What is Literature Review?

 A literature review is an evaluative report of

information found in the literature related to your
selected area of study.
 The review should describe, summarise, evaluate
and clarify this literature.
 It should give a theoretical base for the research
and help you (the author) determine the nature of
your research.
 Works which are irrelevant should be discarded
and those which are peripheral should be looked
at critically.
Functions of Literature Review
 It provides a theoretical background to your study.
 It helps you establish the links between what you are
proposing to examine and what has already been
studied.
 It enables you to show how your findings have
contributed to the existing body of knowledge in your
profession.
 It helps you to integrate your research findings into the
existing body of knowledge.
Other Ways Literature Review can
Help You
 Bring clarity and focus to your research problem;
 Improve your research methodology;
 Broaden your knowledge base in your research area;
and
 Contextualize your findings.
Literature Review
Infographics
The literature review cycle: the process of
conducting a Literature Review
 Systematic Review
Undertaking a

PICO or PICo: Patient/Problem, Intervention, Comparison group and Outcome

Why is Literature Review Important?

https://medium.com/@pubricahealthcare/importance-of-literature-review-in-
scientific-research-writing-41d8ea3812c6
Identify the question
 In some cases, such as for a course assignment or a research
project you're working on with a faculty mentor, your
research question will be determined by your professor. If
that's the case, you can move on to the next step.
Otherwise, you may need to explore questions on your
own.
 A few suggestions:
 Choose a topic that interests you! You'll be spending a
lot of time with it.
 Explore your topic using your textbooks, reference
books, and articles and by consulting your professor.
 Be open to tweaking your research question as you
gather more information.
Review discipline styles
 Each discipline has its own style for writing a
literature review;
 social science lit reviews may look different than
those from the biological sciences or
engineering.
 The best way to become familiar with lit reviews in
your field of study is to look at published journal
articles and note how they present the
information.
Examples of Articles
 Mosher, C. E., Given, B. A., & Ostroff, J. S. (2015). Barriers to
mental health service use among distressed family caregivers of
lung cancer patients. European Journal of Cancer Care, 24(1), 50–
59. http://doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12203
 Gibau, G. S. (2015). Considering Student Voices: Examining the
Experiences of Underrepresented Students in Intervention
Programs. CBE Life Sciences Education, 14(3).
http://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.14-06-0103
 León, D., Arzola, N., & Tovar, A. (2015). Statistical analysis of the
influence of tooth geometry in the performance of a harmonic
drive. Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and
Engineering, 37(2), 723-735. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40430-014-
0197-0
 Sawesi, S., Rashrash, M., Phalakornkule, K., Carpenter, J. S., &
Jones, J. F. (2016). The Impact of Information Technology on
Patient Engagement and Health Behavior Change: A Systematic
Review of the Literature. JMIR Medical Informatics, 4(1), e1.
http://doi.org/10.2196/medinform.4514
Search the literature
 If you're working on a research project with a professor or
faculty mentor, they may recommend articles to help you
begin your readings of the literature. You can use these as a
jumping off point to locate additional sources.
 To locate additional articles, your best bet is to refer to your
librarian's online research guide for a list of appropriate
article databases for your discipline.
 A few suggestions:
 Before searching, brainstorm some keywords based on your topic.
The infographics below can help.
 Search systematically and keep track of your search terms; this will
help you figure out which search strategies provide the best results.
 Save and organize the articles and other sources you wish to set aside
for further reading and give your files names that make sense for you,
e.g. Smith_2015.pdf
Manage your references
 As part of your lit review, you'll need to provide a list of
references - your professors want to know where you
found your information.
 Your professor will also require that you use a specific
format ("style") for citing your references, such as one
of these:
 APA (American Psychological Association)
 Chicago Manual of Style
 MLA (Modern Language Association)
Why do I have to cite my sources?
Citations are important because:
 They help others find the information that you
used.
 They help establish the credibility of your own
research.
 They connect your work to the work of other
scholars.
 It is one way that scholars enter into a dialogue
with each other.
 It is a way to honor and acknowledge the work of
others who have made your own research possible.
Citation styles
A citation is a way of giving
credit to individuals for their
creative and intellectual works
that you utilized to support your
research. It can also be used to
locate particular sources and
combat plagiarism. Typically, a
citation can include the author's
name, date, location of the
publishing company, journal
title, or DOI (Digital Object
Identifer).
What Do These Citations Look Like?
Citing and Listing Articles: IEEE
Critically analyze and evaluate
 Ask yourself questions like these about each book or
article you include:
 What is the research question?
 What is the primary methodology used?
 How was the data gathered?
 How is the data presented?
 What are the main conclusions?
 Are these conclusions reasonable?
 What theories are used to support the researcher's
conclusions?
 Take notes on the articles as you read them and identify
any themes or concepts that may apply to your research
question.
Synthesize
 This is the point where you sort articles by themes
or categories in preparation for writing your lit
review. You may find a synthesis matrix, like this
one, or in the box below, helpful in understanding
how this works.
 You can sort the literature in various ways, for
example:
 by themes or concepts
 historically or chronologically (tracing a research
question across time),or
 by methodology.
Organizing Your Literature Review
 Topical Order: organize by main topics or issues;
emphasize the relationship of the issues to the main
“problem”
 Chronological Order: organize the literature by the dates
the research was published
 Problem-Cause-Solution Order: Organize the review so
that it moves from the problem to the solution
 General-to-Specific Order: (Also called the funnel
approach) Examine broad-based research first and then
focus on specific studies that relate to the topic
 Specific-to-General Order: Try to make discuss specific
research studies so conclusions can be drawn
Write literature review
 A literature review is a piece of discursive prose, not a list
summarizing one piece of literature after another. Organize
the literature review into sections that present themes or
identify trends, including relevant theory. You are not trying
to list all the material, but to synthesize and evaluate it
according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research
question.
 Several effective strategies for writing the literature review.
 Include only the most important points from each source
-- you want to summarize, not quote from the sources.
 Include your own conclusions from analyzing, evaluating,
and synthesizing what you learned from these articles.
 Avoid plagiarism in your lit review. Consult this tutorial
on Academic Integrity if you need some guidance.
Plagiarism includes
 Using another writer’s words without proper citation
 Using another writer’s ideas without proper citation
 Citing a source but reproducing the exact word
without quotation marks
 Borrowing the structure of another author’s
phrases/sentences without giving the source
 Borrowing all or part of another student’s paper
 Using paper-writing service or having a friend write
the paper
Writing the review: Funnel

This basically works as broad to narrow, starting by scoping background literature

related to your general topic area rather than precise research question; moving on
to discussing literature closer to what you're doing but not matched directly and
dealing with these sources in more detail; finally critically analysing research
pertinent to your research question and looking a few key papers in much more
detail.
Writing the review: Jigsaw

This is essentially dealing with each concept equally,

allowing the same weight to each topic area. It is important
to make links between the topics.
Writing the review: Chronological

Grouping and discussing your sources in order of

publication, highlighting the changes in research in the
field and your specific topic over time.
The Introduction
 Why the topic is important - is it an area of
current interest
 The scope of the review - the aspects of the
topic that will be covered
 How is the review organised?
 Has the topic been widely researched? Or not?
 Significant gaps in the research into your topic
 Is there debate and controversy about the topic
or a consensus?
Writing Critically: Some pointers to bear
in mind
 Compare and contrast different theories, concepts etc.
indicating your own position
 Show how limitations in others' work creates a research gap
for you
 Use strategic and selective referencing to support your
arguments
 Synthesise and reformulate arguments from various
sources to create new or a more developed point of view
 Demonstrate how you agree with or defend a point of
view/finding
 Accept strengths of current viewpoints but qualify your
position by highlighting weaknesses
 Make connections between sources
Background Information
 Google your topic! - At this stage in your research,
looking at relevant websites can be help you narrow
or refine your topic. Look for information from
government websites and organizational websites
to find background information.
 Utilize your textbooks - Peruse your textbooks to
find background information on your selected
topic.
 Find books in the library - Find reference books like
encyclopedias or dictionaries in the library's catalog
that provide background information on your topic
in the library.
 Boolean Searching

 AND is the most commonly used operator. When you use AND to join your
search terms, you will only get results that include all of your terms. In this
example, we will only get results that include the words colleges and polar
bears
 OR makes your search less specific and will bring back more results. It is
most helpful when searching for synonyms or closely related terms. In this
example, we will get results that use just Ohio Northern, just polar bears,
and results that include both terms.
 NOT is used to exclude a term from your search. It will make your search
more specific and bring back fewer results. In this example, we will only
get results with the term polar bears and no results with the word Ohio.
Topic too big? Below are some hints for
narrowing your topic
 Population group: Narrow by age, race, sex,
occupation, etc.
 Geography: Narrow by geographical location.
 Time period: Narrow time period.
 Discipline: Narrow by looking through a specific
discipline, for example: How does insomnia affect
memory? (Psychology) OR What prescription
drugs can assist patients with insomnia and how
do they work? (Pharmacy)
Topic too narrow? Not finding research
resources? Try the following:
 Go BIG! Your topic may be too specific. For example
if your topic is first year female college students and
stress, broaden to college students and stress.
 Think of similar or parallel topics
 Keywords - go back and brainstorm more keywords
for searching. You may just need to find the specific
terms that refer to your topic.
 Rethink your topic - Sometimes your topic may be
too new and there may be very little scholarly
research published on your topic yet.
Four types of literature
review
The Publishing Ecosystem: Scientific
Literature in Context
Primary sources: documents
of direct experience; formal
or informal; formal
examples usually peer
reviewed.
Secondary sources: organize,
distil, or review primary
sources. Review articles are a
type of secondary source
that can be very useful for
understanding and finding
primary sources.
Tertiary sources: discovery
tools for primary and
secondary sources.
Examples of Primary and Secondary
Science Articles
 Primary sources:
 A research study: Escherichia coli removal in biochar-augmented
biofilter: effect of infiltration rate, initial bacterial concentration,
biochar particle size and presence of compost
 Secondary sources:
 A news article about science policy dealing with air pollution: White
House teams with private sector on plan to reduce HFC emissions
 A review of multiple research studies to highlight the current state
of knowledge on a topic: Ecological Risks of Shale Oil and Gas
Development to Wildlife, Aquatic Resources and their Habitats
 A monograph gathering, reviewing, and commenting on various
aspects of a wide-ranging topic: Clean Coastal Waters:
Understanding and Reducing the Effects of Nutrient Pollution
 Tertiary sources:
 Wikipedia article on greenhouse gas.
 Entry on green chemistry in McGraw-Hill AccessScience.
Common Errors Made in Literature
Reviews
 Review isn’t logically organized
 Review isn’t focused on most important facets of the
study
 Review doesn’t relate literature to the study
 Too few references or outdated references cited
 Review isn’t written in author’s own words
 Review reads like a series of disjointed summaries
 Review doesn’t argue a point
 Recent references are omitted
 Literature Review
Summarizing

https://medium.com/@pubricahealthcare/importance-of-literature-review-in-
scientific-research-writing-41d8ea3812c6
Work for Today
 Select a topic of your interest
 Identify the research question(s)
 Search the literature
 Collect 5 prominent papers in the area
 Critically analyze and summarize the findings
 Prepare a review report (not more than two pages)
citing these papers in the text and listing them
towards the end.
 Identify the gaps existing in the literature.