1 / 11

Doing A Literature Review Jeffrey Knopf

Doing A Literature Review Jeffrey Knopf. What is a literature review? A literature review summarizes and evaluates a body of writings about a specific topic. It should conclude how accurate and complete knowledge of that specific topic is. Three Contexts for Literature Reviews:

nixie
Download Presentation

Doing A Literature Review Jeffrey Knopf

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Doing A Literature Review Jeffrey Knopf What is a literature review? A literature review summarizes and evaluates a body of writings about a specific topic. It should conclude how accurate and complete knowledge of that specific topic is.

  2. Three Contexts for Literature Reviews: • As an end in and of itself, to survey what knowledge is out there. • As a preliminary stage in a larger research project. • As a component of a finished research report.

  3. Tips: • Plan to adjust your research topic based on what gaps, or debates, you find in the literature. • There is no specific number of number of writings that one should consider in a research review. The number varies, depending on the topic and its extant body of knowledge. • You will encounter two types of research; both are useful.

  4. Science: what is it? Science is a systematic enterprise of gathering knowledge about the world, and organizing and condensing that knowledge into testable laws and theories. Twobasicquestionsthatdefinescience: 1. Is it possible to devise an experimental test? 2. Do the scientific findings make the world more predictable? → If the answer to either of these two questions is no, then it isn't science.

  5. What is voodoo science? Three Different Forms of Voodoo Science: 1. Pathological science 2. Junk science 3. Pseudoscience

  6. Pathological science Scientists: • gather “evidence” (always at the very limit of detectability) • see what they expect to see • are immune to evidence that points to a contradictory result • fool themselves • isolate themselves from sceptics • Ex. John Newman and his “energy machine”

  7. Junk science Scientists: • Develop untenable theories, and produce little supporting evidence • Produce arguments that are specifically designed to deceive jurists and lawmakers, non-scientists • Ex. Daubertv Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (morning sickness drug caused birth defects)

  8. Pseudoscience Scientists: • lack evidence andfill in scientific uncertainty with views based on political or religious convictions • use superstitions to support theories • Ex. Mars Effect (career prediction based on which planet was rising when individual was born)

  9. DiscussionQuestions: 1. People say science is merely a reflection of cultural bias, and not a means of reaching objective truth. Do you agree or disagree?

  10. DiscussionQuestions: 2. Scientists are rarely willing to confront voodoo science. Do you think that they should? Why do you think that they should/shouldn’t?

  11. DiscussionQuestions: 3. Scientists generally believe that the cure for pseudoscience is to increase science literacy. Do you agree or disagree?

More Related