Locating and

Reviewing
Related
Literature
Week 5

SKR3996 Research Project

Discussion Topics

 General and specific purposes for reviewing the literature

 Steps for conducting a review
 Criteria for evaluating a review of the literature

SKR3996 Research Project

The Purposes of a Review

 General purpose - to relate previous research to the

current problem being investigated
 Provide contextual understanding (the context of your
research)
 Contribute to the overall evaluation of the credibility of
the research
 Indicate whether the nature of the research is targeted to
the reader’s needs

SKR3996 Research Project

The Purposes of a Review

 Specific purposes
 Refine the problem
 Identify specific ways in which others have defined
the general problem
 Identify delimitations related to the problem
 Identify operational definitions of the variables in
the problem
 Develop the significance of the research
 Establish the importance of the current study in
the context of what is known at this time
 Integrate the results of the study within the
broader context of what is known at this time
SKR3996 Research Project
 Delimitation vs limitation
 Delimitations refer to the boundaries of the research study, based on the
researcher’s decision of what to include and what to exclude. They
narrow your study to make it more manageable and relevant to what you
are trying to prove. Example statement: This study does not cover…This
study is limited to…The following has been excluded from this study…

 Limitations relate to the validity and reliability of the study. They are
characteristics of the research design or methodology that are out of your
control but influence your research findings. Because of this, they
determine the internal and external validity of your study and are
considered potential weaknesses.

SKR3996 Research Project

 Delimitation Limitation
• Research objectives • Issues with sample and
• Research questions selection
• Research variables • Insufficient sample size,
• Target populations population traits or
• Statistical analysis specific participants for
technique statistical significance
• Lack of previous research
studies on the topic which
has allowed for further
analysis
• Limitations in the
technology/instruments
used to collect your data
• Limited financial
resources and/or funding
constraints

SKR3996 Research Project

The Purposes of a Review

 Specific purposes
 Identify specific methods for conducting the research
 Identify appropriate sampling strategies and samples
 Identify appropriate instruments to measure important
variables
 Identify specific procedures to use in conducting the
research
 Identify appropriate designs to use when conducting the
research
 Identify contradictory findings
 Uncover studies or theories that contradict one another
 Identify reasons for the contradictions

SKR3996 Research Project

The Purposes of a Review

 Specific purposes
 Develop specific research hypotheses
 Prior studies contribute to understanding likely
outcomes of the current investigation
 Prior studies identify relevant theories or the
research related to them which can serve as the
basis for specific hypotheses
 Learn new information
 Relevant information to the current study
 New information or ideas unrelated to the current
study but of interest to the researcher
SKR3996 Research Project
Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 1 – Select a Topic and Key Terms (key words)
 General or specific
 Identify key terms
 Use one or two words or short phrases that capture the
central idea of the study
 Use words that authors report in the literature
 Start your search with general terms first

SKR3996 Research Project

Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 2 – Locating Resources
 Library resources
Offer the largest collection of materials,
especially research studies.
Have online catalogs of their holdings and
other large academic libraries.
Can use the services of a reference
librarian, interlibrary loan service to
locate materials.
SKR3996 Research Project
Steps for Conducting a Review
 Step 2 – Locating Resources
 Use both primary and secondary sources
 Look through one or two secondary sources to get an
overview of previous work that has been done on the
problem
 Secondary sources - textbooks, scholarly books,
monographs, encyclopedias, reviews, handbooks, and
yearbooks
 Get ideas about how to revise or improve the research
question
 Look for primary sources to get the details of original
research
 Primary sources – journal, proceedings
SKR3996 Research Project
Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 3 – Critically evaluate and select the literature
 Is it a good and accurate source?
 Rely as much as possible on journal articles
 Use a priority system for searching the literature. Start with
journal articles; then proceed to books; then conference
papers; dissertations and theses; and finally non-reviewed
articles posted to websites
 Look for “research” studies that consist of posing
questions, collecting data and forming results or
conclusions
 Include both quantitative and qualitative research studies
in the review
SKR3996 Research Project
Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 3 – Critically evaluate and select the
literature
 Is it relevant?
 Topic relevance – does the literature focus on the same topic
as your proposed study?
 Individual and site relevance – does the literature examine
the same individuals or sites that you want to study?
 Problem and question relevance – does the literature
examine the same research problem and question that you
propose to study?

SKR3996 Research Project

Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 4 – Organize the literature
 Photocopying, downloading and filing
 Make copies of the articles or download the articles (as .html
or .pdf files) and develop some system to easily retrieve the
information
 Placing the articles in folders and organize the literature by
sources, topic or keywords
 Remember to record the sources (authors’ name, year of
publish, title, name of journal/book, volume, page number,
publisher, website address, date of retrieve) of the literatures
for the reference purpose.

SKR3996 Research Project

 Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 4 – Organize the literature
 Summarize and analyze the information
 Take notes on information so that a summary of the
literature is available for a written review
 Identify bibliographic information
 Summarize the research problem
 Identify all variables, subjects, and instruments
 Describe the procedures
 Summarize the results and conclusions
 Record important quotes, weaknesses of the study,
relevance to the current problem, etc.
SKR3996 Research Project
Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 5 – Write a literature review
 Using a style manual
 Using appropriate style to write complete
references for the summaries (for a list at the end
of your research report) and to develop headings
for the literature review
 Style manual provides a structure for citing
references, labeling headings and constructing
tables and figures for a scholarly research report
 Most frequently used approaches in Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association
(APA) – end-of-text references, within-text
references, headings.
SKR3996 Research Project
Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 5 – Write a literature review
 End-of-text reference
 References listed at the end of a research report
 APA form – listed alphabetically by author
 Only the references mentioned in the body of the
paper can be listed in the end-of-text reference
 The first line is left adjusted and the second line is
indented (hanging indent). Capitalize only the first
word in the title of articles and books. Capitalize
all words in the journal title.
SKR3996 Research Project
 Steps for Conducting a Review
 Step 5 – Write a literature review
 End-of-text reference
Jackson, S.L. (2003). Research methods and statistics: A
critical thinking approach. USA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Liaghatdar, M. J., Soltani, A., & Abedi, A. (2011). A validity
study of attitudes toward science scale among Iranian
secondary school students. International Education
Studies, 4(4), 36-46.
Liu, H.C. (2005). Examining the use of computer
simulations to promote learning of Electrochemistry
among college students (Unpublished Doctorate thesis),
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
SKR3996 Research Project
Steps for Conducting a Review

 Step 5 – Write a literature review

 Within-text references
 References cited in a brief format within the body of the
text to provide credit to authors
 Use only the author’s last name, and includes
information about the year of the publication
 Multiple references – authors are listed in alphabetical
order and separated by semicolons
 Multiple-author reference for more than two authors –
list out all the authors’ name when first mention in the
research, for the subsequent times in the manuscript,
only the first author’s name is given and followed by “et
al.”Project
SKR3996 Research
 Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 5 – Write a literature review
 Within-text references
Western author (John Smith, 2007):
- Smith (2007) stated that …
- Random sampling is … (Smith, 2007).

Malay author (Mohd Jamal bin Mohd Ali, 2001):

- Mohd Jamal Mohd Ali (2001) conducted a study on …
- … results are parallel with previous study (Mohd Jamal,
2001).
SKR3996 Research Project
Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 5 – Write a literature review
 Within-text references
Chinese author (Chua Yan Piaw, 2009):
- Suggestion from Chua (2009) is same with …
- … showed significance difference (Chua Yan
Piaw, 2009).

Indian author (Punitha A/P Rajamuthu, 2014):

- … created by Punitha Rajamuthu (2014).
- … is effective on … (Punitha, 2014).
SKR3996 Research Project
Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 5 – Write a literature review
 Multiple references
Previous studies (Chua Yan Piaw, 2009; Mohd Jamal
Mohd Ali, 2001; Punitha Rajamuthu, 2014; Smith,
2007) showed ...
 Multiple-author reference
Attitude is ... (Smith, Mohd Jamal Mohd Ali, Punitha
Rajamuthu & Chua Yan Piaw, 2007).
... As stated in the previous study (Smith et al., 2007).
Smith and his colleagues (2007) reported ...
SKR3996 Research Project
 Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 5 – Write a literature review
 Writing strategies
Extent of the review
 For dissertation and theses – need an extensive review
of literature, comprehensively includes all sources of
information
 Proposal – establish the framework for a study and
documents the importance of the research problem
 Journal article – depends on its use and role in the study
 The search covers most published literature focusing on
the more recent studies (the last 10 years).
SKR3996 Research Project
 Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 5 – Write a literature review
 Writing strategies
Types of literature reviews
 Thematic review of the literature – identify a theme and
briefly cites literatures to document this theme, discuss only
the major ideas or results from studies, locating a theme and
noting the references (typically multiple references) to the
literature used to support the theme
 Study-by-study review of the literature – provides detailed
summary of each study grouped under a broad theme, link
summaries by using traditional sentences, and organize the
summaries under subheadings that reflect themes and major
divisions
SKR3996 Research Project
Steps for Conducting a
Review
 Step 5 – Write a literature review
 Writing strategies
Concluding statement of the review

 Summarizes the major themes found in the

literature and highlight what the readers need
to remember from the summaries of the review
 Provides a rationale for the need for your
study or the importance of the research
problem, mention three or four reasons that
play a significant role in research because they
often lead into the purpose statement,
research questions, and hypotheses
SKR3996 Research Project
Evaluation Criteria

 Does the review cover previous

research adequately?
 Does the review cover the actual
findings from other studies?
 Is the review current?
 Does the review summarize and
analyze previous studies?
 Is the review organized logically by
topic, not author?
SKR3996 Research Project
Evaluation Criteria

 Does the review briefly summarize minor

studies and discuss major studies in detail?
 Is the review of major studies related
explicitly to the current research problem?
 Does the review provide a logical basis for the
hypothesis?
 Does the review establish a theoretical
framework for the study?
 Does the review help to establish the
significance of the research?
SKR3996 Research Project
EXERCISE

 Try to write within-text  http://myjms.mohe.gov

reference and reference .my/index.php/PMJSSH/
list for the material article/view/4678
given  https://files.eric.ed.gov
/fulltext/EJ978904.pdf

SKR3996 Research Project