Literature Reviews

1. Literature Reviews Cone, J. D. & Foster, S. L. (1993). Dissertations and Theses From Start to Finish. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson. Pan, M. L. (2004). Preparing Literature Reviews (2nd ed.). Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.

2. Key components of a lit review(McMillan & Schumacher, 2010) • introduce topic and define key terms • establish the importance of the topic • provide an overview of the amount of available literature • point out gaps in the literature • discuss discrepancies in the literature • synthesize information • discuss future research

3. Narrowing Your Topic(Cone & Foster, 1993) • Start with a general topic • What topics interest you? • What academic topics come up when talking with peers? • Refine your topic • Talk to an expert in the field • Look at a review of literature (e.g. Psychological Bulletin) • Refine a little more • Look at the future research section in an interesting article • Think about applying a paradigm from one population to another • Look at literature in other disciplines • Put your topic in a researchable question/hypothesis format

4. Identify Databases • ERIC • PsycINFO • Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)

5. Tips for Conducting a Search(Pan, 2004) • familiarize yourself with Boolean operators not, and, or • use demographics to limit your search • search for theoretical literature on your topic • examine references cited in the literature that you locate • Invest time in learning how to conduct advanced searches of a database • search databases for prominent names of individuals who have published on your topic • use definition, review, meta-analysis, or qualitative as a keyword in a search • consider using an exact phrase match and use the thesaurus • consider using truncated terms or wildcards • consider restricting your search to the title, author, and/or abstract fields • search a citation index • maintain a written record of how you conducted your literature search

6. Types of Literature Sources (Cone & Foster, 1993) • Primary sources (preferred) – original data and information (e.g. Empirical research) • Secondary sources – summaries, reviews, discussions of primary source information, and other secondary information (e.g. encyclopedias) • Avoid the popular press (e.g. Time, Newsweek, Wikepedia)

7. Evaluating Journals(Pan, 2004) • Consider whether the journal has an independent editorial board • Consider whether the journal has a “blind” peer review process • Consider the overall quality of the journal

8. Evaluating Articles(McMillan & Schumacher, 2010; Pan, 2004) • Are the parameters of the review reasonable? • Is primary literature emphasized in the review and secondary literature, if cited, used selectively? • Consider the institutional affiliation of the author • Consider who sponsored the research • Be wary of sources offering “proof” “facts” and “truth” based on research evidence • Give emphasis to methodologically stronger studies

9. Choosing Relevant Sources • Is the literature relevant to your research question? • Generate rules to help you decide how you will choose what literature to include and what literature to exclude. • Not all of the literature that you find will be relevant to your research question.

10. Making Sense of the Data (Pan, 2004) • make notes on the whole article not just the abstract • build a table or use index cards to summarize key points of literature • use color coding while taking notes • pay special attention to definitions while taking notes • pay attention to the limitation section while taking notes • make notes about how others have organized literature on the topic

11. Get Writing(from handout prepared by T. Z. Keith) • Work out a timeline • Create an outline • Revise and refine your outline as you begin writing and integrating your research • Use headings and subheadings • The lit review needs to be representative of the existing research on your topic, but it doesn't have to absolutely comprehensive. Let your variables of interest be your guide in narrowing down your review. • Ask your peers and friends to read your drafts and to provide feedback

12. Organize Your Review(McMillan & Schumacher, 2010) • Organized by date, provide sense of development of research over time • Group studies investigating similar topics • Other methods • Organized by variables • Organized by treatments • Organized by research designs and methods • Organized by different results form investigations of same problem • Combination of above

13. An Example • Research Question: What is the effect of the developmental trajectory of working memory on the developmental trajectory of behavior problems in children? • Outline: • Intro: importance of studying behavior problems • General effect of working memory on • Inattention and hyperactivity • Depression and anxiety • Antisocial and headstrong behavior • Development of working memory in childhood • Development of behavior problems in childhood • Integrative paragraph to introduce problem statement

14. Outlining the Literature Review • Introduction • Introduce the topic • Establish the importance of the topic • Argument • Provide an overview of the literature • Point out gaps in the literature • Discuss discrepancies in the literature • Conclusion • Consolidate the argument • End with your research question

15. Integrative Writing Style(from handout prepared by T. Z. Keith) You should strive to integrate findings; a paper that reports 10 studies, devoting one paragraph to each study, is usually boring to read and not particularly helpful. You need to bring the studies together in some meaningful way. One way to avoid this problem is to cite studies parenthetically more often than as the subject of a sentence or a paragraph. For example, it is common to see a paragraph begin with a statement such as: Keith (1987) found that lobotomies tend to reduce intellectual ability in a selective fashion. He studied... The next paragraph might start with: Houck (1985), in a review of research of the effects of brain injury, also found evidence for selective impairment... The problem with this approach is that the researcher or the research is the focus of the sentence (and paragraph) rather than the finding, and that it does not integrate the findings. Try something like this, instead: Brain trauma seems to have selective effects on specific intellectual abilities (Houck, 1985; Keith, 1987) (I could then go on to describe any relevant specifics of the two studies).

16. Writing Tips(from handout prepared by T. Z. Keith) • Avoid common writing problems, such as the use of and/or and he/she. And/or is inexact and sloppy. Either and or or almost invariably better conveys your meaning. He/she is clumsy; one easy way to avoid he/she is to use the plural (e.g., instead of A scientist conducts research to test questions in which he/she is interested, try Scientists conduct research to test questions in which they are interested). Do not, however, use “they” as a singular pronoun (i.e., don’t write a scientist conducts research to test questions in which they are interested). Whatever you do, avoid the these abominations of modern writing! • You should not use we in the sense of "the profession", but rather to refer to the co-authors of the present paper. Indeed, the use of the first person (I or we) is increasingly encouraged in scientific writing.

17. Writing Tips(from handout prepared by T. Z. Keith) • It is common to start a sentence with the word this, referring back to the previous sentence. This can be confusing (see what I mean?); try to be explicit in your reference (e.g., “This practice can be confusing). When I write “vague referent” in the margin of your paper, I am probably referring to this sin. • The words “feel,” “think,” and “believe” are not interchangeable. I believe (not think or feel) you should use the words appropriately. Feel is a more visceral and emotional, less intellectual verb; think seems fairly analytic; and believe carries the connotation of both thought and that of taking a stand. Some people consider the three verbs as hierarchical; that is, think conveys more assurance than feel, and believe more assurance still. Make sure you think about which meaning you want to convey.

18. Writing Tips(from handout prepared by T. Z. Keith) • Long papers are not better papers. • Pay attention to the difference between plurals (s at the end), possessives (’s at the end), and plural possessive (s’ at the end). The plural possessive of child is children’s (because children is plural). It’s means it is, not the possessive of it. • “Factors” has a fairly specific meaning in psychological writing, meaning the factors derived from factor analysis. Try not to use it to mean groups in an experiment or influences on an outcome. • Always proofread your work. Use your spell-checker. Proofread it again.

19. Writing Tips(from handout prepared by T. Z. Keith) • Should you use the past or the present tense to discuss literature you are reviewing? As a general rule, I recommend that you use the past tense to discuss a specific study (e.g., Keith (1987) found that lobotomies tend...), and the present tense to come to conclusions and integrate studies (e.g., Brain trauma has a selective effect...). Whatever you do, be consistent. • References are always listed alphabetically (e.g., Houck, 1988; Keith, 1985, not Keith, 1985; Houck, 1988), then chronologically (Keith, 1985, 1988). If you can put a citation date at the end of the sentence without confusion you should do so to avoid chopping up the sentence. For example, More recent research, however, suggests that parental involvement does affect middle school students' achievement (Keith et al., 1993) reads better than More recent research (Keith et al., 1993), however, suggests that..

20. How to eat an elephant (from handout prepared by T. Z. Keith) Writing is hard work, and it takes a lot of practice. But you will find that writing, struggling, and revising also clarify your thinking on the topic; the struggles do indeed lead to improvement. You will also find that starting writing is invariably the hardest part; after that, it's just a matter of plugging along. An hour a day of writing over five days will get you much farther along than one five hour session of writing. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

21. How to Avoid Plagiarism(Pan, 2004) • If you quote someone else, cite it • Common knowledge does not need to be cited/ • Original expressions of common knowledge should be cited • If you rephrase someone else’s idea in your own words, cite it • Indicate clearly the beginning and end of summarized literature

22. Parting Thoughts "For 40-odd years in this noble profession, I've harbored a guilt and my conscience is smitten, So here is my slightly embarrassed confession-- I don't like to write, but love to have written" --Michael Kanin, quoted in Julian Stanley, "My Life and How it Grew"