Focusing on relevant material

Some students think a good literature review is based on reading everything they get their hands on. This can lead to a great waste of time and prevent you from finding and learning from really useful material. Before starting, therefore, it is a good idea to set some limits on what you are going to try to get. The scope you defined for your literature search provides a useful set of limits. Look first for material that relates to the central concepts or terms in your scope of interest.

Second, decide how far back in time you intend to search. In some fields, research moves rather quickly, making research done five years or so earlier relatively useless. Start with the most current publications you can find and work back until you don't find anything new or particularly valuable. Then stop.

When you find a publication that looks promising, first read the abstract, if the publication has one. An abstract is a short summary usually found at the beginning of an article. If an article does not have an abstract, turn to the   summary at the end of the articles and read it. Then read the introduction or the review of literature section to see how the author says the report fits into the broader literature. After all, you might as well benefit from the reviews conducted by previous writers. If these sections indicate the report has information related to your interest, then read the whole report critically and take notes on the points most valuable to you.

Learning to read critically

The key to analyzing publications and to preparing a review of literature is to read critically. Publications vary greatly in quality. Many publications meet the highest standards of research and scholarship: Unfortunately, others do not. With relatively little research experience, you may find it hard to distinguish between good quality reports and ones of lesser quality. By the time you finish this book and your course on research methods, you will be better able to judge the quality and value of reports. In general, if you suspect that the methods of data collection and analysis are weak, you can probably disregard a report.

As you read, be alert to references to other publications. For new references, first examine the title and decide whether you think it might contain information useful for your study. If you think it does, copy down the reference on a note card for use in finding the publication. Continue this process until you run out of new leads. Also, try to learn as much as you can from each publication you read. The authors of each report you read dealt with the same things you will face in planning and carrying out your study. As you read, watch for points listed in Box 4.4. Learning how authors handled these points can help you at every stage in your own research, from stating your research question to writing your report.

Box 4.4 Points to look for in reading a research report - how authors: Defined and presented the problem they were investigating Organized their reports (what was the order of the various parts) Described the design they used Described their sample design and actual sample Presented and analyzed data Reported and interpreted their findings Derived and presented their conclusions Presented references to publications they cited

Taking notes

Using the headings (in bold type) in Box 4.3 as a guide, record your notes.   How extensive note-taking might be will depend on how valuable you think the information from any publication is to you. Once you have a publication in hand, recording comprehensive notes for later use is a lot better than going back to the library or other sources a second or third time to get missing data.   Sometimes, in the haste of getting through publications, students fail to write clearly. At the time, this may seem like a timesaving action, but sloppy note taking often leads to later frustration and a waste of time. Frequently, notes originally taken to help define the research question, are used again when the report is being written, and this can be months after the notes were taken. By then, sloppy notes may be difficult to read, causing considerable frustration and even delay in completing a report on time.  

As part of note-taking, you will need to create a reference for each publication you intend to cite in your report.