NHM 671: Advanced Service Quality Management

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is:

• a summary and evaluation of the significant research and/or theory published on a topic

• organized in a way that analyzes, integrates, and shows the relationship between research studies, as well as the way each has contributed to an understanding of the topic

• NOT just an annotated bibliography

The purpose of a literature review is to:

• provide an overview of relevant literature, research, and methodology in an area of study

• explore relationships among the prior research

• evaluate the prior research

• identify gaps and discrepancies in the literature

• identify areas of controversy in the literature

• make an argument for why further study of your research question is important to a field

Benefits to the researcher:

• Establishing context and significance of the problem

• Discovering appropriate subject vocabulary

• Identifying methodologies

• Identifying what has been researched and where gaps may be found – underused methodologies, designs, populations

• Focusing research topic

Evaluate your articles by asking yourself some of these questions:

• What is the methodology?

• What is the quality of the findings or conclusions?

• What are the article’s major strengths and weaknesses?

• What beliefs are expressed/is there an ideological stance?

• Can the results be generalized?

• How does this fit in and compare with other articles I have read?

Writing the Review

The literature review should deal with relationships – how do the articles relate to each other?  How do the articles relate to your research?

In the literature review:

• Explain the reason for reviewing the literature; explain why particular literature was included or excluded

• Summarize the major contributions of the significant articles

• Evaluate and compare the articles

• Evaluate the current state of the research -- explain inconsistencies in theory or conclusions, gaps in research, trends in what has been published, and opportunities for further research

• DO NOT just summarize the articles

Ways to organize:

• By theoretical approaches

• By concept or issue

• By methodologies employed

• By chronology, if significant changes in thought have taken place

Tips:

• Use subheadings to clarify the structure

• Use original sources -- do not cite works you have not read

• Minimize direct quotations by summarizing in your own words (with citations)

• Use appropriate quotation and citation methods to avoid plagiarism

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