literature review - utm aisais.utm.my/researchportal/files/2014/10/lr-n2-part-1.pdf · (uma sekaran...
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Literature Review
Compiled by:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Azizah Abdul Rahman & Dr Nor Zairah Ab Rahim
Edited (Sept 201) by:
PM Wardah Zainal Abidin
"A long, healthy, and happy life is the result
of making contributions, of having
meaningful projects that are personally
exciting and contribute to and bless the
lives of others."
Hans Selye
Sources
Central Queensland University Library
Writing Support, University of Toronto
Doing Literature Review, Chris Hart, Sage Publication, 1998.
MIS Research Methodology Class 2004
Prof. Madya Dr. Juhana Salim, UKM
Tom Cooper, Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Kelvin Grove
The classical thesis structure
INTRODUCTION What I want to do
LITERATURE What others say about it
DESIGN My plan for doing it
RESULTS What happened when I did it
DISCUSSION What this means
CONCLUSIONS What I found out
General definition
Literature survey is the documentation of a
comprehensive review of the published and
unpublished work from secondary sources of
data in the areas of specific interest to the researcher
(Uma Sekaran 2003)
What is LR? an essential early step in the research process
◦ it is used to find out what is already known about a question before trying to answer it
an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers
A discussion of your knowledge about the topic under study an evaluative report of information found in the literature
related to your selected area of study (to support the knowledge)
review should describe, summarise, evaluate and clarify this literature
A foundation for the study Your review of the literature will continue until the research
report (paper, thesis) is submitted
Why LR?
to identify gaps in the literature
to avoid reinventing the wheel (at the very least this will save time and it can stop you from making the same mistakes as others)
to carry on from where others have already reached (reviewing the field allows you to build on the platform of existing knowledge and ideas)
to identify other people working in the same fields (a researcher network is a valuable resource)
Cont….Why LR?
to increase your breadth of knowledge of your subject area
to provide the intellectual context for your own work, enabling you to position your project relative to other work
to identify opposing views
to put your work into perspective
to demonstrate that you can access previous work in an area
to identify information and ideas that may be relevant to your project
to identify methods that could be relevant to your project
Types of Literature Review
self-study reviews
◦ demonstrate familiarity and learn from others
◦ increases the reader‟s confidence
context reviews
◦ creates links to a developing body of
knowledge
◦ establishes the significance and relevance of a
research project
Cont…Types of Literature Review
historical reviews
◦ shows the development of an idea or theory
over time
◦ only used on the most important ideas
theoretical reviews
◦ presents and evaluates different theories
◦ may integrate and extend theories
Cont…Types of Literature Review
integrative reviews
◦ presents the current state of knowledge
◦ provides a service to other researchers
methodological reviews
◦ evaluation of the methodological strength of
past studies
◦ a meta-analysis critically examines the findings of
a large number of research projects
Guiding principles
There will probably be more pieces of information about a topic area than you can read/understand during the period of your research
Find the seminal/key works: ◦ „chaining‟ – who does everyone cite?
◦ About 10 papers and 3 books about an area
◦ Research topic, methodology & theories = about 30 papers + 9 books should be investigated thoroughly (Leslie Willcocks)
◦ Also latest (3-5 years from the current year) work/soon to be published (conferences, network with key researchers)
Planning a literature search
DEFINE THE TOPIC
THINK ABOUT THE SCOPE OF
THE TOPIC
THINK ABOUT OUTCOMES
RECORD KEEPING
PLAN SOURCES TO BE
SEARCHED & SEARCH
RELEVANT SOURCES
Planning the search
1. Plan several blocks of time so that you
can immerse yourself in the search process
2. Identify your types of source
3. Decide on your search terms
4. Decide how to record the findings
Stages in developing a
literature review Selecting the topic
Setting the topic in context
Looking at information sources
Using information sources
Getting the information
Organising information (information management)
Positioning the literature review
Writing the literature review
Selecting the topic
can information be gathered locally?
are you in a position to travel to use various sources?
what are your interests and will this interest be maintained for the duration of the research?
who will be interested in this research ?
is it sufficiently interesting to keep you, the author, working for the next 2 – 3 – 4 years?
is the scope wide enough to be able to ascertain a particular niche?
is the scope so broad that it will lose direction?
does it involve technology that is readily available?
is training in technology and / or software readily available?
Setting the topic in context
For the topic to grow there must also be a context and this is influenced by existing knowledge.
The role of the literature review is to analyse the existing literature and give justification as to how your research will fit into the existing body of knowledge
allows the author to demonstrate how his research is linked to prior efforts and how it extends our understanding of this general line of scholarly inquiry
Looking at information sources
need to consult a wide range of
information sources
◦ Informal sources: peers, colleagues, other
researchers, your Faculty Liaison Librarian,
and your supervisor
◦ formal sources: books, journals - scholarly,
popular, research papers, world wide web,
bibliographies, encyclopedias
Using information sources
Defining the information need and stating it as a question ◦ what is the appropriate technique for…?
Breaking the need into its component parts
Identifying synonyms and prioritizing keywords
Searching specific sources
Evaluating the information
Evaluating the search process (adapted from Constructing a Search Strategy, Duffel, 1995).
Academic Journals
the most important research outlet
◦ Rigorous refereeing process
◦ Wide distribution
the lead time for publication in high quality
journals may be more than 2 years from first
submission date
many information systems journals have appeared
during the last 10 years – quality?
Sources of data
Tertiary literature sources
Secondary literature sources (sometime outdated)
◦ Books
◦ Journals
◦ Newspapers
Primary literature sources (more recent)
◦ Conference papers
◦ Research reports and theses
◦ Company reports
Media
◦ Paper
◦ Video and radio broadcasts
◦ The Internet- ???
Some Academic Journals
top IS journals are:
◦ MIS Quarterly
◦ IS Research
◦ European Journal of IS
◦ Information Systems Journal (ISJ)
◦ Journal MIS
◦ Journal of Strategic IS
◦ Management Science
…
Looking at information sources:
identify parent disciplines
go to leading journals and search for the recent issues for the latest information on the topic area. Use the references in those articles, and for "snowballing" - bouncing back and going through the history of the topic area.
From these articles it is possible to recognise names that reappear. They are often the leading people in the field.
This is necessary because when an examiner looks at a literature review they will expect to see certain leading names.
Conferences
The most up-to-date research outlet Some conferences have rigorous refereeing
(check acceptance rate) ◦ note difference between research papers,
research in progress & posters
The top IS conferences include: ◦ ICIS and ECIS
◦ HICSS, PACIS
◦ ACIS
Books
Be cautious when using books
Some books contain original research
◦ eg. Weber, R. (1997) Ontological Foundations
of Information Systems, Coopers and Lybrand,
Melbourne
◦ or collections of research articles, often
selected from the best papers at a particular
conference
Eg IFIP 8.2 Conferences
615-610 JCarroll
Theses
a thesis is the output of a research degree, usually a PhD
a bound copy of the thesis is kept in the university library
these may be found through indexes ◦ eg MISQ index
copies may also be ordered from central copying services ◦ eg, UMI (Proquest)
http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/browse/89
◦ British Thesis Service
Government Documents
reports are published from government
sponsored research projects
can be purchased from government
publishing services
may be found in university libraries
of varying quality
Trade Journals and Research
Reports not refereed and therefore of uncertain
quality
up-to-date and therefore important for
some research projects
commercial research reports (eg. Gartner,
IDC) are intended for practitioners
The Web
some sites provide excellent bibliographies (eg ISWorldNet)
very uneven quality
◦ some on-line journals are refereed and of good quality
◦ much material on the web is of dubious quality and should be treated with caution
◦ internet sources can be “unstable” and difficult to document
“Internet is a powerful complement to Scientific literature research but relying on it exclusively is not enough”