Research Skills: Week 70

LITERATURE REVIEW

Learn
A literature review is the documentation of a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished work from secondary sources of data in the areas of specific interest to the researcher. Past research on the phenomenon under investigation must play key role in the process of problem formulation.

Unlearn
A literature review is not a listing of studies but a CRITICAL EVALUATION of previous research or studies. A literature review requires a researcher to find, evaluate and integrate past research into present investigation.

Relearn
The literature review examines the following
- What others have said about the research topic
- What theories address the research problem
- What previous research exist
- Are findings of previous research consistent or do the studies disagree
- Are there flaws in the body of existing research that can be remedied

Therefore when reading literature, we need to critically evaluate the following:
- The objectives of the research
- The theoretical rationale
- The design
- The measures used
- The analysis employed
- The findings obtained
- Inferences and implications made by the author or researcher.