Research Methods

School of Economic Information EngineeringDr. Xu YunOffice ：Phone ： Email ： michael.xuyun@gmail.com xuyun@swufe.edu.cn

Literature Review Writing a literature review for your paper or

dissertation. Reviewing a manuscript for publication. (Critique)

Important questions • What should I research? • What should I read? • Where can I find more on …? • What have others done? • Is there anything left for me to research? • How do I know this hasn’t been done before? • When should I start to write? • What should I write about? • How do I do a literature review?

What is a “Literature Review”? “…a literature review surveys scholarly

articles, books and other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, providing a description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work.”

http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/literaturereview.html

NOT just a summary

What is a “Literature Review”? A literature review should reach some

conclusion on the current state of knowledge in an area, and suggest the next step in the investigation of the problem or question of interest.

Smyth (2004, pp. 113-114)

What is a “Literature Review”? Organize information and relate it to the

thesis or research question you are developing

Synthesize results into a summary of what is and isn't known

Identify controversy when it appears in the literature

Develop questions for further research

Purpose of a literature review Get ideas Get an overview (learn) Provide an integrated overview of your field of

research. Get a feeling for what's doable, what's worthwhile Don't reinvent the wheel (My personal experience) Better understand your research project Helps map and define your research topic Explain what you’re doing

What is Literature? Include articles in journals, books or

chapters in edited books, conference papers, documents published on the web

How to find related literature?

Find the literature Colleagues and students doing research in

related areas Literature review sections in the literature

you are reading Library databases and indexes Librarians

Find the literature Browsing related website/magazine Citation searches Consultation (help from experts or peers)

Keywords & Parameters To help you search, you should make a list

of key words and define your parameters. Think of synonyms for terms, topics and

keywords.

Parameters. Title, author, abstract, keyword Subject area Geographical area Publication period

Decide your coverage. Has my search been wide enough to ensure I've

found all the relevant material? Has it been narrow enough to exclude irrelevant

material? Publication time The discipline (IT, IS, management, psychology,

sociology, etc) Top journal vs. General journal

Typical mistakes!!! exclusion of landmark studies emphasis on outdated material adopting a parochial perspective

Organize literature

Organize literature Use EndNote ( 一种文献目录管理软件包 ) or

other software

Structuring the Review

Structuring the Review

An example

DeLone, W. H., and McLean, E. R. Information Systems Success: The Quest for the Dependent Variable, Information Systems Research (3:1), 1992, pp. 60-95.

Literature review of system quality

Literature review of IS use

Literature review of organizational impacts

Being selective

Tone A successful literature review constructively

informs the reader about what has been learned. In contrast to specific and critical reviews of

individual papers

“another indicator of amateurism was an overly negative approach to the previous literature. Previous work is always vulnerable. Criticizing is easy, and of little value; it is more important to explain how research builds upon previous findings rather than to claim previous research is inadequate and incompetent.”

Tense Present or past tense

Be consistent!!!

Good? Bad?

Review Paper

Review Paper

Critiques of Empirical Research

The following points are some suggested criteria that might help you structure your evaluations of the submissions sent to you.

Introduction Is there a clear research question, with a solid motivation behind it? Is the research question interesting? After reading the introduction, did you find yourself motivated to read

further? Theory

Does the submission contain a well-developed and articulated theoretical framework?

Are the core concepts of the submission clearly defined? Is the logic behind the hypotheses persuasive? Is extant literature appropriately reflected in the submission, or are

critical references missing? Do the hypotheses or propositions logically flow from the theory?

Critiques of Empirical Research Method (for empirical papers)

Are the sample and variables appropriate for the hypotheses? Is the data collection method consistent with the analytical

technique(s) applied? Does the study have internal and external validity? Are the analytical techniques appropriate for the theory and

research questions and were they applied appropriately. Results (for empirical papers)

Are the results reported in an understandable way? Are there alternative explanations for the results, and if so, are

these adequately controlled for in the analyses? Contribution

Does the submission make a value-added contribution to existing research?

Does the submission stimulate thought or debate? Do the authors discuss the implications of the work for the

scientific and practice community?

Homework #2 Critical review of a paper Search for ONE research papers on a TOP journal

(E.g. MISQ, ISR, or others)   Its must an empirical paper (experimental design,

survey, etc) but not a theoretical/review paper.  Pay more attention to the "critique" than the

"summary" Evaluate the methodology section (i.e., research

strategy, design and method) in terms of threats to validity, courses of invalidity, types of validity strengths and weaknesses of the strategy and/or design.

Submit on Seminar #6

Readings for next week Research Strategy and the research

process Validity and the research process