – what theories are used as a basis of the research you found?
The empirical research – What research was conducted? What conclusions did the researchers come to?
Now draw all the themes together to suggest further development or research that is needed.
 
Summary:
•Clearly state how the literature reviewed has supported the main thesis or idea.
•Restate ideas for further research or recommendations you made.
(Joyner et al., 2018).

REMEMBER:  Each time you refer to another authors ideas or words, you need to include an in-text citation.

Useful handouts related to literature reviews and study appraisals

Useful library books

You will also find chapters about literature reviews in general research texts.

Useful video clips