Lecture #4:How to Conduct and Write Literature Survey(I)

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1.What is Literature Surver

• A literature survey is the process of analyzing,summarizing,organizing, and presenting novel conclusions from the results of technical review of large number of recently published scholarly articles.
• Purpose of Literature Survey.
  • 1.Place each work in the context of its contribution to understand the research problem being studied.
  • 2.Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration.
  • 3.Identify new ways to interpret prior research (reflect your understanding of the research area).
  • 4.Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.
  • 5.Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
  • 6.Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort.
  • 7.Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research.
  • 8.Locate your own research within the context of existing literature.
    • Importance of your research.
    • Uniqueness of your research.
• Types of Literature Survey.
  • Argumentative review: Present an opposing view to a given position.
  • Integrative review: Be composed of examinations and critical analysis on a given topic to introduce a need for new research.
  • Historical review: Assess all the historical records of scholarship chronologically.
  • Methodological review: Review methods of analysis → \rightarrow → show how researchers draw upon a variety of knowledge.
  • Systematic review:
    • 1.Consist of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question.
    • 2.Use pre-specified and standardized method to identify relevan research
  • Theoretical review: Examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an issue,comcept,theory,phenomena → \rightarrow → help to establish what theories already exist and their relationship.

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2.How to Conduct Literature Survey

2.1 Conduct your search

• 1.How to Search
  • Identify search words(main idea).
  • If you’re looking for particular types of research,you can use these as search words. E.g. qualitative,quantitative,methodology,review,survey,test,trend(and more).
• 2.Connect your search words
• 3.Tips on Searching
  • The reference list for more relevant articles.
  • The author/s — have they published other articles on this topic?
  • If you are a freshman to a new area: What keywords are used to describe the topic? Add those keywords to your search.
  • Who has cited the article. What they have written may be relevant to your topic.
  • Narrow and refine your serach results by year，document or source type…

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2.2 Store and organize the literature

• Using EndNote.

2.3 Evaluate and critique the literature

• 1.Evaluate the Information You Found
  • Not all the found references will be suitable to use.
  • Skim through the resource: A quick read through the table of contents,the abstract section, or the introduction section should indicate whether you need to read further or whether you can immediately discard the results.
  • Evaluate the quality and reliability of the references
    • Where did you find
    • Who is the author(or organization…)?
    • Purpose
    • Accuracy
    • …
• 2.Critique the Literature
  • Read the chosen relevant articles so carefully that you understand the content really well
    • Understand the strength and weakness.
    • Evaluate the statements made by the authors(Not every statement is correct as the author may over-claim their contributions.)
  • Take a step further: Reading the references of the paper usually helps with understanding the context.
  • Particularly the concept definitions are important when critiquing the literature.

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2.4 Write the survey

• Explain the content to a reader who has never read the paper: In a very focused conference or journal for professionals of a certain field, one can assume taht the readers have a strong background.
• Explain the relevent points in a coherent manner with special focus on only some topics mentioned in the papers and being relevant to this paper.
• Use proper citations so that readers always know the sources of the information and track them down if necessay.
• When summarizing the major methodologies of this literature, separate clearly your own comments and conclusions.

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3.How to Manage References by EndNote

Use EndNote and LaTex.

4.How to Write Literature Survey

• Forms of Literature Survey
  • An independent research article.
  • “Related Work Section” in a research article or a thesis dissertation.

4.1 How to Write a Literature Survey Article

Content of a literature survey article

• Title and author
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Survey methodology
• Definitions of concepts
• The actual content with appropriate titles
• Conclusions
• References

Title and author

Abstract

Keywords

introduction

• What is the topic and why it is important.
• To What large wholeness the survey topic belongs.
• What you plan to accomplish in your literature survey.
• Remenber to briefly explain the content.

Survey methodology

• Description how you collect the related articles in your study.

Definitions of concepts

• Descriptions of the meaning of the concept.
• Possible competing definitions.
• Concepts that might cause misunderstandings and confusion.
• Possible methods and approaches.
  The actual content with appropriate titles
• description and comparison of approaches,methods and models and examples.

Conclusions

• Most important discoveries and conclusions
• Proposals for future research
• Separate your own argumentation clearly from the work of others

References

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