Doing Your Literature Review

Description

As you progress through the book you will move from the basic skills of reading and note-making into the search for information; experienced researchers
might want to skim read these sections. In the second part you will learn how
to do a traditional literature review before moving on to the more challenging
and time-demanding systematic review. Meta-analysis is a specialised synthesis method for advanced reviewers, but here we provide a need-to-know
introduction for those interested in the methodology.
Part I provides a general introduction to literature review, to searching, reading,
and note-making skills. Part II guides you through the reviewing, synthesis and
write-up stages.
Chapter 1 covers definitions: What is a literature review? When would you
do a literature review? And which one is appropriate when? Most students are
taught to use only highly rated journals, so information on journal rating and
peer review issues are discussed in a critical way. Students’ ability to use new
technology is amazing; nevertheless there is evidence to suggest that their ability to search for and evaluate information on the web is still in question. Some
students may over rely on Google, without exploring the wider resources
made freely available to them. In Chapter 2 Lydia Matheson provides a technical approach to searching. She introduces the range of resources available
through the academic library, covering digital and electronic libraries, and
other useful sites