Metode Penelitian

Sistem Informasi
Literature Review
A Positivist approach

Materials from UNSW Visiting Professor Connie Wilson

What is a literature review? (1)

provides evidence of what has and has not worked in
past research
helps reshape hypotheses and theories and therefore
i a circular
is
i l process:
literature review
refinement of hypotheses
and theories
more literature review
always part of dissertations and theses and required
as part of articles in most journals
establishes importance of topic and ensure that
researchers
researcher
s contribution will not be redundant
Identifies previous work directly relevant to
hypotheses and theories under investigation
needs solid grasp of researchers theories and
hypotheses
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What is a literature review? (2)

effective literature review is the opposite of
finding out everything about a topic
formulate hypotheses
gather literature on these hypotheses
refine the hypotheses and add more
hypotheses
gather more literature
do this through several cycles until one settles
on a final set of hypotheses backed by
relevant literature
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What is a literature review? (3)

Meta-analysis
concept
p that the literature review is research
on research
Systematic study of past research articles with
a view to coming to an overall conclusion
about the relationship of one or more
independent (causal) variables to a
dependent (effect) variable of interest
Source: Garson, G.D. (2002). Guide to writing
empirical papers, theses, and dissertations. (cp.7)
New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. [S808.042/212]

Why undertake a review of the literature?

to understand the theoretical perspectives associated with studies in
your area
to understand opposing schools of thought as they apply to your
area
to become aware off variables relevant to your topic off interest
to understand which are the seminal studies widely cited in your
area
to understand the application of appropriate methodological
procedures to problems in your area
to identify gaps in the literature
to not duplicate
p
p
prior research
to avoid the past research mistakes of others
to identify the community of scholars in your area
Source: Garson, G.D. (2002). Guide to writing
empirical papers, theses, and dissertations. (cp.8)
New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. [S808.042/212]

What document types are included in

literature reviews?

scholarly journal articles

books
dissertations
conference proceedings
reports, e.g., produced by the government
patents
web pages or web documents
etc.
t
Documents can be in print, electronic, web-based, etc.
6

When do you write the literature review?

sooner rather than later usually written

early
l iin the
h thesis/dissertation
h i /di
i process at
the proposal stage

needs revisions and/or updates periodically,

especially during the final thesis write-up.
(This is necessary due to current literature
appearing throughout the various stages of
your research.)
7

Format of a typical literature review section (1):

Introduction

roadmap to the literature review section;

f
from
generall to
t specific;
ifi
hypotheses, theories models to be investigated;
organization of the section;
scope; inclusion/exclusion;
opposing schools;
indicates how literature will uncover hypotheses to
be tested in the body of the theses;
overall trends of the research in the area.

Format of a typical literature review section (2):

Background

describes the setting of the research;

Provides rationale for importance of issues to
be investigated;
discusses historical response of academic
community to issues;
discusses milestone (or key) studies;
concludes with a focus subsection where
hypotheses, theories and models to be
investigated are related to the academic history.
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Format of a typical literature review section (3):

Review Methodology

explains how you went about finding the studies

included in your literature review
specifies exact search strategies you used,
including keywords and logical/Boolean
operators used; the various databases
(electronic or otherwise) you searched; when
the searches were done; and criteria for
narrowing
narrowing (or broadening)
broadening ) your search
strategy
describes and justifies criteria for inclusion and
exclusion for each of your search strategies
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Format of a typical literature review section (4):

Research on the (First) Dependent Variable

body of the literature research will focus around the

p
variables of concern and within these,, the
dependent
hypotheses related to the dependent variable
idea of this section is to segment the discussion of the
literature into the same clusters that will appear later in
the body of the work where evidence is presented
Avoid to review the literature not by dependent variable,
but eg, chronologically, alphabetically, methodology (eg,
qualitative vs. quantitative), school of thought, etc.; that
is, the story line of your literature review should be
according to the first dependent variable.

Research on (Second) Dependent Variable

as per above
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Format of a typical literature review section (5):

Summary

recaps the most relevant studies in relation to the

hypotheses to be investigated, tying them into a
coherent model focused on one or more dependent
variables as well as summarizing how each component
relates to the existing literature
summarizes alternative models suggested by the
literature
provides an overview of the different positions
researchers have taken on the puzzle selected by the
researcher and explains how his/her current thesis
contributes to the overall understanding of the research
precedes a (possible) separate concluding section in
which the theoretical importance of the researchers
findings are discussed

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Format of a typical literature review section (6):

Summary (or conclusion to literature review)

may differentiate the proposed research from the

existing literature by:

seeking evidence on hypotheses in dispute

confirming hypotheses advanced in the literature but
(perhaps) only weakly confirmed
examining control or modifier variables for relationships
established in the literature
comparing the fit of alternative models to new data

may remind the reader of the puzzle (or problem) being

investigated explain why it is important to solve it, and
show how his/her research is one key to the solution!!

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Selected information sources on literature review (1):

Allen, R.C. (1996). Socioeconomic Conditions and Property
Crime: A Comprehensive Review and Test of the
Professional Literature. The American Journal of Economics
and Sociology
Sociology, 55(3): 293-308
293 308. [ca.
[ca 5900 words; 106
references; available electronically in the UNSW library;
example of a literature review]
Cooper, H. (1998). Synthesizing Research: A Guide for
Literature Reviews. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage
Publications.
Galvan, J.L. (1999). Writing Literature Reviews. Los
Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing
Publishing.
Hart, Chris (1999) Doing a Literature Review : Releasing the
Social Science Research Imagination. Thousand Oaks,
California: Sage Publications.
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Selected information sources on literature review (2):

ISWorld Ph.D. Page at
http://www.isworld.org/phd/phd.htm
This page is a modest attempt to put together online
resources off particular
ti l use to
t currentt or prospective
ti Ph.D.
Ph D
students in information systems. We are hopeful that this
page will be useful to any prospective or current doctoral
students.
Literature Review - Global Information Systems ... [43pp.] :
http://library.uws.edu.au/adtNUWS/uploads/approved/adtNUWS20031217 130842/public/04Chapter3 pdf [Retrieved
NUWS20031217.130842/public/04Chapter3.pdf
6 March 2006].
Webster, J. & Watson, R.T. (2002). Analyzing the past to
prepare for the future: Writing a literature review. MIS
Quarterly, 26(2):xiii-xxiii.
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From: Webster, J. & Watson, R.T. (2002). Analyzing the past to prepare
for the future: Writing a literature review. MIS Quarterly, 26(2):xvii

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Selected information sources on literature review (3):

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing
Center. (2001). Writer's Handbook: Academic
Writing: Reviews of Literature.
Literature
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/Revie
wofLiterature.html [Retrieved 6 March 2006]
Journal of the Association for Information
Systems (JAIS) at:
http://jais isworld org/contents asp
http://jais.isworld.org/contents.asp
Communications of the Association for
Information Systems (CAIS) at:
http://cais.isworld.org/contents.asp
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