Literature analysis
& beyond
Why to do literature analysis?
a. Basis of any research project:
- what has been said, who said it, when and
how relevant it is
- what hasn't been said: “originality” of
research
b. Contextualise your research project in
updated theoretical framework
Focus on literature:
aims of this seminar
1. Familiarise with main databases of academic
articles
1.Present one possibility of building a basic,
personalised reference “database”
1. Introduce some elements of literature analysis
1. Where to search?
A must-know:

http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/index.html

Some databases:

http://www.jstor.org/

http://muse.jhu.edu/

http://www.tandfonline.com/
Don't forget to log in!

SIGN IN with University of Warwick Username
& Password
- Shibboleth (Taylor and Francis,
- UK Federation (MUSE)
2. Literature search
Exercise n. 1 (10 minutes)
- Search journals for academic articles about “elections and
democracy” (since 1995)
- In a .doc file:
1. insert citation (author, year, title of article, journal, volume,
number, pages) – optional: insert link to article
2. copy abstract of the article
3. copy list of references (other articles/books cited in the article)
(the list can be expanded with references to related articles
you find during your research)
2. Literature search
Feedback
1. Any difficulties? Problems?
2. What's the usefulness?
3. Other
3. Literature analysis
Exercise n. 2 (20 minutes)
- Choose one of the articles you found in the previous exercise:
1. About the author:
Who is (s)he? What's his/her main interest? Can you figure out his/her
approach? Have you read (can you find) other articles by him/her?
2. About the article:
- what is the methodology used?
- which types of data/information/references (reliable, verifiable)?
- what are the main points?
- in your opinion, is there any point particularly debatable/controversial?
3. Which questions does it raise and/or leave opened?
3. Literature analysis
Feedback
1. Any difficulties? Problems?
2. What's the usefulness?
3. Important issues of literature analysis “left out”?
3. Literature analysis
What about doing it online?
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/csd/iatl/observatory/
1. Possible to organise your databases through links (easy-touse)
2. Possible to create a cumulative, comprehensive database
3. Multimedia database
4. Give visibility to what you are doing