THE LITERATURE REVIEW

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THE LITERATURE REVIEW

• Political Science 102
• Introduction to Political Inquiry
• Lecture 10

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WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW?

• A body of research and writing on a particular
  topic.
• E.g. the literature on public opinion and
  foreign policy or the literature on democratic
  stability
• A literature review is a systematic examination
  and interpretation of a literature
• Created to inform and shape subsequent research
• There are no set boundaries for literatures
• Overlap in complex ways
• No categorization scheme for research into
  literatures
• Necessary scope for each literature review is
  idiosyncratic and determined by the research topic

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PURPOSES OF A LITERATURE REVIEW

• Learning about what others have discovered
• Ensure we dont reinvent the wheel
• Narrowing or focusing a research topic
• Motivating and developing a specific research
  question
• Discovering the data, methods, and research
  strategies others have used
• Identifying research questions that have not been
  answered
• Define the original contribution of current
  research

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SOURCES FOR THE LITERATURE REVIEW

• Research topics may come from many sources
• Personal sources (your own experiences)
• Non-scholarly sources (news media)
• Scholarly sources (academic books or journals)
• Literature review may begin with non-scholarly
  sources
• Motivate research question and spark readers
  interest
• But literature must move from non-scholarly
  literature to scholarly research
• Demonstrates state of current scientific
  knowledge
• Ensures current research is part of a scientific
  dialogue

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WHAT IS SCHOLARLY RESEARCH?

• Defining characteristic of scholarly research is
  peer review
• Scientific knowledge cumulates through public
  dialogue and replicability
• Best check we have against error and fraud
• Ensures research evolves as a conversation
• Peer review is generally a double-blind process
• Scholars submit research in anonymous form and
  editors send it to scholars who send in anonymous
  reviews
• Process is slow and can be idiosyncratic
• Closest thing we have to a fair process
• Multiple journal outlets help correct for bias
  and idiosyncracies

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WHAT ARE THE PEER REVIEWED OUTLETS?

• Many journals and presses are peer reviewed
• Some have obvious academic names (e.g. American
  Political Science Review, Princeton University
  Press)
• But you cant tell just by the title
• When in doubt check the website!
• Peer reviewed publications WILL identify
  themselves
• If the outlet does not self-identify as peer
  reviewed not a scholarly outlet.
• Non-scholarly does not mean wrong or bad
• Works are appropriate for literature review
• But literature review should build beyond them to
  peer reviewed work

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FINDING SCHOLARLY LITERATURE

• Electronic databases are a great resource
• Google Scholar (not just a Google search)
• Web of Science (SSCI)
• JSTOR (for anything more than 5 years old)
• Begin with simple keyword searches
• Then search for work cited in the work you find
• SSCI feature Citation trees
• Reading article abstracts, book prefaces, and
  book or literature reviews are also useful
• Google Books and your very own Duke Library are
  great for finding books.

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STRUCTURING A LITERATURE REVIEW

• NOT a series of article or book summaries
• Boxcar approach
• Make a conceptual storyline for the literature
• What are key concepts and causal claims?
• How have they evolved?
• First goal is to integrate previous research
  conceptually and methodologically
• Second goal is to explain how this new research
  both complements and moves beyond previous work

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ENOUGH ALREADY?

• Common questions How many sources are necessary
  in a literature review?
• There is no single answer to this question
• Answer depends on scope of project and state of
  literature
• But there are some broad goals
• First goal is appropriate scope
• Have you articulated the key concepts and causal
  claims the new research examines?
• Second goal is balance
• If the concepts or causal claims are debated,
  have you articulated the competing perspectives?