What Is the First Step in Conducting a Literature Review?

Selecting a Enquiry Topic

The first step in the procedure involves exploring and selecting a topic. You may revise the topic/scope of your research as you learn more from the literature.Exist certain to select a topic that you are willing to piece of work with for a considerable corporeality of time. When thinking about a topic, it is of import to consider the following:

Does the topic interest you?

Working on something that doesn't excite you volition make the procedure tedious. The research content should reflect your passion for research so it is essential to research in your surface area of interest rather than choosing a topic that interests someone else. While developing your research topic, broaden your thinking and creativity to determine what works best for yous. Consider an surface area of high importance to your profession, or identify a gap in the inquiry. It may accept some time to narrow down on a topic and get started, simply it'southward worth the attempt.

Is the Topic Relevant?

Be sure your subject meets the assignment/research requirements. When in uncertainty, review the guidelines and seek clarification from your professor.

What is the Scope and Purpose?

Sometimes your chosen topic may be too broad. To find direction, endeavour limiting the scope and purpose of the research past identifying the concepts you wish to explore. Once this is accomplished, y'all tin fine-tune your topic by experimenting with keyword searches our A-Z Databases until you are satisfied with your retrieval results.

Are at that place Enough Resource to Support Your Research?

If the topic is too narrow, you may not be able to provide the depth of results needed. When selecting a topic make sure you take adequate material to help with the research. Explore a variety of resources: journals, books, and online information.

Adapted from https://jgateplus.com/domicile/2018/10/11/the-dos-of-choosing-a-research-topic-part-1/

Beginning the Search: it'due south all about the Keyword

Why use keywords to search?

• Library databases piece of work differently than Google. When you use Google, you can frequently search for phrases and go relevant results.
• Library databases work all-time when yous search for concepts and keywords.
• For your research, you will desire to brainstorm keywords related to your enquiry question. These keywords can lead you to relevant sources that you can utilise in your research project.

How do I figure out keywords to utilise?

You tin can utilize the following steps to help y'all brainstorm keywords.

one. Identify key concepts in your research question.

For case, we might be researching the following question:

What are the effects of virtual workplaces on advice and organizational culture?

The key concepts are virtual workplaces, advice and organizational culture.

NOTE: Keywords are usually nouns, so a give-and-take like "result" is not going to be a keyword.

two. Brainstorm related terms for your concepts. You'll desire to await for terms that are broader, narrower, related, and similar.

A literature review seeks to identify relevant studies on your called topic. Different Google or other net search engines, library databases work all-time whe n you enter keywords or "search strings" rather than phrases or sentences.

Keywords represent themain ideas andconceptsin your inquiry topic. You can put keywords together to search for data in library databases. Information technology is important to brainstormdifferentwords authors may use for your topic so that you lot havealternate search options if you have difficulty finding resources.

You may notice thisConcept Cloud Worksheet helpful to create additional keywords.

How exercise I use keywords?

To observe scholarly information on your topic, start your research by exploring our library catalog. You can useOneSearch to explore our library itemize for books andA-Z Databases for academic journal articles. Create a Begin listing – keywords and subject headings related to your topic. Learning how to identify the appropriate terms to draw a topic is the primal to finding the best fabric.

Seize the opportunity to consult with a University Librarian

Remember, l ibrarians can assist you lot with the development of keywords and search terms that will recall relevant results.Having a range of keywords can assistance y'all find many different types of information. Stop by the Inquire Desk-bound, or use the directory on our website to contact a discipline specific librarian.

https://libguides.unomaha.edu/c.php?g=543552&p=3726386

Narrowing Your Topic

Generally, it is good to showtime out with a slightly broader topic that you can develop and narrow as you find information. You tin begin to narrow your topic by asking yourself the post-obit questions:

• Is this topic consistent with the assignment?
• What is interesting about the topic?
• What do I know nigh the topic?
• What practice I want to know?
• What exercise Ineedto know?

Skimthe literature, narrowing your topic to somethingmanageablethat meets the assignment requirements and your interests.

For example:

Your initial topic for a ten to 20 page paper is "Infinite Exploration", by the time you finish your topic search, you might have narrowed your topic to "Unmanned U.S. Space Exploration of Planets" or even to a specific planet and mission like "1997's Pathfinder Mission".

HOT TIP #1: Consult a special encyclopedia for an overview. Each discipline has its own specialized reference tools.  Check theResearch Guides on the Library homepage to run across if a librarian has prepared a guide. If and so look for the tab with "Encyclopedia" or "Dictionaries" on the left hand side of the page. Also, y'all can look inOneSearch under your discipline and add "—Dictionaries" It will showcase some of the most useful sources e.k., "History Dictionaries" or "Social Services Dictionaries".

HOT TIP #2: The most important thing to do as you gather sources is to annotate. Highlight, underline, write in the margins, accept notes, or flag pages with Post-Its. This will not only help you to go on track of sources' main points but besides help you lot to see patterns, find common themes, and identify gaps in the research.

HOT TIP #3: If you lot go far at a point in your research where you become stuck, remember you lot tin consult the Works Cited/References/Bibliography sections of the nigh helpful sources that y'all have found. These sections volition list a multitude of sources that may be worth consulting. Other useful sections to cheque for sources are the footnotes and endnotes of a piece of work.

Source - http://libguides.library.cqu.edu.au/litreview & Writing Resource Center, CSU Bakersfield

At present its fourth dimension to make up one's mind whether or not to incorporate what you lot accept found into your literature review. Evaluate your resources to make sure they contain information that is authoritative, reliable, relevant and the most useful in supporting your inquiry.

Remember to be:

• Objective: keep an open mind
• Unbiased: Consider all viewpoints, and include all sides of an argument, even ones that don't support your own

Criteria for Evaluating Research Publications

Significance and Contribution to the Field

• What is the writer'south aim?

• To what extent has this aim been achieved?

• What does this text add to the body of noesis? (theory, data and/or applied application)

• What relationship does information technology bear to other works in the field?

• What is missing/not stated?

• Is this a problem?

Methodology or Arroyo (Formal, research-based texts)

•What arroyo was used for the research? (eg; quantitative or qualitative, analysis/review of theory or current practice, comparative, case study, personal reflection etc…)

• How objective/biased is the approach?

• Are the results valid and reliable?

• What belittling framework is used to discuss the results?

Statement and Employ of Evidence

•Is there a clear trouble, statement or hypothesis?

• What claims are fabricated?

• Is the argument consistent?

• What kinds of evidence does the text rely on?

• How valid and reliable is the evidence?

• How effective is the evidence in supporting the argument?

• What conclusions are drawn?

• Are these conclusions justified?

Writing Way and Text Structure

• Does the writing style adjust the intended audition? (eg; practiced/amateurish, academic/non- academic)

• What is the organizing principle of the text?

Could it be better organized?

Prepared by Pam Mort, Lyn Hallion and Tracey Lee Downey, The Learning Centre © April 2005 The Academy of New S Wales.

Analysis: the Starting Point for Further Assay &

Research

After evaluating your retrieved sources you lot will be ready to explore both what has been found and what is missing. Assay involves breaking the written report into parts, understanding each part, assessing the force of evidence, and drawing conclusions well-nigh its relationship to your topic.

Read through the information sources you have selected and try to clarify, sympathize and critique what yous read. Critically review each source'due south methods, procedures, information validity/reliability, and other themes of interest. Consider how each source approaches your topic in improver to their collective points of intersection and separation.  Offering an appraisal of by and current thinking, ideas, policies, and practices, identify gaps within the research, and identify your current work and research within this wider discussion by considering how your research supports, contradicts, or departs from other scholars' research and offer recommendations for time to come research .

Acme 10 Tips for Analyzing the Research

1. Ascertain cardinal terms
2. Notation fundamental statistics
3. Decide emphasis, strengths & weaknesses
4. Critique research methodologies used in the studies
5. Distinguish between author opinion and actual results
6. Identify major trends, patterns, categories, relationships, and inconsistencies
7. Recognize specific aspects in the study that chronicle to your topic
8. Disembalm any gaps in the literature
9. Stay focused on your topic
10. Excluding landmark studies, use current, up-to-date sources

Synthesis vs Summary

Your literature review should not simply be a summary of the articles, books, and other scholarly writings y'all observe on your topic. It should synthesize the diverse ideas from your sources with your own observations to create a map of the scholarly conversation taking identify about your research topics along with gaps or areas for farther research.

Bringing together your review results is called synthesis. Synthesis relies heavily on pattern recognition and relationships or similarities between dissimilar phenomena. Recognizing these patterns and relatedness helps you lot make creative connections betwixt previously unrelated research and place any gaps.

As you read, yous'll encounter various ideas, disagreements, methods, and perspectives which can be difficult to organize in a meaningful way. A synthesis matrix too known every bit a Literature Review Matrix is an constructive and efficient method to organize your literature past recording the main points of each source and documenting how sources relate to each other. If you know how to make an Excel spreadsheet, yous can create your own synthesis matrix, or use one of the templates below.

• 

  Synthesis Matrix Tutorial

  Because a literature review is Non a summary of these different sources, information technology tin be very difficult to keep your research organized. It is peculiarly hard to organize the information in a mode that makes the writing process simpler. One way that seems particularly helpful in organizing literature reviews is the synthesis matrix. Click on the link below for a brusque tutorial and synthesis matrix spreadsheet.

Writing Your Literature Review

A literature review must include a thesis statement, which is your perception of the information found in the literature.

A literature review:

• Demonstrates your thorough investigation of and acquaintance with sources related to your topic
• Is non a uncomplicated listing, but a critical word
• Must compare and contrast opinions
• Must relate your study to previous studies
• Must testify gaps in research
• Tin can focus on a inquiry question or a thesis
• Includes a compilation of the principal questions and subject areas involved
• Identifies sources

https://custom-writing.org/web log/best-literature-review

Organizing Your Literature Review

The structure of the review is divided into 3 principal parts—an introduction , body , and the conclusion .

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Introduction

Discuss what is already known about your topic and what readers demand to know in order to understand your literature review.

• Scope, Method, Framework: ​ Explain your selection criteria and similarities between your sources. Be sure to mention any consistent methods, theoretical frameworks, or approaches.
• Enquiry Question or Problem Argument: Land the problem you lot are addressing a nd why information technology is of import. Attempt to write your research question as a statement.
• Thesis: A ddress the connections betwixt your sources, current country of knowledge in the field, and consistent approaches to your topic.
• Format: Describe your literature review's organization and attach to it throughout.

​ Body

The discussion of your inquiry and its importance to the literature should be presented in a logical structure.

• Chronological: Structure your discussion by the literature's publication appointment moving from the oldest to the newest research. Discuss how your inquiry relates to the literature and highlight whatsoever breakthroughs and any gaps in the enquiry.
• Historical: Similar to the chronological structure, the historical construction allows for a discussion of concepts or themes and how they have evolved over fourth dimension.
• Thematic: Identify and talk over the unlike themes present within the research. Make sure that you relate the themes to each other and to your research.
• Methodological: This type of structure is used to discuss not and so much what is found but how. For example, an methodological approach could provide an analysis of research approaches, information collection or and analysis techniques.

Conclusion

P rovide a curtailed summary of your review and provide suggestions for future research.

Writing for Your Audience

Writing within your discipline means learning

•  the specialized vocabulary your discipline uses
• the rhetorical conventions and soapbox of your subject area

• the research methogologies which are employed

Larn how to write in your subject area past familiarizing yourself with the journals and trade publications professionals, researchers, and scholars use.

Use our A-Z Databases to access:

• The best journals

• The most widely circulated merchandise publications

• The boosted ways professionals and researchers communicate, such as conferences, newsletters, or symposiums.

You can always contact the Subject Librarian supporting your subject to become help determining whatever of the above.  Click hither for a listing ofSubject field Librarians:

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Source: https://csus.libguides.com/c.php?g=882831&p=6343419

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