TYPES OF

LITERATURE REVIEW
ENGR. AE AIROBOMAN
PHD; MNSE; R.ENG.COREN; IEEE-SV

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

NIGERIAN DEFENCE ACADEMY KADUNA
 WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW?
A CRITICAL DESCRIPTION OF LITERATURE RELEVANT TO YOUR RESEARCH:
 NEVER BE JUST A LIST OF PREVIOUS WORK
 CONTAINS THE WORK YOU CONSULTED IN ORDER TO DEVELOP YOUR
RESEARCH
 PROVIDES JUSTIFICATION/BACKGROUND FOR THE RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN
 GUIDES READER THE UNDERSTANDING OF CONTRIBUTION OF YOUR WORK
AND POINTS OUT GAPS IN THE STATE-OF-THE-ARTS
WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW?
• A “review of the literature” is a classification and evaluation of what accredited scholars
and researchers have written on a topic.

• In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge
and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are.

• As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your
research objective, the problem or issue you are exploring, or your thesis).

• It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries.

 WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW?
WHAT IS THE STATE OF THE
SCIENCE/ART ON THIS PROBLEM? ARE
THERE GAPS IN THE LITERATURE? HOW
WILL YOUR STUDY FILL THOSE GAPS?
Synthesize recent literature (within the past 5
years)
WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW?

A GOOD SCHOLARSHIP INVOLVES:

 CONNECTING, THEORIES, EXPERIENCE
 APPLYING METHODOLOGY TO DIFFERENT IDEAS
 CREATING NEW SYNTHESIS OR INSIGHT
 RE-EXAMINING EXISTING KNOWLEDGE
 BACKGROUND TO THE FIELD / LITERATURE
REVIEW
• Scene setting – what’s known about the topic?
• Generate interest
• Show what has been done
• Relevant theory and current issues
• Descriptive and Critical
• Identify gaps / justify your study
• Don’t assume your reader knows your field
SOURCES OF LITERATURE REVIEW
 JOURNAL ARTICLES ---- MAXIMUM TIME, 2 YEARS
 BOOKS
 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS ---- LESS RELIABLE THAN A JOURNAL PAPER
 GOVERNMENT OR CORPORATE REPORTS
 THESES AND DISSERTATIONS ---- CAN BE DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN (FROM FAR
PLACES); PARTS OF RESEARCH MAY BE TREATED WITH CAUTION
 SPECIALIZED MAGAZINES ---- SOMETIMES, SOURCE IS AS GOOD AS
JOURNAL ARTICLES
CONTEXT OF LITERATURE REVIEW
LITERATURE REVIEW CAN APPEAR AS
 PART OF A RESEARCH PAPER INTRODUCTION
 PART OF A THESIS (OR THESIS CHAPTER) INTRODUCTION
 A SECTION OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

AN EFFECTIVE LITERATURE REVIEW CAN BE TIED TO:

 MOTIVATION ---- A QUESTION THAT IS “DYING” TO BE ANSWERED
 CONTRIBUTION ---- ONCE YOU’VE ESTABLISHED THERE IS “HOLE” IN THE
KNOWLEDGE, YOU MUST BE PREPARED TO FILL THE GAPS
• A Literature Review (LR) should:
• Never be just a list of previous work contain the works that you
consulted in order to develop your research

• Provide justification/background for the research undertaken:

• –The LR should guide the reader to understanding the contribution of

the work by pointing out the shortcomings/ gaps of the state of the art.

• – If you leave this task to the reader, your paper may be rejected
• A literature review consists of an overview, a summary, and an
evaluation(“critique”) of the current state of knowledge about a specific area of
research.
• It may also include a discussion of methodological issues and suggestions for
future research.
• Besides enlarging your knowledge about the topic, writing a literature review
lets you gain and demonstrate skills in two literature review lets you gain and
demonstrate skills in two areas:
• Information seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently, using manual
and computerized methods, to identify a set of useful articles, books and
documents;
• Critical appraisal: the ability to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased
and valid studies.
A LITERATURE REVIEW MUST DO THESE
THINGS:
• 1. Be organized around and related directly to the thesis
or research question you are developing;
• 2. Synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not
known; A literature review must do these things:
• 3. Identify areas of controversy in the literature;
• 4. Formulate questions that need further research.
WHY ARE LITERATURE REVIEWS
IMPORTANT?
• To become an expert in any field of Endeavour, you
must know your field comprehensively.

• Critical reviews of state-of-the-art literature permit

the professional to make informed decisions, to act in
an expert manner, and to set policy in his or her field
of expertise
WHY ARE LITERATURE REVIEWS IMPORTANT?

• Researchers conduct reviews of the literature to

justify proposed studies, to uncover patterns of
findings in the field, to enter into scientific debate, and
to discover gaps in knowledge that lead to future
research questions.
• Research reviews are often the first step toward
making discoveries and social interventions in our
society.
WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS TO ASK
MYSELF
1. Do I have a specific thesis, problem, or
research question which my literature review
helps to define?
WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS TO ASK MYSELF
• 2. What type of literature review am I conducting?
• Am I looking at issues such as:
• Theory?
• Methodology?
• Policy?

• Quantitative Research (e.g., systematic empirical  Quantitative Research (e.g.,

systematic empirical investigation of observable phenomena via statistical,
Mathematical or computational techniques.)?

• Qualitative research (e.g., studies to gain an understanding of underlying reasons,

opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop
ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research.)?
WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS TO ASK MYSELF

3. What is the scope of my literature review?

• What types of publications am I using (e.g., Journals,
Books, Proceedings, From the web, Government
documents, popular media, etc.)?

• What disciplinary databases am I searching? (e.g.,

ICT, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering,
Industrial, Entrepreneurial study etc)?
•  How good are my information-seeking skills?
•  Has my search been wide enough to ensure I've found all the relevant
material?
•  Has it been narrow enough to exclude irrelevant material? material?
•  Is the number of sources I've used appropriate for the length of my
paper?
•  Is there a specific relationship between the literature I've chosen to
review and the problem I've formulated?
•  Have I critically analyzed the literature I use?
•  Do I just list and summarize authors and articles, or
•  Do I just list and summarize authors and articles, or do I assess them?
•  Do I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the material I cite?
•Have I cited and discussed studies
contrary to my perspective?
•Will the reader find my literature
review relevant, appropriate, and
useful?
 QUESTIONS TO ASK MYSELF ABOUT EACH
BOOK OR ARTICLE I AM REVIEWING
• 1. Has the author formulated a problem/issue?
• 2. Is the problem/issue ambiguous or clearly articulated?
Is its significance (scope, severity, articulated? Is its
significance (scope, severity, relevance) discussed?
• 3. What are the strengths and limitations of the way the
author has formulated the problem or issue?
• Could the problem have been approached more effectively from another
perspective?
•  What is the author's research orientation (e.g., interpretive, critical science,
combination)?
•  What is the author's theoretical framework (e.g., psychoanalytic,
developmental, feminist)?
•  What is the relationship between the theoretical and research perspectives?
• 1. Has the author evaluated the literature relevant to the problem/issue?
• 2. Does the author include literature taking positions s/he does not agree
with?
• 3. In a research study,
•  How good are the three basic components of the study design (i.e.,
population, intervention, outcome)?
•  How accurate and valid are the measurements? Is the analysis of the data
accurate and relevant to the research question?
•  Are the conclusions validly based upon the data and analysis?
• In popular literature, does the author use appeals to
emotion, one-sided examples, rhetorically-charged
language and tone?
• Is the author objective, or is s/he merely “proving”
what s/he already believes?
• How does the author structure his or her argument?
• Can you “deconstruct” the flow of the argument to
analyze if/where it breaks down?
• Is this a book or article that contributes to our
understanding of the problem under study?
• In what ways is it useful for theory or practice? What
are its strengths and limitations? are its strengths and
limitations?
• How does this book or article fit into the thesis or
question I am developing?
 LITERATURE CITING AND REFERENCING
• Literature citing is the practice of directing a reader to the source of
information being used-quoted or paraphrased-in a piece of writing. The
source may be journals, books or unpublished works.
• The two main purposes for citing references are: • To acknowledge the
source (s) of data or information used in a text, thus giving credit to whom
credit is due.
• To provide the reader an opportunity to access the data or information
being used so that he/she can make an independent check or get more
information.
• Example: Airoboman (2022); Amuna and Adamu (2017); (Abubakar et al.,
2019), etc
• Referencing: This is to give sufficient information used in a write-up in
order to afford the reader the opportunity to get
the original source of the information and make an
independent check or get more information.
• Example: Jeevan Rao, K. and Shantaram, M.V. (1995) Contents of heavy
metals in crops treated with urban solid wastes, Journal of
Environmental Biology.16 (3), Pp. 225-232.
THE TWO (2) MAIN METHODS OF CITING REFERENCES ARE:

i. Citing by use of Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc) placed in front of or as a superscript

on the word, phrase, or sentence being credited to a source (numerals method)
• Example: The United Nations millennium goals was established to globally attack
the present health, social and economic effects of the present economic situation
[2].

ii. Citing by use of the name (s) of the author (s) and the year of publication
(Author-and-year method)
• Example:The issue of poor solid waste management has become a challenge for
governments of developing countries in Asia and Africa(Mwangi, 2000)
RULES AND GUIDELINES FOR REFERENCING
• All references cited in the text should be listed and all references listed
should have been cited in the text
• ii. In thesis and journal articles, a list of references is usually provided at
the end of the main text.
• iii. Where the author-and-year method of citing is used, references are
listed in alphabetical order. However, when citing is done by numeral
method, the listing is done serially.
RULES AND GUIDELINES FOR REFERENCING
• iv. In jointly-authored articles, the surname of the first author
is used to determine the alphabetical order
• v. As a general rule, name and initials of all the authors are
included in listing. Thus the use of “et al” is not allowed in
listing
• vi. Hanging indentation style is strongly recommended.
 TYPES OF LITERATURE REVIEW SOURCES
• Journal articles (surveys, research papers). Provide technical up-to-date
information (last 2 years) about a research topic.
• Books. Recent research monographs can be useful in your literature review.
Do not include citations of textbooks not in your LR, but you can use them
in later sections of your paper.
• Conference proceedings. They provide information about the
latest/unpublished research. In general, less reliable than a journal paper.
Always cite the journal paper version if available.
• Government or corporate reports. Depending on your field of study can be
a useful source of information. They may outline general research lines a
particular organization is interested in funding.
 TYPES OF LITERATURE REVIEW SOURCES
• Theses and dissertations. Can be useful sources of information.
• However they can be difficult to obtain, parts of the research presented
may have to be treated with caution.
• Specialized magazines. Sometimes these are considered as reputable as a
journal. Other types of magazines can as reputable as a journal. Other
types of magazines can provide a good starting point to find more reputed
work.
• Other sources include newspapers and the Internet. These can point you to
the more reputed sources; in general avoid citing them directly in your LR.
INFORMATION GIVEN IN LISTING OF
REFERENCE
Journal: Surnames and initials of all authors of the article; year of publication; title of the article; name of
the journal; volume number and pages.

Conference proceedings: Surnames and initials of the authors of the paper; title of the paper; place of
presentation; conference title; date of the conference; page of the proceeding

Book: Surnames and initials of all the authors of the book; year of publication (i.e year of latest edition as
indicated on the copyright page); title of the book; publisher; city.

Thesis: Surname and initials of the author; year indicated; title of the thesis; followed by the words
“Unpublished Ph.D. (or M.Sc., B.Sc. Etc.) thesis/ name of university; city.

Electronic Materials: Surnames and initials of all the authors or editors, date the site was created, title of
the document, URL, and the date it was accessed.
 GRAPHIC AIDS IN REPORTS

• Table: A table in the context of report is a collection of printed, typed or written

figures (numbers), or information, arranged in orderly rows across and columns
down the page. It is a systematic arrangement of data usually in rows and
columns for ready reference.
• Figures: This is referred to as any graphic aids except tables. Any geometric
diagram, pictorial representation of textual matter, including line charts, bar
charts, column charts, surface charts may be called
• charts, bar charts, column charts, surface charts may be called figures.
• Plates: Photographs and other illustrations on glossy paper are called plates.
• Map: A map is a large pictorial representation of place which is scaled down to
fit into a section of a report. It can sometimes be called a figure.
SUMMARY

IN ORDER TO WRITE A GOOD LITERATURE REVIEW, REMEMBER:

 WRITE WITH A RESEARCH PURPOSE IN MIND
 SELECT REFERENCES THAT ARE ONLY RELEVANT TO YOUR WORK
 ESTABLISH RELATIONSHIPS WITH DIFFERENT WORKS AND YOUR OWN
 WRITE FIRST. THEN RE-WRITE LAST AFTER UNNECESSARY REFERENCES
HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT BY THE NEW BODY OF WORKS
ETHICAL ISSUES

Avoid Plagiarism

• Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s ideas or

words as though they were your own.

DANGEROUS!!!!
SO, YOU’VE WRITTEN
YOUR
THESIS !!
DECIDE HOW TO SHARE IT !!
FRESH RESEARCH GRADUATE !!!
 SUPERVISOR --- 1 HOUR ONCE IN 2 WEEKS, 4 YEARS
 EXTERNAL EXAMINER --- 1 ~ 1.5 HOURS
 PAPER, JOURNAL --- GRAPHS, TABLES, EVERYTHING --- A 4, 6 PAGES
 PAPER, CONFERENCE PROCEEDING --- A 4, 6 PAGES
 PAPER, TO BE READ AT CONFERENCE --- 15 MINUTES
 PAPER, TO BE SHOWN AT CONFERENCE LOBBY --- 5 MINUTES (IF LUCKY!!)
THANK YOU