What sort of literature should review?

In most cases, at least 80% of the literature in your literature review should be from academic sources. There may be exceptions for specific types of research, however.

When reviewing the literature, consider the following:

Credibility: What are the author's credentials? Has the article or book been peer reviewed? What evidence is provided to support the author's arguments or position on the topic (e.g. from primary research, including data generated through case studies, surveys, focus groups, experiments, tests, statistics, sampling, etc; or from a range of credible secondary sources)?

Objectivity: Is the author's perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data/information considered, or is certain relevant information ignored in order to prove the author's point?

Persuasiveness: Are the author's arguments and conclusions convincing? Which of the author's arguments are most/least convincing? Is the conclusion logical, based on the evidence presented?

Value: Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?

Searching for literature tips

Keywords

• Keywords help to define more precisely what you search for.

• A literature map can help to unpack all the different areas or sub-topics that you will need to read about to support your research – this is just a variation of a mind map – and is a useful exercise in helping to consider how different sub-topics relate to or support each other and the most logical sequence for these.

• Draw up a list of keywords that relate to different aspects of your topic.

• These are essential for narrowing your topic as you look into search engines, such as Google Scholar, and library catalogues.

• Think of all the synonyms, and try those too. What are the different ways that your subject could be described?

• With pairs of words, changing the order can flush out more sources.

How to search

• It is easy to do an initial search online, for example in Google Scholar. Be tenacious though – remember a perfect article to inform your research might be on page 20 rather than page 1.

• Check ‘cited by’ list on Google Scholar for articles that interest you.

• You can use both free databases and those subscribed for by academic libraries.

• Computerised databases are readily available through libraries and the internet, that list a wide range of journal articles, conference papers and dissertations.

• Look in the bibliographies of relevant articles, books, etc – you may find treasure there!

• Identify and visit any specialist libraries relevant to your research topic – London has many.

• Look at past dissertations on university websites of similar institutions, or from the British Library’s Ethos thesis depository.

• Look for relevant papers from conference proceedings, such as Making Futures Conference, Global Fashion Conference, Berlin Fashion Summit, Fashion Colloquium, Cumulus, CHEAD, etc – who spoke at them? What else have they published?

• Search several databases, even those outside your field.

• As indicated earlier, do not use only search terms that are identical to your topic and study interest, slight variations in the search terms may yield more outcomes.

• Remember to keep a good record of the publication details for any articles, books and other things you have looked at, including the page numbers of key information – you will need the page number of anything that you might want to quote!

Ask yourself:

• How does the author present the problem/topic addressed by the study?

• How is the central purpose of the study stated? 

• What information is provided about the research methods used?

• How are the key results summarised?

• What are the key facts that you take from the article?

• What makes them appear convincing? 

Structuring a literature review

Introduction

• A brief introduction that expounds the scope of the review, for example it may have to delve into other disciplines that relate to the topic in some way – such as psychology, science, engineering, politics.

• The review can be organised chronologically, thematically, or can organised in relation to your research objectives - it should, therefore, be clearly structured.

Main body

• Sub-headings should indicate over-arching topics and sub-topics, and even sub-sub topics, and are frequently numbered, for example, 2., 2.1, 2.1.1.

• Do not just describe what an author has said, but rather put forward the information you have gained from their work, synthesising this and applying it to your own research – while still citing the source in-text, Harvard Style.

• Your critical discussion should demonstrate how the literature supports or contradicts any argument you are making.

• You should show an understanding of connections between texts and points of view - how one point will logically transition to the next.

Conclusion

• Summarise the key findings of the literature review.

• Identify where further, primary research is needed, perhaps to provide more information or to test or challenge the literature.

Referencing

• You must draw conclusions from what you have read, put these into your own words but still acknowledge the sources in brackets in the text – author surname, date. E.g. (Scott, 2018).

• You must reference all sources of information/ideas accurately using Harvard referencing style.

• MMU Harvard Referencing Guide provides easy to use guidance: https://libguides.mmu.ac.uk/refguide/mmuharvard.

• You must include a include a full and accurate list of References.