Slide 3.

Chapter 3
Critically reviewing
the literature

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Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should:

–Understand the importance and purpose of the critical

literature review to your research project;
–Be able to adopt a critical perspective in your reading;
know what you need to include when writing your critical
review;
–Be aware of the range of primary, secondary and tertiary
literature sources available;
–Be able to identify search terms and to undertake online
literature searches;

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Learning outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should:

–Be able to evaluate the relevance, value and sufficiency of

the literature found;
–Be able to reference the literature found accurately;
understand what is meant by plagiarism;
–Be able to apply the knowledge, skills and understanding
gained to your own research project.

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Questions to Guide your Note Taking

1. Why is it important for a researcher to review the
literature?
2. What are the main issues associated with using
information from each of the following sources in your
literature review?
a) books
b) refereed journals: Peer reviewed i.e. reviewed by
expert readers
c) professional and trade journals
d) Newspapers
e) Web sites found via an Internet search engine

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Questions to Guide your Note Taking

3. Outline the general structure your literature review is
likely to take?
4. Why is it important to record the bibliographic details of
every article you read?
5. What referencing system is stipulated in the requirements
for a research project by this university?
6. What details must you record for this referencing system?
7. What does Plagiarism mean & why it is important to
understand it?

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3.1 Introduction
Two major reasons exist for reviewing the literature (Sharp et al . 2002)

–It helps you to generate and refine your research ideas.

–A critical review is a part of the research project.

It tells you about the current state of knowledge in your subject,
its limitations, and how your research fits in a wider context.
Establish what has been published in your area
Identify research that might currently be in progress.

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3.1The literature research process

– Research questions and objectives

– Define parameters of interest
– Generate and refine keywords
– Conduct search
– Obtain literature
– Read and evaluate the literature
– Record the ideas and start drafting the review

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Figure 3.1 The literature review process

Literature search comes
at the earliest stages for
most research projects

Although it is an early
activity, literature search
is continuously
undertaken throughout
the project

The process is associated

with an upward spiral
process culminating in the
final draft of CRITICAL
LITERATURE
REVIEW
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3.1 The content of the critical review

– To include the key academic theories within your chosen area

of research

– To demonstrate that your knowledge of your chosen area is up

to date

– Through clear referencing, enable those reading your project

report to find the original publications you cite

– Fully acknowledging the research of others.

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3.2 The Critical Review Purposes &

Usage
• To conduct a ‘preliminary’ search of existing material that
would have been discussed for the proposal
• To organize valuable ideas and findings
• To identify other research that may be in progress
• To generate research ideas
• To develop a critical perspective

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Approaches for Literature Search

Develop Theory Deductive Use the literature to help you
identify theories and ideas that you will
Formulate Hypothesis test using data.
The conclusions reached are certain,
Collect & analyze data inevitable, inescapable.
For example: • All men are mortal 
Accept/Reject Hypothesis General & not specific to one man •
Socrates is a man thus Socrates is mortal 
specific

•In the Deductive approach

– Develop a theoretical or conceptual framework
– Tested by using data

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Approaches for Literature Search

Observation Inductive Explores the data to develop
theories which are then tested against
Pattern the literature. The conclusions reached
are probable, reasonable, plausible,
believable.
Tentative Hypothesis
For example: • This ice is cold = Specific
i.e. based on a direct observation • All ice
is cold = General i.e. can be applied to
Theory
any ice

In the Inductive approach

•Do not start with predetermined theories or conceptual
framework
•Explore your data and develop theories from them that
you will subsequently relate to the literature
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Literature Usage

• Three Ways for Using Literature (Cresswell, 2007):

1. Frame your research question in the initial research stages •
e.g. research proposal
2. Use it to provide context & theoretical framework for your
research
3. Help place your research findings within the wider body of
knowledge

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Other Purposes relevant to LR

• To further enhance research questions and objectives

• To identify recommendations for conducting further research

• To avoid repeating already carried out research

• To provide insights into approaches and methods appropriate

to your research objectives

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3.3 Literature sources (A)

• Primary literature sources:
– Ex reports, theses, emails, conference proceedings,
planning documents
– Difficult to locate, often called “grey literature
– Often detailed
– Are increasingly more available, often via the web

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3.3 Literature sources (B)

• Secondary literature sources
– Subsequent publication of primary literature
– Ex. Journals (also known as periodicals, serials and
magazines)
– Refereed academic journals are evaluated by experienced
academic peers prior publication
– Professional journals are produced for their members by
organisations (sometimes risk for bias)
– Books and monographs written for specific audiences; often
presented in a more ordered manner than in journals. But be
cautious; books may contain out-of-date material even by
the time they are published

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3.3 Literature sources (C)

• Tertiary literature sources
– Also called search tools, are developed to support to
locate primary and secondary literature
– Ex. Indexes, abstracts, catalogues, encyclopedias,
dictionaries, bibliographies etc.
– Nowadays often the format is internet

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3.4 Planning your Literature Search Strategy

• Define parameters of your search
– Language (English), subject area (Accountancy), business
sector (IT, Banking..), geographic area( MENA), publication
period( last 10 years), literature type(journals, books)

• Generate key words and search terms to be used

– basic terms that describe your research questions/objectives
(used to search literature per timeline)

• Identify databases and search engines to be used

– EBSCO, Proquest…

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3.4 Planning your Literature Search Strategy

• Specify criteria for selection of relevant and useful studies
– Peer-reviewed journals…

• Structure brainstormed ideas

– Relevance trees, maps…

• Discuss the above with your tutor/supervisor (if necessary)

– To ensure alignment in process and quality

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3.5 Conducting your Literature Search

Approaches can include Searching using tertiary literature
•Searching tertiary •Ensure key words match
literature sources controlled index language
•Obtaining relevant •Search appropriate printed and
literature database sources
•Scanning and browsing •Note precise details used –
including search strings
secondary literature
•Note the FULL reference of each
•Searching using the search found
Internet

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3.6 Obtaining & Evaluating the literature

Obtaining the Literature
1.Check library catalogue to check if appropriate publications exist
2.Note publication location…
– a.scan it or simply read the abstract
– b.browse other books & journals with similar class marks to
check viability
3.For articles not listed in the library, it is possible to find them on
Google (e.g. google books) especially if they are no longer
copyrighted
4.Order from other libraries or visit another library during
conferences or if you offered free access

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3.7 Recording the literature

• Make notes for each item you read
• Record –
• Biographic details

• Brief summary of content

• Supplementary information

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3.8 Using Systematic Review

• SYSTEMATIC REVIEW is a process for reviewing literature via a
comprehensive predefined plan to locate:

• A. Existing literature
• B. Evaluate contribution
• C. Analyze
• D. Synthesize the findings
• E. Report the evidence to allow conclusions to be achieved
(Denyer& Tranfield,
2009)

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Figure 3.3 Flow diagram for reporting Systematic Review

Source: Developed from Moher et al. 2009

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3.9 Plagiarism
• adapted from Park (2003), cited in Easterby-Smith et al.(2008)
1. Stealing material from another source

2. Submitting material written by another

3. Copying material without quotation marks

4. Paraphrasing material without documentation

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Figure 3.2 Literature review structure

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Box 3.8 Focus on student research – Using a relevance tree

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Box 3.11 Focus on student research – Searching using online databases

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Focus on student research – Undertaking an online search using a general

Box 3.12
search engine
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Focus on student research – Assessing the utility of an article using the

Box 3.13
abstract
Source: Saunders et al. (2014). Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing (http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.hmt?issn=2046–
9012&volume=38&issue=1&articleid=17103591&show=html). Reproduced by permission of the publisher

Saunders et al., Research Methods for Business Students, 7e © Pearson Education Limited 2016