Title: Literature%20Review
1Literature Review
- How not to reinvent the wheel
2What is a literature review?
- A brief review of existing knowledge in an area
as it relates to your topic of study. It is
organized as an argument in favor of a given
research study, explaining why it should be
undertaken and how it will contribute to our
knowledge on a given topic - A reader should come to the conclusion that your
proposed research will shed light on an important
topic/concern.
3Literature review
- Consists of
- A search for information regarding the chosen
topic - Quality of information
- Quantity of information
- A thoughtful analysis of the content identified
in the first step - Organization
- An essay written based on that analysis
- The steps overlap
4How do you approach a literature review?
- Develop a general understanding of the topic
- Identify major theories, research streams
- Identify subject terms and important language
relating to your topic - Search library catalogs and databases for quality
information on the topic - Supplement scholarly information with news and
popular culture sources
5- 5. Organize the material for presentation
- 6. Write the review, edit, rewrite, edit again,
etc. until the final piece is well-written,
succinct and compelling
6Important information to make your life easier
- You can download a citation manager/database
software program from UK for free - Endnote X2 for your appropriate operating system
- http//download.uky.edu/
7General sources Encyclopedias
8Handbooks
- Somewhat more hit-and-miss than an encyclopedia
- However, articles tend to be more in-depth and to
cover research better
9Consider a textbook
- Textbooks on the topic area can be useful as well
10Yearbooks, annual reviews
11Take-away from general sources
- A basic understanding of the topic of interest
- A set of sources for further, more in-depth
reading
12Books
- Range from popular books aimed at a general
audience to scholarly books that are advanced and
demanding - Abstracts and book reviews help you determine
whether a book is too general or too advanced and
demanding for your needs
13Search library catalogs and databases for quality
information on the topic
- Go to the Library web page
- Choose either
- Or
14Identify subject terms, important language of the
field or study topic
- Examine the library catalog entries for subject
terms that relate to those books and articles
that you find most useful - Keep a list of terms for use in searches
- Write down important terms from abstracts,
headings and subheadings in your reading
15For books
- Search the catalog
- Scholarly books on a topic are
- most likely to provide a comprehensive treatment
of your topic - most likely to develop a fully laid-out
theoretical argument - often out of date compared to articles
- not subject to the type of peer review that
articles are
16Edited books
- Some books are a compilation of reviews of
important topics within a larger subject area - Chapters are written by experts on particular
topics and are reviewed by the editors of the
volume to see that they meet high standards
17(No Transcript)
18For articles
- Go to the database page
- Find an appropriate database to search for
articles - I usually pick resources organized by subject and
then scroll to Communications and hit submit - Communication and Mass Media Complete
- This database provides citations from a great
number of media-related journals, usually with a
short abstract. You can download full-text (pdf)
files from several of the periodicals.
19For articles
- You can search using the subject terms you kept
from the earlier citations - Limit your searches around the terms to try to
find the best sources first - You can limit the search to scholarly
(peer-reviewed) and/or full-text articles - Expand if you dont get enough cites at first
20For articles
- Boolean logic
- And v. or v. not
- Use of selected fields
- Some fields are quite restrictive (title) while
others not at all restrictive (all text)
21An example Cultivation
- Type cultivation in blank and require that it
be included in the abstract - or
- authority in all text and television in
abstract
22For articles
- You could also find one or more of the articles
cited in the overall reviews you looked at
earlier - Then use the subject terms for the best articles
- Or else look for the authors of the overall
reviews and see what they have written
23For articles
- When you have found some good articles and are
reading them, you should be able to identify
sources the authors used that would help your
review - Carry on a fan-out searchlook up the sources
from the bibliographies of the best articles - In several of the databases you can
electronically link to cited sources and can even
save full-text versions of those articles
24Reviews in academic journals
- Some journals will carry review articles or
overviews of a topic area - Use review or overview as a search term in an
appropriate database along with topic-specific
terms - Holmstrom, A. J. (2004). The effects of the media
on body image A meta-analysis. Journal of
Broadcasting Electronic Media, 48, 196-217.
25Dont be skimpy
- When you are starting out its easier to collect
too much and shed whats unnecessary than to have
to make multiple searches - As the literature review progresses and you know
what you need, you can more narrowly tailor the
follow-up searches and keep only the best content
for use in the review
26Supplement scholarly information with news and
popular culture sources
- Though they generally are not as well thought-out
or accurate, popular sources can provide
examples, interesting angles and/or update your
findings from the academic literature
27- Websites of organizations involved with your
topic (may do their own research, develop white
papers, etc.) - Pew Center
- Newspaper/newsmagazine sites are available with
helpful (and easily readable) stories about many
topics of interest - Library databases provide many full-text
newspapers and popular magazines
28NOTE
- Go to news, popular magazine, or WWW sources
AFTER you have done a good job mining the
scholarly literature. Youll be more efficient
that way, and will be able to critique the
sources you find more effectively. - Admittedly, some of the most recent or technical
topics may call for more use of news and popular
culture
29Organize the material for presentation
- Develop an outline!! (And then follow it).
- Dont do the train of consciousness thing.
What seems perfectly rational and sensible to you
will turn out to be full of logical holes, leaps
of faith and self-contradictory logic.
30Writing the review
- Lay out your argument in step-by-step fashion and
then place the evidence you have found where it
fits on the outline. - Do some of your claims lack support?
- Are some arguments especially controversial?
- These require the most background
31Write the review, edit, rewrite, edit again, etc.
until the final piece is organized, succinct and
compelling
- Presentation counts! Spelling, usage, structure,
organizationthey all matter in how well your
ideas are presented. You are trying to convince
the reader of something. A well-written,
articulate argument is more convincing.
32NOTE
- One of the most common shortcomings of research
studies is that the researcher does not write a
good literature review. Putting in the effort
during the conceptualization stage will be
rewarded during operationalization and
interpretation. Your write-up will be faster and
higher quality.