These slides were prepared for early stage PhD students at Massey University, New Zealand

1. Literature Review and
Confirmation Report
National Centre for Teaching & Learning
See these slides online at: tinyurl.com/masseyconfirmation2
See a related video at: tinyurl.com/tinyurl.com/researchproposalvideo

2. Contents
Interactive quiz
Massey confirmation resources
Confirmation report structure
Acknowledgements
Literature review section
Research methodology section

3. Acknowledgements

4. Acknowledgements
Time optimisation for navigation of an autonomous robot
in a dynamic environment. Changjuan (Krystal) Jing
Corporate approach to human sustainability: Workforce
wellbeing in Japanese companies. Kazunori Kobayashi
A sociopragmatic study on Vietnamese ritual invitations
as mediated discourse. Duyen Dang
Developing tertiary learning advisor practice through a
collaborative approach to writing in a disciplinary
context. Martin McMorrow
This presentation is based on an analysis of these
Massey doctoral confirmation reports:

5. Massey confirmation resources

6. Click on current doctoral students
Click on Higher research degrees under the
research tab on the Massey website
Massey Confirmation
Resources

7. The doctoral web book has information about
each stage of the process

8. Under the confirmation
tab, you’ll see the
basic requirements
and a hyperlink to
the application form for
provisional registration

9. You can find more details about confirmation
under doctoral forms and guidelines within the
current doctoral students section

10. The Confirmation of Registration Process Guidelines
document explains the purpose of the process …

11. Confirmation report structure

12. The Confirmation of Registration Process
Guidelines document outlines the expected
structure of the confirmation report

13. Report A Report B Report C
Introduction
12% 6 % 8 %
Lit review
48% 43 % 45 %
Methodology
27% 29% 21%
Risk analysis /
budget / ethics
6% 6% 3%
Progress so far
3% 9% 6%
Research
schedule
3% 3% 18%
This is how three Massey students allocated their
10 000 words (in rounded up percentages)

14. Report A Report B Report C
References
130 60 180
There was a wide variation in the lengths of the
bibliographies in the three confirmation reports

15. Abstract

16. • One or two paragraph summary of your research
proposal, consisting of one or two sentence
summaries of each section
What is the abstract?
• Topic definition and importance
• Research problem
• Theoretical framework(s)
• How the problem has been investigated
• What previous studies have found out
• What previous studies have not found out
• Why this gap in knowledge needs to be investigated
• How the proposed study aims to fill this gap
• Progress so far
• Research plans
What elements does the abstract typically include?

17. Example abstract
The VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) is …. If a robot can logically
balance …, it can maximize its scoring. In this study a time optimization
method of navigation is presented. This optimization method can …
The literature review discusses … It also covers …
This study seeks to solve three related questions …. The first one is … A
decision-making method is presented ….
The second research question is …
How to direct a robot to pick up objects is the third research question. A
navigation method is presented, which demonstrates …
Experiments are designed to evaluate the efficiency of the time
optimization method and to test the robustness of the decision-making
method.
The accomplished work is presented; it includes …

18. Introduction section

19. Rationale
Importance
Objectives and / or hypothesis/es
Requirements

20. Example introduction
The term "sustainability" ….
In spite of growing interest in sustainability and human
wellbeing, human sustainability has been relatively neglected in
sustainability research …
In Japan ….
However, workforce wellbeing initiatives ….. The management
literature does not fully explore ….. There is only limited
research focusing on how companies are addressing the
issues. This study is particularly designed to fill these gaps.
This study examines ….. Accordingly the following questions will
be addressed ….
The potential contributions of this study are two-fold …
RATIONALE
RATIONALE
OBJECTIVES
IMPORTANCE
TOPIC
CONTEXT

21. Literature review section

22. Literature Review
Critical
Includes a summary of research gaps
Requirements
Typical structure
“Build an argument, not a library”
(Rudestam & Newton, as cited in Punch, 2006)
Punch, K.F. (2006). Developing Effective Research Proposals. London: Sage Publications.

23. Example Lit review sections
Sustainability
Human sustainability
Corporate social
responsibility (CSR)
CSR in Japan
Human sustainability
issues in Japan
VEX robotics
Robot navigation
Dynamic environment
mapping
Robot control systems
Image processing

24. Lit review style: Defining key terms
Although it is hard to pinpoint the origin, KEY TERM has been debated
for at least six decades (Author, 1999). The beginning of the discussion
could be traced back to Author's seminal work XXXX, in which he
asked a fundamental question that continues to resonate; “………?”
(Year, p. xx). Since then, many concepts have developed in business
and society literature, surrounding the nature of KEY TERM .
During this time, research on KEY TERM has broadened to include
different views, such as social, ethical, and economic perspectives.
This is illustrated by the standard definitions of KEY TERM. For
instance, …

25. Lit review style: Summary of research
within different categories
The first stream of KEY TERM research is the XXX view, which sees
KEY TERM as a process of …... The central idea is that …. (Author,
year). As such, the content of KEY TERM is specific to …. (Author,
year).
Scholars in this school of thought have investigated different ways for
…... One major way is through the process of ….. (Author, Year;
Author, Year; Author, Year; Author, Year). In this process, …….
(Author, Year). A particular challenge occurs when ….. (Author, Year).
Other ways include ….. (Author, Year) and …. (Author, Year).
Accordingly, to scholars who adopt a xxxview, the key question
concerning KEY TERM can be “……?"
The second stream of KEY TERM research is the YYY view, which
sees KEY TERM as …. Scholars in this school have investigated
different …...

26. Lit review style: Highlighting the gap in the
existing literature (which your study will fill)
However, the literature available on KEY TERM , remains scarce in
CONTEXT A, except for a few studies. Authors (Year) conducted an
interview study to investigate how organisations in CONTEXT A
understand and manage KEY TERM . They found …
A more recent study conducted by Authors (Year) interviewed ….. to
investigate current KEY TERM strategies and practices in CONTEXT A.
They found that …..
These studies have shown that large organisations in CONTEXT A are
aware of KEY TERM . However, little agreement has been reached
concerning “what is happening” (Author, Year, p. xx). In other words, why
….., how ….., and what …. remain virtually unexplored.
Furthermore, the literature barely acknowledges the perspectives and
experience of ….. Given the mounting pressures for large organisations
in CONTEXT A, it may be timely to investigate ….. Therefore, this
research aims to ….

27. Research methodology section

28. Research methodology
Methodology
Techniques / methods of data collection and
analysis
Experimental plan (if appropriate)
Requirements
Timetable, budget, ethics ….
Structure depends on approach, type of
data and design
Conceptual framework (if appropriate)

29. Example of methodology sub-sections (Management)
Research philosophy and strategy
Research method
Sampling and participants
Data collection and data analysis
Validation
Ethical considerations
Risk analysis
Budget
Work progress
Time line

30. Methodology section style (Management)
This research is conducted from the perspective of …
Interpretivist philosophy plays an essential role in this research in two ways.
….
Given ….. , a qualitative approach is deemed appropriate for the study.
There are several reasons why XXX is particularly appropriate as a
framework for research by practitioners in YYY contexts …
Data will also be collected through interviews with XXX with whom I am
collaborating on the project … . Focus groups are preferred with YYY
because …
Interviewing is an appropriate choice to facilitate …. In particular, semi-
structured interviews ….
XXX analysis and the XXXX method will be employed … The main strength
of XXX analysis is … The method corresponds well with the nature of this
study ….
For data validation, member checking will be used, as advised by …
Not only
describing,
but
justifying
Mostly
impersonal

31. Example of methodology subsections (Robotics)
A time optimization method of
navigation for an autonomous robot
in a dynamic environment
A decision-making method for VEX
robot navigation
A SLAM-O method for autonomous
robot navigation
A navigation method for a robot in a
dynamic environment
Experiments to evaluate a VEX
robot’s time balancing ability
Conclusion and discussion

32. Example of methodology style (Robotics)
Another novelty of this study is …
The architecture of the proposed optimization method is shown
in …
To analyze the environment, we adopt a XXX method, as
shown in …
In our SLAM-O method, we use XXX to localize positions …
and adopt XXX techniques to detect ….
To construct …. , a time factor is integrated into …
We can rewrite equation X by substituting B by C:
The algorithm for grid construction is presented in Figure 4.8
To find XXX, we select …. We propose a XXX method to
determine whether …
In this section, experimental methods are presented to
evaluate …
Frequent
use of
figures
Mix of
impersonal
and
personal

33. Example time line

34. Interactive quiz

35. You’ll see questions on the screen – e.g.
After a few seconds, you’ll be given four
possible answers – e.g.

36. You need to select the correct answer
by pressing the appropriate square on your
device.
You’ll receive points not only for correct answers
but also according to the speed of your selection.

37. • Open kahoot.it
in your browser
• Enter the game pin
which I will show you
in a minute
• Enter your nickname
(and you will see it
appear on the public
screen)
To join the quiz you need to:

38. THANKS FOR COMING ALONG!
See these slides online at: tinyurl.com/masseyconfirmation2
For further resources, check the doctoral stream site
and owll.massey.ac.nz