Research Methodology BE-5305

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Research Methodology BE-5305

• Literature Review

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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

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Stages of Literature Review

1. Problem formulation
2. Literature Search
3. Data Evaluation
4. Analysis and Interpretation

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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

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Consideration should be given to..

• Provenance- authors credentials
• Objectivity
• Persuasiveness
• Value

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 peoples work

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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
  Greens 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

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Mind Mapping

• On x and y..

Green 1975
y? x
x no relp to y
Relationship of x and y
Black 1978
x?y
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Table Comparisons on x and y
White 1987 Brown 1980, Black 1978 Green 1975)
x (main findings) x is x is x is x is
x?y y as a consequence of x y as a consequence of x y as a consequence of x
y?x x as a consequence of y
No rel.p x and y no effects on one another
Conclusions
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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?

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THE END