Conducting a Literature Review Biographical Notes

by Dr Jennifer Rowley and Dr Frances Slack Dr Jennifer Rowley can

be contacted at, School
Abstract for Business and
Regional Development,
Thisarticleofferssupportandguidanceforstudentsundertakingaliterature University of
review as part of their dissertation during an undergraduate or Masters Wales, Bangor,
Gwynedd, LL57
course. A literature review is a summary of a subject field that supports 2DG.
the identification of specific research questions. A literature review needs [email protected]
to draw on and evaluate a range of different types of sources including and Dr Frances Slack at
academic and professional journal articles, books, and web-based the School of Computing
resources. The literature search helps in the identification and location of and Management
Sciences, Sheffield
relevant documents and other sources. Search engines can be used to Hallam University,
search web resources and bibliographic databases. Conceptual Sheffield, S11 1WB.
frameworks can be a useful tool in developing an understanding of a [email protected]
subject area. Creating the literature review involves the stages of:
scanning, making notes, structuring the literature review, writing the
literature review, and building a bibliography.

Introduction
All research needs to be informed by existing knowledge in a subject
area.
Theliteraturereviewidentifiesandorganizestheconceptsinrelevantliterature.
When students embark on a dissertation they are typically expected to
undertakealiteraturereviewatanearlystageinthedevelopmentoftheirresearch
. Often this may be their first significant encounter with the journal and
other literature on their subject. They may have successfully completed
much of their undergraduate studies by relying on textbooks and lectures.
One of the most intimidating aspects of a literature review is
encountering the messy nature of knowledge. Concepts transcend
disciplinary
boundaries,andliteraturecanbefoundinawiderangeofdifferentkindsofsourc
es.
Thisarticledrawsontheextensiveexperienceoftheauthors.Bothhaveprofessi
onal roots in library and information management, but also have
extensiveexperienceinthedeliveryofresearchmethodscourses,anddissertati
on supervision at undergraduate, Masters and Doctoral level. The article
aims to distill key aspects of the process associated with the development
of literature reviews for the benefit of both students and their supervisors.
It first identifies the nature and purpose of a literature review. Subsequent
sections briefly explore the following aspects of the process associated
with the production of a literature review:
• evaluating information sources

Volume 27 Number 6 2004 31

 •searching and locating information resources • developing
Conducting a conceptual frameworks and mind mapping
Literature •writing the literature review.
Review
The Nature of a Literature Review

Aliteraturereviewdistillstheexistingliteratureinasubjectfield;theobjectiveof
theliteraturereviewistosummarizethestateoftheartinthatsubject field. From
this review of earlier and recent work, it becomes possible to identify
areas in which further research would be beneficial. Indeed, the
concluding paragraphs of the literature review should lead seamlessly to
research propositions and methodologies. It is therefore important that the
literaturereviewisfocused,andavoidsthemorecomprehensivetextbook-like
approach.

Literature reviews are, then, important in:

• supporting the identification of a research topic, question or

hypothesis;
• identifying the literature to which the research will make a
contribution, and contextualising the research within that
literature;
• building an understanding of theoretical concepts and
terminology;
• facilitatingthebuildingofabibliographyorlistofthesourcesthat have
been consulted;
• suggesting research methods that might be useful; and in,
• analyzing and interpreting results.
Evaluating Information Resources

A range of information sources might be used to inform the research

question and design. The evaluation of these sources is a very real
problem. Typically in professional disciplines, like information systems,
and business and management, there will be both academic and
professional literature. Both may have a role in the identification of a
research theme, but the academic literature contains a firmer theoretical
basis, with more critical treatment of concepts and models. Articles in
scholarly and research journals should form the core of the literature
review. Most such articles will be written by researchers. They will
include a literature review, a discussion of the research methodology, an
analysis of results, and focused statements of conclusions and

32 Management Research N
recommendations. These articles are designed to record and distill
systematically researched knowledge in the area, and have typically been
peer refereed prior to acceptance for publication. Scholarly and research
journals may also include review articles that provide a review of all of
the recent work in an area. Such reviews will include a significant
bibliography that may be an invaluable source of reference to other work
in the
area,evenifthereviewdoesnotmatchaproposedresearchtopicprecisely.
Professional and practitioner journal articles are often around three
pages in length, they may be useful in identifying recent developments or
topical themes in context, policy, legal frameworks, and technological
advances, but should be carefully differentiated from research and
scholarly articles.

Another source that needs to be used intelligently is books.

Standard texts are a good place to start. They provide a summary of
current ideas and in disciplines such as business and management and
information systems many are regularly updated. Books include
bibliographies or lists of
referencestootherusefulsources.Figure1providesabriefchecklistforevaluati
ng books for use in literature reviews.

Figure 1: Evaluating Books

A good book is:

• relevant to the research topic;
• written by an authoritative author; the biographical details given
in the book will summarize the authors experience in the field;
• up-to-date, as signaled by the publication date;

Volume 27 Number 6 2004 33

• published by a reputable publisher in the
discipline;
Conducting
• one that includes extensive a
reference to other associated Literature
literature; and is Review
• clearly structured and well
presented, and easy to read.
Web resources are easy to locate
through simple searches in standard

34 Management Research N
searchengines.Thewebprovidesaccesstoawiderangeofinformation,but
these sources are provided by a range of different individuals and
organizations, each with their own messages to communicate, and
reasons for making the information available. It can be difficult to
evaluate web resources. Many may be more suitable for the data
gathering element of a research project, rather than as input to a literature
review. They, may, for example, provide valuable statistics, or company
information that can be used in desk based research. Figure 2 lists a
number of questions that can be asked in the process of evaluating web
based resources.

Figure 2: Evaluating Web Resources

1. Who is the intended audience?
2. What is the frequency of update?
3. Which organization is the publisher or web site originator?
4. What is the web resource developer’s claim to expertise and
authority?
5. Are there links or references to other relevant web, electronic,
or print sources?
6. What do reviews or evaluations of the site say?
7. Is a licence or payment necessary for access to the resources?
Literature searching and locating information sources

There are a number of different tools to assist in the identification and

locationofdocumentsineachofthecategoriesdiscussedabove.Theseinclude:

1. library catalogues - good for locating books held by a library,

and journals to which they subscribe;
2. searchengines-goodforlocatingwebpageswithsimplekeyword
based searches; and,
3. on-line databases or abstracting and indexing services, which
provide access to journal articles, papers in conference
proceedings, reports, dissertations and other documents.

Volume 27 Number 6 2004 35

 Whilst search engines make for beguilingly easy location of web
pages, academic journal articles are more difficult to locate. The process
Conducting a often has a number of stages, and is less than obvious. To add to the
Literature complexityeachroutetothefulltextofadocumentisdifferent.Typicalstagesint
Review his process are:

1. Start with your library web page; this provides directions to some
on-line databases, a portal, or a suitable abstracting and indexing
service, such as Emerald for business and management;
2. Conduct a search within the online database, examine the
references, and possibly expanded annotations and save or print
a list of relevant items. If the library subscribes to the
appropriate electronic journal collections there may be a direct
link to the full text of the journal articles. Alternatively, you
need to move on to the next stage:
3. Use these references, to locate the full text of the article, by
revisiting the library web page to examine the catalogue of
electronic journals; this should yield some full text copies of
articles;
4. Locate other articles through the library serials catalogue, and in
print form on the library shelves;
5. Finally, order any articles that you can not access or locate in
your library, via inter-library loan.
Most search engines, whether they search online databases, or the
web, have two levels of search options. It is possible to conduct Basic
searches using keywords, or to choose the Advanced search option that
offersarangeofothersearchdevicestoassistintheformulationofamoreprecise
search.
As the search algorithms that search engines use to retrieve
documents have improved in recent years, it is possible to go a long way
with a basic keyword search. These searches are most effective if you use
a very precise term (e.g. celebrity endorsement, competitive advantage)
or a name (e.g. Consignia, Amazon). The search engine will generate a
list of references to web resources in a ranked order that is based on the
frequency of, and location of occurrence of the words in the search term.
Clicking on one of these web resources will display the appropriate web
page. Often links through to related web pages will also be offered in the
list of references.

36 Management Research N
 Basic searches work on the terms in the search statement, and
prioritise documents in which these words appear close to one
another. There are numerous topics for which such a search will not Conducting
necessarily provide a very focused list of references. For example a a
search on ‘The Queen’ would Literature
Review

Volume 27 Number 6 2004 37

generateamixofentriescoveringtopicsthatincluderoyalty,musicgroups,and
sexual orientation. A search on most town names will generate entries on
more than one location. For example, a search on Bangor, will generate
references in both Wales and Ireland. Similarly searches on more specific
topics, such as ‘the use of information systems in human resource
departments in hospitals’ might benefit from more structure in the design
of the search statement than is available with Basic search. Such searches
benefit from
theuseoftheadvancedsearchoption,whichtypicallyallowsthesearcherto
bespecificaboutthecombinationofwordsinthesearchstatement(byusing the
Boolean operators, NOT, AND and OR). This option may also allow
truncationofthewordsinthesearchstatement,andspecificationofthelocationo
fthesearchtermsinthedocument.TheexactformofAdvancedsearch facilities
vary between the search engines used to locate web resources and those
used to search bibliographic databases. Advice and guidance is usually
available on the search engine help systems.
Therearenumberofdifferentwaysofgoingaboutgatheringinformation,
and developing a search strategy. The following typology of search
strategies, is useful in prompting an awareness of these different
approaches:
1. citation pearl growing - starts from one or a few documents and
uses any suitable terms in those documents to retrieve other
documents. This is a relatively easy approach for a newcomer to
a topic, or even indeed, research, to use.
2. briefsearch - retrieves a few documents crudely and quickly. A
briefsearch is often a good starting point, for further work.
3. building blocks - takes the concepts in search statement and
extends them by using synonyms and related terms. A thorough,

38 Management Research N
 but possibly lengthy search is then conducted seeing all of the
terms to create a comprehensive set of documents.
Conducting a
4. successive fractions - is an approach that can be used to reduced a
Literature
Review large or too large set of documents. Searching within an already
retrievedsetofdocumentscanbeusedtoeliminatelessrelevantor
useful documents
Developing Conceptual Frameworks and Mind Mapping

Concept mapping is a useful way of identifying key concepts in a collection

of documents or a research area. Such a map can be used to:

• identify additional search terms during the literature search

• clarify thinking about the structure of the literature review in
preparation for writing the review
• understandtheory,conceptsandtherelationshipsbetweenthem.
A concept map is a picture of the territory under study, and represents
the concepts in that area and the relationships between them. Concepts are
typically represented by labeled circles or boxes, and relationships are rep-
resented by lines or arrows. Figure 3 shows an example of such a concept
map.

Figure3:AConceptMaprelatingtoCustomerRelationshipManagement
Systems

Knowledge e-service
Servicequality
Management
Callcentres
Customerdataand Customerservice
knowledge
Relationship
marketing
ITfor CustomerRelationship
Competitive ManagementSystems
Advantage
Relationship
lifecycle
Customer Typesof
value relationships

Volume 27 Number 6 2004 39

 Conceptmapsmaybesketchedonpaperoronacomputer.Itisimportantto
recognizethatthereisnocorrectanswerforaconceptmap-theirpurpose is to
assist the researcher to develop their understanding. Loosely
structuredmapsappealtosomeresearchers,whilstothersprefermorestructure
d approaches based on principles such as flowcharts, or hierarchies. Since
concept maps are based on the researcher’s understanding at the point in
time when they were drafted it is likely that as the research advances they
willchange,withconceptsbeingmerged,ornewconceptsandrelationships
being added.

Drawing Together the Literature Review

There are five steps in the creation of a literature review: scanning

documents,makingnotes,andstructuringtheliteraturereview,writingtheliter
ature review, and building the bibliography:
1. Scanning documents provides a familiarity with the broad
spectrum of documents, and the grouping of documents with
similar themes. Scanning documents may give some insights
into key themes that need to be included in the literature review.

40 Management Research N
2. Making notes leads to a distillation of key themes and
messages. Remember to note the sources of ideas, so that the
sources can be cited later. An easy way of making notes is to Conducting
annotate and mark up the document, so that key pieces of text a
and figures can be readily located later. Resist the urge to use Literature
a marker pen on too many large chunks of text - this is really Review
not very helpful, because
itavoidsthedistillationandcategorizationthatisnecessarybefore
an integrated literature review takes shape.
3. Structuring the Literature Review is concerned with
identifying the key themes in the review and starting to
organize concepts and documents in accordance with the key
themes. The structure must emerge from the literature; there is
no one answer. Figure 4 offers a general framework that
might offer some inspiration, but this needs to be adapted to
match the specific research project.
4. Writing the Literature Review can commence once a broad
structure has been resolved. The headings in the structure
can be used to analyze existing documents by making
margin comments referring to section of the literature
review. Then all of the documents with content relevant to a
specific section of the literature review can be gathered
together, and the writing of sections of the literature review
can commence. The literature

Volume 27 Number 6 2004 41

 reviewshouldintegrateinacoherentaccountthreedifferenttypes of
material:
Conducting a
Literature 5. a distillation and understanding of key concepts
Review 6. quotations, in the words of the original writer. These should be
used sparingly and for special impact. When they are used it is
important to cite the author, date and page number of the quote
(e.g. Gree, 2002, p.45), and to include the full reference for the
source in the bibliography.
7. a distillation of positions, research findings or theories from
other authors, but written in your words. These concepts should
be acknowledged with a citation (e.g. Gree, 2002).
8. Building a bibliography is an ongoing process from the beginning
of the literature search until the completion of the literature
review. A bibliography is a list of all of the sources that you have
referred to in the literature review (or at other points in your
dissertation). As work progresses it is important to make a note of
the documents and other sources that have been read, and, later to
translate this bibliography into a list of relevant documents. Most
universities specify the type of referencing system to be used and
the format of citation to be adopted for different types of
documents. There are two main referencing systems. One of these
inserts numbers in the text, and then lists references according to
numerical sequence of application in the text, at the end of the
document. The other system cites documents by author name and
date in the text, and arranges the list of references (or
bibliography) in order according to the alphabetical sequence of
the authors’ names. Components of the citations listed at the end
of the dissertation vary for different kinds of documents, but there
are some very precise specifications as to what to include, and
how to punctuate such references. A good dissertation adheres to
these guidelines. The most important thing to remember about
citations is that there should be sufficient data included to
uniquely define a document, and to make it possible to locate it.
Forexample,forbooks,editionstatementsanddateofpublication are
important, and with journal articles it is important to include page
numbers.

Figure 4: Sample Structure for a Literature Review

1. Basic definitions e.g. What is Business Process Re-engineering

(BPR)? What is e-government?

42 Management Research N
 2. Why the subject is of interest e.g. what impact can BPR
have on business success? Why are e-government
applications important, and what is their scope? Conducting
a
3. What research has already been undertaken on the topic, Literature
and is there any research on aspects of the topic that this Review
research might investigate e.g. the application of BPR to
support the delivery of e-government applications.
4 A clear summary of the research opportunities and objectives
that emerge from the literature review.
Conclusion
Undertaking a literature search, locating documents, and
understanding the distilling the literature of a subject area is a
complex task. This brief article has reviewed a number of aspects of
the development of a literature review. The article is intended to
assist students with the process of writing a

Volume 27 Number 6 2004 43

literaturereviewasacomponentinanundergraduateorMastersprojectordisser
tation.

44 Management Research N