Literature Review

Creswell(Text Book) provides direction on literature reviews for each of the three major approaches to research:

qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. In drafting your review of the literature, you should

follow the steps outlined here (presented in greater detail in John W. Creswell. Research Design:

Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches.” iBooks. pp.149-35).

1. Begin by identifying key words, which is useful in locating materials in an academic library at

a college or university. These key words may emerge in identifying a topic or may result from

preliminary readings.

2. With these key words in mind, search the catalog for holdings (i.e., journals and books). Most

major libraries have computerized databases; you focus initially on journals and books related

to the topic. Also, begin to search the computerized databases that are typically reviewed by

social science researchers, such as ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center),

EBSCO, PsycINFO, Sociofile, the Social Science Citation Index, Google Scholar, ProQuest,

and others (these are reviewed later in some detail).

3. Initially, try to locate about 50 reports of research in articles or books related to research on

your topic. Set a priority on the search for journal articles and books because they are easy to

locate and obtain. Skim this initial group of articles or chapters, and duplicate those that are

central to your topic. Throughout this process, simply try to obtain a sense as to whether the

article or chapter will make a useful contribution to your understanding of the literature.

4. As you identify useful literature, begin designing a literature map (to be discussed more fully

later). This is a visual picture (or figure) of groupings of the literature on the topic that

illustrates how your particular study will contribute to the literature, positioning your study

within the larger body of research.

5. As you put together the literature map, also begin to draft summaries of the most relevant

articles. These summaries are combined into the final literature review that you write for your

proposal or research study. Include precise references to the literature using an appropriate

style guide, such as the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

(American Pscyhological Association [APA], 2010) so that you have a complete reference to

use at the end of the proposal or study.

6. After summarizing the literature, assemble the literature review, structuring it thematically or

organizing it by important concepts. End the literature review with a summary of the major

themes and suggest how your particular study further adds to the literature and addresses a

gap in the themes. It is at this point as well that you could advance a critique of the past

literature and point out deficiencies in it and issues in its methods.

Task:

a) State the topic of interest from your research project proposal.

Topic: "Impact of Information Technology in todays Business world"

b) Practice using an online computer database to search for the literature on your topic. Conduct

several searches until you find an article that is as close as possible to your research topic. Locate 5-6

articles that you would select and abstract for your literature review.

b) Do a quick evaluation of 5-6 articles you wish to use for your literature review. (Note on your

selection: Relevance to your topic, up-to-date publication, credible source and mainly focus on

journal papers and books).

c) Develop a literature map of the studies on your topic. Include in the map the proposed study and

draw lines from the proposed study to branches of studies in the map so that a reader can easily see

how yours will extend existing literature.

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

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

f) Share with your peer the key words, results of your initial database search and the summary of your

literature.