4 EMM5100 Literature Review

EMM5100 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Literature Review
Introduction
The essence of a Literature Review is a survey of what has been written about your
research topic; “a systematic review of the published work about the topic of your
study”.
Any research project builds on previous research.
Without searching for previous research, any new research is likely to:
???
What is a Literature Review?
A critical element of the research.
A database or compilation of the research that has been published on a topic by
recognized scholars and researchers
Literature' can include a range of sources:
 Journal articles
 Monographs/books
 Conference proceedings
 Dissertations/thesis
 Government reports and reports from other bodies etc.
A literature review is a critical examination of material already in the field of research.
Research is about building up the evidence base, so it is important to add to this.
Purpose of Literature Review
 To establish the importance of the research topic
 To provide background information needed to understand the study being conducted
 To justify your choice of research questions, theoretical or conceptual framework, and
method
 To show readers you are familiar with significant and/or up-to-date research relevant
to the topic
 To provide insight to research methods which have been employed in previous
studies
 To establish your study as one link in a chain of research that is developing
knowledge in your field
Aims of Literature Review
Researchers should make the literature Idea
review as extensive as possible.
The review should help researchers to: Literature Review
 Limit the problem area

Problem and
 Define the problem Hypotheses
 Avoid unnecessary repetition
System
 Search for new approaches Experiment / Analysis
(Prototype)
 Recommend suitable methods
Theory / paper
(new knowledge)
Phase of Literature Review
1. Bird-Eye-View
 Serves to generate ideas and select a working topic.
 Read to increase knowledge of content and methodologies.
 This is more like a scanning process.
 At this stage, the existing literature serve as a guide to determining
the extent of research.
 Present understanding and conclusions.
 In addition, it is a way to determine gaps in research.
(Contd.)
2. Assessing
 To answer more focused questions.
 What are major issues?
 Where are the parameters normally research for?
 Where are the gaps?
 Who are the major researchers?
 What can be found to support a research problem?
(Contd.)
3. Integrating / Comprehensive Critique
 Assessment of specific works, detail analysis of the trends,
concurrent and disagreements, and includes firm evidence to support
the research.
Plan for Obtaining Literature
 Keywords
 Preliminary sources
 Primary sources
 Secondary sources
 Consultations
 Contacts
(Contd.)
Keywords
 Compile a list of keywords or terms that relate specifically to the
research problem.
Preliminary sources
 Using the keywords to check the preliminary
sources for references:
 catalogue
 indexes
 abstracts
 bibliographies
 annotated bibliographies
(Contd.)
Primary sources
 Locate research reports written specifically about the research
problem
 Journal Articles
 Research Reports
 Collective Works
 Conference Papers/Proceedings
 Locate other primary sources for information on research design and
methodology.
Secondary sources
 Locate textbooks, articles and other secondary sources.
 Check secondary sources for relevance and background information.
(Contd.)
Consultations
 Consult the librarian for information about the collection, online
resources and cataloguing procedures.
 Discuss the research problem with specialists and colleagues.
Contacts
 Write to organisation and/or institutions that may have an interest in
the research problem and be able to supply information or additional
contacts.
 From the survey of primary sources, contact any person who may
have conducted research in the area, if it is felt that this may be
useful.
How to Read a Research Paper?
 What are motivations for this work?
 People problem. The people problem is the desired benefits at large; e.g.
some issue of quality of life, such as saved time or increased safety.
 Technical problem. There is also an implication that previous solutions to
the problem are inadequate. What are the previous solutions and why are
they inadequate?
 What is the proposed solution?

 This is also called the hypothesis or idea.
 There should also be an answer to the question why is the solution to the
problem better than previous solutions?
 There should also be a discussion about how the solution is achieved
(designed and implemented) or is at least achievable.
(Contd.)
 What is the work's evaluation of the proposed solution?
 What argument, implementation, and/or experiment makes the case for
the value of the ideas? What benefits or problems are identified?
 What is your analysis of the identified problem, idea and evaluation?

 Is this a good idea?
 What flaws do you perceive in the work?
 What are the most interesting points made?
 What are the most controversial ideas or points made?
 For work that has practical implications, you also want to ask:
• Is this really going to work, who would want it, what it will take to
give it to them, and when might it become a reality?
(Contd.)
 What are the contributions?
 The contributions in a paper may be many and varied.
 Beyond the insights on the research question, a few additional
possibilities include: ideas, software, experimental techniques, or an area
survey.
 What are future directions for this research?

 Not only what future directions do the authors identify, but what ideas did
you come up with while reading the paper?
 Sometimes these may be identified as shortcomings or other critiques in
the current work.
(Contd.)
 Research Methods, Materials and Experimental Design
 Do the sampling methods allow the author to generalize the findings?
 Were the methods of data collection ethical and proper?
 Are appropriate charts and graphs provided for clear communication of
the results?
 Are the appropriate statistics used?
 How is missing data handled?
 Conclusions
 Is the data interpreted in a manor that supports or rejects the hypothesis?
 Does the author compare results to the findings of others?
 Are the strengths and weaknesses of the study discussed?
 Are specific recommendations for further research given?
 What still needs to be discovered?
How to Cite Other People Works?
 Paraphrasing
The objective of paraphrasing are:

 To show your reader that you understand the research
literature.
 You are able to synthesize and evaluate it and compare,
analyze and draw analytical conclusions.
You do that through careful mining of the original research and by
carefully reporting what you have read and what it all means.
“You don’t show that by plagiarizing”

(Contd.)
 Remember two key-points:
1. You must show the source of your work in text citation.

2. Simply changing a couple of words here or there is not
paraphrasing.
“The more you paraphrasing, the more

you show you understand something”
(Contd.)
Overusing quotes suggests to your reader that you might not understand
the original.
Paraphrasing shows that you ‘get it’.
But sometimes direct quotes do work:

When something is said ‘perfectly’.
When you want to reveal something about the writer or speaker.
“By the way, read the whole article or

related subtopic, not only the abstract”
(Contd.)
Example:
Original author
In designing separation system, a number of important operating conditions for
specific application must be identified. The final design must be complied with certain
standard before start up of the system.
Student
In designing separation system, a number of important operating conditions for
specific application must be identified. The final design must be complied with certain
standard before start up of the system.
Here the student copied the original word for word, with no attribution to the
original author. This is plagiarism.
Paraphrasing
Skorczewski (2000)
Papers that explore the limitations on individual opportunity in the United States assert the
possibility of beating the odds; arguments about multiple identities urge us to find our true
selves; discussion of socially constructed knowledge conclude that we each invent our own
ideas every day. How can it be the students write for pages about the complexities of
institutional power, multiple identities, and situated knowledge and then refute what they have
discussed in a trite or overused phrase?
Student revised paraphrase

Skorczewski (2000) wrote of students’ baffling way of contradicting themselves when writing
about tension between personal and communal identity. On the other hand, they seem to
believe in the importance and preeminence of institutional power and multiple identities,
sometimes writing pages on such issue-only to contradict themselves with cliches such as “if
we try hard enough, we will succeed”.
How to Avoid Plagiarism?
 Do not look at the original while you are typing.
 Think about what you read. Then try typing it in your own words.
 Avoid a thesaurus-like, sentence by sentence restatement of the original.
What did the author assert? What was his or her evidence? How does that
compare and contrast to what other researchers have found?
Writing the Text of the LR
What should be done?
 Complete - ensure that all the necessary information relating to the
research problem is included.
 Correct - ensure that all quotations, facts and figures are accurate and
verifiable.
 Clear - ensure that words and terms used in the descriptions are
unambiguous.
 Coherent - ensure that ideas are arranged in a logical sequence.
 Concise - ensure that the review is an appropriate length considering the
overall length of the paper.

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EMM5100 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Any research project builds on previous research.

The review should help researchers to: Literature Review

 Limit the problem area

 What is the proposed solution?

 What is your analysis of the identified problem, idea and evaluation?

 What are future directions for this research?

The objective of paraphrasing are:

“You don’t show that by plagiarizing”

1. You must show the source of your work in text citation.

“The more you paraphrasing, the more

Paraphrasing shows that you ‘get it’.

But sometimes direct quotes do work:

“By the way, read the whole article or

Student revised paraphrase

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