Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:48:29.714Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Doing a Literature Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2006

Jeffrey W. Knopf
Jeffrey W. Knopf
Affiliation:
Naval Postgraduate School
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Students entering a graduate program often encounter a new type of assignment that differs from the papers they had to write in high school or as college undergraduates: the literature review (also known as a critical review essay). Put briefly, a literature review summarizes and evaluates a body of writings about a specific topic. The need to conduct such reviews is by no means limited to graduate students; scholarly researchers generally carry out literature reviews throughout their research careers. In a world where the Internet has broadened the range of potentially relevant sources, however, doing a literature review can pose challenges even to an experienced researcher.In drafting this overview, I have incorporated some points made by Paul Pitman in a lecture delivered to students at the Naval Postgraduate School. I have also incorporated some suggestions contained in a handout prepared by John Odell for students in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California.

Type
THE TEACHER
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 127 - 132
Copyright
© 2006 The American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. 2003. The Craft of Research, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cresswell, John W. 2003. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Fink, Arlene. 2005. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Galvan, Jose L. 2005. Writing Literature Reviews, 3rd ed. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.Google Scholar
Johnson, Janet Buttolph, and H. T. Reynolds. 2004. Political Science Research Methods, 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKeown, Timothy J. 1999. “Case Studies and the Statistical Worldview.” International Organization 53: 161–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pan, M. Ling. 2004. Preparing Literature Reviews, 2nd ed. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.Google Scholar
Patten, Mildred L. 2005. Understanding Research Methods: An Overview of the Essentials, 5th ed. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.Google Scholar
Wonnacott, Ronald J., and Thomas H. Wonnacott. 1985. Introductory Statistics, 4th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons.CrossRefGoogle Scholar