Research Methodology BE-5305

1. Research Methodology BE-5305 Literature Review

2. 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

3. Stages of Literature Review • Problem formulation • Literature Search • Data Evaluation • Analysis and Interpretation

4. 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

5. Consideration should be given to.. • Provenance- author’s credentials • Objectivity • Persuasiveness • Value

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Mind Mapping Green 1975 On x and y.. y x x no relp to y Relationship of x and y Black 1978 xy

13. Table Comparisons on ‘x’ and ‘y’

14. 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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