Literature Review: Strategies, Sources, and Evaluation Techniques

This report provides a detailed overview of the literature review process. It begins with an introduction explaining the functions of a literature review, including providing a theoretical background, establishing links between existing studies, and integrating research findings. The report then outlines how a literature review can bring clarity to the research problem, improve research methodology, broaden the knowledge base, and contextualize findings. It covers literature sources, search strategies, including identifying keywords, using Boolean operators, truncation, and proximity searching, and evaluating the literature using the CRAAP test. The report also includes examples of literature maps and tables and explains backward and forward chaining. The notes are extracted from the provided references.

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WEEK 2 NOTES
REVIEWING THE LITERATURE
The notes are mostly extracted (copy paste) from the references provided at the end of this document.
An Introduction to Literature Review
Literature review (LR) helps to determine whether the topic is worth studying, and it provides
insight into ways in which the researcher can limit the scope to a needed area of inquiry.
Basically, the LR serves the following functions:
1. It provides a theoretical background to your study.
2. It helps you establish the links between what you are proposing to examine and what
has already been studied.
3. It enables you to show how your findings have contributed to the existing body of
knowledge in your profession.
4. It helps you to integrate your research findings into the existing body of knowledge.
In relation to your own study, the LR can help in four ways. It can:
Bring clarity and focus to your research problem
The LR involves a paradox. On the one hand, you cannot effectively undertake a literature
search without some idea of the problem you wish to investigate. On the other hand, the LR
can play an extremely important role in shaping your research problem because the process of
reviewing the literature helps you to understand the subject area better and thus helps you to
conceptualise your research problem clearly and precisely and makes it more relevant and
pertinent to your field of enquiry. When reviewing the literature, you learn what aspects of
your subject area have been examined by others, what they have found out about these aspects,
what gaps they have identified and what suggestions they have made for further research. All
these will help you gain a greater insight into your own research questions and provide you
with clarity and focus which are central to a relevant and valid study. In addition, it will help
you to focus your study on areas where there are gaps in the existing body of knowledge,
thereby enhancing its relevance.
Improve your research methodology
Going through the literature acquaints you with the methodologies that have been used by
others to find answers to research questions similar to the one you are investigating. A LR tells
you if others have used procedures and methods similar to the ones that you are proposing,
which procedures and methods have worked well for them and what problems they have faced
with them. By becoming aware of any problems and pitfalls, you will be better positioned to
select a methodology that is capable of providing valid answers to your research question. This
will increase your confidence in the methodology you plan to use and will equip you to defend
its use.

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Broaden your knowledge base in your research area
The most important function of the literature review is to ensure you read widely around the
subject area in which you intend to conduct your research study. It is important that you know
what other researchers have found in regard to the same or similar questions, what theories
have been put forward and what gaps exist in the relevant body of knowledge. When you
undertake a research project for a higher degree (e.g. an MA or a PhD) you are expected to be
an expert in your area of research. A thorough literature review helps you to fulfil this
expectation. Another important reason for doing a literature review is that it helps you to
understand how the findings of your study fit into the existing body of knowledge (Martin
1985: 30).
Contextualize your findings
Obtaining answers to your research questions is comparatively easy: the difficult part is
examining how your findings fit into the existing body of knowledge. How do answers to your
research questions compare with what others have found? What contribution have you been
able to make to the existing body of knowledge? How are your findings different from those
of others? Undertaking a literature review will enable you to compare your findings with those
of others and answer these questions. It is important to place your findings in the context of
what is already known in your field of enquiry.
Literature Sources
To search effectively for the literature in your field of enquiry, it is imperative that you have at
least some idea of the broad subject area and of the problem you wish to investigate, in order
to set parameters for your search. Next, compile a bibliography for this broad area. There are
myriad of sources that you can use to prepare a bibliography:
1. Books
2. Journal articles
3. Conference papers
4. Policy papers
5. Thesis
6. Reports
7. Seminars
8. Websites
9. Reputable newspapers and magazines
The IIUM library online database and Google Scholar can definitely be of help.
Literature Search Strategy
Before conducting LR, it is important that you (1) know what it is you are going to research on
i.e. the research topic. From there, you will be able to (2) identify main concepts and key terms
that relate to the research topic. It is also useful to identify keyword synonyms. With the main
concepts and keywords in mind, you can then proceed with the literature search by (3) selecting
and evaluating the literature. The previous section had already shown you the literature sources.
After evaluation, (4) draw a literature map and produce a literature table. Literature map is

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simply a mind map that helps you group and “see” the literature themes while a literature table
can help summarize the main points of the literature. Figure 1 shows an example of a literature
map while Table 1 shows a literature table. Lastly, be sure to (5) keep a record of your literature
finds. This is so it will be easier for you to retrieve and analyse the literature and certainly help
with citations in your thesis.
Figure 1: Example of a Literature Map
Table 1: Literature Table
No. Year Author(s) Title Keywords Objectives Methods Findings
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2
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Conducting Literature Search
Identifying key terms to search for is only the first step towards developing efficient searching
strategies. The real skill comes in knowing how to refine your search in a way that gives you
the best chance of finding the literature most pertinent to your project. The next subsections

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consider the following key strategies in turn: using Boolean operators, truncation searching or
wildcards, and proximity searching/phrase searching. These are often used when typing in most
search boxes like Google Scholar and online databases.
Boolean operators
Boolean operators are useful when your search involves more than one search term and you
need to be more specific about how the terms relate to each other. The three Boolean
operators, AND, OR and NOT, are explained in Table 2.
Table 2: Boolean Operators
Truncation searching or wildcards
Truncators allow you to use a special symbol (frequently *) in the place of a particular letter or
letters to broaden or restrict your search results. For example, fish* would retrieve fish, fisher,
fishermen, fisherwomen, fishers and fishing. When used as a wildcard, the * replaces a single
letter, and is useful for words with different spelling variations e.g. organi*ation would produce
results for both organization and organisation.
Proximity searching/phrase searching
Proximity operators enable you to establish a connection between your search terms, allowing
you to be more specific about how and where the terms might most productively combine. This
is particularly important when you are searching full-text articles. Phrase searching involves
searching for words that are in a set order and adjacent to one another, placing the phrase in
inverted commas (“”), as indicated in Table 3.
Some literature search tools also provide proximity searching capabilities. For instance, they
might use terms such as NEAR or ADJ (short for “adjacent”) or SAME or WITH (to say that
the words must appear in the same sentence). Table 4 demonstrates how proximity operators
can impact on search results.

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Table 3: Phrase Searching
Table 4: Proximity searching
In addition, you will want to perform backward chaining or forward chaining. Backward
chaining is simply following up references provided in the reference list of a literature. On the
other hand, forward chaining is when a researcher identifies articles that cite an original article
or work after it had been published. This type of search focuses on the publications created
after an article's publication. Some, but not all, journal publishers show the number of times an
article has been cited and may have links to the citing articles. Check the journal where an
article was published for this feature.
Backward chaining can help you with the following:
 Learn about the development of knowledge on a topic
 Study the origins and development of a theory, construct, or model of interest
 Identify experts, institutions or organizations that specialize in a topic of research
Forward chaining can help you with the following:
 Expand their knowledge on a topic by locating follow-up studies
 Identify new findings and developments on a topic
 Examine and consider other methodologies or analyses used to study a topic

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Evaluating the Literature
To determine the credibility of your literature, use the CRAAP test developed by the Meriam
library at California State University. The test involves asking these questions:
1. Currency - When was the information published and is that important to know?
2. Relevance - How important is the information to your needs?
3. Authority - Who is the author and what are their credentials? Do they work for a
reputable institution? Was the information published in a peer-reviewed journal?
4. Accuracy - How reliable is the information? Does it lack citations? Are there spelling
errors?
5. Purpose - Is it a well-balanced piece of research, or intended to sell a product or idea?

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References
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and
Mixed Methods Approaches. California: SAGE Publications.
Kumar, R. (2011). Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners. London:
SAGE Publications.
Florida Atlantic Univeristy Libraries. (n.d.). Guide to Science Information Resources:
Backward & Forward Reference Searching. Retrieved on 26th September 2020 from
Florida Atlantic University Libraries:
https://libguides.fau.edu/c.php?g=325509&p=2182112
Library. (n.d.). Literature Review: Developing a Search Strategy. Retrieved on 25th
September 2020 from Charles Sturt University:
https://libguides.csu.edu.au/review/Search_Strategies
Mattern, S. (n.d.). Literature Review Tips. Retrieved on 26th September 2020 from Words in
Space: Shannon Mattern:
https://www.wordsinspace.net/course_material/MatternLiteratureReviewTips.pdf
Web, K. K. (n.d.). Literature Search - A Librarian's Handout to Introduce Tools, Terms and
Techniques . Retrieved on 25th September 2020 from Charles Sturt University:
https://libguides.csu.edu.au/ld.php?content_id=36285749