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Justus J. RandolphWalden UniversityAshish Shrestha Milan Kumar Moktan Arjun Thapa MagarOverviewPurposesTaxonomy of literature reviewHow to conduct a literature reviewConducting Quantitative or Qualitative literature reviewMistakes commonly madeFramework for evaluation of literature review

What is Literature Review?It is a means of demonstrating an authors knowledge about a particular field of study, including vocabulary, theories, key variables and phenomena, and its methods and history.

A researcher cannot perform significant research without first understanding the literature in the field- Boote & Beile

According to Borg, and Gall(1996) estimate literature review completion takes between 2-3 months effort

Purpose For Writing Literature ReviewDemonstrating an authors knowledgeIdentification of a research familyTo publish the documentDelimiting the research programSeeking new lines of inquiryAvoiding fruitless approachesGaining methodological insightsIdentifying recommendation for further researchPurpose For Writing Literature ReviewDistinguishing what has been done from what needs to be doneDiscovering important variables relevant to the topicIdentifying relationships between ideas & practicesRationalizing the significance of the problemEnhancing and acquiring the subject vocabularyRelating ideas and theories to applicationsIdentifying the main methodology & researchPlacing the research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-art development

Taxonomy of Literature ReviewAn effective method to begin planning a research review is to consider where the proposed review fits into Coopers (1988) Taxonomy of Literature Reviews.

Taxonomy of Literature ReviewCharacteristicsCategoriesFocusResearch outcomesMethodTheoriesPractice or ApplicationsGoalIntegrationGeneralizationConflict ResolutionLinguistic bridge BuildingCriticismIdentification of central issuePerspectiveNeutral RepresentationEspousal of PositionTaxonomy of Literature ReviewCharacteristicsCategoriesCoverageExhaustiveExhaustive with selected citationRepresentativeCentral and PivotalOrganizationHistoricalConceptualMethodologicalAudienceSpecialized scholarsGeneral scholarsPractitioners or policymakersGeneral PublicHow to conduct a Literature Review?Problem FormulationData CollectionData EvaluationAnalysis and InterpretationPublic PresentationProblem FormulationDetermination of the questionInfluenced by the goal and focusEg. If goal is to integrate research outcomes:What is the effect of X on outcomes Y and Z?If goal is to analyze research methods: What research methods have been used in the past? What are the methodological flaws of those methods?Determination of the criteria for inclusion and exclusionWhich article will be included and which will be excludedInfluenced by focus, goals and coverageExplicit and comprehensive criteria must be made

Data CollectionGoal : to collect an exhaustive, representative, or pivotal set of articlesReviewer should describe the data collection procedure in detailSources: Directories, indexes and bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias and handbooks.Reviewer should consult with experts about the referencesCollection process can stop at the point of saturationReviewer must devise a system to further cull the collected articles

Data EvaluationReviewer starts extracting and evaluating the information in the articles.Type of data extraction depends on focus and goal of the review.If the focus is research outcome and goal is integration: one will extract research outcomes data from each article and decide how to integrate those outcomes.Reviewer should document the types of data extracted and process used; sometimes using coding book.

Data Analysis and InterpretationReviewer attempts to make sense of the extracted data.Quantitative, qualitative or mixed method will be performed. Public PresentationPrimary audience: dissertation supervisor and other dissertation reviewersSecondary audience: other scholarsReview can be revised to meet the needs of a more general audience.Formulating and Justifying Empirical Research QuestionsThe literature review, combined with the research problem, should lead to the formulation of empirical research questions.At this point dissertation author explain how the dissertation makes a meaningful contribution to knowledge in the field.Quantitative Literature ReviewsNarrative ReviewsEach study are described separatelyTend to be significantly affected by reviewers subjectivityConclusion can differ completely from another reviewsEven same articles are reviewedQuantitative Literature ReviewsMeta-Analytic ReviewsCollects a representative or comprehensive sampleCodes those articles according to aspectsE.g. study quality, measure used, study outcomesFind a common metric, to synthesize the outcomeExamine how the characteristics of a study covary with study outcomes

Meta analysis E.g.

Qualitative Literature ReviewsWhen body of literature is primarily qualitative, or contains a mixture of quantitative and qualitative results,Necessary to conduct qualitative reviewEither alone or as complement to quantitative reviewOgawa and Malen, 1991Phenomenological methodOgawa and Malen, 1991Create an audit trialDefine the focus of reviewSearch the relevant literatureClassify the documentsCreate the documentsIdentify constructs and hypothesized causal linkageSearch for contrary findings and rival interpretationUse colleagues or informants to corroborate findingsPhenomenological methodGiving meaningThick, rich descriptionBracketingCollecting dataIdentifying meaningful statementsMistakes in Literature ReviewDoes not clearly relate the findings Does not take enough time to define the best descriptors Relies on secondary sources rather than on primary sourcesUncritically accepts another researchers findingsDoes not report the search procedure that were used in reviewsDoes not consider contrary findings and alternative interpretationEvaluation of Literature Review23Thank you!