Reviewing the Literature

1
Reviewing the Literature

• PE 357

2
Why a Lit Review?

• Helps round out the problem
• Identifies what has been done
• Identifies potential methodology and procedures
  for your study
• Helps develop theoretical structure
• Helps stimulate inductive reasoning

3
What are the Steps

• 1) Write the problem statement
• 2) Consult secondary sources
• Look for recent reviews of the basic problem
• Determine descriptors
• Search for the problem, similar variables, and
  the population
• Search primary sources
• Start with current literature and move backward

4
Search Engines

• Sport Discus, Medline, Index Medicus, PsycLit,
  Eric, PSYcInfo, Web of Science, google
• Most of the information will be in journals and
  book chapters though internet sources are
  becoming more common

5
After the Search...

• List may be huge and difficult to organize
• Create a working bibliography
• Use the abstract to help delimit your search
• Computer software is now a fantastic way to
  organize (e.g., Endnote, Procite, Reference
  Manager)

6
Reading Research

• Weight by
• 1) peer reviewed journals
• 2) book chapters
• 3) published abstracts
• 4) dissertation abstracts
• 5) internet sources/ non-refereed material

7
Impact Factor...

• Represents the average number of times all
  articles in a journal are cited during one year
• Not a perfect system because small fields of
  study, large numbers of journals in a field of
  study, and important work that is not cited in
  scientific journals are biased
• Better to try to roughly classify journals in a
  given area by A, B, C
• You are the final judge of the merit of the paper

8
Critical Reading

• Develop a chart of findings to help look for
  similarities and differences between studies
• Often record
• Statement of problem
• Participant characteristics
• Instruments
• Procedures
• Variables (IV DV)
• Treatment (if an experimental study)
• Design and analyses
• Findings
• Questions raised for future studies