Reviewing the literature
András István Kun
An 8 step model of research
processes
0. Identify broad area of research
•
discipline, school
1. Formulating the research problem (specification)
2. Conceptualising
•
valid, workable, managable
3. Constructing an instrument for data collection
4. Selecting a sample (sampling)
5. Writing a research proposal
•
‘Final’ research questions
6. Collecting data
7. Processing data
8. Writing a report
Cyclic (‘never-ending’)
process of research
Concepts
theory
Data
analysis
Inductive
Deductive
Research
question
Empirical
data
Where is the place of literature reviewing?
Functions of reviewing literature
• Knowledge basis
• Theoretical background
• Help to find a research problem:
– What is known and what is unknown
– How can you contribute to the existing knowledge
body of your profession
– Finding the appropriate hyptheses (abduction)
• Help to find out what methodology to use
– Formal hypotheses, research techniqe, sampling…
• Enables you to contextualize your findings
Paradox of literature review
• You read to know, but
• You have to know what to read (and you
have to have some knowledge to
understand)
• Solution: iterative process of research
reviewing
Improving methodology
• What are the accepted methodologies
• Methodological problems and solutions
Knowledge basis
• To some extent it is needed to show the
context of your research and your findings
• Obligatory chapter of Master and PhD
theses
5 steps of reviewing literature
1. Search for existing literature in your of
study;
2. Review the literature selected;
3. Develop a theoretical framework;
4. Develop a conceptual framework;
5. Writing up the literature reviewed.
Main sources
•
•
•
•
Books
Journals
Grey literature
Statistical data
Books
• Availability
–
–
–
–
Libraries
Bookshops
Bibliographies (!)
Internet: computer catalogs (keywords, subject)
• Advantages: greater likelihood of importance,
relevance, quality
• Disadvantages: not up to date, price, avaliability,
quality-control (bibliography!)
• They serve best as starters
Journals
• Advantages: up-to-date (depends on the
journal), area-specific journals
• Disadvantages: need more knowledge to
understand
• They serve best for focused study
• Availability:
– Libraries
– Electronic databases (!)
– Internet
Gray literature
• Grey literature (or gray literature) is a term used
variably by the intelligence community,
librarians, and medical and research
professionals to refer to a body of materials that
cannot be found easily through conventional
channels such as publishers, "but which is
frequently original and usually recent„
–
–
–
–
–
Working papers
Theses
Company documents
Magazines
etc.
Quality in research
• Whowhat can be qualified?
– Researcher
– Article
– Journal
– Institution
– Publisher
–…
Quality in research
(Scientometrics)
• The most accepted field of qualification is based
on journals.
• Academic journals
• Referred journals
• Peer reviewing
• Journal qualification systems
–
–
–
–
Based on citation (aim: measuring impact)
Rankings
Impact factors
Hirsch index (h-index), half-life, immediacy
– „Page rank”, altmetric score…
An example:
ABDC journal quality list
• http://www.abdc.edu.au/
• In 2007, ABDC established an ABDC Journal Quality List
to overcome the regional and discipline bias of
international lists.
• Reviewed in 2013 and 2009. The next major review will
be in the second half of 2017.
• In 2016: interim review:
–
–
–
–
1) new journals started since 1 January 2011;
2) removal of predatory open access journals;
3) change of Field of Research (FoR) grouping; and
4) incorrect factual details - to produce a revised 2016 list.
ABDC journal quality list
• The ABDC Journal Quality List 2013
comprises 2,767 different journal titles,
divided into four categories of quality, A*:
6.9%; A: 20.8%; B: 28.4%; and C: 43.9%
journals.
• In each Field of Research (FoR)
group, journals deemed NOT to reach the
quality threshold level are not listed.
The Scientific Information (ISI)
impact factor (Thomson Reuters)
• From 1975
• The journal must be indexed in the Journal Citation
Reports
• Calculation:
– IF for year X = A / B.
– A = citations on the citable articles of the journal in years (X-1)
and (X-2).
– B = total number of the citable articles n a journal in years (X-1)
és (X-2).
– IF for year X is published in year (X+1).
• The sum of the IFs can be used as a quality measure of
authors, too.
Highest IF journals
by some areas
• Economics:
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC LITERATURE, IF: 6.614
• General management:
ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT REVIEW, IF: 7.288
• Accounting, finance:
JOURNAL OF FINANCE, IF: 5.290
JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING & ECONOMICS, IF: 3.535
• Logistics:
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH PART B: METHODOLOGICAL,
IF: 3.769
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT - AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL,
IF: 2.731
• http://www.lib.unideb.hu/hu/adatbazis?b=i
• > Impact Factor Social Sciences Edition
Where to start your search
• You can search for:
– Title
– Author
– Keyword
– JEL classification
Where to start your search
• Electronic databases:
– lib.unideb.hu (meta search engines)
– www.jstor.org
– search.epnet.com (EBSCO database)
– http://www.nber.com/
– http://econpapers.repec.org/
• University pages
• Pages of libraries
• Library…
Where to start your search
• „Social media” for researchers:
– academia.edu
– researchaget.net
– ssrn.com
– scholar.google.hu
– tudoster.idea.unideb.hu/en
„Publish or Perish”
• You are a good researcher if you can
prove it through qualified publications.
• The role of citations.
• Its adverse effects.
• The journey of a manuscript to become an
article.
Other current trends
• Open Access movement
• Predatory journals
Referencing
• Why? The role of references in research.
• When?
• How? Systems of referencing.
– Author-date sytems: Harvard, APA
– Numeric systems: in the text or in the list
• Plagiarism
Thanks for your attention