The Literature Review

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The Literature Review
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The Importance of the Literature Review in
Research

• Borg Gall (1989) state, Although the
  importance of a thorough review of the literature
  is obvious to everyone, this task is more
  frequently slighted than any other phase of
  researchOften the insights gained through the
  review will save as much time in conducting the
  research as the review itself required.

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Why Review the Literature?

• to identify gaps in the literature
• to avoid reinventing the wheel (at the very least
  this will save time and it can stop you from
  making the same mistakes as others)
• to carry on from where others have already
  reached (reviewing the field allows you to build
  on the platform of existing knowledge and ideas)

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Why Review the Literature?

• to identify other people working in the same
  fields (a researcher network is a valuable
  resource)
• to increase your breadth of knowledge of your
  subject area
• to identify seminal works in your area
• to provide the intellectual context for your own
  work, enabling you to position your project
  relative to other work

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Why Review the Literature?

• to identify opposing views
• to put your work into perspective
• to demonstrate that you can access previous work
  in an area
• to identify information and ideas that may be
  relevant to your project
• to identify methods that could be relevant to
  your project

Source Bourner, T. (1996) 'The research process
four steps to success', in Greenfield, T. (ed),
Research methods guidance for postgraduates,
Arnold, London.
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Era 1 in Literature Reviews

• Go to the library, look in paper indexes,locate
  the journal and read it

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Era 2 in Literature Reviews

• Go to the library, use computer-basedindexes,
  locate the journal and read it

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Era 3in Literature Reviews

• Use your home computer, access indexes
  electronically, if the journal is not on-line, go
  to the library, locate the journal and read it.

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How to Find Information

• Go to the Library and wander around
• Not the most efficient but interesting

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Finding Information

• Use electronic indexes

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Approaches to the Lit Review

• Start with more global secondary sources
• Encyclopedias
• Yearbooks
• Handbooks of Research
• Scholarly books

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Examples of Secondary Sources

• The Encyclopedia of Educational Research a four
  volume set that looks at various facets of
  education. Most entries have detailed
  bibliographies.

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Additional Secondary Sources

• Handbook of Research on ______
• Teaching
• Early Childhood Education
• Educational Administration
• Language Development
• Curriculum
• Math Teaching and Learning
• Multicultural Education
• Music Teaching and Learning
• Science Teaching

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Additional Secondary Sources

• Review of Research in Education Published
  annually, generally focuses on 2-3 areas
• Review of Educational Research published
  quarterly, contains latest research, has
  extensive bibliography
• Scholarly books in the area of your interest

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Primary Sources

• Original works (journal articles, research
  papers)
• More current than secondary sources
• Specialized indexes are used to find the articles.

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ERIC

• Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)
• Established in 1966 by the U.S. Department of
  Education
• Sixteen different clearinghouses review and
  summarize research
• One clearinghouse focuses on just adult, career
  and vocational education

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ERIC
Produces two major products

• CIJE (Current Index to Journals in Education)
• Over 900 educational journals are indexed.
• This is published in hard copy and electronically.

• RIE (Resources in Education)
• Non-journal documents
• Research conference papers
• Technical reports
• Curriculum projects
• RIE is published in hard copy and electronically

These documents are called fugitive literature or
gray literature because they are not widely
disseminated or easy to obtain!
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Searching ERIC

• It might be wise to spend a few minutes looking
  at the ERIC Thesaurus to find the terms used to
  catalog items before searching.
• For example teaching effectiveness is not a
  term used, but teacher effectiveness is.
• It is best to start broad and then narrow the
  search by using and in your searches.
• agricultural education and teacher
  effectiveness

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Searching ERIC

• You can search by title, key terms, author,
  journal name, etc.
• Most indexes allow similar searches

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Finding ERIC Documents

• Journal articles can be found in the journals in
  which the were published (CIJE)
• Other documents have a ED number such as
  ED131188. This refers to a microfiche that can
  be retrieved and read at the NCSU or other major
  university libraries using a microfiche reader.

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AGRICOLA

• AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access) is a
  bibliographic database of citations to the
  agricultural literature created by the National
  Agricultural Library and its cooperators.
  Production of these records in electronic form
  began in 1970, but the database covers materials
  in all formats, including printed works from the
  15th century.

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AGRICOLA

• The records describe publications and resources
  encompassing all aspects of agriculture and
  allied disciplines, including animal and
  veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences,
  forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, farming and
  farming systems, agricultural economics,
  extension and education, food and human
  nutrition, and earth and environmental sciences.

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AGRICOLA

• Contains journal articles, extension
  publications, experiment station documents, and
  similar resources.
• There is a little overlap between ERIC and
  AGRICOLA in agricultural and extension education.
• It is better to have an overlap than a gap.

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Dissertation Abstracts International

• Nearly all doctoral dissertations written in
  North America are indexed in DAI.
• You can search by topic, author, university,
  topic and several other terms.

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The Education Index

• If you are looking for articles published prior
  to 1981 you may need to go to the library and use
  a paper index titled The Education Index. Most
  electronic indexes have not gone back in time to
  index the earlier journals.