Key Concepts: Literature Review Readings

The University of Toronto.  The Literature Review: A few tips on conducting it.
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review

Literature Review
an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Occasionally you will be asked to write one as a separate assignment (sometimes in the form of an annotated bibliography), but more often it is part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis.

Annotated Bibliography
summarize each item briefly, while following through the themes and concepts and do some critical assessment of material. Use an overall introduction and conclusion to state the scope of your coverage and to formulate the question, problem, or concept your chosen material illuminates. Usually you will have the option of grouping items into sections and write a paragraph or so to introduce the focus of each section

A Literature Review lets you gain and demonstrate skills in:

• information seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently, using manual or computerized methods, to identify a set of useful articles and books
• critical appraisal: the ability to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies.

A Literature Review must:

• be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing
• synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known
• identify areas of controversy in the literature
• formulate questions that need further research

University of Santa Cruz University. Write a Literature review.
http://library.ucsc.edu/help/howto/write-a-literature-review

A literature review may constitute an essential chapter of a thesis or dissertation, or may be a self-contained review of writings on a subject. In either case, its purpose is to:
•    Place each work in the context of its contribution to the understanding of the subject under review
•    Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration
•    Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps in, previous research
•    Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies
•    Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort
•    Point the way forward for further research
•    Place one's original work (in the case of theses or dissertations) in the context of existing literature

Literature reviews should comprise the following elements:

• An overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the literature review
• Division of works under review into categories (e.g. those in support of a particular position, those against, and those offering alternative theses entirely)
• Explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from the others
• Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development of their area of research

In assessing each piece, consideration should be given to: 

• Provenance—What are the author's credentials? Are the author's arguments supported by evidence (e.g. primary historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics, recent scientific findings)?
•  Objectivity—Is the author's perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point? 
• Persuasiveness—Which of the author's theses are most/least convincing?
• Value—Are the author's arguments and conclusions convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?

Development of the Literature Review requires four stages:

1. Problem formulation: which topic or field is being examined and what are its component issues?
2. Literature search: finding materials relevant to the subject being explored
3. Data evaluation: determining which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic
4. Analysis and interpretation: discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature

Widener University. A beginning study - literature reviews.
http://muse.widener.edu/~aad0002/510review.htm


Typical ways of organizing a review of relevant literature

• Thematic organization - themes that emerge from literature are listed and information is included from previous studies that define, explore, illustrate and explain the themes and their importance to the research problem.
• Arguments in the field - major positions or stands on the issues surrounding the research problem are presented in a point/counterpoint fashion and the studies that illuminate these positions are introduced accordingly.
• Conceptual analysis - the concepts that define a research problem are organized in terms of part-whole relationships and studies that expand on the meaning of each concept are integrated in each section.
• Critical review of methodology - major flaws in the ways in which previous studies have investigated a research problem are explored and the studies that demonstrate these flaws are reviewed critically.

Avoiding common mistakes

• research topics that are dead end lines of investigation.
• research topics that are difficult to explore for political, economic, social reasons.
• resources on topics that have been
• Thoroughly researched and little that is new can be added.
• mistakes and mis-steps in the use of methods that have already proved to be flawed.

Key Concepts: Developing the Study

Wildemuth (2, 3, 5)

Research question development
1.    From one’s own experience or the direct observation of a situation or event in the field.
2.    From logical gaps that exist in our current state of knowledge of the field

Research question attributes
1.    Clear and easily understood
2.    Specific enough to suggest the data that need to be collected during the study
3.    Answerable with the data to be collected
4.    Interconnected with important concepts or phenomena
5.    Substantively relevant to the field

Evidence-based information practice – As information professionals make decisions about new services, systems, policies, etc., they should use the current literature base and conduct their own research to identify evidence that can inform those decisions.

Practice-based question - the researcher is a member of the organization that is being studied (e.g. a university study about student by another student).

Hypothesis – a conjectural statement of the relation between two or more variables.

Causation - The concept that one event predictably leads to another.

 
Williamson Ch. 3

Literature Review - Plays an important role in the generation of theory and in the formulation and refinement of research questions and hypotheses. It also assists in providing a background and context for a study.

Literature review writing steps:

• Categorize literature into subject/topic
• Introduction
• Significance and importance
• Contents of the review
• Body
• Organized under headings relating to research questions
•  Critically analyze relevant literature under those headings
•   Conclusion
•  Indicate gaps in literature
•  Other reasons why further research is needed
•  Highlight key concepts
•   Research questions the proposed research will investigate
•  Check that literature critical and evaluative

Patten (Topic14, 15, 16)

Strict replication - Mimicking the study in all important aspects to see if the same types of results will emerge.

Modified replication - A replication with some major modifications (i.e. examining a new population or using an imporved measurement technique)

Record - Contains all the information about a given article in electronic databases

Field - Exist within each record (e.g. title, abstract, descriptor)

Pyrczack (Appendix D)

Literature review evaluation questions:

• Does the researcher being by identifying a specific problem area?
• Are underlying theories adequately described?
• Has the researched cited sources for “factual” statements?
• Is the current research cited?
• Has the researcher distinguished between opinions and research findings?
• Has the researcher noted any gaps in literature?

Article Review #1

Stephanie Glass
9/20/11
Article Review #1

Bojko, A. (2006). Using eye tracking to compare web designs: A case study. Journal of Usability Studies, 1 (3), 112-120.

Introduction
The purpose of the study was to assess the validity of redesigned elements of a webpage using evaluation activities including eye tracking. The article reflects my research interests in Usability and Design.
 
Problem Statement
The focus of the study was to evaluate and compare a proposed redesign of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Web site against the original design. The specific goals were to determine if the redesigned home page would make it easier for users to locate the proper starting point for their tasks, and to locate potential areas for improvement within the proposed design. The report emphasizes the effectiveness of eye tracking methodology to collect data on attention deployment and target processing.
 
Literature Review
The eye tracking study expands upon past perception and visual search research. “However, it has not yet established itself strongly as a method to study the screen-level search behavior that is a frequent component of human-computer interaction” (Bojko, 2006).  Therefore, this study expands upon the use of the eye movement methodology when detailed evaluation of visual search is required. It also supports the use of this technique in future usability research within the Technology field.
 
Method
The study tested twelve participants who were current ASCO members and were, on average, monthly users of the current website. To compensate for the unfamiliarity of the proposed site, users were given the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the new design prior to the commencement of the study. Participants used a mouse to indicate responses to a block of 25 tasks on both the current and proposed web site design.  The tasks were the same for each site and were presented in a random order. The web pages, tasks and other stimuli were displayed on a 17” monitor with 1024 x 768 px screen resolution. A Tobii 1750 eye tracker was used to record eye movements.
 
Caveats
I feel as though an increased number and a wider variety of test subjects should have been used for this study. Though ages ranged from 30 – 55, it doesn’t seem likely that study conductors were able to get a realistic representation of current website users. Only having twelve participants seems inadequate.

 I felt researchers could not accurately compare the efficiency of each design because participants were familiar with the current version of the web site. I speculate that the results would naturally favor the current, more familiar, design. I feel that this test should have been performed by users unfamiliar with either design or the tasks should have been comprised of new, unfamiliar information and locations.

Research Traditions Readings

Williamson Ch.2

Methods triangulation:

• the checking of the consistency of findings by using different data-collection methods.

Sources triangulation:

• the cross checking for consistency of the information derived at different times and from different people.

Connaway & Powell, Ch. 2 

Scientific Method:

• (a) identification of an idea 
• (b) theory construction 
• (c) derivation of theoretical hypothesis/expectations 
• (d) operationalization of concepts 
• (e) testing of hypothesis.

Theory:

• a systematic explanation for the observations that relate to a particular aspect of life.
• an explanation for a quantifiable phenomenon.
• a set of related propositions that suggest why events occur in the manner they do.

Pyrczak (Appendix A)

Reflexivity:

• the researcher actively engages in self-reflection about his or her potential biases and predispositions. This is the key strategy used to understand researcher bias.

Theory triangulation:

• the use of multiple theories and perspectives to help interpret and explain the data.

Data triangulation:

• the use of multiple data sources to help understand a phenomenon. 

Patten (Topics 1-10)

Causal-comparative research:

• we look to the past for the cause of a current condition.

Longitudinal research:

• when we repeatedly measure traits of the subjects over a period of time in order to trace developmental trends.

Correlational research:

• when we are interested in the degree of relationship among two or more quantitative variables.

Standards for Reporting
 
Appropriateness of Methods:

• Where appropriate, expli- cation of methods may include explanation of how they are suited to accomplishing the overall aims, conceptual- ization, and design of the work.

Execution of Methods:

• Theparticularmethodsemployed in a work should be applied in a manner that is effective in terms of the particular criteria that apply to those methods.

Internal Coherence:

• Internal coherence involves the use of compelling confirming and disconfirming evi- dence to enable readers to understand and/or re-experi- ence educational events, concepts, value systems, or issues in comprehensible and illuminating ways. The various elements of a text should be internally coherent in that they fit with the inquiry’s topics, aims, methods, and conceptualization.

External Coherence:

• The inquiry should be externally coherent. That is, it should exhibit an awareness of, and, as appropriate, engage alternative or competing cultural, social, political, or intellectual perspectives.

Eldredge

Meta-analysis:

• allows reviewers to combine identical or comparable data sets from two or more studies examining the same research question to create a larger pool of data results to strengthen an overall conclusion.

Content analysis:

• maps nonnumerical artifacts such as text into a matrix of statistically manipulated symbols.

Key Concepts

The following definitions are paraphrased from selected class readings...

From Connaway, L. & Powell, R. R. (2010). Basic research methods for librarians. 5th ed.

Qualitative research: method that seeks to understand individuals behavior through observation of events from the perspective of those involved.

Quantitative research: highly structured method involving a problem solving approach and the quantification of concepts.

From Wildemuth, B. (2009). Applications of social research methods to questions in information and library Science.

Research: a method of study by which a solution is found through the collection, analysis and interpretation of data.
Evidence-based practice: a type of application research which results improvements to the professional practice.

From Williamson, K. (2000). Research methods for students and professionals: Information management and systems.

Basic research: is concerned with deriving new knowledge which can lead to practical applications.

Applied research: is concerned with solving specific problems in real-life situations and can lead to future research.