• Chapter 3

• Review of Existing Knowledge

 Points of Focus
• Introduction
• Background
• Purpose
• Uses of literature review
• Steps in literature review
• Approaches in organizing a literature review
• Evaluating literature review
• Plagiarism
• Citation
 Introduction
• The Research Process
1. Selecting a Topic – Research Topic
2. Determining the Problem (Preliminary Literature Review) – Research
Problem
3. Determining Research Gaps – Research Gaps
4. Determining the Hypotheses (Prelim. Literature Review) – Research
Hypotheses
5. Determining the Objectives – Research Objectives
6. Determining the Question – Research Question
7. Detailed Review of Literature – Literature Review
8. Determining Research Framework
9. Designing the Research – Research Design
10. Collecting Data – Research Data Collection
11. Analyzing and Interpreting Data – Research Analysis and Conclusion
12. Informing Others – Research Write Up and Publishing
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 How does literature relate to
research?
• Any research study, inductive or deductive
undertaken for academic purpose always
require a review of relevant literature
• The review must be critical not just a
description of what others said
• Anyone can ask a few people to fill in a
questionnaire, but not everyone can make
sense of the answers!
 Literature review: Background
• A literature review surveys, summarizes, and
links together research in a given field.
– Literature reviews also provide a solid
background for a research paper's
investigation.
– Comprehensive knowledge of the literature
of the field is essential to most research
papers.
Literature review: Background...Cont’d
• Literature can include books, journal articles,
internet (electronic journals), newspapers,
magazines, theses and dissertations,
conference proceedings, reports, and
documentaries.
• Literature review usually constitute a section
of the paper.
• Sometimes a literature review is written as a
paper in itself
 Literature review: Purpose
• Generally, the purpose of a review is to:

• Analyze critically a segment of a published

body of knowledge through summary,
classification, and comparison and
synthesizing of prior research studies, and
theoretical articles to current research.
 Literature review: Purpose...Cont’d
• Particularly the purpose of a literature
review is for you is to:
– Take a critical look at the literature (facts
and views) that already exists in the area
you are researching.
– Create thorough understanding regarding
your area of interest
– To identify the variables to be measured in
your research
Literature review: Purpose...Cont’d
• Purpose…..
• Place each work in the context of its
contribution to the understanding of the
subject under review
• Describe the relationship of each work to the
others under consideration
• Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light
on any gaps in, previous research
 Literature review: Purpose
• Purpose…..
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly
contradictory previous studies
• Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent
duplication of effort
• Point the way forward for further research
• Place one's original work (in the case of theses
or dissertations) in the context of existing
literature
Literature review: Purpose, Cont’d
• Determines what is known about a subject,
concept or problem
• Determines gaps, consistencies &
inconsistencies about a subject, concept or
problem
• Discovers unanswered questions about a
subject, concept or problem
 Literature review: Purpose, Cont’d
• Describes strengths & weaknesses of designs,
methods of inquiry and instruments used in
earlier works
• Discovers conceptual traditions used to
examine problems
• Generates useful research questions or
projects/activities for the discipline
 Literature review: Uses
Theoretical framework
• The literature defines concepts and terms in
relation to the study
Problem statement and hypotheses
• The literature review helps to determine what is
known and not known; to uncover gaps,
consistencies, or inconsistencies, and/or to
reveal unanswered questions about a subject,
concept or problem
• The literature review allows for refinement of
research problems and questions and/or
hypotheses
 Literature review: Uses
Design and method
• The literature review reveals strengths and
weaknesses of designs and methods of
previous research studies
• The literature review is used to discuss the
results or findings of a study. The discussion
relates the study’s findings to what was or was
not found in the review of literature
 Steps in literature review
• Searching for literature
• Sorting and prioritizing the retrieved literature
• Analytical reading of papers
• Evaluative reading of papers
• Comparison across studies
• Organizing the content
• Writing the review
 Approaches in organizing a literature review
• Topical Order—organize by main topics or issues;
emphasize the relationship of the issues to the main
problem
• Chronological Order—organize the literature by the
dates the research was published
• Problem-Cause-Solution Order—Organize the review
so that it moves from the problem to the solution
• General-to-Specific Order—Examine broad-based
research first and then focus on specific studies that
relate to the topic
• Specific-to-General Order—Try to make discuss specific
research studies so conclusions can be drawn
 Approaches in organizing a literature review, Cont’d
• Comparison across studies
– The aim is to extract key points by comparing and
contrasting across studies, instead of reading one
paper after another.
– Key points for a review may concern areas of
similarities and/or differences in:
• Research aim(s) or hypotheses
• Research design and sampling
• Instruments and procedures used
• How data were analysed
• Results or findings
• Interpretations
 Approaches in organizing a literature
review, Cont’d
• Find similarities and differences between
studies at different levels, e.g.:
• - methodology
- methods
- types of data
- data analysis
- interpretation
Characteristics of a good literature review

• The survey materials must be as recent as possible.

• Materials reviewed must be objective and unbiased.

• Materials surveyed must be relevant to the study.

• Surveyed materials must have been based upon

genuinely original and true facts
• data to make them valid and reliable.

• Review materials must not be too few nor too many.

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 Important Remarks
A review of the literature should:
1. Setup a framework for your research;
2. Show your reader that you:
– Have a clear understanding of the key
concepts/ideas/studies/models related to your
topic;
– Know about the history of your research area and
any related controversies;
– Can discuss these ideas in a context appropriate
for your own investigations;
– Can evaluate the work of the others;
– Clarify important definitions/terminology;
– Narrow the problem, and make the study feasible
 Plagiarism

"wrongful adoption" and "stealing and publication" of

another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or
expressions" and the representation of them as one's own
original work.

• Using another writer’s words without proper citation

• Using another writer’s ideas without proper citation
• Citing a source but reproducing the exact word without
quotation marks
• Using paper-writing service or having a friend write the
paper
 Citation

• Acknowledgments of contents/ideas taken

from authors
• Perfect remedy for avoiding plagiarism
• There are two types of citations
– In-text
– References
• There are also different citation styles
 Summary
• Literature review is one of the important part
of a research process
• Critical analysis of exiting literature is
important to identify the gap the researcher
should fill
• Literature should be reviewed in light of the
research variables,
• Reviewed literature should be Relevant and
adequate
• It should be synthesized to the variable
variables
 Summary
• In general critical review of the existing
knowledge should enhance the
researcher to
1. Bring clarity and focus to your
research problem;
2. Improve your research methodology;
3. Broaden your knowledge base in
your research area; and
4. Contextualize your findings.
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Exercise 3
• For the topic you identified for r
individual assignment simply indicate
appropriate topics to be reviewed as
part of your literature review
• The End of Chapter 3