The Literature Review CSE/ISE 300 Spring 2011 Tony Scarlatos

What is a Literature Review? “... a literature review uses as its database reports of primary or original scholarship, and does not report new primary scholarship itself.” “Second a literature review seeks to describe, summarize, evaluate, clarify and/or integrate the content of primary reports.” - Cooper (1988)

The Purpose of a Literature Review “The review of relevant literature is nearly always a standard chapter of a thesis or dissertation. The review forms an important chapter in a thesis where its purpose is to provide the background to and justification for the research undertaken.” - Bruce (1994)

What a Literature Review is not: A Literature Review is not a book report… It is not an Annotated Bibliography – a list of papers with a summary of their contents and a bibliography. Annotated Bibliographies may be organized alphabetically by title or author, or chronologically by publication date; and such a list can be useful to a researcher to organize the works they have read for future reference. But the papers are not organized around a unifying theme that addresses a central question posed by the reviewer. It is not a collection of papers that necessarily all reach the same conclusions about a particular topic. Instead the papers reviewed represent a summary of the approaches and solutions to a given problem defined by the reviewer. Critical evaluation by the reviewer is required.

Types of Literature Reviews Summary Paper: – For professional journals; its value is to summarize an area of research of interest to the readers. Embedded in a research paper: – Used as background or context for the research problem posed by the author. Demonstrates the “state-of-the-art” of current approaches. Helps to explain why the author favors a particular solution to a research problem, and why the researcher is pursuing it. Embedded in a grant application: – A background that helps to show why the researcher’s approach is novel, and why it will attain results not previously reached. A chapter in a thesis. – Sets the author’s work in the context of prior research.

Information Sources Peer-reviewed journal papers Conference proceedings Books (but not textbooks) Talks (transcript) Dissertations Government, institutional, and corporate data – For example NASA, NOAA, EPA, NIH, National Academies – Pew Research, MacArthur Foundation Newspaper and magazine articles Other media… (Internet, broadcast) But not encyclopedic sources, such as Wikipedia, Britannica, Webster’s Dictionary, etc.

Assessing the Data Provenance—What are the author’s credentials? Are the author’s arguments supported by evidence (e.g. case studies, statistics, recent scientific findings)? Objectivity—Is the author’s perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author’s point? Persuasiveness—Which of the author’s theses are most/least convincing? Value—Are the author’s arguments and conclusions convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?

The process of writing a Literature Review Formulate a question, or postulate a thesis. Search for relevant, pertinent articles. Gather the most authoritative data you can find. – Quality (prestige) of the source (such as the publication or conference) – Reputation of the author – Number of citations for the paper Analyze and evaluate the data. Create an outline that includes an introduction, the body of the paper, and a conclusion. Write a draft including the bibliography. Proofread and write the final draft, paying attention to proper formatting (i.e. citations, etc.)

Some Questions To Ask 1. What do we already know in the immediate area concerned? 2. What are the key concepts or the main factors or variables? 3. What are the relationships between the key concepts or variables? 4. What are the existing theories? 5. Where are the inconsistencies in our knowledge and understanding? 6. What views need to be (further) tested? 7. What evidence is lacking, inconclusive, contradictory, or too limited? 8. Why study (further) the research problem? 9. What contribution can the present study be expected to make? 10. What research designs or methods seem unsatisfactory?

Literature Review: Introduction Define or identify the general topic, issue, or area of concern, thus providing an appropriate context for reviewing the literature. Point out overall trends in what has been published about the topic; or conflicts in theory, methodology, evidence, and conclusions; or gaps in research and scholarship; or a single problem or new perspective of immediate interest. Establish the writer's reason (point of view) for reviewing the literature; explain the criteria to be used in analyzing and comparing literature and the organization of the review (sequence); and, when necessary, state why certain literature is or is not included (scope).

Literature Review: Body Group research studies and other types of literature according to common denominators (such as qualitative versus quantitative approaches, conclusions of authors, specific purpose or objective, etc.) Summarize individual studies or articles with as much or as little detail as each merits according to its comparative importance in the literature, remembering that space (length) denotes significance. Provide the reader with strong “umbrella” sentences at beginnings of paragraphs, “signposts” throughout, and brief “so what” summary sentences at intermediate points in the review to aid in understanding comparisons and analyses.

Literature Review: Conclusion Summarize the major contributions of significant studies and articles to the body of knowledge under review, maintaining the focus established in the introduction. Evaluate the current “state of the art” for the body of knowledge reviewed, pointing out major methodological flaws or gaps in research, inconsistencies in theory and findings, and areas or issues pertinent to future study. Conclude by providing some insight into the relationship between the central topic of the literature review and a larger area of study such as a discipline, a scientific endeavor, or a profession.

Formatting Every publication has its own requirements for submission. The ACM has published its requirements (and templates) at: (We will use the ACM Small Standard Format) There are a number of citation formats: AMA, APA, MLA, etc. We will use the Chicago Style Author Date format. The ACM provides this example: ZHOU, G., LU, J., WAN, C. Y., YARVIS, M. D., AND STANKOVIC, J. A Body Sensor Networks. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Literature Review Tips If you are having difficulty thinking of a topic, ask a faculty member whose research you admire. In addition to suggesting a topic, they may be able to point you to some of the relevant scholarship for that topic. Print out the papers that are of interest to you and keep them in a binder. It will be easier to annotate them by writing notes in the margins (or by attaching post-its). And it will also be easier to sort, find, and review them.