RESEARCH PROPOSAL: HOW TO REVIEW THE LITERATURE MNGT Özge Can

Basics...  Are there any past studies relevant to your research topic and question?  The logic of literature review:  Knowledge accumulates (principle of science)  We can learn from and build on what others have done

Goals of a Literature Review:  To demonstrate a familiarity with a body of knowledge  To integrate and summarize what is known in an area  To show the path of prior research and how a current project is linked to it  To learn from others and stimulate new ideas

Where to Find Literature Review?  You can find reports of research studies in several formats:  Periodicals  Scholarly journal articles  Books  Dissertations  Government documents  Policy reports and presented papers

Periodicals  Newspapers, popular magazines, Internet news, tv or radio broadcasts  Google  Not complete, full reports of research studies  Selected, condensed summaries for general audience  We need to move from these popular, lay sources and rely on serious scholarly publications

Where do professional researchers present their study results?  In one of the following forms:  Articles in scholarly journals  Academic research books  Chapters in edited academic books  Papers presented in professional meetings/ academic conferences

Scholarly Journals  The primary source to use for a literature review:  peer-reviewed reports of research: Criticized and reviewed by other professional researchers. As a result of this review, they are either accepted or rejected by the journal.

Scholarly Journals  Full text of some scholarly journal articles available on internet  Google Scholar (Google Akademik)  But usually access from internet is limited and require subscription fees  Best and easiest way to reach them =>  Online article search engines at your library  Academic databases: Proquest, EBSCO HOST,...

Scholarly Journals  Citation => details of a scholarly publication’s location that helps people to find it quickly  Abstract => A short summary of a scholarly journal article that appears ath its beginning

Citation Example: Citation in APA Style:  Ruef, M., and Patterson, K. (2009). Credit and Classification: The Impact of Industry Boundaries in Nineteenth-century America. Administrative Science Quarterly 54,

Abstract Example:

Books  Best type of books for literature review:  containing reports of original research or collections of them  You should distinguish this type of books from other books (e.g. textbooks, encyclopedias, story books, novels, fiction)  Libraries have research-related books:  Citation info for them available in the library’s catalog system

Dissertations and Government Documents  Dissertation => A work of original research completed in order to receive doctor of philosophy (Ph.D) degree  Specialized indexes listing dissertations  YÖK Ulusal Tez Merkezi  Government documents => Turkish government, governments of other countries, United Nations, World Bank, OECD.

Policy Reports and Presented Papers  Policy Reports => published by research institutes, policy centers and other relevant associations  Presented Papers => Research presented in annual academic meetings (conferences).  Lots of researchers assemble to give, listen to or discuss recent research  Written papers as well as oral presentation

How to Conduct a Literature Review? 1. Define and refine the topic  A clearly defined, well-focused research question 2. Design/plan the review  Planning the review strategy: its extensiveness, types of mateirlas to include, how much tome you have, number of research that you’ll examine 3. Locate the research reports  Scholarly journals, books, other

How to Evaluate Research Articles?  After you locate a published study, you need to read and evaluate it! 1. Examine the title 2. Read the abstract 3. Read the article 4. Take notes about the study

How to Take Notes?  As you discover new sources, you may want to create two types of files:  a source file => only bibliographic citations  a content file => summary of hypotheses tested, study’s major findings, its methodology, key concepts and their measurement, the sample used, ideas for future studies  Then you organize them:  How these findings fit together?  What are the gaps and interesting questions?

Accessing to Literature:  Yaşar University – Information Center:   Catalog Search:  Databases: databases/ databases/  Google Akademik (Google Scholar):   Google Kitaplar (Google Books): 