HOW TO REVİEW THE LİTERATURE

BUSN 364 – Week 8Özge Can

Today’s Outline:

Goals of a literature review What is literature Where to find it and what it contains Techniques for systematically conducting

a review How to write a review

Basics...

Are there any past studies relevant to your research topic and question?

The logic of literature review: Knowledge accumulates (principle of

science) We can learn from and build on what

others have done

Goals of a Literature Review: To demonstrate a familiarity with a

body of knowledge To integrate and summarize what is

known in an area To show the path of prior research

and how a current project is linked to it

To learn from others and stimulate new ideas

Where to Find Literature Review? You can find reports of research studies

in several formats:

Periodicals Scholarly journal articles Books Dissertations Government documents Policy reports and presented papers

Periodicals

Newspapers, popular magazines, Internet news, tv or radio broadcasts

Google

Not complete, full reports of research studies Selected, condensed summaries for general

audience We need to move from these popular, lay

sources and rely on serious scholarly publications

Where do professional researchers present their study results? In one of the following forms:

Articles in scholarly journals Academic research books Chapters in edited academic books

Papers presented in professional meetings/ academic conferences

Scholarly Journals

The primary source to use for a literature review

Contain peer-reviewed reports of research in an academic field Criticized and reviewed by other professional

researchers. As a result of this review, they are either accepted or rejected by the journal.

The heart of scientific communication system Specialized on certain topics (e.g. Law and

Politics, Annual Review of Psychology)

Scholarly Journals

Full text of some scholarly journal articles available on internet Google Scholar (Google Akademik) But usually access from internet is limited and

require subscription fees

Best and easiest way to reach them => Online article search engines at your library Academic databases: Proquest, EBSCO

HOST, ...

Scholarly Journals

Citation => details of a scholarly publication’s location that helps people to find it quickly

Abstract => A short summary of a scholarly journal article that appears ath its beginning

Citation - Example:

Citation in APA Style: Ruef, M., and Patterson, K. (2009).

Credit and Classification: The Impact of Industry Boundaries in Nineteenth-century America. Administrative Science Quarterly 54, 486-520.

Abstract - Example:

Books

Best type of books for literature review: containing reports of original research

or collections of them You should distinguish this type of books

from other books (e.g. textbooks, encyclopedias, story books, novels, fiction)

Libraries have research-related books: Citation info for them available in the library’s

catalog system

Dissertations and Government Documents

Dissertation => A work of original research completed in order to receive doctor of philosophy (Ph.D) degree Specialized indexes listing dissertations YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi

Government documents => Turkish government, governments of other countries, United Nations, World Bank, OECD.

Policy Reports and Presented Papers Policy Reports => published by

research institutes, policy centers and other relevant associations

Presented Papers => Research presented in annual academic meetings (conferences). Lots of researchers assemble to give,

listen to or discuss recent research Written papers as well as oral

presentation

How You Can Access to Literature Online?

Yaşar University – Information Center: http://bm.yasar.edu.tr/ Catalog Search:

http://kutuphane.yasar.edu.tr/yordam.htm

Databases: http://bm.yasar.edu.tr/?page_id=92

Google Akademik (Google Scholar): http://scholar.google.com.tr/

Google Kitaplar (Google Books): http://books.google.com.tr/

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How to Conduct a Literature Review?

1. Define and refine the topic A clearly defined, well-focused research

question

2. Design/plan the review Planning the review strategy: its

extensiveness, types of mateirlas to include, how much tome you have, number of research that you’ll examine

3. Locate the research reports Scholarly journals, books, other

How to Evaluate Research Articles? After you locate a published study,

you need to read and evaluate it!

1. Examine the title2. Read the abstract3. Read the article4. Take notes about the study

How to Take Notes?

As you discover new sources, you may want to create two types of files: a source file => only bibliographic citations a content file => summary of hypotheses

tested, study’s major findings, its methodology, key concepts and their measurement, the sample used, ideas for future studies

Then you organize them: How these findings fit together? What are the gaps and interesting questions?

Use of Internet for Research Advantages:

Easy, fast and cheap Has “links” that provide additional ways

to find and connect to other sources of information

Greatly speeds the flow of information Provides access to a vast range of

information sources, in very dynamic and interesting formats

Use of Internet for Research Disadvantages:

No quality control over what can be put on the Internet! No standards of academic publications, no review process May be poor quality, incomplete, highly biased or

invented fiction It takes skills to distinguish the “trash” from valid

information Many excellent sources are not available on Internet Findings sources can be time consuming Sources can be “unstable” and difficult to document

Next Week – Assignment #3:

Go to the database access page of YÜ Bilgi Merkezi website. Choose a database for your field of study, such as EBSCOhost, JSTOR or Science Direct. If given the options to limit your search, select journal articles only (referee or peer-reviewed), not books, book reviews, etc.

Enter your search term. Read the abstracts of the first few pages of results. Depending on the database and your default settings, you may need to click on the titles to see the abstracts.

List the 10 articles (in APA citation format) that you would like to read as sources for a potential study on your research topic

Next Week – Team Project:First part of your team project: You have to formulate and propose a research

hypothesis coming from a certain theory/ theoretical orientation.

Since we briefly introduced the types of research methods (experiment, survey, field research, etc.), you should also tentatively suggest a method of research for this proposed hypothesis.

Take special consideration in identifying the independent variable, dependent variable, level of analysis, direction of analysis (inductive/deductive) and whether this research is basic or applied.

Next Week:

Please read the rest of Chapter 5:Conducting Ethical Studies