Writing a Literature Review

Writing a Literature Review Evaluating and describing other people’swork What is a literature review? How do I decide what goes where? Learning From Secondary Research Evaluating Primary Research Additional information Copying = automatic fail

1: What is a literature review?

What is a literature review? • A description of your topic area, supported by references • A summary, discussion and critical analysis of academic work related to your research question Copying = automatic fail

What can you gain from literature reviews? • Ideas about which approaches are likely to work, and which are the best • If you find something similar, you can get • Ideas for how to implement your deliverable • Ideas for how to evaluate your deliverable • The best ways to do things • E.g. the fastest search algorithm • Justification for the approach that you are taking Copying = automatic fail

What can you gain from literature reviews? • Knowledge of what everyone else has done so that you don’t exactly replicate it • Without a literature review you risk reinventing the wheel • If you find something similar you may have to slightly change what you are doing to make it novel, or build upon what you found Copying = automatic fail

Organising the review • In a separate chapter • The normal approach, used in this module • In several chapters • If it is the main part of the thesis, or very important • Incorporated throughout the thesis as and when needed • In addition to either of the other two approaches • Perhaps incorporating individual facts from books Copying = automatic fail

Overall Structure [Very important] • In this module, we insist on a 3 part approach • Part 1: Overview of your chosen broad topic • The field that contains your research question • Part 2: Explanation of your sub-area • The area containing your research question • Part 3: In-depth analysis of research relevant to your research question • Critical evaluation of the primary research papers directly related to your research question Copying = automatic fail

Overall Structure Broad Topic Specialist sub-area Copying = automatic fail Relevant Primary research Your research question Add your research topics

Melding the Structure • The three parts of the review need to be melded together by explaining: • how part 2 fits inside part 1 • how part 3 fits inside part 2 Copying = automatic fail

2. How do I decide what goes where?

Conceptual models to help understanding • Conceptual models can help you understand how the different research fits together • Helps you decide upon an appropriate structure • Choose a technique that you are comfortable with • Spider diagram of the different papers? • Research territory map? • List of keywords? • Write and repeatedly rewrite the review (rapid prototyping) Copying = automatic fail

The literature review process • The literature review process should help shape • what you do, and • how you do it • You should be prepared to change your mind or alter your approach in response to what you discover • Always write up the literature review soon after reading the papers – otherwise you may forget what you have read • The finished review should also shape how others perceive the quality/value of your work Copying = automatic fail

The literature review process The first role of a literature review is often to learn the topic. Copying = automatic fail From Dawson – The essence of computing projects

3: Learning From Secondary Research Secondary research includes books, research summaries and literature reviews

Secondary Research • Books, literature reviews and web pages can give an overview of a research area • These can help you to learn what a research area is about before having to read primary research • Literature reviews should always start with reading secondary research, if possible Copying = automatic fail

Reading books • Not enough time to read many books all the way through • Can still use as a reference source, just read relevant chapters/sections • Books tend to be less controversial and may also summarise the pros and cons of topics discussed (i.e. like a mini-literature review) • The introduction of a relevant book should summarize the research area Copying = automatic fail

4: Evaluating Primary Research Primary research is research papers containing new findings - not a literature review

Your evaluation 1 • Read the abstract and conclusions first • Is it really relevant and useful to you? • Summarise how it is useful • Read the whole paper • Are the methods correct? • [BOUNDARIES] Is the scope of the study appropriate for your use? • Make sure that you understand the findings • [CONCLUSIONS] Read the abstract and conclusions again • To make sure that you have understood the results and their context Copying = automatic fail

Your evaluation 2 • [LIMITATIONS] The discussion of limitations • Should be near the end of the paper • Read to make sure that the findings really apply to the situation in which you are using them • How significant is the work? • Does it make a major contribution? • How does it complement other papers? BOUNDARIES, LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSIONS Copying = automatic fail

Multiple Papers • Need more than one paper about important points • Discuss points of agreement • Discuss points of difference • In computing there can be differences of opinion, but should not be big differences of fact • The papers may try different techniques to solve the same problem • Must use your own opinion on differences, but try to argue your case Copying = automatic fail

Selective reading • What to do if you do not understand the paper • Too complex maths • Too much terminology • >>Consider reviewing the outcomes of the research and not the technical details [black box approach] • When to just read the abstract • If it is clear that the paper is not relevant. • Can still cite the paper in the literature review if it is near to being relevant and explain briefly why it is not relevant • This shows that you have done a better literature review Copying = automatic fail

Common mistakes 1 • Your own opinions without backup, no matter how strongly you believe them (it does not count!) • E.g. Microsoft is good/rubbish • Discussing irrelevant literature • Short literature reviews • Have not demonstrated the literature review skill • Have not shown that you understand the context of your work • Not targeting the review at an appropriate audience Copying = automatic fail

Common mistakes 2 • Not joining the literature together into a coherent whole • Using chronological order, unless necessary • Including poor reference sources without comment • Too small • Not targeting the review to the research question • Missing an important reference • Your work is seriously undermined if you write about something as though you are the first, but someone else has already published on the subject Copying = automatic fail

Swales’ perspective • "not sufficiently theme-based" • "not structured according to the issues" • "insufficiently informed by the research hypotheses" • "boringly chronological" • "just describe each piece of research one by one without adequate linkage" Copying = automatic fail

5: Additional information

Plagiarism • Plagiarism is passing off somebody else’s work as your own • In a literature review you are discussing other people’s work so must clearly reference it • In this module you must NEVER copy an entire phrase or sentence even if it is in quotes and properly referenced • If you cannot describe something in your own words then you must not include it in your literature review. • If you paraphrase other people’s ideas you still need to reference them Copying = automatic fail

Referencing your work • You MUST reference your work • This means giving the author name and publication date for all ideas and facts you have used (Harvard format) • List the sources at the end (Harvard format) • Failure to reference your work is Plagiarism and is an automatic fail. Copying = automatic fail

Harvard reference style • You must follow the university Harvard style • http://asp.wlv.ac.uk/Level5.asp?UserType=6&Level5=3165 (OR Google Harvard site:wlv.ac.uk) • Smith (1999) says that C++ is faster than Java. • C++ is faster than Java (Smith 1999). SMITH, T. (1999) Programming. Programming Journal, 21(5), pp. 61-73. SMITH, R. (1999) Programming. London: Birkett Computing. Do not use numbers in brackets [1] – this is not Harvard. Copying = automatic fail

References and Bibliography • Reference list • List of books, articles etc. that you have cited in your thesis • Bibliography • List of books, articles etc. that you have not cited but have used in some way Copying = automatic fail

Writing tips • Structure to present an argument, discussing similar papers together • Do not list the papers and write separate reviews • Explain the useful information that each paper gives and compare and contrast to other similar papers • Build an argument that will support the main aim of your thesis • What you are doing/How you are going to do it/Why you are doing it • Show how what you are doing is different to what has been done before Copying = automatic fail

Exercise • Write a literature review for your chosen sub-area of your chosen topic. It should be a minimum of 2 sides of A4 (typed) and properly referenced (Harvard) • It does not need to be targeted at your research question because you do not have one yet [But use the first 2 parts of the 3 part structure] • As a practical consideration, you will not have time to get inter-library loans, so can focus on immediately available sources (e.g. Web, ACM) • Cover 5-10 papers for this assignment and the 20 most relevant for the main module assignment Copying = automatic fail

Exercise Structure Broad Topic Specialist sub-area Copying = automatic fail Use 3 headings: 1) Broad Topic, 2) Transition, 3) Sub-area

Main module assignment • Guidelines for literature review component • Like a funnel with a few broad papers to set the context for the area and then to narrow down to focus on a specific issue. • E.g. Intelligent Agents. • First level is what they are and what areas they are being used in (~5 papers) • Second layer is to pick one area and consider different types being used (~8-10) • Third layer would be highly focused on a specific issue within that area (e.g. primary research) (~5-7) Copying = automatic fail

Writing a Literature Review