Literature review

A topic in research methodology

Research is normally informed by a conceptualisation (a conceptual framework) of the topic area in which the study falls. Therefore in most research studies, a review of existing relevant literature is undertaken to support the conceptualisation process, sometimes involving the selection a particular theoretical framework for the study, and to help refine the research questions.

An exception is grounded theory research, where the normal practice is to delay the literature review (at least, the completion of the literature review) until later in the process to support the process of allowing concepts to emerge from the data analysis itself.

There are different ways of developing literature reviews. Sometimes the review grows organically as reading suggests new sources to consult, but sometimes more systematic methods are used.

Annotated blibiographies

An anotated bibliography is a lisiting of relevant works on a topic, giving bibliogeraphic details of each, along with notes on that work. Annotated bibliographies may be ordered as in a reference list, although sometimes they are organised in sections according to themes.

Occasionally nnotated bibliographies may be published as a tool for other researchers (e.g., Arnold & Millar, 1993), but more often they are a private tool used as a stage in building up a literature review.

In an annotated bibliography each entry is normally self-contained – only about that study, whereas in a literature review a sysnthesis is sought such that different works may be compared and contrasted or used to collectively build a position/argument.

Are literature reviews published?

Some journals will publish reviews of areas of literature – for example, the jouirnal Review of Educational Research. The journal Studies in Science Education is a review journal for the field of science education.

Sometimes literature reviews will be sponsored by organisations such as government departments – for example the Aotearoa/New Zealand Education minstry commissioned and published on its website an extensive review of "the significant international and New Zealand research (including teacher research) on effective pedagogy, and the links between student learning, curricula, pedagogy and assessment in science education" (Hipkins and other, 2002).

More often literature reviews are undertaken as a means to construct a conceptual framework (a way of understanding and thinking about what is already known in an area) as the context for desgining a research study, and are not designed to be a public product in their own right (although they will be drawn upon, usually in a much truncated form, in the introductory.background section of research papers).

Read about conceptual frameworks in research

Systematic review

A systematic review will usually set out in advance criteria for the literature to be reviewed.

A first step might be to use search tools to identify all published studies that are located form a set of key search terms. It may be decided to only consider research published in certain sources (e.g., in more prestigious research journals recognised by some abstracting service), and over a certain time period.

Then further criteria may be applied, such as, say, only ethnographic studies offering thick description, or only experimental studies with sufficient details of sampling and statistical analysis for certain types of critique. Such approaches may be especially relevant when seeking to do a meta-analysis across results in published studies.

Work cited:

• Arnold, M., & Millar, R. (1993). Students' Understanding of the Nature of Science: Annotated Bibliography (Vol. Working paper 11 ). Leeds/York: Children's Learning in Science Research Group, University of Leeds/University of York Science Education Group.
• Hipkins, R., Bolstad, R., Baker, R., Jones, A., Barker, M., Bell, B., . . . Haigh, M. (2002). Curriculum, Learning and effective Pedagogy: A literature review in science education: Ministry of Education, New Zealand.