Chapter 5 Reviewing the Literature

1. Chapter 5Reviewing the Literature

2. Introduction • Essential step in the research • Body of knowledge is in written form-the literature • Source of ideas on topics for research • Source of information on research already done by others • Source of methodological or theoretical ideas • Source of comparison between your research and that of others

3. The value of bibliographies • Compiling bibliographies on specific topics is useful in itself. • It saves other researchers time and trouble in searching for materials. • It provides full-text materials as well as an evaluation of meterials.

4. Searching • Sources of information • Library catalogues • Published bibliographies • Published indexes and electronic databases • The internet • General leisure/tourism books • Reference lists • Beyond leisure and tourism

5. Obtaining copies of materials • Libraries or inter-library loan service • In metropolitan areas, government agencies are good source of information • Municipal library service is useful

6. Compiling and maintaining a bibliography • Record all bibliographies which are of relevance • Build up personal bibliography • Use specialist packages such as Endnote and Pro-Cite which store reference material in a standard form • Record the details accurately

7. Reviewing the literature • The most rewarding and frustrating work • Types of literature review • Inclusive bibliography : identify all materials that has published on a particular topic • Inclusive/evaluative review : provide a commentary on the literature in terms of its coverage and its contribution to knowledge and understanding of the topic

8. Reviewing the literature • Inclusive/evaluative review : include literature analysis which involves a quantitative analysis of temporal trends in the content or authorship of the literature in a particular field. It also includes meta-analysis. Ref: Case study 5.1 Lifestyle and leisure review

9. Reviewing the literature • Exploratory review : discover existing research which might throw light on a specific research question or issue. It is classic literature review. • Instrumental review : provides a source of suitable ideas and methodology for the research and/or project

10. Reviewing the literature • Content analysis and hermeneutics : involves detailed analysis of the contents of a certain body of literature or other documentary source as texts. Content analysis tends to be quantitative involving counting the number of occurrences of certain phrases. Hermeneutics tends to be qualitative relating to the analysis of in-depth interview transcripts.

11. Reviewing the literature • Reading critically and creatively • involves questioning rather than accepting what is being read. • Ascertain what is not known • Convey accurately the basis of material presented • Classify and analyze the substantive contents of the literature Ref : Figure 5.5 Questions to ask when reviewing the literature

12. Reviewing the literature • Summarizing • Draw conclusions and implications for the proposed research program • Present a summary which leads logically to the research project in hand • Makes clear how the proposed research relates to the existing body of literature • Compare a large amount of literature in a tabular quasi-meta-analytic form

13. Referencing the literature • The purpose of referencing • Evidence of the writer’s scholarship • Allow the reader to check sources to verify the writer’s interpretation of previous research or to follow up areas of interest • Recording references • A number of standard or conventional formats exist for recording references • See figure 5.7 and figure 5.8

14. Referencing systems • Two types of referencing systems • Author/date or Harvard system • Footnote or endnote system

15. Referencing systems

16. Referencing issues • Secondhand references • References which have not read directly but is referred to in another document which is read. • Should be given to the secondhand source, not to the original • Avoided in academic research reports • Excessive referencing • Avoid the repeated reference to a single source by using a separate section

17. Referencing issues • Latin abbreviations • et al. : ‘and the others’ • op. cit. : opere citato meaning ‘in the work cited’ • ibid. : ‘the same’