This document provides an overview of how to conduct a literature review. It defines a literature review as an organized written presentation that summarizes and synthesizes previous research on a topic. The purposes of a literature review are outlined, including identifying what is already known about a research problem and finding gaps that can become new research questions. Primary sources like original research and secondary sources like textbooks are described. The document discusses searching literature sources, evaluating and organizing studies, and structuring the literature review with an introduction, body, and conclusion.

1. LITERATURE
REVIEW
By Namukasa Shamim

2. Objectives
By the end of this lesson learner should be able to:
1. Define literature review
2. Outline the purpose of literature review
3. Describe sources of literature review
4. Describe the different types of literature
review
5. Describe structure and writing style of
literature review

3. What is literature review?
An organized written presentation of what has been published on
a topic by the scholars (Burns and Grove, 2005)
An Account of what has been published by accredited scholars
and researchers (Taylor, 2011)
A literature review is the writing process of summarizing,
synthesizing and/or critiquing the literature found as a result of a
literature search

4. Why do we
review
literature ?
• It helps to identify what is
already known about a
research problem so as
to avoid duplication.
• It helps to build on
previous knowledge.
• Identify questions a body
of research does not
answer
• It is necessary to narrow
the problem to be
studied.
• Learn about the
information sources
and the research
methodologies/Identi
fy errors to avoid
• Find gaps in the
literature that can
become research
questions

5. Literature review
• N.B. you cannot effectively start
the literature review search
without an idea of the problem
you wish to investigate.
• The literature review can play an
extremely important role in
shaping your research problem
• It also helps you to define the
relationship between your
research problem and the body
of knowledge in the area.

6. SOURCE DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES
Primary
Sources
Share information that is shown for
the first time or original materials on
which other research is
based. Primary sources display
original thinking, report on new
discoveries, or share fresh
information.
Theses, dissertations, scholarly journal
articles (research based), some
government reports, symposia and
conference proceedings
Secondary
Sources
These sources offer an analysis or
restatement of primary sources
Textbooks, articles that interpret or
review research works,
Tertiary
Sources
Organize, compile, or digest other
sources.
Dictionaries/encyclopedias , directories,
guidebooks, manuals, handbooks,

7. Using Original Sources
▪ Whenever possible use the original article that
presented the result
▪ Original source is more reliable
▪ The original meaning may be distorted in
citations due to different interpretations of
authors

8. Types of review Search strategy
Narrative review/Literature
review
• Provides an overview of a topic.
• Doesn’t define the type of studies that will be included.
• No formal quality or risk of bias assessment of
included primary studies is required
Systematic reviews • Reviews are gathered using a specific, defined set of
criteria.
• Two different quality assessments must be addressed
in systematic reviews: (a) risk of bias in included
studies, and (b) quality of evidence by outcome of
interest
Meta-analysis • Is a study that combines data from OTHER studies/
multiple studies into a summary result.
• Quantitative: Use statistical methods to summarize
and compare data from different studies.

9. Search engines & sources
•PubMed: PubMed can be used to search research
abstracts, available at http://pubmed.com
•Google scholar https://scholar.google.com/
•Hinari etc
•Sci-hub
•Government Reports
•Bibliographies
•Books
•Newspaper articles

10. Process of
literature review
• Formulate the problem or primary
research question —which topic or
field is being examined and what are
its component issues?
• Choose literature —find materials
relevant to the subject being explored
• Data evaluation -- determining which
literature makes a significant
contribution to the understanding of
the topic.
• Analyze and interpret —note the
findings and conclusions of pertinent
literature, how each contributes to
your field .

11. Introduction & Conclusion
Introduction: Explain literature review
structure.( how it will be organized, sources of literature)
Thesis: Establish the logical progression.
• Conclusion: Conclusions and summary;
– Summarise the main findings from your review
– Major agreements and disagreements in the literature
– General conclusions that can be drawn

12. Organizing/Outlining
Methods/ways for organizing the Lit Review
• By subject (if lit review covers more than one subject)
• Chronologically
• By theme, idea, trend, theory, or major research studies
• By author
• By argumentative position
In all methods, relationships between elements (e.g.,
subject, theme, author, etc.) must be shown.

13. 13
Organization of literature review
• A general organization looks like a funnel
• Broader topics
• Subtopics
• Studies like yours

14. Concluding the LR
• Summarize ideas, conflicts, themes, or historical (or
chronological) periods.
• Contextualize your topic within the summary.
• Point out gap(s) in scholarship and, show how your research
helps fill the gap(s).

15. 15
Making links between studies
Agreements
• Similarly, author B points to…
• Likewise, author C makes the case that…
• Author D also makes this point…
• Again, it is possible to see how author E agrees with author D…
Disagreements
• However, author B points to…
• On the other hand, author C makes the case that…
• Conversely, Author D argues…
• Nevertheless, what author E suggests…

16. Analysing the Findings
▪ A literature review is not about just listing out previous studies
▪ It should contain a balance of summary and analysis
▪ The analysis should be done at both;
– Individual study level
– Looking at the field or topic area as a whole
▪ Includes 4 main tasks
Tasks in a literature review
Summary Synthesis Critique
Comparison

17. Example – Connecting to your research
• The literature review clearly highlights that
there are past studies that tend towards identifying
the proximate causes of disputes and then studies
that attempt to identify root causes of disputes.
There are also studies which are tending towards a
diagnostic approach to dispute causes.
• It is concluded that further study is needed
to establish significant claims so that management
attention may be focussed on attempts to control
the corresponding causes and reduce such claims.

18. 18
Complaint handling strategies
apology
explanation
compensation
Response speed
facilitation
Being courteous
Problem solving
effort
Satisfaction
with
complaint
handling
Methods/ways for organizing the Lit Review

19. Sample of literature review
• The victims of sexual harassment suffer a range of
consequences, from lowered self-esteem & loss of self-
confidence to withdrawal from social interaction, changed
career goals, & depression (Adams, Kottke, & Padgitt, 1983;
Benson & Thomson, 1982; Dziech & Weiner, 1990). For
example, Adams, Kottke, & Padgitt (1983) noted that 13% of
women students said that they avoided taking a class or
working with certain professors because of the risk of
harassment.

20. Literature Review Matrix
Author, year
and location
of study
Topic/title
of the
paper
Journal
Source
Design Sample Methods/Measur
es and findings
Summary
Name of the
Author of the
article and
the year of
publication
Issue being
discussed in
the article/
Title of the
study
done
Journal that
published
the article
Study
design;
Quantitati
ve designs
or
qualitative
designs
Subjects,
sample of the
study
participants
sampling method
and the results
Summarize the article,
how does it relate to your
own study?
Are their gaps that need to
be bridged in the next
research?

21. Literature Review following Matrix
•Across-sectional study about factors influencing
occurrence of teenage pregnancy conducted
among 80 rural teenagers in Uganda showed
that girls become pregnant because they
believe that this is the right thing to do (………
•

22. Critiqued literature
Another study carried out in Northern Manhattan in New York (USA) among
people of reproductive age, when the study respondents were asked whether they
had SCT; 7% of the African American parents said that they had SCT, 88% stated
they didn’t have SCT and only 5% reported that they did not know their SCT
status. One third (33%) of the 168 Dominican youth aged 14-24 years mentioned
that they carried SCT screening while 62% revealed that they were not trait
carriers and only 5% didn’t know their carrier status (Siddiqui et al., 2011). A
small number of youths was interviewed and the SCT status was self-reported in
the above study however, the current study intends to enroll 392 participants who
will be screened for SCT so that random error and recall bias is minimized
respectively.

23. Revising the LR: Questions to Ask Yourself
• Have I accurately represented the author’s views?
• Is source material research current and relevant to thesis topic?
• Are all major theorists, scholars, or studies represented?
• Have I shown relationships between sources?
• Is there a clear connection between thesis topic and the LR?
• Are all sources documented accurately?
• Have I used effective transitions from idea to idea, source to
source, paragraph to paragraph?
• Is my analysis of sources well developed?
• Have I represented all conflicts or argumentative sides fairly?

24. Format for Citing References
• In most social science classes, you will be asked to use the APA
system for documenting sources. APA recommends in-text citations
that refer readers to a list of references
• References should be not less than 10 years
Intext
A study conducted among youths aged 22 – 29 years in Benin City in Nigeria, showed that most of the
respondents (63.5%) had a fair knowledge of sickle cell disease (Adewoyin, Alagbe, Adedokun, & Idubor, 2015)
Reference list
• Adewoyin, A., Alagbe, A., Adedokun, B., & Idubor, N. (2015). Knowledge, attitude and control practices of
sickle cell disease among youth corps members in Benin City, Nigeria. Annals of Ibadan postgraduate
medicine, 13(2), 100-107.
•Review the document on referencing using APA