literature review

Literature Review Exercise (individual work) A literature review, is a report of published information pertaining to a topic of interest. It enables a researcher to determine what is known and what further research can be conducted. A literature review is not just a compilation of information. It includes the analysis and interpretation of the significance and implications in light of a problem that the researcher defines. A literature review may be a complete report or it may be a part of another report.

In this exercise you will do the following:

a) Decide on a topic of interest. This may be an area of research you would like to undertake for your SMTP project later.

b) Do a quick evaluation of 5 or more articles you wish to use for your literature review. Evaluate them in the following aspects:

• Relevance to your topic of interest • Currency of article (published 4-5 years ago preferably) or website

(Is it dated? Do not cite facts or statistics that are not dated.) • Is the article peer reviewed (a scholarly paper see below “Scholarly

vs Popular”)? • Author’s authority/credibility • Publisher (For papers and books: commercial or academic?

For websites: edu, gov, org, com or net?) • Does the article come with a bibliography? This gives you an idea

whether the author has referred to other sources and helps to validate the content of the article.

For websites, there should be links or footnotes that list down references and further resources.

• Is the article biased in any way?

c) Your 5 articles should include 3-4 peer reviewed research papers, 1-2

credible website(s) (excluding PDF files of papers you found on the internet).

d) Read each article and summarise what it says in your area of study.

e) Write a literature review of 500 words on your topic of interest.

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Points to note when writing your literature review:

1. Be sure to understand your research topic/question before you begin.

2. Select sources that cover all or most sub-areas of your research topic. Do

not leave areas unexplored as far as possible.

3. Read your sources with an end in mind, making notes on relevant information --- this will help you compile what you have read in your review.

4. Your review should give the audience an idea of what is already known

about your research topic.

5. Searching for relevant sources takes time, so start early!

6. As you do your literature review, you might make modifications to the scope of your study depending on your findings.

Useful references: [1] How to write a lit review: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/litreview.php [2] Evaluating sources of information: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/evaluation.html Scholarly vs Popular (Extracted from: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/evaluation.html) A scholarly journal is generally one that is published by and for experts. In order to be published in a scholarly journal, an article must first go through the peer review process in which a group of widely acknowledged experts in a field reviews it for content, scholarly soundness and academic value. In most cases, articles in scholarly journals present new, previously un-published research. Scholarly sources will almost always include:

• Bibliography and footnotes • Author's name and academic credentials

As a general rule, scholarly journals are not printed on glossy paper, do not contain advertisements for popular consumer items and do not have colorful graphics and illustrations (there are, of course, exceptions). Popular magazines range from highly respected publications such as Scientific American and The Atlantic Monthly to general interest newsmagazines like Newsweek and US News & World Report. Articles in these publications tend to be written by staff writers or freelance journalists and are geared towards a

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general audience. Articles in popular magazines are more likely to be shorter than those in academic journals. While most magazines adhere to editorial standards, articles do not go through a peer review process and rarely contain bibliographic citations. A good resource that provides background information to help you evaluate periodicals is:

Magazines for Libraries (Doe Reference AP1.21.K3 Directories). Tip: When searching a journal index such as Expanded Academic ASAP, try narrowing your search by limiting to refereed publications. This will retrieve only scholarly journals matching your search terms. Some other journal indexes offer this or a similar option. If you do your searches in Web of Science, you will retrieve only scholarly articles since only academic journals are indexed in this database.

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Sample Literature Review

Project title: Investigating the Anti-bacterial Properties of Metal and Metal

Oxide Nanoparticles

Done by: Lim Jue Min, Jeremy (4N07)

In recent years, there has been growing interests and investments in

research on nanomaterials, minuscule substances having at least one

dimension within the nanometer scale, including nanoparticles, nanowires and

nanofilms (Cao, 2006). At the nanometer scale, these materials exhibit vastly

different physical and chemical properties from their bulk materials: crystals in

the nanometer scale have much lower melting points, ferromagnetic materials

may lose their ferromagnetism when diminished to nanometer size,

semiconductors become insulators and vice versa, solids become liquids at

room temperature and pressure, and inert chemicals like gold become

excellent catalysts. In addition to these are biological anti-bacterial properties.

Nanomaterials have such amazing properties because of their high proportion

of surface atoms, in comparison to bulk materials. Thus, there are more atoms

at the surface with unsaturated bonds, capable of taking part in interactions.

The antibacterial properties of nanoparticles are of interest because

of their obvious potential applications. Some metal-based nanoparticles,

particularly silver nanoparticles, exhibit excellent bacteriocidal and

bacteriostatic properties (Sondi & Salopek-Sondi, 2004; Panacek et al, 2006).

It is well known that silver ions and silver-based compounds are highly toxic to

as many as 12 species of bacteria, including E. coli (J.S. Kim et al, 2007).

According to Kim et al. (2007), the mechanism of the inhibitory effects of Ag

ions on microorganisms is only partially known. Several studies (Hamouda et

al, 2000; Dibrov et al, 2002; Dragieva et al, 1999) have reported that the

positive charge on the Ag cation plays a key role in its antimicrobial activity via

electrostatic attraction between the negatively charged cell membrane of

microorganism and positively charged nanoparticles. In other studies

Other in –text citing styles

State a fact and cite ref.

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investigating the killing mechanisms of silver nanoparticles, the antimicrobial

activity of silver nanoparticles on Gram-negative bacteria was correlated to the

concentration of Ag nanoparticles, which governs the formation of pits in the

bacterial cell wall, allowing the accumulation of silver nanoparticles to affect

the membrane’s permeability, resulting in cell death (Sondi & Salopek-Sondi,

2004). A report by Lok et al. (2006) states that silver nanoparticles have been

found to destabilize the bacterial outer membrane and deplete the levels of

intracellular ATP. Several recent publications postulate that silver

nanoparticles may adhere to the surface of the cell membrane, thereby

disrupting cellular functions such as permeability and respiration (Panacek et

al, 2006); silver nanoparticles may cause damage, after penetration, by

interacting with phosphorus- and sulphur-containing compounds, including

DNA, for silver tends to have a high affinity to react with such compounds

(Hatchett, 2004).

Given the high toxicity of silver nanoparticles on bacteria, there are

extensive biological, biomedical, and pharmaceutical applications (Sondi &

Salopek-Sondi, 2004) of nanoparticles exhibiting antibacterial properties,

including widespread products where bacterial growth should be inhibited. The

antibacterial activity of the nanoparticles may be used in medicine to reduce

infections in burn treatment, arthroplasty, to prevent bacteria colonization on

prostheses, catheters, vascular grafts, dental materials and dental resins, as

well as integration into textile fabrics, or even for water treatment (Panacek et

al, 2006). In addition, they can be incorporated into domestic and car air-

conditioner filters, floor drain traps, shoe and insole lining, bandages or

plasters, refrigerators, storage containers, and antibacterial soaps, detergents

or washing liquids.

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References

Cao, G. (2006). Nanostructures & Nanomaterials. London: Imperial College Press. 433pp. Dibrov P. et al. (2002). Chemiosmotic mechanism of antimicrobial activity of Ag(+) in Vibrio cholerae. Antimicrob Agents Chemother, 46: 2668-70. Dragieva I. et al. (1999). Complex formation in solutions for chemical synthesis of nanoscaled particles prepared by borohydride reduction process. Nanostruct Mater, 12: 267-70. Hamouda T. et al. (2000). A novel surfactant nanoemulsion with a unique non- irritant topical antimicrobial activity against bacteria, enveloped viruses and fungi. Microbiol Res 156: 1-7. Hatchett, D. W., Henry, S. J. (2004). Phys. Chem., 100: 9854-9859. Kim J.S. et al.(2007). Antimicrobial effects of silver nanoparticles. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine, 3, 96: 95-101. Lok, C.N. et al. (2006). Proteomic analysis of the mode of antibacterial action of silver nanoparticles. J Proteomic Research, 5(4): 916-24 Panacek, A. et al. (2006). Silver colloid nanoparticles: synthesis, characterization, and their antibacterial activity. J Phys Chem B Condens Matter Mater Surf Interfaces Biophys, 110(33):16248-53. Sondi, I., Salopek-Sondi, B. (2004). Silver nanoparticles as antimicrobial agent: a case study on E. coli as a model for Gram-negative bacteria. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 275: 177-182.

More in-text citing styles:

• Studies by Mitch and Albom (1999, 2003) showed that … …

• It was observed by Merck (1997) that … …

• John et al (2007) reported that … …

• Sondi (2001) found that … …

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