HCI CSE Research Module | Literature Review

Literature Review Exercise

IMPORTANT NOTE

This exercise is only meant for SMTP (Science) students.
All SMTP (Science) students are required to complete the exercise.
All other CSE students are to refer to their respective teacher coordinators for instructions on assignments.

A literature review, is a report of published information pertaining to a topic of interest. It enables a researcher to determine what is known and what further research can be conducted. A literature review is not just a compilation of information. It includes the analysis and interpretation of the significance and implications in light of a problem that the researcher defines. A literature review may be a complete report or it may be a part of another report.

In this exercise you will do the following:

Decide on a topic of interest. This may be an area of research you would like to take up for your SMTP project later.
Do a quick evaluation of 5 or more articles you wish to use for your literature review.
Evaluate them in the following aspects:
- Relevance to your topic of interest
- Currency of article (published 4-5 years ago preferably) or website
  (Is it dated? Do not cite facts or statistics that are not dated.)
- Is the article peer reviewed (a scholarly paper see below "Scholarly vs Popular")?
- Author's authority/credibility
- Publisher (For papers and books: commercial or academic? For websites: edu, gov, org, com or net?)
- Does the article come with a bibliography? This gives you an idea whether the author has referred to other sources and helps to validate the content of the article.
For websites, there should be links or footnotes that list down references and further resources.
- Is the article biased in any way?
Your 5 articles should include 3-4 peer reviewed research papers, 1-2 credible website(s)
(excluding PDF files of papers you found on the internet).
Read each article and summarise what it says in your area of study.
Write a literature review of 500 words on your topic of interest.

Submit your literature review online here by 30 January 2009 (Friday).

Points to note when writing your literature review:

Be sure to understand your research topic/question before you begin.
Select sources that cover all or most sub-areas of your research topic. Do not leave areas unexplored as far as possible.
Read your sources with an end in mind, making notes on relevant information
(this will help you compile what you have read in your review)
Your review should give the audience an idea of what is already known about your research topic.
Searching for relevant sources takes time, so start early!
As you do your literature review, you might make modifications to the scope of your study depending on your findings.

Useful references:
[1] How to write a lit review: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/litreview.php
[2] Evaluating sources of information: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/evaluation.html

Scholarly vs Popular
(Extracted from: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/evaluation.html)

A scholarly journal is generally one that is published by and for experts. In order to be published in a scholarly journal, an article must first go through the peer review process in which a group of widely acknowledged experts in a field review it for content, scholarly soundness and academic value. In most cases, articles in scholarly journals present new, previously un-published research. Scholarly sources will almost always include:
- Bibliography and footnotes
- Author's name and academic credentials

As a general rule, scholarly journals are not printed on glossy paper, do not contain advertisements for popular consumer items and do not have colorful graphics and illustrations (there are, of course, exceptions).

Popular magazines range from highly respected publications such as Scientific American and The Atlantic Monthly to general interest newsmagazines like Newsweek and US News & World Report. Articles in these publications tend to be written by staff writers or freelance journalists and are intended for a general audience. Articles in popular magazines are more likely to be shorter than those in academic journals. While most magazines adhere to editorial standards, articles do not go through a peer review process and rarely contain bibliographic citations.

A good resource that provides background information to help you evaluate periodicals is: Magazines for Libraries (Doe Reference AP1.21.K3 Directories).

Tip: When searching a journal index such as Expanded Academic ASAP, try narrowing your search by limiting to refereed publications. This will retrieve only scholarly journals matching your search terms. Some other journal indexes offer this or a similar option.

If you do your searches in Web of Science, you will retrieve only scholarly articles since only academic journals are indexed in this database.

NEXT: Assessment Rubric

Hwa Chong Institution (High School) | Centre for Scholastic Excellence
Research Module | Literature Review | Last updated on January 2009