Concept of Review of Literature – In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bringing about a certain goal, like acquiring knowledge or verifying knowledge claims. This normally involves various steps, like choosing a sample, collecting data from this sample, and interpreting the data. The study of methods concerns a detailed description and analysis of these processes. It includes evaluative aspects by comparing different methods.
In this way, their benefits and drawbacks are evaluated, as well as the research goals for which they may be used. These descriptions and evaluations are predicated on philosophical background assumptions; examples include how to conceptualize the phenomena under study and what constitutes evidence in favor of or against them. In its broadest sense, methodology encompasses the discussion of these more abstract issues.
Concept of Review of Literature
Review of literature provides you with the current theoretical and scientific knowledge about a particular problem, and resulting in a synthesis of what is known and not known. The format of a review of literature may vary from discipline to discipline and from assignment to assignment.
A review may be a self-contained unit an end in itself or a preface to and rationale for engaging in primary research. A review is a required part of grant and research proposals and often a chapter in theses and dissertations. Generally, the purpose of a review is to analyze critically a segment of a published body of knowledge through summary, classification, and comparison of prior research studies, reviews of literature, and theoretical articles.
Definition of Literature:
Literature refers to a collection of published information/materials on a particular area of research or topic, such as books and journal articles of academic value.
Definition of Review of Literature
According to Dr. Virginia Cano
Review of literature is “review a critical summary and an assessment of the current state of knowledge or current state of the art in a particular field”.
According to Charles
“A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers.
(Ref by-Seenidurai Paulraj/Introduction to Nursing Research/1″/41)
Importance of Review of literature
The importance of literature reviews are follows:
- Through the review of related literature, the researcher will be provided with the knowledge and background on the topic or subject being studied.
- It will also restrict the researcher from doing a duplicate research study.
- The review of related literature also provides the researcher with some information about parts of problem, which were left uninvestigated before.
- It will also be a good sources of ideas or information in developing various parts of the study such as the problem and terms definition, research design, data gathering techniques and instruments form and style of report presentation
- By means of review, whatever weaknesses ethical issues and problems encountered in the previous studies can be avoided in our study.
- The review also serves as a comparative basis of findings and conclusions.
- It will provide the relationship of the variables used in the study and will make it easy for us to analyze and process.
- It serves as a guide and provides details regarding how to proceed with the research and also an idea on who are people involved, what information needed to consult and what boundaries we are supposed to cover.
(Ref by- Seenidurai Paulraj/Introduction to Nursing Research/1/41)
Function of Review of Literature
- It brings clarity and focus to the research problem.
- It serves as source of research idea.
- It provides ideas about the kind of research studies that need to be done.
- It helps to determine what has been already done on a research problem, thereby avoids duplication.
- It provides theoretical background to the study.
- It helps to refine and improve the research methodology.
- It helps it contextualize the findings.
- It helps to determine any gaps in the body of research.
- It broadens the knowledge base in research.
(Ref by- Nirmala V/Research Methodology in Nursing/1″/34)
Purposes of Literature Review
The purpose literature reviews are as follows:
- To define the key concepts
- To establish the body of knowledge that the researcher will contribute to.
- To familiarized the reader with the depth, breadth, and scope of the research topic.
- To find out what materials exists in our area of research.
- To define gaps in the literature
- To locate other researchers working in the same area
- To determine the major productive works.
- To identify the major research techniques and methodologies
- To decide the key ideas, theories and conclusions and also to set the differences and similarities.
- To give a context for our research and to introduced relationships between earlier theories or studies,
- To provide the reader with an up to-to-date account and discussion of the research findings in a particular topic.
- To detect conflicting points of view expressed by different authors.
(Ref by-Seenidurai Paulraj/Introduction to Nursing Research/1″/42)
Criteria for Good Research Review
Good literature should satisfy the following criteria. The criteria are-
- Objectives of literature review are met.
- Quality studies that were relevant are included.
- Study’s purpose, sample size, design and specific finding are presented succinctly.
- The study’s strength and weakness are critiqued briefly
- Adequate primary sources are reviewed.
- Sources are paraphrased and summarized rather than directly quoting the ideas,
- There is no logical flow of content
- Honesty of information and ethical issues are considered.
(Ref by- Nirmala V/Research Methodology in Nursing/1″/35)
Some Specific Reasons for Undertaking Literature Review
Scientific literature is searched and reviewed to:-
- Better know and understand the already known facts and concepts,
- Discover what is as yet undiscovered i.e. to identify the unanswered questions, and gaps in information.
- Avoid repetition of a work already done.
- Find out about the research design, universe, population, and sampling unit, sample size, sampling technique, methods and procedures used by others.
- Learn about difficulties and problems encountered and how these were solved by other workers doing a similar study. • Critically analyses reported data to discover fallacies and inconsistencies as well as strengths
- Note the findings of other researchers for comparison with the findings of the research in hand.
(Ref by- Sadeka Tahera Khanom/Research Methodology/2/23)
Tips.on How to Do a Good Literature Review
In order to get the most relevant and appropriate material for his study the researcher should learn the correct techniques of literature review. Here are a few tips for the beginner:
- Be selective
- SCAN the summaries and abstracts of the articles first and then LIFE or LEAVE” the journal depending on whether the material meats you needs.
- Take prompt notes. Do not postpone note taking
- Use small index cards to take notes and write journal references on the reverse side.
- Use one card for each reference.
- Arrange and store the cards carefully (you can use an empty 1 liter ice cream box for this purpose)
Example of Details to be written on the index card
1. Serial No.
2. Author(s)…..
3. Title of article.
4. Journal title…
5. Vol………..No. Month…………….. Year………….. pages………..
6. Publishers, place of publication, date, year (for Books)……….
7. Library where found………………………..cell number…….
8. Source of bibliographic information…………..
(Ref by-Sadeka Tahera Khanom/Research Methodology/24/26)
Types of Literature
There are mainly three types of literature; the following types of literature are as follows-
1. Primary literature
2. Secondary literature
3. Tertiary literature
| Primary: | Original research reports in professional journals, doctoral thesis, personal written communications, diaries, interview, eye witness reports, periodic or annual reports of organizations, court evidences, and census reports are considered primary type of literature. These are the firsthand reports by researchers themselves of the findings of their research. |
| Secondary: | Scientific reports, summaries prepared and presented by workers other than those who did the original work. These include: abstracts, annotated bibliographies, encyclopedias, review articles etc. |
| Tertiary: | Textbooks by virtue of being compilations based on ideas and opinions of the authors who present essence of several reports mingled with their own experience are considered tertiary types of literature. For good research work primary sources are of greater importance. Secondary or tertiary sources are used when primary sources are not available. |
Time of Literature Review:
Beginner’s research usually postpone review of literature till the time of report writing. This is a common mistake. Literature review is a continuous and unending process. A researcher needs to cultivate the habit of reading important literature. Expressed in arbitrary proportions, the beginners should allocate time to this activity approximately as follows –
| Before undertaking research work | 60-75% |
| During the research work | 10-20% |
| After completing data analysis but before writing research report | 20-25% |
Note that the proportions, shown are arbitrary and not rigid.
The necessary literature can be obtained from:
- Libraries
- Experts on the subject/workers in the field,
- Friends and colleagues.
(Ref by- Sadeka Tahera Khanom/Research Methodology/2/24)
Sources of Literature Review
| 1. Local level/community level |
|
| 2. National level |
|
| 3. International level |
|
Steps of Literature Review
Literature review is a systemic search for information, which follows the following steps-
1. Search for sources
2. Locate the sources
3. Review the selected literature
4. Synthesize findings from relevant studies
5. Organized the review literature
6. Write the literature review
| Search for sources | The ways to search for literature can be a.Manual or b. Using computer Manual search: It involves searching relevant sources by hand e.g. catalog list and indexes. It involves examining reference sources, and it is conducted to clarify and narrow the research topic and provides direction for further review on the topic of interest. Computer search: It provides citations in different database and identifies sources relevant to a research topic. Commercial vendors offer information retrieval services for bibliographic database. |
| Locate the sources | Next step is to locate the sources identified by manual and computer search. Locating sources involves the following steps as a. Organize the identified sources b. Record references systematically Organize the identified sources Organization of identified sources helps to locate all, within a journal or book. Journal sources may be organized by journal name and year. Record references systematically Information obtains form various sources should be recorded systematically according to the format of reference list. |
| Review the selected Literature | Critically read the identified books and articles to pull together themes and issue that are associated. Use separate sheets of paper for each article or book. Sufficient notes to be taken to identify gaps in the report and the study’s strength and limitations. |
| Synthesizing Findings from Relevant Studies | A comprehensive scholarly synthesis of the literature is needed to identify, analyze and synthesize the result form independent studies to determine what is known and not known in a particular subject area. |
| Organize the Reviewed Literature | Critical task in the literature review is organization of the gathered information. The way of presentation of review should be logical, provide meaningful integration and lead to conclusion of what is known and not known about the topic. |
| Write the Literature Review | The essential content of literature review is a. Introduction: there should be brief and interesting introduction describing the organization of sources, e.g. from least important, to most (current) important. b. Content: The content should include study’s purpose, sample size, design findings and brief critique of studies strength and weakness. Paraphrase or summarize the content in own words. It should be concise, clear and short to promote the flow ideas. c. Summary: it should present concisely the research knowledge of the topic including what is known and not known. |
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