Chapter 4

The Critical Literature Review

1
 Literature Review
 A step‐by‐step process that involves the identification,
evaluation and documentation of published and unpublished
work from secondary data sources on the topic of interest
 The literature review helps the researcher to develop a good
problem statement; it ensures that no important variable is
overlooked in the process of defining the problem
 A LR would prevent “reinventing the wheel”.
 It would help build knowledge on the basis of already developed
structure (Specific view) to achieve rigor.
 It is important for all types of researches/research questions
 It helps to identify methods used by other researchers/ relating
findings to other researcher’s.

3
Specific Functions of The Literature
Review
 Conducting The Literature Review
 Data sources
 You will need to use a combination of information resources
depending on the nature and the objectives of your research project.
– Text books
– Journals
– Theses
– Conference Proceedings
– Unpublished manuscripts
– Reports
– Newspapers
– The internet

5
 Searching for Literature
 Electronic Journals
 Academic Databases and Search Engines
 Full-Text Databases (AJOL, AgeLine, AGRICOLA, AGRIS)

 Bibliographies/ References

 Abstracts

6
 Major Data Basese
 Business Source Complete
 JSTOR
 ProQuest
 ScienceDirect
 Wiley Online Library
 Emerald Insight
 SpringerLink
 Google Scholar
 Evaluating the Literature
 Not everything viewed, would be important/ related.

 You will have to carefully select relevant books and articles related to your
study.

 A glance at the titles of the articles or books should give idea.

 The abstract of an article usually provides an overview of the study. A

good abstract thus provides you with enough information to help you to
decide whether an article is relevant to your study.

8
Evaluating the Literature
 Documenting the Literature Review
 It is important to convince the reader that:
 a) The researcher is knowledgeable about the problem
area and has done the preliminary homework that is
necessary to conduct the research
 b) The theoretical framework will be structured on work
already done and will add to the solid foundation of
existing knowledge.
 Ethical Issues
 Research involves building on the work of others. When you summarize,
add to, or challenge the work of others, there are two important pitfalls that
you have to beware of:
 1. Purposely misrepresenting the work of other authors – that is, their
viewpoints, ideas, models, findings, conclusions, interpretations, and so
on.
 2. Plagiarism – the use of another ’ s original words, arguments, or ideas
as though they were your own, even if this is done in good faith, out of
carelessness, or out of ignorance.
 Both purposely misrepresenting the work of others and plagiarism are
considered to be fraud.