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Research Methodology BE-5305. Literature Review. Introduction. Literature review surveys sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research or theory providing a description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work e.g from: Scholarly articles Books Dissertations and Thesis
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Research Methodology BE-5305 Literature Review
Introduction • Literature review surveys sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research or theory providing a description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work e.g from: • Scholarly articles • Books • Dissertations and Thesis • Conference Proceedings
Stages of Literature Review • Problem formulation • Literature Search • Data Evaluation • Analysis and Interpretation
Elements of Literature Review • Overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the lit. review • Division of works under review into categories (support vs against) • Explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies form the others • Conclusions
Consideration should be given to.. • Provenance- author’s credentials • Objectivity • Persuasiveness • Value
Purpose of Lit. Review • Place each work in the context of its contribution to the understanding of the subject under review • Describe the relationship of each work to others • Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps • Resolve conflicts • Point the way forward for further research
Why do we need good lit. review? • To demonstrate that you know the field. • To justify the reason for your research • To allow you to establish your theoretical framework and methodological focus
Starting point.. • Pursue recent review articles • Too much to handle • Very little there • Doing something new • Limiting yourself to too narrow an area • Not a worthwhile area of research
Quality of Literature • Is the problem clearly spelled out? • Are the results presented new? • Was the research influential? • How large a sample was used? • How convincing is the argument made? • How were the results analyzed? • What perspective are they coming from? • Are the generalizations justified by the evidence on which they are made? • What is the significance of this research? • What are the assumptions behind the research? • Is the methodology well justified as the most appropriate to study the problem? • Is the theoretical basis transparent? In critically evaluating, you are looking for : (i) Strengths, significance and contributions (ii) Limitations, flaws and weaknesses (iii) Whole lines of enquiry
Simple way to do lit. review • Start with a series of paragraphs??? • “Green (1975) discovered….”; • “In 1978, Black conducted experiments and discovered that …”; • “Later Brown (1980) illustrated this in ….” • NO!!! This demonstrates neither your understanding of the literature nor your ability to evaluate other people’s work
This way is better….. • “There seems to be general agreement on x, (for example, White 1987, Brown 1980, Black 1978, Green 1975) but Green (1975) sees x as a consequence of y, while Black (1978) puts x and y as having no effects on one another. While Green’s work has some limitations in that it…, its main value lies in….” • This shows that you have thought about it, can synthesize the work and pass judgement on the relative merits of research conducted in your field
Mind Mapping Green 1975 On x and y.. y x x no relp to y Relationship of x and y Black 1978 xy
Look back… • Ask yourself questions like these: • What is the specific thesis, problem, or research question that my literature review helps to define? • What type of literature review am I conducting? • What is the scope of my literature review? • How good was my information seeking? • Have I critically analyzed the literature I use? • Have I cited and discussed studies contrary to my perspective? • Will the reader find my literature review relevant, appropriate and useful?