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Critically reviewing the literature (Conduct literature search (Defining…
Critically reviewing the literature
Provide the context and theoretical framework
An early activity and continue throughout the project's life
2 kinds
goes along with the intitial search for research idea
(when you browse through pieces of work and judge their relevance)
critical review
The critical review
contructively critical analysis that develop clear argument about what the published literature indicate (what's significant and should we use it?)
purpose
provide the foundation of research
good understanding and insight into relecant previous research and the new trend
types
integrative review: critiques and synthesis representative literature on topics can generate new framework and perspective on a topic
historical review: examine the evolution of research over a period -> place it in historical context
theoretical review: examine the body of theory accumulated by issues, concepts, theories or phenomenom, to establish a lack of appropriate theories or current theories are unadequate for new problem
methodological review: focus on research approach, strategy, data collection techniques or analysis procedures -> provide framework for understanding a method, enable researchers to draw on methods knowledge
systematic review: use comprehensive pre-planned strategy for locating, critically appraising, analysing and sythesising existing research -> conclusion to be reached about what's known
deductive approach: develop a theoretical or conceptual framework then test by data
inductive approach: explore data to develop theories then relate to a literature
Adopt a critical perspective in your reading
skills:
previewing: consider the precise purpose of the text before reading to establish what may inform your literature search
annotating: conduct a dialogue with yourself, the author and the issues and ideas at stake
summarizing: state in your own words, outline it
compare and contrast: see how your thinking is altered by this reading or how your respond to the issues or theme change
critical reading
capacity to evaluate what you're reading
capacity to relate what you're reading with other information
5 critical questions
why read this: focusing device and ensure you stick to the purpose of the reading not distracted by the author's agenda
what's the author trying to do?: how valuable is the reading to the research
what's relevant to what I want to find out
how convincing is it?: is it justified by evidence?
what use can be made of this reading?
content of the critical review
include key academic theories within your chosen area that relevant to the research questions
knowledge of the chosen area is up to date
enable reader to find original publication cited
Being critical about the context
critique of rhetotic: evaluate problem with effective use of language
critique of tradition: where justification exist, conventional wisdoms
critique of the authority: the dominant view
critique of objectivity: not value-free
judgement, process of provide detailed and justificial analysis, commentary on the merits and faluts of key literature
refer to and asses research by recognised experts
consider and discuss research that support and oppise your idea
make reasoned judgements regarding the value others reserach, acknowledging key work, how it relates to your research
justify arguments with valid evidence in logical manner
distinguish facts from opinion
ensure references are accurate
Structuring and drafting critical review (description and analysis of what author wrote)
have to focus on research question and objective by discuss how far existing research go in answering your question
structure
a single chapter
series of chapters
occuring throguht the project reports as you tackle various issues
Record the literature
Make notes
Use quotation marks and page number: avoid plagiarism
bibliographic details
supplementary information
brief summary of the context
Bibliographic details
Include only a list of reference for those items refered to directly in the text
bibliographic details contained need to be sufficient for reader to find the original one
digital object identifier for online journal
Brief summary of content
Help to locate the relevant items and facilitate reference to your notes and photocopies, maintain consistency
Supplementary informations
Anything else of value
Obtaining and evaluating the literature
Obtaining
check library online catalogues to see if it's the appropriate publication
for publication available, note their location and:
1) find the publication and scan it to decide if it's worth reading
2) browse other books and journals with similar classmates to see if it can be used
for publication unavailable obtain online throguh institutional repository or Google Books
Alternatives:
use inter-library loan (only for referred journals and books)
visit library where they hold or referee only copies
Evaluating
Assessing the relevance:
depends on research questions and objectives to help to thought out and make notes of the criteria for inclusion and exclusion literature most likely to cause problems or unlikely to relate
for new search area: few closely related literature so have to review broadly and vice versa
Assesing value
concerned with quality of the research undertaken, theory robustness and quality of reasoning and argument
for refereed articles it has been review but still need to asses for possible bias, methodological omisstion and precisions
higher ranking indicate better quality journals
Assesing sufficiency
because it's impossible to read everything but need to be critical
+) stop if further searches provide already read content
+) check with tutor
Systematic Review: process for reviewing the literature by comprehensive preplanned strategy to - locate existing literature
evaluate the contribution
analyze and synthesize the findings
report the evidence to know what is known and not
=> very time consuming and need others to help
focus on policy or practice question
Scoping study: to access whether or not the systematic review have been published and determine the fucous literature search
5 steps:
formulate review questions (context, intervention, mechanism of interest, outcome of the interview)
-locate and generate comprehensive list of potentially relevant table of content and other sources and track down unpublished research
select and evalutate relevant research study using predeterminated explicit inclusion and exclusion checklists of criteria to assess the relevance:
+) initially by title and abstract
+) by reading the full text
analyse and synthesize by
+) breakdown each study into its constituent parts and record key points on data extraction form
+) using data extraction form to explore and integrate the study and answer specific questions
report the reserach providing
+) introductory section that state the problem and review question
+) methodology section, how review was conducted
+) findings and discuss section, what's known or unknown
Conduct literature search
planning search strategy
criteria you intend to use to select relevant and useful studies
the online database and search engine you intend to use
the search terms and phrases you intended to use
parameter of your search
General ouline searching
Search tools
General ouline searching
subject directories: index only most important online documents searchalbe catalogues of sites collected and organised by human into sub-area
useful for broad topics
specialised search engines and information gateway: for specific subject areas
metasearch engines: generates inappropriate/unrelated sites
general search engines: index every seperate documents
Institutional repositiories and social networking sites
open access collection of university's research output where full-text items can be downloaded
Searching using online datatbase: 3 types of online database
Indexes
Abstract
: only include index and summary of article
Full-text online database
: provide summary of articles from range of journals and full text of articles
Searching
Make a list of the search term that describe your research questions and objectives
Search appropriate online database
Note prcise details including the search strings or actual search you undertake for each database
Note the full reference of items found by importing references into software for managing bibliographies or research tools
import the article into your bibliography or research tool or download in PDF with author, date, brief description
controlled index language of pre-selected terms, phrases or discriptors
Boolean topic: search strung enable you to combine limit or widen the variety of items using link terms, helpful when search up to date articles
full-text search drawback: term may be inappropriate -> irrelevant/information overload -> use abstract, author or title
Browsing and scanning journals, new publication arent indexed immidiately in online database -> browse to gain idea of content
scan to pick out points and references which not found effective
identify when relevant journals are published, should get email alert
scan book review in journals or newspaper
scan publishers new book cataloge wheres available
dicuss with tutor and librarians for relevant literature
Defining the parameters of your search
language of publication
subject area
business sector
geographical area
publication period
literature type
Generate your search terms
Discuss
Initial reading
Brainstorming
Relevance tree: bring form of structure and guidance
+) which search terms are directly relevant
+) which areas will search first or later
+) which area are more important
Literature sources
secondary literature sources: formally published items (journals, books)
grey (primary) literature sources: by goverment, academics, business and industries, in print and electronic formats, not controlled by commercial
Journals: pulished regularly, vital sources, easy to access
Refereed academic journals
: evaluate before published by
academic peers to assess
quality and suitability, written by
recognized expert
, with detailed footnotes,extensive references, attention to details
Professional journals
: produced for member of the organization only, contain
mix of news-related items and detailed articles
, can be
biased
but
up to date
, mainly only accessed by members
Trade journals
: by trade organization, aim at particular industries or trade, focus on new product, items, rarely based on empirical reserach but some
provide summaries of research
Books: - for specific audiacnes, more accessible and wider range of topics
useful for introductory source to clarify research question and objective or research method
supported by webpage,
may contain out of date information
Newspaper
Topical events, developemtn within business and government, recent statistical information, review recent research report,
May contain bias in the coverage, can be inaccurate and cant pick up subsequent amendment, presented with filtered depend on the event with headline-grabbing
Reports:
difficult to gain access because not free
not well-indexed in the databases
need to relu on specific search tools
Conference proceeding:
published as unique titles within journals/books
have specific theme or wide-ranging overview
not well-indexed like report with search tool
contain relevant information
Theses:
unique and good resource of detialed information
good source of futher references
difficult to locate and access
search tools are available
Planning your research strategy
save time by start with clearly defined research questions and objective and outline proposal
Every project report should refer to the key issues from the literature in the discusssion and conclusion, compare and contrast different ideas
start at more general level before narrowing down to specific questions and objective
provide a brief overview of key ideas and themes
summarize compare and contrast the research of the author
narrow down to higlight previous research work most relvent to your own research
provide a detailed account of the findings of the research and show how they are related
highlight those aspects where your research will provide fresh insight
lead the reader into subsequent sections of your project report that explore thses issues
Improve transparency by explain how you selected the literature outline your choice of search terms and database used. Link difficult ideas in literature to form a cohenrent and cohesive argument
Plagiarism: presneting works/ideas of others as if they're your own
Stealing materials from another source and pass off as your own term-paper
buying paper from a research service, essay bank or term-paper mill
copying whole paper from a source text without acknowldegment
Submitting a paper written by someone else and pass off as your own
Copying sections of materials from one or more sources, text, supplying proper doccument but leave out quotation mark
Paraphrasing material from source of text without supplyigng appropriate documentation