Unit-2

Reviewing the Literature

&
Research Design
 Reviewing the Literature
• A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic.
• It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing researcher to identify relevant
theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research.
• Writing a literature review involves finding relevant publications, critically analyzing
them, and explaining what you found.
• There are five key steps:
1. Search for relevant literature
2. Evaluate sources
3. Identify themes, debates and gaps
4. Outline the structure
5. Write your literature review
• A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources – it analyzes, synthesizes,
and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.
 The Place of the Literature Review in Research
• Reviewing the literature can be time consuming, daunting and frustrating, but it
is also rewarding.
• The literature review is an integral part of the research process and makes a
valuable contribution to almost every operational step.
• In the initial stages of research it helps you to establish the theoretical roots of
your study, clarify your ideas and develop your research methodology.
• Since an important responsibility in research is to compare your findings with
those of others, it is here that the literature review plays an extremely important
role.
• During the write-up of your report it helps you to integrate your findings with
existing knowledge that is, to either support or contradict earlier research.
• In summary, a literature review has the following functions:
1. It provides a theoretical background to your study.
2. It helps you establish the links between what you are proposing to examine
and what has already been studied.
3. It enables you to show how your findings have contributed to the existing
body of knowledge in your profession.
4. It helps you to integrate your research findings into the existing body of
knowledge.
 Bringing Clarity and Focus to Research Problem
• The literature review involves a inconsistency.
• On the one hand, researcher cannot effectively undertake a literature search
without some idea of the problem researcher wish to investigate.
• The literature review can play an extremely important role in shaping your
research problem because the process of reviewing the literature helps you to
understand the subject area better and thus helps you to conceptualize your
research problem clearly and precisely and makes it more relevant and pertinent
to your field of enquiry.
• When reviewing the literature researcher will learn what aspects of subject area
have been examined by others, what they have found out about these aspects,
what gaps they have identified and what suggestions they have made for further
research.
 Improving Research Methodology
• Going through the literature researcher familiarizes with the methodologies that
have been used by others to find answers to research questions similar to the one
you are investigating.
• A literature review tells researcher if others have used procedures and methods
similar to the ones that you are proposing, which procedures and methods have
worked well for them and what problems they have faced with them.
• By becoming aware of any problems and pitfalls, researcher will be better
positioned to select a methodology that is capable of providing valid answers to
research question.
• This will increase researcher confidence in the methodology, plan to use and will
equip the researcher to defend its use.
 Broadening Knowledge Base in Research Area
• The most important function of the literature review is to ensure the researcher
to read widely around the subject area in which they intend to conduct their
research study.
• It is important that researcher know what other researchers have found in regard
to the same or similar questions, what theories have been put forward and what
gaps exist in the relevant body of knowledge.
• When the researcher undertake a research project for a higher degree they are
expected to be an expert in their area of research.
• A thorough literature review helps them to fulfil their expectation.
• Another important reason for doing a literature review is that it helps researcher
to understand how the findings of their study fit into the existing body of
knowledge (Martin 1985: 30).
 Enabling Contextual Findings
• Obtaining answers to your research questions is comparatively easy: the difficult
part is examining how your findings fit into the existing body of knowledge.
• How do answers to the research questions compare with what others have found?
• What contribution have you been able to make to the existing body of
knowledge?
• How are your findings different from those of others?
• Undertaking a literature review will enable researchers to compare their findings
with those of others and answer their questions.
• It is important to place researcher findings in the context of what is already
known in their field of enquiry.
 How to Review the Literature
• If the researcher do not have a specific research problem, they should review the literature in
your broad area of interest with the aim of gradually narrowing it down to what researcher
want to find out about.
• There is a danger in reviewing the literature without having a reasonably specific idea of what
they want to study.
• It can condition their thinking about the study and the methodology they might use, resulting
in a less innovative choice of research problem and methodology than otherwise would have
been the case.
• Hence, researcher should try broadly to conceptualize their research problem before
undertaking your major literature review.
• There are four steps involved in conducting a literature review:
1. Searching for the existing literature in your area of study.
2. Reviewing the selected literature.
3. Developing a theoretical framework.
4. Developing a conceptual framework.
 searching the Existing Literature
• To search effectively for the literature in their field of enquiry, it is imperative
that they must have at least some idea of the broad subject area and of the
problem they wish to investigate, in order to set parameters for their search.

• There are three sources that Researcher can use to prepare a bibliography:

1. Books;

2. Journals;

3. The Internet.
 Reviewing the Selected Literature
• Once researcher develop a rough framework, slot the findings from the material so far reviewed into
these themes, using a separate sheet of paper for each theme of the framework so far developed.
• As researcher read further, go on slotting the information where it logically belongs under the themes
so far developed.
• While going through the literature researcher should carefully and critically examine it with respect to
the following aspects:
1. Note whether the knowledge relevant to their theoretical framework which has been confirmed
beyond doubt.
2. Note the theories put forward, the criticisms of these and their basis, the methodologies adopted i.e.
study design, sample size and its characteristics, measurement procedures, etc. and the criticisms of
them.
3. Examine to what extent the findings can be generalised to other situations.
4. Notice where there are significant differences of opinion among researchers and give opinion about
the validity of these differences.
5. Ascertain the areas in which little or nothing is known - the gaps that exist in the body of
knowledge.
 Developing a Theoretical Framework
• Examining the literature can be a never ending task, but as you have limited
time it is important to set parameters by reviewing the literature in relation to
some main themes pertinent to their research topic.
• As they start reading the literature, they will soon discover that the problem they
wish to investigate has its roots in a number of theories that have been
developed from different perspectives.
• The information obtained from different books and journals now needs to be
sorted under the main themes and theories, highlighting agreements and
disagreements among the authors and identifying the unanswered questions or
gaps.
• Researchers will also realize that the literature deals with a number of aspects
that have a direct or indirect bearing on their research topic.
• Review of the literature should sort out the information, within this framework.
• Theoretical framework provides a guide as they read.

• Literature pertinent to their study may deal with two types of information:

1. Universal;

2. More specific i.e. local trends or a specific programme.

• In writing about such information they should start with the general information,
gradually narrowing it down to the specific.
 Developing a Conceptual Framework
• The conceptual framework is the basis of for the research problem.

• It stems from the theoretical framework and usually focuses on the sections
which become the basis of study.

• Whereas the theoretical framework consists of the theories or issues in which

study is embedded, the conceptual framework describes the aspects which is
selected from the theoretical framework to become the basis of enquiry.

• The conceptual framework grows out of the theoretical framework and relates to
the specific research problem.
 Writing About the Literature Reviewed
• In order to comply with the first function of literature review is to provide theoretical
background to researcher study: -List the main themes that have emerged while reading
literature. -Convert them into subheadings.
• These subheadings should be precise, descriptive of the theme in question, and follow a
logical progression.
• Now, under each subheading, record the main findings with respect to the theme in
question, highlighting the reasons for and against an argument if they exist, and
identify gaps and issues.
• In order to comply with the second function of literature review i.e. contextualizing the
findings of their study- requires systematically compare their findings with those made
by others.
• Quote from these studies to show how your findings contradict, confirm or add to
them.
• It places researcher findings in the context of what others have found out. This function
is undertaken when writing about their findings i.e. after analysis of your data.
 Meaning of Research Design
• Decisions regarding what, where, when, how much, by what means concerning an inquiry or a research study constitute a
research design.
• “A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine
relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure.
• More explicitly, the design decisions happen to be in respect of:
1. What is the study about?
2. Why is the study being made?
3. Where will the study be carried out?
4. What type of data is required?
5. Where can the required data be found?
6. What periods of time will the study include?
7. What will be the sample design?
8. What techniques of data collection will be used?
9. How will the data be analysed?
10. In what style will the report be prepared?
• one may split the overall research design into the following parts:
a) The sampling design which deals with the method of selecting items to be observed for
the given study;
b) The observational design which relates to the conditions under which the observations are
to be made;
c) The statistical design which concerns with the question of how many items are to be
observed and how the information and data gathered are to be analysed; and
d) The operational design which deals with the techniques by which the procedures specified
in the sampling, statistical and observational designs can be carried out.
• The important features of a research design as under:
1. It is a plan that specifies the sources and types of information relevant to the research
problem.
2. It is a strategy specifying which approach will be used for gathering and analysing the data.
3. It also includes the time and cost budgets since most studies are done under these two
constraints.
 Need For Research Design
• Research design is needed because it facilitates the smooth sailing of the various
research operations, thereby making research as efficient as possible yielding maximal
information with minimal expenditure of effort, time and money.
• Research design stands for advance planning of the methods to be adopted for
collecting the relevant data and the techniques to be used in their analysis, keeping in
view the objective of the research and the availability of staff, time and money.
• Preparation of the research design should be done with great care as any error in it may
upset the entire project.
• Research design, in fact, has a great bearing on the reliability of the results arrived at
and as such constitutes the firm foundation of the entire edifice of the research work.
• It is, therefore, imperative that an efficient and appropriate design must be prepared
before starting research operations.
• The design helps the researcher to organize his ideas in a form whereby it will be
possible for him to look for flaws and inadequacies.
 Features of a Good Design
• A good design is often characterised by adjectives like flexible, appropriate,
efficient, economical and so on.
• A design may be quite suitable in one case, but may be found wanting in one
respect or the other in the context of some other research problem.
• One single design cannot serve the purpose of all types of research problems.
• A research design appropriate for a particular research problem, usually involves
the consideration of the following factors:
1. The means of obtaining information;
2. The availability and skills of the researcher and his staff, if any;
3. The objective of the problem to be studied;
4. The nature of the problem to be studied; and
5. The availability of time and money for the research work.
• If the research study happens to be an exploratory or a formulative one, wherein
the major emphasis is on discovery of ideas and insights, the research design
most appropriate must be flexible enough to permit the consideration of many
different aspects of a phenomenon.

• But when the purpose of a study is accurate description of a situation or of an

association between variables or in what are called the descriptive studies,
accuracy becomes a major consideration and a research design which minimizes
bias and maximizes the reliability of the evidence collected is considered a good
design.
 Important Concepts Relating to Research Design
• Dependent and independent variables:
• A concept which can take on different quantitative values is called a variable.
• As such the concepts like weight, height, income are all examples of variables.
• Qualitative phenomena (or the attributes) are also quantified on the basis of the presence or
absence of the concerning attribute(s).
• Extraneous variable:
• Independent variables that are not related to the purpose of the study, but may affect the
dependent variable are termed as extraneous variables.
• Suppose the researcher wants to test the hypothesis that there is a relationship between
children’s gains in social studies achievement and their self-concepts.
• Whatever effect is noticed on dependent variable as a result of extraneous variable(s) is
technically described as an ‘experimental error’.
• A study must always be so designed that the effect upon the dependent variable is attributed
entirely to the independent variable(s), and not to some extraneous variable or variables.
• Control:
• One important characteristic of a good research design is to minimize the
influence or effect of extraneous variable(s).
• The technical term ‘control’ is used when we design the study minimising the
effects of extraneous independent variables.
• In experimental researches, the term ‘control’ is used to refer to restrain
experimental conditions.
• Confounded Relationship:
• When the dependent variable is not free from the influence of extraneous
variable(s), the relationship between the dependent and independent variables is
said to be confounded by an extraneous variable(s).
• Research Hypothesis:
• When a prediction or a hypothesized relationship is to be tested by scientific methods,
it is termed as research hypothesis.
• The research hypothesis is a predictive statement that relates an independent variable
to a dependent variable.
• Usually a research hypothesis must contain, at least, one independent and one
dependent variable.
• Experimental and non-experimental hypothesis-testing research:
• When the purpose of research is to test a research hypothesis, it is termed as
hypothesis-testing research.
• It can be of the experimental design or of the non-experimental design.
• Research in which the independent variable is manipulated is termed ‘experimental
hypothesis-testing research’ and a research in which an independent variable is not
manipulated is called ‘non-experimental hypothesis-testing research’.
• Experimental and control groups:
• In an experimental hypothesis-testing research when a group is exposed to usual conditions, it is termed a
‘control group’, but when the group is exposed to some novel or special condition, it is termed an ‘experimental
group’.
• Treatments:
• The different conditions under which experimental and control groups are put are usually referred to as
‘treatments’.
• Experiment:
• The process of examining the truth of a statistical hypothesis, relating to some research problem, is known as an
experiment.
• Experiments can be of two types viz., absolute experiment and comparative experiment. If we want to determine
the impact of a fertilizer on the yield of a crop, it is a case of absolute experiment; but if we want to determine the
impact of one fertilizer as compared to the impact of some other fertilizer, our experiment then will be termed as
a comparative experiment.
• Experimental unit(s):
• The pre-determined plots or the blocks, where different treatments are used, are known as experimental units.
• Such experimental units must be selected very carefully.