LITERATURE REVEIW
F. M. Kapepiso
Learning objectives
At the end of the lecture, you should be able to:
• Describe several purposes of the literature review
• Explain how to effectively use general resources to find
appropriate literature
• Describe strategies you can use to evaluate, organise and
synthesize literature related to a research problem
• Understand the five (5) C’s of literature review
Introduction
• A literature review is a discussion of previous studies. It is
formally defined as a selection of available documents,
published or unpublished on the topic of interest (Lawal,
2009, p.52).
• Conduct a thorough literature review: Being as thorough as
possible during literature review, allows for a broader
understanding of your research topic(s)
• Everything hinges on theories, concepts, and past research
and awareness of current issues that can be unleashed by an
extensive review of the literature (Lawal, 2009, p.52).
• Literature Review provides details of many research studies
on a subject:
– It provides a basis of current research (continuity in creation of
knowledge and ideas on a subject);
– It provides ideas on structuring of a thesis (theoretical and practical
questions); and
– Previous studies help in selecting methodological approaches,
research designs, data collection methods, and design of data
collection instruments, etc.
Purpose of a literature review
• The purpose of a literature review is to “look again” (re+view) at
what others have done in areas that are similar to one’s own
topic of investigation.
• An extensive literature review has many benefits:
– Can help you ascertain whether other researchers have already
addressed and answered your research problem.
– Can offer new ideas, perspectives and approaches that may not have
occurred to you before
– Can inform you about other individuals who conduct research in your
area
– Can alert you about controversial issues that have not yet been
resolved
– Can show you what methodology others have used in studies similar
to yours
– Can reveal sources of data you may not have known
– Can introduce you to measurement tools others have developed
– Can help you interpret your findings and results
– Can boost your confidence that your topic is worth studying
Finding appropriate literature on a topic
You might find literature related to your topic in a number of places, for
instance, in books, journals, newspapers, government publications and
internet websites.
• Step 1: Identify keywords (words or short phrases summarizing your
research topic) or look for synonyms.
• Step 2: Once you have identified appropriate search term, you have a
number of options:
– See what the textbook say about these terms (use the library catalogue to
locate textbooks)
– Search relevant journal articles in academic as well as industry related
electronic journal and magazines. When searching limit yourself to academic
journals from last three years to five years that are available in full-text. If
you don’t find anything you want increase time period to the last ten years
and include article that are not available in full-text.
– Read and write or read first and write later. Lengthy undertaking, so plan
plenty of time for it – never ends till the end
– Consider the following search strategies: find articles published nationally
first, then regionally and then internationally. EXAMPLES ON NEXT SLIDES
National – Namibia Institutions (example)
1. Bank of Namibia (BoN) – www.bon.com.nz
2. Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) –
info@namfisa.com.na
3. National Planning Commission of Namibia
4. Ministry of Finance, Government of Namibia
5. National Parliament of Namibia
6. University of Namibia
University of Namibia Library
Department of Accounting, Auditing and Income Tax
Namibia Business School
7. Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST)
NUST Library
Department of Accounting, Auditing and Income Tax
Pupkewitz Business School
National – Namibia Institutions (example)
8. Institute of Chartered Accountants of Namibia (ICAN)
9. Namibia Stock Exchange
10 First National Bank of Namibia (FNB) – www.fnbnamibia.com.na
11. Bank of Windhoek – www.bankwindhoek.com.na
12. Nedbank Namibia – www.nedbank.com.na
13. Standard Bank of Namibia – www.standardbank.com.na
14. AGRIBANK of Namibia – agribank@iway.na
15. Development Bank of Namibia – www.dbn.com.na
16. Sanlam Namibia – marketing@sanla.com.na
17. Old Mutual Namibia 18. Embassy of the United States of America
United States Information Service Library
19. High Commission of United Kingdom
British Council Library
South African Institutions -example
1. Reserve Bank of South Africa http://www.reservebank.co.za.
2. Johannesburg Stock Exchange
3. South African Financial Exchange - http://www.safex.co.za
4. South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA)
5. Government of South Africa Website http://www.policy.org.za
6. SA Department of Labour - http://www.labour.gov.za
7. South Africa Political Information http://www.idasa.org.za/
Regional Institutions - example
1. African Union (AU)
2. Southern African Development Community (SADC)
3. Southern African Customs Union (SACU)
4. Common Monetary Union (CMA)
5. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
6. Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
(COMESA)
7. East African Community (EAC)
8. Cape to Cairo Free Market Group
International Institutions -example
1. World Bank (WB)
2. International Monetary Fund (IMF)
•
Finance and Development
•
World Economic Outlook
•
Global Financial Stability Report
•
Making Fiscal Decentralisation Work
•
Macro Financial Linkages: Trends, Crises and Policies
•
IMF Book Store – www.imfbookstore.org
3. International Bank of Settlement (IBS)
4. African Development Bank (AfDB)
5. Asian Development Bank (ADB)
6. European Central Bank
7. American Development Bank
8. United Nations and its affiliates
•
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
•
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
9. United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)
10. World Trade Organisation (WTO)
11.Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
International Professional Bodies - example
1. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
2. International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC)
3. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
4. American Institution of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
5. American Accounting Association (AAA)
6. International Association for Accounting Education and
Research (IAAER)
7. Asia Pacific Conference on International Accounting Issues
8. Indian Accounting Association
9. Indian Accounting Association Research Foundation (IAAER)
Internet Browsers and Search Engines - example
• Internet Browsers – Freely available
Netscape Navigator – http://www.natscape.com/download/
Microsoft Internet Explorer –
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm
• Global Search Engines
Google - http://www.google.ca.za/
Yahoo - http://www.yahoo.com
• Meta search engines – search on several search engines at the same time
Beaucoup – www.beaucoup.com
Dogpile – www.dogpile.com
• Metacrawler – www.metcrawler.com
WebCrawler – http://www.webcrawler.com/
Alta Vista – http://www.altavista.com/
• South African Search Engines - http://www.aardvark.ca.za
http://www.anazi.co.za
• Internet Research - http://www.nrf.ac.za/yenza
Reference Sources - example
• Encyclopaedia Britannica online – www.britannica.com
• Gale Virtual Reference Library – www.gale.com
• International Encyclopaedia of Social & Behavioural
Sciences –
www.sciencedirect.com/science/referenceworks/0080
43076
• Oxford Reference Online – www.oxfordreference.com
• Rutledge Reference Resources Online –
www.reference.routledge.com
• Wikipedia - www.wikipedia.org
Library and Catalogue Services - example
1. Worldcat – stocks 60 million records from 9,000 libraries
worldwide
2. LibDex The Library Index – www.libdex.com
3. The US Library of Congress - www.loc.gov
4. The British Library – catalogue.bl.uk
5. COPAC – copac.ac.uk/copac
6. Books in Print – www.booksinprint.com
South African Library Resources - example
1. UNISA Library can be visited on – http://www.unisa.ac.za/search/
and clicking on library
2. African Digital Library -access to about 8,000 full text books for people living in Africa’
•
http://africaeducation.org/adadl/
3. Net Library – on line library offering access to electronic books, journals, and reference resources.
•
http://www.netlibrary.com
•
http://www.sabinet.ca.za
•
http://www.lib.ouhk.edu.hk/
4. EMERALD Library – more than 20,000 full text and management articles
•
http://www.emerald-library.com/EMR/EMR.html
•
User name: tsa1 Password: bird
•
tsa2
ant
•
tsa3
fly
S. A. Business Abstracts Indexing – Provides access to more than 150 data bases and thousands of
electronic journals
• User ID: technikon Password: ebsco
6. South Africa National Research Foundation
•
http://www.nrf.ac.za
7. South African National Research Foundation - Bursaries and Funding
•
http://www.nrf.ac.za/funding/guide/\
Data Bases - example
1. Euro next – www.euronext.com
2. SCORPUS – Data Base of Social Sciences Research and Publications
3. Conference database - http://stardata.nrf.ac.za
http://www.apa.org/science/lib.html
4. NEXUS - Current & Completed Research in South Africa – 77,000 projects listed
•
http://www.hsrc.ac.za/
http://stardata.nrf.ac.za
5. Open University Hong Kong – 1,000 databases & 500,000 volumes of Books
•
http://www.lib.ouhk.edu.hk/
6. Research in South Africa – Profiles, Interests and Specialisation
•
http://stardata.nrf.ac.za
7. Research Topics Titles Registered with Human Sciences Research Council
•
http://stardata.nrd.ac.za
•
Username: ztsa
Password: tsa5
8. African Universities Database
•
http://www.aau.org./datad/
9. Australian Universities – Full Text from Seven Universities
•
http://adt.caul.edu.au/
10. Periodicals Content Index – www. pcift.chadwyck.co.uk
11. LexisNexis – www.lexisnexis.com
12. Find Articles – www.findarticles.com
Theses and Dissertations - example
1. Index to Theses – www.theses.com
2. Networked Digital Library of Theses and
Dissertations - vtls.com/ndltd
3. Dissertations – www.dissertation.com
Online Books - example
* Book Shops
1. Amazon.com/Amazon.co.uk
2. Blackwell – www.blackwell.co.uk
3. Barnes and Noble – www.bn,com
• Full – text books online
1. Amazon.co or amazon.o.uk
and then book
2. Book.google.com
3. Google scholar – scholar.ggogle.com
• E – Books
1. Net Library – www.netlibrary.com
2. Ebrary – www.ebrary.com
3. Taylor and Francis – www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk
• Book Reviews
1. Book Review Index – www.gale.com
2. H – Review www.h-net.org/review
Managing information gathered in
Literature Reviewing
• Limit the time period of your search to the last three years and increase
the time period to the last ten years if you cannot find articles
• Keep a record of the complete reference to a book, journal articles or
web page
• Diarise the due date of all library books and inter-library loan books
• Place all your printed article together in a box or file so that you do not
waste time to search for a particular article
• Categorise journals and publications into highly relevant, relevant and
irrelevant materials. Discard irrelevant materials
• How to read an academic article:
– First read the abstract then introduction, methodology and conclusion to determine
whether the article will be of value to you. As you read consider the following:
– Does the article have a stated research question or problem?
– Does the article contain a section that describes and integrates previous studies on
this topic?
– Does the article describe how data were collected and analysed?
– Do you agree the author’s interpretations and conclusions?
Organizing and synthesizing the literature
A literature review is not merely a chronological summary of what different
author have said about a specific topic. To compile a literature review, you
have to “digest” the available literature and then provide a critical
evaluation and synthesized summary of the current knowledge related to
your topic. To synthesize in other words means, you must pull together the
diverse perspectives and research results you have read into a cohesive
whole.
Here are some examples of what you might include in the literature:
–
–
–
–
–
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Conceptual definitions of all the key concepts/ constructs included in the study
Identify common themes that run throughout the literature
Show how approaches to the topic have changed over time
Compare and contrast varying theoretical perspectives on the topic
Describe general trends in research findings
Identify discrepant or contradictory findings, and suggest possible explanations for
such discrepancies
A literature review is primarily structured through the use of headings and
sub-headings. Its best to create an outline on your research objectives or
question, the heading should be descriptive and informative.
5 Cs of Literature Reviewing
5 Cs of literature review: cite, compare, contrast, critique, and connect?
• Cite – primary focus is on the literature and always indicate source
materials
• Compare - various arguments, theories, methodologies, approaches
and findings expressed in the literature
• Contrast the various arguments, themes, methodologies, approaches
and controversies expressed in the literature: what are the major areas
of disagreement, controversy, debate?
• Critique the literature: which arguments are more persuasive, and
why?
• Which approaches, findings, methodologies seem most reliable, valid, or
appropriate, and why?
• Use of terms- claim, asserts, posits, demonstrates,
• Connect the literature to your own area of research and investigation:
how does your own work draw on/ depart from/ synthesise what has
been said in the literature?
Thanks