How to do Literature

Review and Referencing?

Pawan K. Taneja, Ph.D.
What is a literature review?

a systematicmethod for
identifying, evaluating and
interpreting the work produced by
researchers, scholars and
practitioners.

FINK, A., 1998. Conducting literature research reviews: from paper to the

internet. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage., p.3.

Meaning of Literature
Review
The literature review is a critical look at the existing
research work that is significant to your research
project

It is an extensive survey of all available past studies

relevant to the field of investigation.

It gives us knowledge about what others have found

out in the related field of study and how they have
done so.
Writing of a literature review demands patience,
practice, drafts, and redrafts
Why review the literature?

without it you will not acquire an

understanding of your topic, of
what has already been done on it,
how it has been researched, and
what the key issues are.

HART, E., 1998. Doing a literature review: releasing the social

science research imagination, by E. Hart and M. Bond. London:
Sage., p.1.
Purpose of Lit Review

Todefine your research problem: ask questions,

consult previous research, explore counter-claims
Identify gaps in research
Present an overview of significant literature
To argue the need for, and relevance of, your work
To gain a background knowledge
To identify appropriate methodology, research
design, methods of measuring concepts and
techniques of analysis.
Problems need further investigation.
Questions that your
examiners ask that your
literature review can help
you answer
What research question(s) are you
asking? Why?
Has anything similar been done in
this area before?
What is already known/understood
about this topic?
How might your project challenge
existing beliefs or add to this
understanding?
Three stages at which a Review
of the literature is needed

An early review is needed to establish the

context and rationale for your study and to
confirm your choice of research focus/question;
As the study period gets longer, you need to
make sure that you keep in touch with current,
relevant research in your field, which is published
during the period of your research;
As you prepare your final report or thesis,
you need to relate your findings to the findings of
others, and to identify their implications for
theory, practice, and research.
How to get started?
Ask yourself these questions

What is the specific thesis, problem, or research

question that my literature review helps to define?
What type of literature review am I conducting?
Am I looking at issues of theory? methodology?
policy? quantitative research? qualitative research?
What is the scope of my literature review? What
types of publications am I using (e.g., journals,
books, government documents, popular media)?
What time period am I interested in? What
geographical area? What social setting? What
materials?
Define what you want to
know
I am looking for literature and data
that focus on ............. as
a .............. for ......

Use this statement to choose

keywords and key phrases
Define key words and
phrases
Identifying Keywords

Identify the significant terms and

concepts that describe your topic
from your thesis statement or
research question.
These terms will become the key for
searching catalogs, databases and
search engines for information about
your subject.
Sources for literature review

Identify key primary sources (e.g. govt. documents,

newspaper articles) and secondary sources (e.g.
books, journal articles) relevant to your topic early on

Use relevant search terms on library databases (e.g.

JSTOR, Proquest, Emerlad) to identify your sources

Use resources that are not in the library e.g. Inter-

library loans, blogs.

Remember, there is no target for the number of

references you include, but you need to show the
marker you have covered the literature that is
relevant to your project.

13
Google Search

AND = Narrow NOT = Exclude

OR = Expand
Snowballing

Building on the works of others

A scholarly article will always have
References/Bibliography

A bibliography is always ripe for the

picking
Tracking Citations

Wild, D. (2003, March). GOING TO

WAR: A LITERATURE REVIEW.
Emergency Nurse, 10 (10), 18.
Retrieved June 4, 2009, from
Academic Search Complete
database
Choose Appropriate Databases

Google is not (usually) the answer

Start with Library Resources for your
Subject First
Search a range of databases
Think about the range of sources:
books, journal articles, statistics,
websites, conference reports
Google Scholar

Google Scholar provides a simple

way to search for scholarly
literature.
Search across many disciplines and
sources: peer-reviewed papers,
theses, books, abstracts and articles,
from academic publishers,
professional societies, preprint
repositories, universities and other
scholarly organizations.
Google Scholar

Works best for Citations

Restrictions to Content
Fee-based

Often your Library already owns

material

Were working on improving access

Evaluate what you read

Think about
Relevance to your topic
Intended audience
Currency of the information
Coverage of the topic
Accuracy of the information
Authority of the author or information
source
Level of objectivity of the author
Writing up your literature review

Write up your review part way through your

reading in order to identify gaps/weaknesses
Keep the focus on your study and not the
literature
Make sure the structure leads the reader through
the key issues e.g. signposting
Make sure that the literature review is framed by
your research questions
Where possible, use original sources rather than
other peoples review of literature(s)
Structure of the Literature Review

There is not one ideal structure for your

literature review so talk to your supervisor
about this
Consider whether you wish to organise
your literature review chronologically,
thematically, by development of ideas (or
a combination of these)
Make sure that you always explain your
structure for your reader and have a clear
narrative
A good literature review

Goes beyond simply listing relevant literature

Is a critical essay

Assesses the range of literature available

Is a critical summary of the literature

Examines the background against which your

own research is set

Forms a significant section of your dissertation

A good literature review

Offers opinions and personal response to

the different writings
Relates different writings to each other,
compares and contrasts
Does not take the literature at face value
Shows an awareness of the theories
and values that underpin the research
Uses particular language: authors assert,
argue, state, conclude, contend
Structure of Lit Review
The inverted pyramid

Broadintroductiontotopic

Attheendofyour
literaturereviewthereader
musthaveonlyone
thoughtintheirheads.
levelofdetail

Yourresearchquestion
Citing and Referencing
Pawan K. Taneja
What is a reference or
citation?

A way of giving credit for someone's

thinking, writing or research
You mark the material when you use
it (a citation) and give the full
identification at the end (a reference)
In academic writing you are obliged
to attribute every piece of material
you use to its author
Why cite or reference?

Credit sources of information & ideas

Reader can locate for further
information if required
Validate arguments
Increase and spread knowledge
Show depth, breadth & quality of
your reading!
When to cite?

Direct quotes
Statistics/Studies
Theories
Facts
Interpretations
Paraphrases
Referencing
Many referencing styles Harvard
easy to learn/simple to use

Start when search for sources

- record all the details
- enable accurate referencing later
Referencing in the text

Authors
Authors name followed by date of publication
E.g. Gabe (2011) argues that..

Quoting an author briefly:

E.g. Gabe (2011:75) states that `Health inequalities
are...

Longer quotes 2+ lines start new line and indent.

quotation marks are not need

The concept of exclusion has come into ever-

greater use with the deepening social crisis.
Contrary to what occurred in the industrial
Revolution of the last century... (Bessis 1995:13)
Referencing in the text
If there are two authors, cite both
e.g. (Morris and Scott 1996)

If there are more than two authors use et al

e.g. (Williams et al, 2012)

Quotations from journals follow the same format. E.g. Author + date
of publication
- give full details in bibliography

Citing sources that have not been read directly

... (Denney 2005, cited in Moore 2008)
- in the bibliography just reference Moore 2008
- only list texts in the bibliography if you have actually read them!
Bibliography &
References
For essays divide bibliography into Texts and Websites

Do NOT split into journals and books

Sources cited in main text should be in the bibliography

Publications by a single author should come before joint

publications by the same order

Dont use et al in the bibliography/References

If there are two books/articles by the same author in the

same year, distinguish by using a, b etc after the date

Titles of books and journals should be in italics

Dont use numbers/bullet points before each source

Examples

Single author:
Denney, D. (2005) Risk and Society. London: Sage Publications.

Joint authors:
Crawford, A. and Newburn, T. (2003) Youth Offending and
Restorative Justice. Cullompton: Willan.

Edited book:
Lee, R. and Stanko, E. (eds) Researching Violence. London:
Routledge.

Chapter in an edited book:

Bury, M. and Gabe, J. (2006) Television and medicine: Medical
dominance or trial by media? In D. Kelleher, J. Gabe and G.
Williams (eds) Challenging Medicine. London: Routledge.
Examples

Journal articles:

Beck, U. (2000) The cosmopolitan position:

Sociology of the second age of modernity.
British Journal of Sociology 51 (1), 79-107.

Emslie, C., Hunt, K. and Watt, G. (2001)

Invisible women? The importance of gender in
lay beliefs about heart problems. Sociology of
Health and Illness 23 (2), 203-33.

There is no need to write Volume 51, Number

1, pages 79-107.
Citing Websites

In the essay, identify the website in brackets:

e.g. (Justice, 2012)
If you cite different pages from the same
website, distinguish them by adding [a], [b]
etc after the reference to the website in the
essay
- match this lettering in the bibliography
In the bibliography, give full details
- URL of website, date accessed in
alphabetical order
Examples in the Text

Young offenders may receive a

range of court orders if they are
convicted, from referral orders as a
first court disposal, through custody
under a detention and training order
(Justice, 2012[a]). As of October
2012, 1,595 youth offenders (under
18 years old) are being held in
custody in the secure estate (Justice,
2012[b]).
Examples in Bibliography

Justice. (2012[a]) Disposals. [online]

Available from:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/youth-justi
ce/courts-and-orders/disposals
[Accessed 19 December 2012]
Justice. (2012[b]) Youth custody data.
Available from:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/y
outh-justice/custody-data
[Accessed 19 December 2012]
Online/Electronic
books/journals
Book on line/electronic

Elliott, G.C. (2009) Family Matters. [Online] Oxford: Wiley-

Blackwell. Available from:
http://www.mylibrary.com?ID=93941 [Accessed 18th June
2011]

Journal article on line

Gabe, J., Exworthy, M., Jones, I.R and Smith, G. (2012)

Towards a sociology of disclosure: the case of surgical
performance. Sociological Compass. [Online] 6, (11).
Available from: doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2012.00490.x
[Accessed 4th February 2013]
On line journals

What is a DOI?
- digital object identifier
- permanent identifier used by publishers
so article can always be found on line
- usually found at start of article
- if you use a full-text data base service
like EBSCO - is no DOI use data base
URL (URL = http://..... [Accessed 18 th
June 2012])
Useful Guide

Citing and Referencing: Harvard

Style. Library of Imperial College,
University of London.

https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/libra
ry/Public/Harvard_referencing.pdf#ho
wto