Prepared by: Basant Psd Bohara 10/13/2020

Unit 2: Literature review

Concept of Literature Review
• A critical and in-depth evaluation of previous research is known as literature
review. It is a summary and synopsis of a particular area of research, allowing
anybody reading the paper to establish why you are pursuing this particular
research. A good literature review expands on the reasons behind selecting a
particular research question.
• Various books, articles and research reports are available in the market. A
comprehensive review of such documents and preparation of summary of such
study on a topic is called literature review.
 According to Cardesco and Gatner, “A literature review is a self-contained unit in
a study which analyses critically a segment of publish body of knowledge through
summary, classification and comparison of prior research studies and theoretical
articles.”
 According to Walliman “A literature review is a summary and analysis of current
knowledge about a particular topic and areas of enquiry.”

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A literature review is desirable before starting a research for the following reasons:
 To see what has and what has not been investigated so far.
 To develop general explanation for observed variations in a behavior or
phenomena.
 To identify potential relationship between variable that helps to formulate
researchable hypotheses.
 To identify data sources that other researchers have used.
 To develop alternative research work.
 To identify issues that are left in the previous study.
 To identify the methodology that is used by other researchers.
 To know the structure of writing research report.
Purpose and Function of Literature Review
Reviewing literature can be time-consuming and daunting. However, it is always
rewarding. A review of literature has a number of purposes and functions in research
methodology which are;
1. To know the research conducted in the chosen field
2. To identify the gap
3. To develop theoretical framework
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4. To develop research design

5. To update on current issues
6. To know the methods of data analysis
7. To know the research design
8. To assess the success of various research design

Sources of Literature Review

1. Books
2. Research journal/articles
3. Abstracts
4. Reports
5. Dissertation
6. Directories
7. The internet

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Phases in Literature Review

1. Identifying the relevant source
2. Obtaining literature
3. Reading
4. Extracting the relevant information
5. Evaluating the contents of the literatures
6. Writing up the literature review
Searching, Obtaining and Evaluating the Literature

1. Searching and Obtaining literature

• Researcher should consider to the card catalogue maintained in the libraries of
the universities or other independent groups, clubs or committees, computerized
catalogue, subject literature guides, CD-ROM technologies and online databases.
Card catalogue gives information about the author, title, subject, date etc.
• If he/she is fully unknown about subject then he/she can refer to author or title.
Nowadays, libraries are using computer software to manage the reading materials
kept in the libraries. A researcher can take the help of computer and locate the
required materials. If they are not able to find out the required materials, they can
take the help of library staffs. 18

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• CD-ROM technology provides the bibliographic details of articles and books,

abstract of the various research work and full text of the research work.
• Online database produces lots of relevant journals/articles, books and other
research materials on a particular topic. Internet is a worldwide computer
network that provides access to a vast range of literature. Researcher can get
access to various literatures through the worldwide web (WWW). After the
reviewing of various literatures researcher should precisely identify the literature
that is useful for their study.

2. Reading and Reviewing the Literature

• First of all reviewer should go through all the material or abstract so as to

identify the relevant and non-relevant literatures. A reader can examine through
references/bibliographical sources to decide the relevant sources of literatures.
• While reviewing materials, researcher should locate and note down if the
relevant sections of the books, articles or other materials are useful.
• Researcher can note down the direct quotation in hanging form or keeping
within inverted comma. To summarize the issue in which more researchers agree
then researcher can write their major findings and write the surname of
researchers and date of publication at the end.
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 If the findings is drawn by single person, we need to write the surname and date
of publication and findings. Researcher should note down the following things:
1. Title of the study
2. Author (s)
3. Year of publication
4. Objective of the study
5. Statement of problem/hypothesis
6. Research methodology
7. Research findings
8. Conclusion etc.
3. Evaluating the Literature
All the material collected may not be equally important and useful to the present
research work. Some literatures that are collected may not be accurate and reliable.
Thus, researcher should evaluate the review materials based on the following
criteria:
1. Accuracy
2. Author
3. Publisher
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4. Scope
5. Style
6. Use of methodology
7. Illustration, tables and diagrams
8. Update information etc.
Literature Search through Internet
Internet is a worldwide computer network that provides access to a large range of
literatures. World Wide Web (WWW) is mostly used part of the internet. It
provides the link to the texts pointing out the essential one. It provides instant
access to the literature and data bank managed for commercial purpose. (see
details on book)
Researcher can search the literature form internet using title of the materials,
writer/author of the materials, publish date, keywords etc.
Some of the prominent search engines are,
1. Google : https://www.google.com/
2. Yahoo: https://www.yahoo.com/
3. Hotbot: https://www.hotbot.com/
4. Bing: https://www.bing.com/
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Format of Review Presentation

• A literature review can provide the opportunity to think about what has been done in
particular field; opportunity to think about the similarities, patterns, trend and also
differences across the existing research. Review materials are presented in the
research article, report, journal and book in following ways.
• As per the publication manual of American Psychological Association (APA),
researcher should incorporate surname of author, date of publication and the major
findings of the study. It is presented as:
• Adhikari (2003) argued that Nepalies HR Management is not for skill development
but for the compliance of rules and regulations.
OR
• Nepalies HR Management is not for skill development but for the compliance of rule
and regulation (Adhikari, 2003).
OR
• Nepalies HR Management is not for skill development but for the compliance of rule
and regulation (Adhikari, 2003, p. 102).
• While incorporating literatures in the report, following points should be taken into
considerations:
1. Literatures must be used preciously and must be logical and supported by published
materials.
2. Literatures must be related to the research work and should be arranged on the basis
of relevance.
3. Order is to be made on the basis of relevance of data of publication.
4. Further explanation can be made if it is essential. 22

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Guidelines of Conducting Literature Review

• Scientific research requires appropriate literature review. Various researchers
use different ways for review of literature. But all the researchers should
consider the following points while reviewing literature:
1. Every issue is to be comprehensively raised and summarized focusing on
research problem.
2. Researcher should discard the unnecessary materials.
3. Original source is to be used if it is possible. Otherwise secondary source can
be used but referring is to be managed indicating to secondary sources.
4. Researcher should incorporate objective, methodology and major findings in
the literature review.
5. Researcher should focus on the used of the available materials and remove
the weakness of the materials.
6. Researcher should arrange the material on the basis of rationality and they
should be organized logically.
7. Researcher should analyze the related materials only. Analysis of
unnecessary materials may waste time and resources.
8. Explanation and definitions of the subject must be made on the basis of
review result. 23

Meta Analysis
• Meta-analysis is a statistical technique for amalgamating, summarizing
qualitative and quantitative study data from several selected studies to develop a
single conclusion that has a greater statistical power.
• It is the statistical procedure for combining data from multiple studies.
• The conclusion of the study is statistically stronger than the analysis of any single
study, due to increased number of subjects, greater diversity among subjects or
accumulated effect and result.
• The decision about the utility of an intervention or the validity of a hypothesis
can not be based on the results of a single study, because results typically vary
from one study to the next. Rather, a mechanism is needed to synthesize data
across studies.
• Pharmaceutical companies can use meta analysis to gain approval of new drugs,
with regulatory agencies. Sometime requiring a meta analysis as part of the
approval process. Clinicians and applied researcher in medicine, education,
psychology, criminal justice, and a host of other fields use meta analysis to
determine which intervention work and which one work best. It is widely used in
basic research to evaluate the evidence in areas as diverse as sociology, social
psychology, finance and economics, management, political science, marketing,
ecology and genetics, among others. 24

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Purpose of Meta Analysis

• To establish statistical significance with studies that have conflicting results.
• To develop a more correct estimate of effect magnitude.
• To provide a more complex analysis related to harm, safety, benefits etc.
• To examine sub-groups with individual members that are not statistically
significant.
Process/Steps in Meta Analysis

• Identifying the relevant variables

• Locating the relevant research
• Conducting meta analysis
a. Comparing study
b. Combining studies

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