1. Literature Review Workshop
Prof. Dr. Khalid Mahmood
Department of Library and Information Science
University of the Punjab
Lahore, PAKISTAN
1

2. Workshop agenda
 Literature review – What and why
 Searching and finding print and online sources
 Evaluating sources for relevance and reliability
 Reading critically
 Analyzing and synthesizing findings
 Writing and presenting literature review
 Citing sources in text and reference list /
bibliography
 Avoiding plagiarism
2

3. Training methods
 Lectures / presentations based on secondary
information
 Question-answer / short assignments during
lectures
 Sharing of trainer’s personal experiences
 Discussion on research projects of
participants
3

4. Literature review - Definition
 A body of text that aims to review the critical points of
current knowledge on a particular topic
 A comprehensive survey of publications in a specific field
of study or related to a particular line of research
 Non-quantitative summary of existing published literature
made by experts who select and weigh findings available
from the literature
 A summary and interpretation of research findings
reported in the literature
 A process and documentation of the current relevant
research literature regarding a particular topic or subject
of interest
4

5. Purposes of literature review
 Define and limit problem
 Develop familiarity with topic
 Limit research to a subtopic within larger body of
knowledge
 Place study in historical perspective
 Analysis of way in which study relates to existing
knowledge
 Avoid unintentional and unnecessary replication
 Awareness of prior studies so as to avoid unneeded
replication
 Replication is reasonable if it is needed to verify prior
results, investigate results that failed to be significant, or
relate problem to a specific site
5

6. Purposes of literature review
 Select promising methods and measures
 Knowledge of and insight into specific research designs for
investigating a problem
 Awareness of specific instruments, sampling procedures, and
data analyses
 Relate findings to previous knowledge and suggest future
research needs
 Relating prior research to what is known places current study in
perspective
 This knowledge allows researcher to focus problem on what is
not known
 Develop research hypotheses
 Suggestions for specific research hypotheses
6

7. Literature review designs
Narrative review •Selective review of the literature that broadly covers
a specific topic.
•Does not follow strict systematic methods to locate
and synthesize articles.
Systematic review •Utilizes exacting search strategies to make certain
that the maximum extent of relevant research has
been considered.
•Original articles are methodologically appraised and
synthesized.
Meta-analysis •Quantitatively combines the results of studies that
are the result of a systematic literature review.
•Capable of performing a statistical analysis of the
pooled results of relevant studies.
7

8. When we need to do a
literature review
 At the beginning of the research project
 Proposal
 Chapter 2, 1 & 3
 Constantly update during the research
 When writing the discussion and conclusion
chapters
8

9. What is literature
 Books  Audio-visual material
 Journals  CDs/DVDs
 Conference papers  Electronic databases
 Theses and  Government reports
dissertations  Magazines
 Bibliographies  Newspapers
 Maps  Grey literature
 Internet  Interviews and other
 Indexes/Abstracts unpublished research
9

10. Three types of literature
10