Literature Review

LITERATURE
REVIEW
WHAT IS LR?
 A literature review discusses published
information in a particular subject area,
and sometimes information in a particular
subject area within a certain time period.
 A literature review can be just a simple
summary of the sources, but it usually has
an organizational pattern and combines
both summary and synthesis.
SMM4999 - Literature Review Dr. Lili Ann 2

WHAT IS LR?
 A summary is a recap of the important
information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-
organization, or a reshuffling, of that
information.
 It might give a new interpretation of old material
or combine new with old interpretations.
 Or it might trace the intellectual progression of
the field, including major debates.
 And depending on the situation, the literature
review may evaluate the sources and advise the
reader on the most pertinent or relevant.

WHAT IS LR?
 The format of a review of literature may vary from
discipline to discipline and from assignment to
assignment.
 A review may be a self-contained unit -- an end in itself
-- or a preface to and rationale for engaging in primary
research. A review is a required part of grant and
research proposals and often a chapter in theses and
dissertations.
 Generally, the purpose of a review is to analyze
critically a segment of a published body of knowledge
through summary, classification, and comparison of
prior research studies, reviews of literature, and
theoretical articles.

WHAT IS LR?
 A literature review is the effective
evaluation of selected documents on a
research topic.
 A review may form an essential part of the
research process or may constitute a
research project in itself.
 In the context of a research paper or thesis
the literature review is a critical synthesis of
previous research.
 The evaluation of the literature leads
logically to the research question.

WHAT IS LR?
A ‘good’ literature review….. A ‘poor’ literature review is…..
….. is a synthesis of available research …..an annotated bibliography

….. is a critical evaluation ….. confined to description
….. has appropriate breadth and depth ….. narrow and shallow
….. has clarity and conciseness ….. confusing and longwinded
….. uses rigorous and consistent ….. constructed in an arbitrary way
methods

WHY WRITE LR?
 Literature reviews provide you with a handy
guide to a particular topic. If you have
limited time to conduct research, literature
reviews can give you an overview or act as a
stepping stone.
 Literature reviews also provide a solid
background for a research paper's
investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of
the literature of the field is essential to most
research papers.

WHY WRITE LR?
 For professionals, they are useful reports
that keep them up to date with what is
current in the field.
 For scholars, the depth and breadth of the
literature review emphasizes the credibility
of the writer in his or her field

WHY WRITE LR?
 The purpose of a literature review is for you
to take a critical look at the literature (facts
and views) that already exists in the area you
are researching.
 A literature review is not a shopping list of
everything that exists, but a critical analysis
that shows an evaluation of the existing
literature and a relationship between the
different works.
 It demonstrates the relevance of the
research.

WHY WRITE LR?
 Literature can include books, journal
articles, internet (electronic journals),
newspapers, magazines, theses and
dissertations, conference proceedings,
reports, and documentaries.
 Literature reviews are written occasionally in
the humanities, but mostly in the sciences
and social sciences; in experiment and lab
reports, they constitute a section of the
paper.
 Sometimes a literature review is written as a
paper in itself.

WHY WRITE LR?
 In the context of a research paper on a
thesis, the literature review provides a
background to the study being proposed.
 The background may consider one or more of
the following aspects depending on the
research question being posed:
 Theoretical background – past, present or future
 Clinical practice – previous or contemporary
 Methodology and/or research methods
 Previous findings
 Rationale and/or relevance of the current study

WHY WRITE LR?
 In a broader context Hart (1998) lists the
following purposes of a review:
 Distinguishing what has been done from what needs
to be done;
 Discovering important variables relevant to the
topic;
 Synthesising and gaining a new perspective;
 Identifying relationships between ideas and
practice;
 Establishing the context of the topic or problem;

WHY WRITE LR?
 Rationalising the significance of the problem;
 Enhancing and acquiring the subject
vocabulary;
 Understanding the structure of the subject;
 Relating ideas and theory to applications;
 Identifying methodologies and techniques that
have been used;
 Placing the research in a historical context to
show familiarity with state-of-the-art
developments.

WHY WRITE LR?
 Its purpose is to:
 Place each work in the context of its contribution to the
understanding of the subject under review
 Describe the relationship of each work to the others under
consideration
 Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps
in, previous research
 Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous
studies
 Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of
effort
 Point the way forward for further research
 Place one's original work (in the case of theses or
dissertations) in the context of existing literature

WHAT SHOULD I DO BEFORE
WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW?
 Clarify
 If your assignment is not very specific, seek
clarification from your supervisor/lecturer:
 Roughly how many sources should you include?
 What types of sources (books, journal articles,
websites)?
 Should you summarize, synthesize, or critique your
sources by discussing a common theme or issue?
 Should you evaluate your sources?
 Should you provide subheadings and other
background information, such as definitions and/or
a history?

 Find models
 Look for other literature reviews in your area of
interest or in the discipline and read them to get a
sense of the types of themes you might want to
look for in your own research or ways to organize
your final review. You can simply put the word
"review" in your search engine along with your
other topic terms to find articles of this type on the
Internet or in an electronic database. The
bibliography or reference section of sources you've
already read are also excellent entry points into
your own research.

 Narrow your topic
 There are hundreds or even thousands of articles
and books on most areas of study. The narrower
your topic, the easier it will be to limit the
number of sources you need to read in order to
get a good survey of the material. Your
instructor will probably not expect you to read
everything that's out there on the topic, but
you'll make your job easier if you first limit your
scope.

 Consider whether your sources are current
 Some disciplines require that you use information
that is as current as possible. In the sciences, for
instance, treatments for medical problems are
constantly changing according to the latest
studies. Information even two years old could be
obsolete.

 However, if you are writing a review in the
humanities, history, or social sciences, a survey of
the history of the literature may be what is
needed, because what is important is how
perspectives have changed through the years or
within a certain time period.
 Try sorting through some other current
bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to
get a sense of what your discipline expects.
 You can also use this method to consider what is
"hot" and what is not.

 Find a focus
 A literature review, like a term paper, is usually
organized around ideas, not the sources
themselves as an annotated bibliography would
be organized. This means that you will not just
simply list your sources and go into detail about
each one of them, one at a time.
 No.

 As you read widely but selectively in your topic
area, consider instead what themes or issues
connect your sources together.
 Do they present one or different solutions?
 Is there an aspect of the field that is missing?
 How well do they present the material and do they
portray it according to an appropriate theory?
 Do they reveal a trend in the field?
 A raging debate?
 Pick one of these themes to focus the organization
of your review.

 Construct a working thesis statement
 Then use the focus you've found to construct a
thesis statement. Yes! Literature reviews have
thesis statements as well! However, your thesis
statement will not necessarily argue for a
position or an opinion; rather it will argue for a
particular perspective on the material.

 Some sample thesis statements for literature
reviews are as follows:
 The current trend in treatment for congestive
heart failure combines surgery and medicine.
 More and more cultural studies scholars are
accepting popular media as a subject worthy of
academic consideration.

 Consider organization
 You've got a focus, and you've narrowed it down
to a thesis statement.
 Now what is the most effective way of
presenting the information?
 What are the most important topics, subtopics,
etc., that your review needs to include?
 And in what order should you present them?

 Develop an organization for your review at
both a global and local level:
 First, cover the basic categories
 Just like most academic papers, literature reviews
also must contain at least three basic elements: an
introduction or background information section; the
body of the review containing the discussion of
sources; and, finally, a conclusion and/or
recommendations section to end the paper.

 Introduction: Gives a quick idea of the topic
of the literature review, such as the central
theme or organizational pattern.
 Body: Contains your discussion of sources and
is organized either chronologically,
thematically, or methodologically (see below
for more information on each).
 Conclusions/Recommendations: Discuss what
you have drawn from reviewing literature so
far. Where might the discussion proceed?

 The introduction should provide the reader with the
scale and structure of your review. It serves as a kind of
map.
 The body of the review depends on how you have
organised your key points. Literature reviews at
postgraduate level should be evaluative and not merely
descriptive. For example possible reasons for
similarities or differences between studies are
considered rather than a mere identification of them.
 The conclusion of the review needs to sum up the main
findings of your research into the literature. The
findings can be related to the aims of the study you are
proposing to do. The reader is thus provided with a
coherent background to the current study.

 Organizing the body
 Once you have the basic categories in place, then you
must consider how you will present the sources
themselves within the body of your paper. Create an
organizational method to focus this section even
further.
 To help you come up with an overall organizational
framework for your review, consider the six typical ways
of organizing the sources into a review:
 Chronological
 By publication
 By trend
 Thematic
 Methodological
 Questions for Further Research

 Similar to primary research, development of the
literature review requires four stages:
 Problem formulation—which topic or field is
being examined and what are its component
issues?
 Literature search—finding materials relevant to
the subject being explored
 Data evaluation—determining which literature
makes a significant contribution to the
understanding of the topic
 Analysis and interpretation—discussing the
findings and conclusions of pertinent literature

WHAT SHOULD YOU WRITE?
 the accepted facts in the area
 the popular opinion
 the main variables
 the relationship between concepts and
variables
 shortcomings in the existing findings
 limitations in the methods used in the
existing findings
 the relevance of your research
 suggestions for further research in the area.

 Literature reviews should comprise the following
elements:
 An overview of the subject, issue or theory under
consideration, along with the objectives of the
literature review
 Division of works under review into categories (e.g.
those in support of a particular position, those against,
and those offering alternative theses entirely)
 Explanation of how each work is similar to and how it
varies from the others
 Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in
their argument, are most convincing of their opinions,
and make the greatest contribution to the understanding
and development of their area of research

 In assessing each piece, consideration should be given to:
 Provenance—What are the author's credentials? Are the
author's arguments supported by evidence (e.g. primary
historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics,
recent scientific findings)?
 Objectivity—Is the author's perspective even-handed or
prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain
pertinent information ignored to prove the author's
point?
 Persuasiveness—Which of the author's theses are
most/least convincing?
 Value—Are the author's arguments and conclusions
convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any
significant way to an understanding of the subject?

 Layout
 Make your literature review have an academic and
professional appearance. Here are some points to make
the look of your report appealing to the reader
 White space: leave space between sections, especially
from the abstract. This gives an uncluttered effect.
 Headings/sub-headings: these help to separate ideas.
 Text boxes: you can use these for quotations or
paraphrasing to separate them from the rest of your
text. It is also pleasing to the eye.

 Graphics: centre your graphics, such as
diagrams or tables, to have space around
them. Try not to bury graphics in your text.
 Pagination: you can number pages or
sections or both, but the important thing to
do is to be consistent. The cover page
normally is not numbered. The content page
and abstract page usually have a separate
numbering system to the body of your
literature review.

 Language focus
 Create a balance between direct quotation
(citation) and paraphrasing. Avoid too much direct
quoting. The verb tense chosen depends on your
emphasis:
 When you are citing a specific author's findings, use
the past tense: (found, demonstrated);
 When you are writing about an accepted fact, use
the present tense: (demonstrates, finds); and
 When you are citing several authors or making a
general statement, use the present perfect tense:
(have shown, have found, little research has been
done).

 Final checklist
 Have I fulfilled the purpose of the literature review?
 Is it written at a level appropriate to its audience?
 Are its facts correct?
 Is all the information included relevant?
 Are the layout and presentation easy on the eye?
 Is the language clear, concise and academic?
 Does the abstract summarise the entire review?
 Does the introduction adequately introduce the topic?
 Is the body organised logically?
 Does the conclusion interpret, analyse and evaluate?
 Are the recommendations reasonable?
 Does the table of contents correspond with the actual contents? Are page
numbers correct?
 Have I acknowledged all sources of information through correct referencing?
 Have I checked spelling, grammar and punctuation?
 Have I carefully proof-read the final draft?

HOW TO REVIEW?
 The whole process of reviewing includes:
a. Searching for literature
b. Sorting and prioritising the retrieved
literature
c. Analytical reading of papers
d. Evaluative reading of papers
e. Comparison across studies
f. Organising the content
g. Writing the review

HOW TO REVIEW?
 Comparison across studies
 The aim is to extract key points by comparing and
contrasting ACROSS studies, instead of reading one
paper after another.
 Key points for a review may concern areas of
similarities and/or differences in:
 Research aim(s) or hypotheses
 Research design and sampling
 Instruments and procedures used
 How data were analysed
 Results or findings
 Interpretations

HOW TO REVIEW?
 Find similarities and differences between
studies at different levels, e.g.:
- philosophy
- epistemology
- morality
- methodology
- methods
- types of data
- data analysis
- interpretation

HOW TO REVIEW?
 Set out your thinking on paper through maps
and trees.
Feature map Classifies and categorises your thought in tabular form
Links between concepts and processes, or shows relationship between

Concept map
ideas and practice
Shows how topic branches out into subthemes and related questions or
Tree construction
represents stages in the development of a topic.

HOW TO REVIEW?
 Tips on writing
Express one idea in a sentence. Ensure that all your sentences have
Sentences
a subject, verb and object.
Group sentences that express and develop one aspect of your topic.
Paragraphs
Use a new paragraph for another aspect or another topic.
Use sentences and paragraphs with appropriate use of commas,

Consistent Grammar colours and semi-colours. Incorrect use of punctuation can affect
the meaning.
Use words that link paragraphs and which show contrast and
Transition Words development to your argument e.g. ‘hence’, ‘therefore’, ‘but’,
‘thus’, ‘as a result’, ‘in contrast’.

HOW TO REVIEW?
 Pitfalls
- Vagueness due to too much or
inappropriate generalisations
- Limited range
- Insufficient information
- Irrelevant material
- Omission of contrasting view
- Omission of recent work

EXAMPLE
Early works have addressed some of the problems and
issues discussed in video retrieval. Researchers have
developed ideas and tools for supporting video editing,
for example in [8].
They have defined a seamless video editing in the
gradient domain. The spatio-temporal gradient fields of
target videos are modified or mixed to generate a new
gradient field, which is usually not integrate able.

 They have also described how semantic
information about video can be structured and
used for content-based access. From a general
video archive point of view, the problem with
this tool is the lack of support for managing
video document structures. A digital video
archive serving different categories of users
should offer a more structured way of
describing video contents

EXAMPLE
Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are statistical tools that
have been used successfully in modelling difficult tasks
such as speech recognition [15] or biological sequence
analysis [16]. Inspired by a similar speech application,
Hidden Markov model (HMM) has also been applied to
activity recognition. The first approach for the human
movements based on HMMs was described in [13]. It
distinguished between six different tennis strokes. This
system divided the image into meshes and counted the
number of pixels representing the person for each mesh. The
numbers were composed to a feature vector that was
converted into a discrete label by a vector quantizer.

 The labels were classified based on discrete
HMMs. In [8], an HMM is used as a
representation of simple actions which are
recognized by computing the probability that
the model produces the visual observation
sequence. In [14] layered HMMs were
proposed to model single person office
activities at various time granularities

EXAMPLE
Most of the existing work relies on using only
a single source of information (example, either
audio or visual track data alone). In [4], the
average video shot activity and the duration are
used as features for the categorization of
movies according to the actions. An action
scene was characterized by temporally
localized properties of video shots which have
little or no recurring similar visual contents [5].

 Although these visual characters are
undoubtedly good indicators of rapidly
evolving action contents, they are not enough
to determine the desired action. On the other
hand, audio-based action detection was
independently performed on the sound track in
[6]. However, this audio alone method may
lead to many potential false detected cases
because many sounds often mix different
noises and other similar background sound.

EXAMPLE
Video
Pre-processing Classification
Genre
Motion Shot
Colour Feature Edge Feature
Extraction Extraction
Event
Camera Object
Length
Edge Object
Detection
Pan Duration Edge
Zoom Clustering
Translation
Colour Edge Count
Histogram
FIGURE 2.3 Schematic

Rule-based
classifiers
diagram for video
classification
Recognition
result
Source: L.N. Abdullah et al.
2005.

EXAMPLE
Research Technique Features Domain Disadvantage / Future Direction
Used Advantage
Lin et al. 2007 A priori algorithm Audiovisual Weather Reduce the amount of Due to the different
misclassification errors. properties of the data
Association rule Sports sets representing the
mining Able to identify a high semantic concepts
Commercial percentage of positive such as weather,
Pre-filtering instances in each concept commercial, and
architecture sports, they proposed
to use different
strategies to merge the
rules.
Davis & Tyagi Probabilistic reliable- Motion Walking, running, The system only makes
2006 inference framework standing, bending- classifications when it
forward, crouching- believes the input is
Hidden Markov down, and sitting ‘good enough’ for
Model (HMM) output discrimination between
likelihoods and action the possible actions
priors
Maximum likelihood
(ML) and maximum
a posteriori (MAP)
SMM4999 - Literature Review 50

Literature Review

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LITERATURE

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….. is a synthesis of available research …..an annotated bibliography

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Feature map Classifies and categorises your thought in tabular form

Links between concepts and processes, or shows relationship between

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Use sentences and paragraphs with appropriate use of commas,

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FIGURE 2.3 Schematic

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