The Critical Literature Review

Overview
• To clarify the purpose of a critical literature review and explain
that the purpose of a critical literature review depends on the
type of research.
• To explain how to approach a critical literature review so that
students are able to perform a critical literature review and to
document the literature review.
• To encourage students to develop bibliographies by accessing
available on-line data bases

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Objectives
• After completing this unit, you should be able to:
• Discuss the functions of literature review
• Write literature review on any given topic, documenting the references in
the prescribed manner
• Discuss the ethical issues of documenting the literature review

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Contents
• Critical Literature Review
• Functions Literature Review
• Data Sources
• Searching for Literature
• Evaluating the Literature
• Documenting the Literature Review
• Common Forms of Plagiarism

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Critical Literature Review
• A literature review is “the selection of available documents (both
published and unpublished) on the topic, which contain
information, ideas, data and evidence written from a particular
standpoint to fulfill certain aims or express certain views on the
nature of the topic and how it is to be investigated, and the
effective evaluation of these documents in relation to the research
being proposed” (Hart, 1998, p. 13).

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Functions Literature Review
In general, a literature review ensures that:
1. The research effort is positioned relative to existing
knowledge and builds on this knowledge.
2. You can look at a problem from a specific angle.
3. You do not run the risk of “reinventing the wheel”;
4. You are able to introduce relevant terminology and to
define key terms used in your writing.
5. You obtain useful insights of the research methods
others have used to provide an answer to similar research
questions.
6. The research effort can be contextualized in a wider
academic debate.
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Functions Literature Review
Some of the functions of a critical literature review depend on
the type of study and the specific research approach that is
taken.
• In a descriptive study it may help you to come up with a
comprehensive overview of the relevant perspectives on the
topic, a guiding definition, and an in-depth overview of
frameworks, instruments, and analytical tools that will help
you to describe something.
• In a project that is inductive and exploratory in nature, it
may help you to develop a theoretical background, which
provides an overview of the key literature pertinent to your
specific topic

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 Functions Literature Review
• In a deductive study, a review of the literature will allow
you to develop a theoretical background. This may help
you to obtain a clear idea as to what variables will be
important to consider in his theoretical framework,
why they are considered important, how they are
related to each other, and how they should be measured
to solve the problem. A critical review of the literature
may also help you to provide arguments for the
relationships between the variables in your conceptual
causal model and to develop hypotheses.

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Data Sources

• Textbooks
• Academic and professional journals
• Theses
• Conference proceedings
• Unpublished manuscripts
• Reports of government departments and corporations
• Newspapers
• The Internet

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Searching for Literature

• Most libraries have the following electronic resources at their

disposal:
• Electronic journals
• Full-text databases
• Bibliographic databases
• Abstract databases

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Evaluating the Literature

• Titles
• Abstract
• Table of contents/first chapter book
• Number of citations

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Documenting the Literature Review

• Literature review introduces

• Subject study
• Highlights the problem
• Summarizes work done so far

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Common Forms of Plagiarism

Sources not cited

1. “The Ghost Writer”
2. “The Photocopy”
3. “The Potluck Paper”
4. “The Poor Disguise”
5. “The Labor of Laziness”
6. “The Self-Stealer”
Reprinted with permission from: What is Plagiarism? (n.d.), retrieved June 22,
2011, from
http:// www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.html.
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 Common Forms of Plagiarism

Sources cited (but still plagiarized)

1.“The Forgotten Footnote”
2.“The Misinformer”
3.“The Too-Perfect Paraphrase”
4.“The Resourceful Citer”
5.“The Perfect Crime”

Reprinted with permission from: What is Plagiarism? (n.d.), retrieved June 22,
2011, from http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.html.

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Unit Summary
• You should now be able to:
• Discuss the functions of literature review
• Write literature review on any given topic, documenting the references in
the prescribed manner
• Discuss the ethical issues of documenting the literature review

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Question & Answers

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