literature review - E-commerce industry - efficient supply chain management

Reviewing the Literature

Agenda

 Why Search?

 What information is required?

 Sources of information

 Searching these sources and following-up references

 Maintaining references

 Writing the literature review

 Sources of help

What is Required at MSc/Doctorate level?

 A comprehensive and thorough review of the

literature which must be critical

NOT

 A simple literature search / survey

The Review will Enable you to:

 Develop background knowledge of your subject area

 Be critical of the published research work in your field

& define the state-of-the-art

 Identify where you can make a contribution to the

knowledge

 Test & defend your ideas relative to published work

“Searches for Sale”

 “The British Patent Office has notched up the 10 000 th search

under a private service that began in 1986.

 The office estimates that around 30% of all scientific research in

Europe is wasted because it covers ground that is already well

documented in patents and other literature.

 The private service aims to help researchers to avoid this

duplication of effort”.

New Scientist 29 May 1993

Information Required

 Subject Specific

 Machining hardened die steel

 Manufacturing strategy

 Research Methodology

 Cutting temperature determination

 Case study research

Sources of Information

 Books

 Journals & Conferences Papers

 PhD & MPhil Theses

 Patents

 Government Publications

 Statistics

 Standards

 Codes of Practice

 Company Information

 The Internet

Books

 Books that are recognised as good, authoritative

works in the field are valuable sources of

information on well established topics

 However, books are not a good source of

information on the latest research in the field

Journal and Conference Papers

Searching for papers

 Most libraries have electronic databases which can be

searched with key words, author names etc.

 You can also gain access to the databases such as the

Web of Science, Science Direct and EDiNA via the

Internet

 All these databases will provide an abstract and the

information needed to obtain a copy of the full article

Obtaining a Copy of the Paper

Obtaining a copy of the papers

 Increasingly, databases are providing on-line versions of the

full papers for you to download and print

 BUT do not just restrict yourself to the papers that are easy for

you can obtain in this way

 You must also obtain copies of papers which are not available

electronically

Journal and Conference Papers

Obtaining a copy of the papers

 If the journal or conference proceedings are in the library

you can photocopy the paper (for your research)

 If it is not in the your library you may be able to obtain a

copy from other local university libraries

OR

 Put in a request to the Inter-Library Loan office who will

obtain a copy for you

PhD and MPhil Theses

Searching for relevant theses

 Index to Theses

 UK research degrees - PhD, MPhil (via the Internet)

 Dissertation Abstracts

 USA research degrees - PhD, MPhil (CD-ROM & Internet trial)

 Current Research in Britain

 Information on ongoing research (CD-ROM)

PhD and MPhil Theses

Obtaining a copy of the thesis

 You will need to request the thesis via the ILL system

 Universities will not generally allow their theses to leave the

campus

 The thesis will generally be provided in electronic or

microfilm format

Statistics

 Statistics can provide useful data, but you must

consider their source

 Official Statistics

 Un-official Statistics

Standards

 National and international standards can be

important if they have an impact on your field of

research

 For example, in some areas of research, any

proposed solution may need to comply with certain

national standards

Codes of Practice

 As with standards, codes of practice can be

important if they have an impact on your field of

research

 For example, some professions such as

accountancy are subject to strict codes of practice

which control the way that they operate

Company Information

 Companies can publish some useful information

although such factors as potential bias and the quality

of the data will need to take into account

 If the information is provided informally by an

employee, there are also issues associated with

referencing and others obtaining access to the data

 Vast amount of interest and publicity about information

on the Internet

 There is a an important difference between obtaining

information on such things as leisure interests and

obtaining information for your literature review

The Internet

However

Academic Concerns with the Internet

 Referencing

 Anyone can produce a Web site

 Refereeing

 Designed to allow others to obtain a copy the work that

you refer to in your dissertation

 The library system for books and papers has existed for

many years and works very well

 Information on the Internet might be gone the next day

 If the reader can not obtain a copy of the work that you

are referring to, the reference is useless

Referencing

 Anyone here could produce a web site containing

information which they have simply invented

 People may do this for fun or to see how many people

they can fool

 Other information might be part of a deliberate attempt

to deceive people for commercial reasons

Anyone can Produce a Web Site

 This is related to the last point that anyone can place

information on the web

 There is no refereeing system such as that used for

journals to ensure the quality of the information

presented

Refereeing

Web-Based Misinformation in the Context of Higher Education

Abstract:

Misinformation on the Web has the potential to distort the learning of higher

education students.

Research with faculty research students and taught students showed that

higher education students are naïve about the problem of misinformation.

They believe they can identify it and do not make extra effort to check the

sources of their information. *

Philip J. Calvert 1999

* Full abstract and reference in the notes [5]

Traceability of Information

 As a general rule it must be possible for others to locate

and obtain a copy of anything that you reference for a

reasonable period of time

 Maintaining accurate records of your references is

therefore extremely important

Typical Information Required

For a Book:

 Author(s)/editor(s)

 Title

 Edition

 Number of the volume

 Publisher

 Place of publication

 Date of publication

For a Journal Article:

 Author(s)

 Title of paper

 Name of journal

 Volume

 Issue

 Year

 Page numbers

Storage of Reference Information

 The compilation of the reference list for your

dissertation will be much easier if you store all the

details of the reference in a computer based system when

you obtain the reference

Referencing Systems

 You must use a recognised system and be consistent

throughout

 You must include ALL the information that the reader needs

to obtain a copy of your reference otherwise the reference is

useless!

Most Widely Used Systems

The use of through-tool cooling has been shown to reduce tool

wear [1] .

References

1. Barnes, S. and Pashby, I. R. : “Through-Tool Coolant

Drilling of Aluminium/SiC Metal Matrix Composite”, Journal

of Engineering Materials and Technology, October 2000, Vol.

122, No. 4, pp. 384-388.

Most Widely Used Systems

The use of through-tool cooling has been shown to reduce tool

wear (Barnes, 2000) .

References

Barnes, 2000: Barnes, S. and Pashby, I. R. “Through-Tool

Coolant Drilling of Aluminium/SiC Metal

Matrix omposite”, Journal of Engineering Materials and

Technology, October 2000, Vol. 122, No. 4, pp. 384-388.

Issues in Reading

 Nothing has been written on my research topic

 There's too much

 It's all been done

 How many references do I need

Writing the Literature Review

Structure Your Review Early

 Do not just start writing!

 Think about the areas that you need to cover

 Develop a draft contents list

 Discuss the contents list with your Mentors

Start Writing Early

 You can always find reasons not to

 You need feedback on your writing ASAP

 It will always take much longer than you think

Being Critical

 Normally, being critical is associated with a dressing down

or personal attack

 In research, critical reading, critical thinking and critical

assessment are used to produce a considered and justified

examination of the available literature

 At this level, you are required to present a critical review of

the literature and not simply report the work of others

Being Critical - Some Main Points (1)

 Agreeing with, or defending a position through an evaluation of its

strengths and weaknesses

 Conceding that an existing approach has some merit, but that others

need to be rejected

 Focusing on ideas, theories and arguments and not on the author of

those arguments

 Selecting elements from existing arguments and reformulating them

to form a new point of view

Being Critical - Some Main Points (2)

 Being aware of your own critical stance; identifying your reasons

for selecting the work and recognising the weakness in your

critique

 Finding fault in an argument by identifying fallacies,

inadequacies, lack of evidence or lack of plausibility

 Identifying errors in a criticism made by another to provide

correction and balanced criticism

Open and Fair Criticism

 Although you need to be critical, there is also a convention that

requires you to treat the work of others with due respect

 Summarise the views and arguments of others in a way that is fair

and which acknowledges the points that you agree with

 It is not enough to simply list what you have found deficient in an

argument. In order for your criticism to be legitimate you need to

provide a structured explanation showing what is wrong

Legitimacy (1)

 Remember that when being critical, it your responsibility

to use this work in a balanced, fair and legal way

 To avoid criticism of your review you must use your

sources properly and there are accepted standards in

academic work which you need to comply with

 Violation of these principles will not only put your work

into question, but, may also result in the examiners failing

the work

Legitimacy (2)

 Falsification

 misrepresenting the work of others

 Fabrication

 presenting speculations as if they were facts

 Sloppiness

 not providing correct citations

Legitimacy (3)

 Nepotism

 citing references of colleagues that are not

directly related to your work

 Plagiarism

 the act of knowingly using another person's work

and passing it off as your own

Supporting Evidence (1)

 Select appropriate sources of evidence to support your

argument

 The works that you cite will influence your credibility

 If are discussing a medical treatment, an article from the

British Medical Journal will have more credibility than

one from a tabloid newspaper

Supporting Evidence (2)

 The date of the material can also be important.

 If you are talking about state-of-the-art research do not use

references that are 10 years old

 In any area of research, there will be workers who are

recognised as the leaders in the field, quoting their work has

obvious advantages

Academic Style and Voice (1)

 Academic style involves the correct use of tense, voice, and

grammatical structure and although some aspects vary from one

discipline to another, there are certain conventions

 The past tense is primarily used although there are variations

discussed in the notes

 Words which are regarded as imprecise should also be avoided -

“fantastic”, “crucial” , “very”, “etc.”

Academic Style and Voice (2)

 In some disciplines it is regarded as acceptable to use the active

voice (me, I, we) when describing issues such as how you came to

select your research topic

 However, use of the passive voice throughout the dissertation is

preferred by most researchers in scientific and engineering

disciplines, e.g., “the research was done”, rather than “I did my

research”

Drafts

 Some reworking and corrections are always necessary

 Do not attempt to get it perfect first time

 Get work to your Mentors early

 Proof-reading is therefore an essential process

 Read it carefully before you ask others to read it

 Do not try to use you supervisor as a spell checker

 Critically examine what you have written - there is a

check list in the notes

Length of the Review

 Remember that you will not be able to write-up everything.

 Think carefully about what is necessary to meet the aims of

your work and disregard anything that is not

 Examiners do not like to read pages and pages of interesting

but irrelevant information

The Completed Review Should:

 Shows a clear understanding of the topic

 Cite all key landmark studies and discuss them

 State clear conclusions about previous research using

appropriate evidence

 Show the variety of approaches to the topic area

 Make recommendations using coherent arguments based on

evidence

 Show a gap in existing knowledge

 Develop a clear research problem

Sources of Help - Searching

 General Enquires

 Enquiries desk and leaflets in the library

 On-line Information

 Journals Enquires

 Periodicals Office in the library

 Specific information on your subject

 Subject Librarians

 Mentors

Sources of Help - Writing

 There are several books available on how to do a

literature review and how to research

 Remember that individual Mentors will have their

own preferences so consult them throughout

However

Summary

 Start the work early

 Get written work to you Mentors early

 Consider, make sure you understand and

implement (if appropriate) any suggestions

 Make sure that you have evidence for everything

 Pay attention to detail

 Ask questions and be critical

Summary

 It is a requirement of the degree to produce a critical

review of the literature

 A review is also essential in order to support your work

& put it into context

 If you fail to identify the fact that another worker has

published very similar ideas, but your external examiner

has found such work, you could find yourself in serious

trouble during the oral exam