Discussion Thread: Literature Review Types and Primary Steps
Serenity3203
Chapter3forHtdylr.pptx
PowerPoint 3 Sources, quality and criticality
Chapter 3 from
How to do your literature review
This is PowerPoint 3 for Chapter 3 …
We will look at
Quality of sources
Being critical
Triangulation
All of this is discussed in much more detail in Chapter 3 of How to Do Your Literature Review
Literature comprises sources
Books
authored books
chapters in edited books
journal articles
peer review journals
professional journals
conference and symposium proceedings
dissertations and theses
newspaper and periodical articles
websites
blogs and vlogs
social media
research reports
Sometimes called ‘grey literature’
Judging the quality of sources
Two main ways of judging quality are by asking …
Is the source a primary source or a secondary source?
Is it peer reviewed?
Primary or secondary sources
Primary sources are ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’, such as a research report written by the person or people who did the research.
A secondary source – such as a textbook – has reported on somebody else’s research.
Primary sources are usually thought to be more trustworthy than secondary sources, though secondary sources may give a good overview.
Peer review
A peer review journal is one where experts in the field have examined the piece of work to see if it is worthy of publication in the journal.
Peer review is generally thought to be the best guarantee of a source’s worth. However, it is not infallible.
Being critical
Ask yourself:
What is the status of the output? Peer reviewed? Primary or secondary?
Are there any vested interests at play (revealed by funders)?
Might different methods for collecting data or analysing findings have yielded different results?
What sources of information are the writers or researchers themselves drawing upon – is there evidence of balance?
Has the writer been on a thought merry-go-round, looking only at ‘high-quality’ papers that cite each other and ignoring research of different types or dissenting voices or unorthodox views?
Is citation count a good index of quality?
Citation count is about how often a paper has been cited, which you can find out on Google Scholar and databases.
It’s a useful pointer, but is more an index of impact rather than quality.
Why might citation count give the wrong idea?
Very recently published high quality papers will not have many citations – because they’re new, and the field has not had a chance to assimilate them yet.
High quality papers may be hard for a field to understand.
Low quality papers may achieve high citation counts because they summarise a standard position but offer little that is new.
Papers may achieve high citation counts simply because they are on controversial subjects.
Other ways of judging quality
Was the research funded? If so, by whom?
What methods were used? Were they appropriate?
Has the source been cited by others?
Critical awareness
Critical awareness is not just about spotting bias.
It is about an awareness that knowledge is frail, not fixed, and that you should approach everything you read and hear with a questioning mind.
You should always ask yourself whether something could have been done differently, or whether different conclusions could have been drawn.
Search far and wide - triangulate
Triangulation means using a combination of several data collection methods and/or analytical techniques to gain a rounded perspective on a research problem or question.
Triangulation is especially important in literature review, since you are relying on one source of data (ie literature).
It’s therefore important that you seek literature of different kinds and which uses different methods.
Right method for the question
There are many kinds of research …
case study
action research
ethnography
experiment
longitudinal study
cross-sectional study
survey
comparative study
… and more. Do you think that the methods used in the research article you are looking at were appropriate for the question being asked?
Don’t get bewildered by over-analysis
There is the danger in making analyses of quality that we can overthink things.
Don’t get bewildered in the critical analysis headlights. While criticality is vitally important, over-analysis can prevent you from putting fingers to keyboard at all.
Summary
There are many sources on which a literature review can draw, from articles to books to conference proceedings to websites … and many others – almost anything that is recorded in any form.
The quality of sources varies enormously: some are well grounded and trustworthy; others may be unreliable.
Primary sources, where researchers have drawn directly from their own work are usually more reliable than secondary sources (such as textbooks), where authors have drawn from the work of others.
Peer review – the process of researchers’ work being reviewed by other researchers – is taken to be the most dependable form of quality assurance.
Conflicts of interest, such as that potentially introduced by research funding, should make us guarded about the findings of a research study.
Citation count is an indicator of a source’s impact, not necessarily its quality.
It’s important to approach the literature with a critical disposition, taking all of the above into account and approaching everything you read in a questioning frame of mind.
Try to be wide-ranging in your literature appraisal, valuing triangulation, i.e. looking at an issue from different points of view and using different methods.
Activity
Using Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) or Elicit.com, identify an article in your area of interest. Now, assess the article for your purpose in conducting a literature review. Assess it on these criteria and write notes on each one:
Relevance: How closely does the source address your topic? Does it address a particular aspect of your review, and how could this be incorporated into a review about a broader topic?
Impact: How many times has the article been cited? Remember that citation count is not necessarily a good indicator of quality, and recently published material will not have accumulated many citations
Methodology: Is the research methodology clearly explained and appropriate for the study? Give reasons for why you think the method that has been used is (or isn’t) appropriate for the topic being addressed.
Bias: Are there any potential biases or conflicts of interest in the source? Look for any disclosures about funding.
Evidence: What kind of evidence is being offered to support the article’s conclusions and/or claims?
Clarity: Is the article well-written, organized, and easy to understand?
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