Chapter 3 Critically reviewing the literature

1. Chapter 3Critically reviewing the literature

2. Objectives of this session: • Understand the importance and purpose of critical literature review to the research project • Know what you need to include when writing your critical review • Be aware of the range of primary, secondary and tertiary literature sources available • To generate ideas that will help you in the choice of a research topic

3. Why critical review? • ‘Knowledge doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and your work only has value in relation to other people’s. Your work and your findings will be significant only to the extent that they’re the same as, or different from, other people’s work and findings.’ Jankowicz

4. Why are reviews needed • ‘Research information is like small jigsaw puzzle pieces in a box, where there are several pictures, several duplicates and several missing pieces’ (Sheldon 1998) • Individual studies use different methods, are of different quality and may present contradictory findings • We cannot give too much importance to one individual study

5. Reasons for reviewing the literature • To conduct a ‘preliminary’ search of existing material • To organise valuable ideas and findings • To identify other research that may be in progress • To generate research ideas • To develop a critical perspective

6. The literature review process Source: Saunders et al. (2003) Figure 3.1 The literature review process

7. The Critical Review (1) Approaches used Deductive - Develops a conceptual framework from the literature which is then tested using the data Inductive - Explores the data to develop theories which are then tested against the literature

8. The Critical Review (1) Examples Deductive – • All men are mortal. (General and no specific to one man) • Socrates is a man • (Therefore,) Socrates is mortal ( specific) Inductive - • This ice is cold. (Specific, based on a direct observation.) • All ice is cold. (General, can be applied to any ice) • 3 + 5 = 8 Three and five are odd numbers while eight is an even number. Therefore, an odd number added to another odd number will result in an even number.

9. The Critical Review (1) Approaches used Deductive - Develop Theory Formulate Hypothesis Collect & analyze data Accept/Reject Hypothesis

10. The Critical Review (1) Theory Approaches used Inductive - Tentative Hypothesis Pattern Observation

11. The Critical Review (2) Key purposes • To further refine research questions and objectives • To discover recommendations for further research • To avoid repeating work already undertaken • To provide insights into strategies and techniques appropriate to your research objectives Based on Gall et al. (2006)

12. Adopting a critical perspective (1) Skills for effective reading • Previewing • Annotating • Summarising • Comparing and contrasting Harvard College Library (2006)

13. Adopting a critical perspective (2) The most important skills are • The capacity to evaluate what you read • The capacity to relate what you read to other information Wallace and Wray (2006)

14. Adopting a critical perspective (3) Questions to ask yourself • Why am I reading this? • helps to focus on your subject • What is the author trying to do in writing this? • helps deciding how valuable for your purpose • How convincing is is this? • What use can I make of this reading? Adapted from Wallace and Wray (2006)

15. Content of the critical review You will need to • Include key academic theories • Demonstrate current knowledge of the area • Use clear referencing for the reader to find the original cited publications • Acknowledge the research of others

16. Content of the critical review • To include the key academic theories within your chosen area • To demonstrate that your knowledge in the chosen area is up to date • To show relations to previous research • To assess strengths and weaknesses of previous work and take them into account in your arguments • To justify your arguments • To enable readers of your project report to find the original work you cite N.B. Thus you avoid charges in plagiarism

17. Is your literature review critical? • Refer to work by recognized experts in your chosen area • Consider and discuss work that supports and/or opposes your ideas • Make reasoned judgments regarding the value of others’ work to you research • Support your arguments with valid evidence in a logical manner • Distinguish clearly between fact and opinion Saunders et al. (2009)

18. Structure of the literature review Three common structures • A single chapter • A series of chapters • Throughout the report

19. The structure of the critical review • From general to specific • Provide brief overview of key ideas • Summarize, compare and contrast the key writers • Narrow down to highlight the most relevant to your work • Provide a detailed account of the findings of your work • Highlight the issues where you will provide fresh insights • Lead the reader into the corresponded sections

20. The key to a critical literature review • Demonstrate that you have read, understood and evaluated your material • Link the different ideas to form a cohesive and coherent argument • Make clear connections to your research objectives and the subsequent empirical material Saunders et al. (2009)

21. Checklist for evaluating your literature review: • Does your review start at a more general level? • Does the literature covered relate clearly to your research questions and objectives? • Have you covered the key theories of recognized experts in the area? • Is the literature you have included up to date? • Have you been objective in the discussions and assessment of other people’s work? • Have you included references that are counter to your own opinion? • Are facts and opinions clearly distinguished? • Is your argument coherent and cohesive - do the ideas link together? • Have you made reasoned judgements about the value of other’s work to your own? • Have you justified clearly your own ideas?

22. Categories of Literature Sources • Primary (published and unpublished) • Secondary • Tertiary Detailed in Tables 3.1 and 3.2Saunders et al. (2009)

23. Literature sources available Literature sources available Saunders et al. (2009) Figure 3.2 Literature sources available

24. The literature search strategy (1) Write down • parameters of your search • key words and search terms to be used • databases and search engines to be used • criteria for selection of relevant and useful studies And Discuss these with a tutor (if possible)

25. The literature search strategy (2) • Define the research parameters • Generate key words • Discuss your research • Brainstorm ideas • Construct Relevance trees - use computer software

26. Defining parameters • Language of publication (English) • Subject area (Accountancy) • Business sector • Geographical area (Europe) • Publication period (last 10 years) • Literature type (journals and magazines)

27. Relevance trees • Look similar to an organizational chart • Hierarchical “graph-like” arrangements of headings and sub-headings, describing your research questions and objectives and help you decide: • which key words are relevant to your research questions and objectives • which areas you will search first and which – later • which areas are more important – they have more branches

28. Relevance tree Is there a link between benchmarking and TQM Benchmarking (BM) TQM Links between BM and TQM ISO 9000 Precise standard Benchmarking theory Benchmarking practice Implementation Techniques Types Case studies

29. Conducting a literature search (1) Approaches can include • Searching tertiary literature sources • Obtaining relevant literature • Scanning and browsing secondary literature • Searching using the Internet

30. Conducting a literature search (2) Searching using tertiary literature • Ensure key words match controlled index language • Search appropriate printed and database sources • Note precise details used – including search strings • Note the FULL reference of each search found

31. Conducting a literature search (3) • Printed sources • Databases – use of Boolean logic and free text searching (Table 3.3) • Scanning and browsing • Searching the Internet (Tables 3.4 and 3.5) Saunders et al. (2009)

32. Conducting a literature search (4) Searching the Internet Saunders et al. (2003) Figure 3.3 Searching the Internet

33. Conducting a literature search (5) Searching the Internet Saunders et al. (2003) Figure 3.3 Searching the Internet (Continued)

34. Evaluating the literature • Define the scope of your review • Assess relevance and value • Assess sufficiency

35. Evaluating the literature • Assessing the relevance – take notes for the relevance of each item and the reasons why you come to this conclusion – this will be included as a part of your critical review • Assessing sufficiency – ask your project tutor for help about both quality and quantity of literature read • Referencing and bibliography: - The Harvard system - The APA system - Footnotes (Vancouver system)

36. Evaluating the literature • How recent is the item? • Is the item likely to have been superseded? • Is the context sufficiently different to make it marginal to your research? • Have you seen references to this item in other items that were useful? • Does the item support or contradict your arguments? • What are the methodological omissions within the work? • Is the precision sufficient?

37. Recording the literature Make notes for each item you read Record – • Biographic details • Brief summary of content • Supplementary information Sharp et al. (2002)

38. Recording the literature • Bibliographic details (Table 3.6) • Brief summary • Supplementary information (Table 3.7) Saunders et al. (2009)

39. Plagiarism Four common forms • Stealing material from another source • Submitting material written by another • Copying material without quotation marks • Paraphrasing material without documentation Adapted from Park (2003), cited in Easterby-Smith et al.(2008)

40. Writing up • Prepare a plan of your review • Introduction • History of the topic – including assumptions and definitions from other researchers • Theoretical background • Address each of your research objectives by summarising research • Conclusion • Identify how the data you extracted will be synthesised: • Meta analysis • Narrative synthesis

41. Questions to ask yourself when writing up (Hart 2007, p. 14) What are the key theories, concepts and ideas? What are the epistemological and ontological grounds for the discipline? What are the key sources? What are the major issues and debates about the topic? What are the main questions and problems that have been addressed to date? Literature search and review on your topic What are the political standpoints? How is knowledge on the topic structured and organised? What are the origins and definitions of the topic? How have approaches to these questions increased our understanding and knowledge?

42. Summary: Chapter 3 The critical literature review • Sets the research in context • Leads the reader into later sections of the report • Begins at a general level and narrows to specific topics

43. APA Style Referencing • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10eg_GB_A9E

44. Summary: Chapter 3 A literature search requires • Three main categories of sources • Clearly defined research questions and objectives • Defined parameters • Use of techniques – ( brainstorming and relevance trees)

45. Recommended Reading List • Bettany-Saltikov, J.B. (2012) How to do a systematic literature review in nursing. Open University Press, England • Gough, D., Olivers, S. and Thomas, J. (2012) An introduction to systematic reviews. Sage, London • Greenhalgh, T. (2010) 4th ed. How to read a paper Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford • Hart C. (2007) Doing a literature review: releasing the social science research imagination. Sage, London • Hart C. (2001) Doing a literature search. Sage, London • Petticrew, M. and Roberts H. (2006) Systematic reviews in the social sciences Blackwell publishing, U.S.A. • Rudestam, K.E. and Newton R.R. (2007) 3rd ed. Surviving your dissertation Sage, London