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ECON 492: Economics Seminar - Hansen: Literature Review Information

A Review of the Literature

"A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Occasionally you will be asked to write one as a separate assignment, ..., but more often it is part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries."

--Written by Dena Taylor, Health Sciences Writing Centre and available at:
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review (Accessed 01/24/2023)

Definition

A literature review surveys books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to your research topic or thesis statement. It should provide a theoretical summary or critical evaluation of these scholarly works. You will need to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize the research that you’ve found on your topic. A literature review should give context to your thesis and, if possible, reveal any gaps in current literature. 

Evaluating Your Sources

Ask yourself questions like these about each book or article you include:

  • Has the author formulated a problem/issue?
  • Is it clearly defined? Is its significance (scope, severity, relevance) clearly established?
  • Could the problem have been approached more effectively from another perspective?
  • What is the author's research orientation (e.g., interpretive, critical science, combination)?
  • What is the author's theoretical framework (e.g., psychological, developmental, feminist)?
  • What is the relationship between the theoretical and research perspectives?
  • Has the author evaluated the literature relevant to the problem/issue? Does the author include literature taking positions she or he does not agree with?
  • In a research study, how good are the basic components of the study design (e.g., population, intervention, outcome)?
  • In a research study, how accurate and valid are the measurements?
  • In a research study, is the analysis of the data accurate and relevant to the research question? Are the conclusions validly based upon the data and analysis?
  • In material written for a popular readership, does the author use appeals to emotion, one-sided examples, or rhetorically-charged language and tone?
  • In material written for a popular readership, is there an objective basis to the reasoning, or is the author merely "proving" what he or she already believes?
  • How does the author structure the argument? Can you "deconstruct" the flow of the argument to see whether or where it breaks down logically (e.g., in establishing cause-effect relationships)?
  • In what ways does this book or article contribute to our understanding of the problem under study, and in what ways is it useful for practice? What are the strengths and limitations?
  • How does this book or article relate to the specific thesis or question you are developing?
  • How current is this resource? 

Source: University of Toronto - Writing Advice. The Literature Review: A Few Tips on Conducting It

References

Hörcher, D., & Tirachini, A. (2021). A review of public transport economics. Economics of Transportation (England), 25, 100196. 10.1016/j.ecotra.2021.100196

Liu, R., Liu, H., Shi, H., & Gu, X. (2023). Occupational health and safety risk assessment: A systematic literature review of models, methods, and applications. Safety Science, 160, 106050. 10.1016/j.ssci.2022.106050

Verme, P., & Schuettler, K. (2021). The impact of forced displacement on host communities: A review of the empirical literature in economics. Journal of Development Economics, 150, 102606. 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102606

 

 

Check out these websites:

Step 1:

  • Look at other literature reviews
  • Choose a topic
    • Choose a topic that interests you
  • Narrow your topic down
    • This is important to do otherwise the literature you find will be too massive 

Step 2:​

  • Once you've narrowed your topic look for resources
    • You can look for books in Dragon OneSearch
    • Or look for articles in one of the databases
    • AT FIRST--skim and scan by reading titles, abstracts, methodologies and review references or bibliographies. Only keep items related to your topic 
      • Once you have found books or articles that you feel relate to your topic, then do a "Citation Chase"
        • Do this by looking at the articles' or books' bibliographies or reference pages
          • Find sources from the reference papers that relate to your topic
          • Search for those items by typing in the titles in Dragon OneSearch

​Step 3:

  • Read and keep notes on each source
    • You could keep notes on index cards, in a special notebook, or by using an electronic device or app
    • You may want to use a citation manager like RefWorks to organize all of your citations

​​Step 4:

  • Once you've collected, read, noted, and saved your citations and resources you should begin to see patterns
  • ​​Skim your notes to sort out themes (methodologies, data, results, etc.) 
  • In each theme are you noticing any chronological or structural order, if so, make note of that information
    • Does a topic develop over time 
    • Do authors agree with each other or disagree on methodology or conclusions
    • What strengths or weaknesses did you find in the literature
  • Don't forget that you're trying to relate this literature to the story you wish to tell and you may find some of your articles fall out of your scope--make note of that to determine whether to mention them or not--talk to your professor about out of scope titles

Step 5:

  • Write your literature review
    • Make an outline or structural form of your review
    • Remember your audience when writing
    • Avoid too much jargon
    • ​Be concise; don't go off on tangents; stay focused on your thesis statement
    • Introduction should contain some of the following:
      • Your purpose for writing the review
      • Overview of the problem
      • What is the scope of your review
      • Talk about the amount of literature you found
    • Body of the review should contain some of the following:
      • Themes
      • Chronological order
      • Advancements of theories 
      • Questions related to topic
    • Conclusion should contain some of the following:
      • Summarize your findings
      • Expose gaps in knowledge
      • Provide a rationale for future research