Literature Review#
In this appendix, I will include basic information needed to be successful in this class.
What to look for in papers#
Scientific Method:
What is the scientific question the researchers are asking?
Why is this an important question?
What are the hypotheses?
How are they testing the hypotheses?
Do the authors propose new hypotheses and/or research?
What are the limits of the study?
Systems Thinking:
What parts of the Critical Zone are involved in this research?
What ecosystem, Critical Zone, or global scale does this research include?
Conducting Literature Review#
What is a literature review?#
A literature review is an integrated analysis– not just a summary– of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research question. That is, it represents a synthesis of the evidence that provides background information on your topic and shows a association between the evidence and your research question.
A literature review may be a stand alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the assignment. Rely heavily on the guidelines your instructor has given you.
Why is it important?
A literature review is important because it:
Explains the background of research on a topic.
Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area.
Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas.
Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic.
Identifies critical gaps and points of disagreement.
Discusses further research questions that logically come out of the previous studies.
Choose a topic#
Define your research question. Your literature review should be guided by your central research question. the literature represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.
Tips:
Make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow. Is it manageable?
Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. These will be useful for searches later.
If you have the opportunity, discuss your topic with your professor and your class mates.
Scope of your review#
What is the scope of your review? How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover?
Tip:
This may depend on your assignment. How many sources does the assignment require?
Select the databases#
Make a list of the databases you will search. Try the following databases:
Google Scholar. Google uses a similar search algorithm as regular searches to find most relevant articles.
ScienceDirect- Elsevier’s search engine focused on hundreds of journals published by Elsevier.
Scopus- another very large database engine from Elsevier.
Web of Science - popular and widely used database
Conduct your search#
Search to find the evidence for your research. Keep track of your searches.
Use the key words in your question, as well as synonyms for those words, as terms in your search.
Save the searches in the databases. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the searches. It is also helpful to use as a guide is the searches are not finding any useful results.
Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
Check with your professor, or a subject expert in the field, if you are missing any key works in the field.
Ask your librarian for help at any time.
Use a citation manager, such as Mendeley as the repository for your citations. Visit Mendeley - Reference Management Software and sign up for a free account. Download the desktop software to link to your Word app.
Review the literature#
Some questions to help you analyze the research:
What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions.
Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited? If so, how has it been analyzed?
Tips:
Review the abstracts carefully.
Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.
Create a matrix of the studies for easy analysis, and synthesis, across all of the studies.