Lecture 4-Literature Review

8/8/2019 Lecture 4-Literature Review

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Literature

Review/Survey

Literature

Review/SurveyCritique of Articles

Synthesis of Issues

Referencing and Citation



Literature SurveyIs the documentation of acomprehensive review of the

published and unpublished workfrom secondary sources of data inthe areas of specific interest to

the researcher.



Why do you need to

review the literature To ensure that no important

variable that has in the past been

found repeatedly to have had animpact on the problem is ignored.

Helps the researcher to include all

the relevant variables in theresearch project.



Why do you need to review

the literature (cont.) Facilitates the creative integration of

the information gathered from the

structured and unstructured interviewswith what is found in the previousstudies.

Provide the foundation for developing a

comprehensive theoretical frameworkfrom which hypotheses can be developedfor testing.



Importance

To convince the reader that:

1. The researcher is knowledgeable aboutthe problem area

2. Has done preliminary homework that isnecessary to conduct the research

3. Theoretical framework will be structures

based on work already done and will addto the solid foundation of existingknowledge



Characteristics of a

Good Literature Review1. Important variables are not left out

of the study

2. A clear idea as to what variableswould be most important toconsider, why is it important, how

they should investigate to solve theproblem ² helps to developtheoretical framework andhypothesis for testing.



Characteristics of a Good

Literature Review (cont.)3. Problem statement can be made

with precision and clarity

4. Testability and replicability of thefindings of the current researchare advanced

5. Wasting efforts on trying torediscover something that isalready known will not happen



Characteristics of a Good

Literature Review (cont.)6. The problem investigated is

perceived by the scientific

committee as relevant andsignificant



How to conduct a

Literature Survey?3 steps:

1. Identifying the Relevant Sources

2. Extracting the RelevantInformation

3. Writing Up the Literature Review



1. Identifying the Relevant

Sources3 forms of databases:

1. Bibliographic databases

- bibliographic citations, name ofthe author, title of article/book,source of publication, year, volume,

page numbers. Include periodicals,newspapers, books etc. Periodicallyupdated.




Sources (cont.)3 forms of databases:

1. Bibliographic databases

- bibliographic citations, name ofthe author, title of article/book,source of publication, year, volume,

page numbers. Include periodicals,newspapers, books etc. Periodicallyupdated.




Sources (cont.)2. Abstract databases

- Provide an abstract/summary of

articles3. full-text databases

- provide full text of articles

4. Statistics

- marketing, financial, directories.




Sources (cont.)2. Abstract databases

- Provide an abstract/summary of

articles3. full-text databases

- provide full text of articles

4. Statistics

- marketing, financial, directories.




Sources (cont.)Advantages:

Save enormous time

Focus on materials most central tothe research

Inexpensive

Examples of Online Databases.Refer page. 75-80



2. Extracting the Relevant

Information Literature review: which

articles/books are relevant to study

Give an idea of which articles needto be looked for in depth, full textcan be printed out.

Reading the articles provide thedetail of the problems that isresearched, design details, findingscould be systematically formatted.



3.Writing up the literature

review How to write?

- Bring together all relevant information

in a cogent and logical manner instead ofpresenting all the studies in chronologicalorder with bits and pieces ofuncoordinated information.

Able to formulate a good problemstatement if one has done a goodliterature review.



Any questions?Any questions?

Lecture 4-Literature Review

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