Senior Design_MECE & EEEE, RIT Dubai: Literature Review

A literature review is an integrated analysis-- not just a summary-- of scholarly writings that are related directly to your research question. That is, it represents the literature that provides background information on your topic and shows a correspondence between those writings and your research question.

Purpose:

• Justify your research
• Provide context for your research
• Identify new ways, to interpret and highlight gaps in previous research
• Ensure that the research has not been done before
• Signpost a way forward for further research
• Show where the research fits into the existing literature
• Highlight flaws in previous research

Determine the Scope of the Paper or Project:

Do you know what you are looking for?  Can you describe your project using one simple sentence or can you phrase the project as a question?  Without a clear idea of the project, you may not be able to determine which are the best resources to search, what terminology should be used in those resources, and if the results are appropriate and sufficient.    

If you're having difficulty getting your project described succinctly, try using a PICO chart to identify the concepts involved:

• P is the population, problem, predicament or process
• I is the intervention or improvement
• C is what you'll compare your intervention/improvement to, and
• O is the outcome (or results of the comparison of I and C) 

Create the Search Strategy

Take the simple sentence or question that describes what you are looking for.  What are the concepts in the sentence? Are there synonyms that describe the same concept?

Example:  

Core Power Receding Horizon Control (RHC) Approach for Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Nuclear Power Plants

Concept 1:  nuclear power   OR _nuclear industry_____ 
AND
Concept 2: _water-cooled reactor___  OR _pressurized water_reactor__ 
AND
Concept 3: _ receding horizon control__   

Determine what Resources to Use:

What resources you'll use for your literature review depends on what types of materials you want to find.  

Search, Read, Refine and Repeat:

Now it's time to apply your search strategy in the resources you've decided to use.

1. Use the Advanced Search feature (or whatever search is set up with the 3 lines of boxes) and enter your search strategy just as you recorded in your search strategy chart.  Don't forget to set your limits.   
   If the resource only provides a single search box, rearrange your chart from vertical into horizontal so that the search statement looks like this:  
   (Concept#1 OR synonym) AND (Concept#2 OR synonym) AND (Concept#3 OR synonym) 
   Example:
   (nuclear power OR nuclear industry) AND (water-cooled reactor OR pressurized water reactor) AND (receding horizon control)
2. Examine the results to find the most appropriate items.  Keep your one-sentence project description (and/or your PICO chart) in mind to help you stay on track. 
3. Export the records/citations you want to keep.
4. Get the full text of the items.
5. Read the full text of the items and look at the subjects assigned to the item and consider:

• Do I have to change (narrow) my topic to something more specific because I'm finding way too much? 
• Do I have to change (broaden) my topic because I can't find enough about it? 
• Is there additional terminology for my topic/concepts that I hadn't included in my original search? 

     6. Redo your search strategy according to what you found in step #5 and rerun the search in the resources again. 

     7. You may need to repeat this cycle several times before you are able to identify the best terminology to use in each resource.