Writing a Literature Review
Evaluating and
describing
other people’s work
1. What is a literature review?
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2. How do I decide what goes where?
3. Learning From Secondary Research
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4. Evaluating Primary Research
5. Additional information
1: What is a literature review?
What is a literature review?
A description of your topic area, supported by
references
A summary, discussion and critical analysis of
academic work related to your research
question
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What can you gain from literature
reviews?
 Ideas about which approaches are likely to work, and
which are the best
 If you find something similar, you can get
– Ideas for how to implement your deliverable
– Ideas for how to evaluate your deliverable
 The best ways to do things
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– E.g. the fastest search algorithm
 Justification for the approach that you are taking
What can you gain from literature
reviews?
Knowledge of what everyone else has done so
that you don’t exactly replicate it
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– Without a literature review you risk reinventing the
wheel
– If you find something similar you may have to
slightly change what you are doing to make it
novel, or build upon what you found
Organising the review
In a separate chapter
– The normal approach, used in this module
In several chapters
– If it is the main part of the thesis, or very important
Incorporated throughout the thesis as and when
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needed
– In addition to either of the other two approaches
– Perhaps incorporating individual facts from books
Overall Structure [Very important]
 In this module, we insist on a 3 part approach
 Part 1: Overview of your chosen broad topic
– The field that contains your research question
 Part 2: Explanation of your sub-area
– The area containing your research question
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 Part 3: In-depth analysis of research relevant to your
research question
– Critical evaluation of the primary research papers directly
related to your research question
Overall Structure
Broad Topic
Specialist sub-area
Relevant
Primary
research
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Your research question
Add your research topics
Melding the Structure
The three parts of the review need to be
melded together by explaining:
how part 2 fits inside part 1
how part 3 fits inside part 2
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2. How do I decide what goes
where?
Conceptual models to help
understanding
 Conceptual models can help you understand how the
different research fits together
– Helps you decide upon an appropriate structure
 Choose a technique that you are comfortable with
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–
–
–
–
Spider diagram of the different papers?
Research territory map?
List of keywords?
Write and repeatedly rewrite the review (rapid prototyping)
The literature review process
 The literature review process should help shape
– what you do, and
– how you do it
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 You should be prepared to change your mind or alter
your approach in response to what you discover
 Always write up the literature review soon after
reading the papers – otherwise you may forget what
you have read
 The finished review should also shape how others
perceive the quality/value of your work
The literature review process
The first role of
a literature review
is often to learn
the topic.
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From Dawson
– The essence of
computing projects
3: Learning From Secondary
Research
Secondary research includes books,
research summaries and literature
reviews
Secondary Research
Books, literature reviews and web pages can
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give an overview of a research area
These can help you to learn what a research
area is about before having to read primary
research
Literature reviews should always start with
reading secondary research, if possible
Reading books
 Not enough time to read many books all the way
through
– Can still use as a reference source, just read relevant
chapters/sections
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 Books tend to be less controversial and may also
summarise the pros and cons of topics discussed (i.e.
like a mini-literature review)
 The introduction of a relevant book should summarize
the research area
4: Evaluating Primary Research
Primary research is research papers
containing new findings - not a literature
review
Your evaluation 1
 Read the abstract and conclusions first
– Is it really relevant and useful to you?
– Summarise how it is useful
 Read the whole paper
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– Are the methods correct?
– [BOUNDARIES] Is the scope of the study appropriate for
your use?
– Make sure that you understand the findings
 [CONCLUSIONS] Read the abstract and
conclusions again
– To make sure that you have understood the results and their
context
Your evaluation 2
 [LIMITATIONS] The discussion of limitations
– Should be near the end of the paper
– Read to make sure that the findings really apply to the
situation in which you are using them
 How significant is the work?
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– Does it make a major contribution?
– How does it complement other papers?
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BOUNDARIES, LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSIONS
Multiple Papers
 Need more than one paper about important points
 Discuss points of agreement
 Discuss points of difference
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– In computing there can be differences of opinion, but
should not be big differences of fact
– The papers may try different techniques to solve the same
problem
– Must use your own opinion on differences, but try to argue
your case
Selective reading
 What to do if you do not understand the paper
– Too complex maths
– Too much terminology
– >>Consider reviewing the outcomes of the research and not
the technical details [black box approach]
 When to just read the abstract
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– If it is clear that the paper is not relevant.
– Can still cite the paper in the literature review if it is near to
being relevant and explain briefly why it is not relevant
• This shows that you have done a better literature review
Common mistakes 1
 Your own opinions without backup, no matter how
strongly you believe them (it does not count!)
– E.g. Microsoft is good/rubbish
 Discussing irrelevant literature
 Short literature reviews
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– Have not demonstrated the literature review skill
– Have not shown that you understand the context of your
work
 Not targeting the review at an appropriate audience
Common mistakes 2
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 Not joining the literature together into a coherent
whole
 Using chronological order, unless necessary
 Including poor reference sources without comment
 Too small
 Not targeting the review to the research question
 Missing an important reference
– Your work is seriously undermined if you write about
something as though you are the first, but someone else has
already published on the subject
Swales’ perspective
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 "not sufficiently theme-based"
 "not structured according to the
issues"
 "insufficiently informed by the
research hypotheses"
 "boringly chronological"
 "just describe each piece of
research one by one without adequate
linkage"
5: Additional information
Plagiarism
 Plagiarism is passing off somebody else’s work as
your own
 In a literature review you are discussing other
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people’s work so must clearly reference it
 In this module you must NEVER copy an entire
phrase or sentence even if it is in quotes and properly
referenced
– If you cannot describe something in your own words then
you must not include it in your literature review.
 If you paraphrase other people’s ideas you still need
to reference them
Referencing your work
You MUST reference your work
This means giving the author name and
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publication date for all ideas and facts you
have used (Harvard format)
List the sources at the end (Harvard format)
Failure to reference your work is Plagiarism
and is an automatic fail.
Harvard reference style
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 You must follow the university Harvard style
 http://asp.wlv.ac.uk/Level5.asp?UserType=6&Level5
=3165 (OR Google Harvard site:wlv.ac.uk)
 Smith (1999) says that C++ is faster than Java.
 C++ is faster than Java (Smith 1999).
SMITH, T. (1999) Programming. Programming
Journal, 21(5), pp. 61-73.
SMITH, R. (1999) Programming. London: Birkett
Computing.
Do not use numbers in brackets [1] – this is not
Harvard.
References and Bibliography
Reference list
– List of books, articles etc. that you have cited in
your thesis
Bibliography
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– List of books, articles etc. that you have not cited
but have used in some way
Writing tips
 Structure to present an argument, discussing similar
papers together
– Do not list the papers and write separate reviews
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 Explain the useful information that each paper gives
and compare and contrast to other similar papers
 Build an argument that will support the main aim of
your thesis
– What you are doing/How you are going to do it/Why you
are doing it
 Show how what you are doing is different to what has
been done before
Exercise
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 Write a literature review for your chosen sub-area of
your chosen topic. It should be a minimum of 2 sides
of A4 (typed) and properly referenced (Harvard)
 It does not need to be targeted at your research
question because you do not have one yet [But use the
first 2 parts of the 3 part structure]
 As a practical consideration, you will not have time to
get inter-library loans, so can focus on immediately
available sources (e.g. Web, ACM)
 Cover 5-10 papers for this assignment and the 20
most relevant for the main module assignment
Exercise Structure
Broad Topic
Specialist sub-area
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Use 3 headings: 1) Broad Topic, 2) Transition, 3) Sub-area
Main module assignment
 Guidelines for literature review component
 Like a funnel with a few broad papers to set the
context for the area and then to narrow down to
focus on a specific issue.
 E.g. Intelligent Agents.
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– First level is what they are and what areas they are
being used in (~5 papers)
– Second layer is to pick one area and consider
different types being used (~8-10)
– Third layer would be highly focused on a specific
issue within that area (e.g. primary research) (~5-7)