The terms and concepts selected this week were taken from resources linked at the Wayne State University LIS 7996 Library Guide, available here.
Taylor - The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It
One very important principle to keep in mind during the literature review is that contrary opinions or arguments should be mentioned and properly addressed.
It is important to remember that a literature review is discursive prose, which means that it should flow and move seamlessly through topics (like “discourse”); it should not be choppy or abbreviated and it should not simply jump paragraph-by-paragraph from one reviewed source to the next.
D’Onofrio - Beginning a Study – Literature Reviews
When organizing a literature review, one way to do so is through thematic organization. This uses themes that have emerged from prior research and literature and the themes themselves are what are defined, explained, or discussed. Further, this organization allows the author of a literature review to explain the importance to the field of each theme in a meaningful way.
Webbing is a strategy for organizing information visually. Core concepts are written down in circles that represent “nodes”, and the interrelationships between those nodes are represented by lines that connect related nodes. This visual sorting of ideas helps to formulate structures for writing or presenting information and can also help to clarify concepts for the researcher.
UC Santa Cruz - Write a Literature Review
Strong consideration should be given to a written work’s provenance, or the combination of factors influencing the background and reliability of the work. These include the credentials of the author, evidentiary support for arguments made, and any other factors that might impact reliability.
A very important thing to remember when writing a literature review is that it does not contain new primary scholarship or research. Instead, its purpose is to give an overview of previous related work, to identify problems or gaps in previous research, to prevent unintended duplication of prior research, and to place the original research that should follow in a later section of a report in context.
References
D’Onofrio, A. (2003). Beginning a Study – Literature Reviews. Retrieved from: http://muse.widener.edu/~aad0002/510review.htm
Taylor, D. (n.d.). The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It. Retrieved from: http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review
University of California, Santa Cruz (2011). Write a Literature Review. Retrieved from: http://library.ucsc.edu/help/howto/write-a-literature-review
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Developing the Study Readings
Wildemuth (Chapters 2,3,5)
Ch.2
A research question is a statement of what it is that the researcher wants to know about some situation or problem.
Symmetry of potential outcomes is a term meaning that regardless of whether one confirms or refutes a initial hypothesis, the research results will have utility.
Ch. 3
Evidence-based information practice is the implementation of the idea that professionals in the information arena should use the strongest evidence available as a basis for their decisions.
Practice-based questions: research inquiries that are closely linked with issues that arise from day-to-day work in a particular area, field, or practice.
Ch. 5.
Hypotheses, while a significant part of the scientific method, are important enough to restate. They are a statement of the expected relationship between two or more variables in a proposed study or experiment.
A null hypothesis is a hypothesis that states that there is no relationship between two or more variables or that two things that might be different are actually not so.
Williamson (Ch. 3)
Sub-questions are components of major problems or research questions. Each falls within the scope of their overarching or larger problem, but does not introduce any consideration outside of that scope. Use of sub-questions can make research into major problems or questions much more manageable.
Iterative process – an exploration or run-through of some process (in this case research into both literature and into unanswered questions) that provides greater success or understanding by returning to earlier stages with increased understanding of later stages. In other and more relevant terms, a researcher would engage in an iterative research process by beginning, for example, with a literature review and moving to early stages of exploring what questions might be asked or what hypotheses might be proposed; armed with the information garnered from this process, the researcher would return to the literature (stage 1) and repeat in order to build greater and more detailed understanding over time.
Patten (Topics 14, 15, 16)
Topic 14:
Strict replication of a study is that which attempts to repeat all important aspects of the original.
Modified replication introduces modifications such as changes to the research process, subject group, etc.
Topic 15:
A record contains metadata about a single file in an electronic database, and the information contained in a record is stored and displayed in fields, or standardized positions for data based on what that data describes or contains.
A thesaurus, in the context of electronic research, is a collection of descriptors used to identify digital resources. The thesaurus helps to identify the descriptors in a controlled vocabulary based on search terms or topic terms that the user might readily seek.
Topic 16:
Literature reviews should be conducted topic-by-topic, that is, relevant research cited in a literature review should be organized so that it groups research on particular topics together, and subordinately by importance, date, or some other organization scheme.
It is important to note (and cite) the results of research studies covered in the literature review—discussing methodology is not enough and is often even unnecessary. The results of a study are the confirmation or rejection of that study’s hypotheses.
Pyrczack (Appendix D)
When making factual statements or assertions, it is important to cite sources. The only factual statements that should not be cited are those that might appear outside of the literature review (for example, those assertions made describing the results of the study at hand). Even many of those should cite specific data sources.
Gaps in literature or in previous research are points of interest that have received little or no treatment by researchers. These provide excellent sources for future study or research problems.
Bibliography
Patten, M. (2000). Understanding research methods: Overview of the essentials. 2nd ed.
Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.
Pyrczak, F. (2008). Evaluating research in academic journals: A practical guide to realistic
evaluation. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.
Wildemuth, B. (2009). Applications of social research methods to questions in information and library Science. ABC-CLIO, Incorporated.
Williamson, K. (2000). Research methods for students and professionals: Information
management and systems. Wagga Wagga, NSW.
Ch.2
A research question is a statement of what it is that the researcher wants to know about some situation or problem.
Symmetry of potential outcomes is a term meaning that regardless of whether one confirms or refutes a initial hypothesis, the research results will have utility.
Ch. 3
Evidence-based information practice is the implementation of the idea that professionals in the information arena should use the strongest evidence available as a basis for their decisions.
Practice-based questions: research inquiries that are closely linked with issues that arise from day-to-day work in a particular area, field, or practice.
Ch. 5.
Hypotheses, while a significant part of the scientific method, are important enough to restate. They are a statement of the expected relationship between two or more variables in a proposed study or experiment.
A null hypothesis is a hypothesis that states that there is no relationship between two or more variables or that two things that might be different are actually not so.
Williamson (Ch. 3)
Sub-questions are components of major problems or research questions. Each falls within the scope of their overarching or larger problem, but does not introduce any consideration outside of that scope. Use of sub-questions can make research into major problems or questions much more manageable.
Iterative process – an exploration or run-through of some process (in this case research into both literature and into unanswered questions) that provides greater success or understanding by returning to earlier stages with increased understanding of later stages. In other and more relevant terms, a researcher would engage in an iterative research process by beginning, for example, with a literature review and moving to early stages of exploring what questions might be asked or what hypotheses might be proposed; armed with the information garnered from this process, the researcher would return to the literature (stage 1) and repeat in order to build greater and more detailed understanding over time.
Patten (Topics 14, 15, 16)
Topic 14:
Strict replication of a study is that which attempts to repeat all important aspects of the original.
Modified replication introduces modifications such as changes to the research process, subject group, etc.
Topic 15:
A record contains metadata about a single file in an electronic database, and the information contained in a record is stored and displayed in fields, or standardized positions for data based on what that data describes or contains.
A thesaurus, in the context of electronic research, is a collection of descriptors used to identify digital resources. The thesaurus helps to identify the descriptors in a controlled vocabulary based on search terms or topic terms that the user might readily seek.
Topic 16:
Literature reviews should be conducted topic-by-topic, that is, relevant research cited in a literature review should be organized so that it groups research on particular topics together, and subordinately by importance, date, or some other organization scheme.
It is important to note (and cite) the results of research studies covered in the literature review—discussing methodology is not enough and is often even unnecessary. The results of a study are the confirmation or rejection of that study’s hypotheses.
Pyrczack (Appendix D)
When making factual statements or assertions, it is important to cite sources. The only factual statements that should not be cited are those that might appear outside of the literature review (for example, those assertions made describing the results of the study at hand). Even many of those should cite specific data sources.
Gaps in literature or in previous research are points of interest that have received little or no treatment by researchers. These provide excellent sources for future study or research problems.
Bibliography
Patten, M. (2000). Understanding research methods: Overview of the essentials. 2nd ed.
Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.
Pyrczak, F. (2008). Evaluating research in academic journals: A practical guide to realistic
evaluation. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.
Wildemuth, B. (2009). Applications of social research methods to questions in information and library Science. ABC-CLIO, Incorporated.
Williamson, K. (2000). Research methods for students and professionals: Information
management and systems. Wagga Wagga, NSW.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Article Review #1
Brent Domann
September 20, 2011
Article Review # 1
This is a review of:
Dolinsky, A.L. (2010). The adequacy of the information that students utilize when choosing a college: an attribute importance and information sufficiency approach. College Student Journal, 44(3), 762-76.
Introduction
The purpose of this article and its underlying research is to examine several facets of the stage at which students evaluate prospective colleges by gathering information on them. The goal of the article is to analyze the results of a survey to determine whether or not colleges are meeting the information needs of prospective students with respect to important considerations the student group has and, additionally, relatively how much effort should be put into improving information access regarding several of these specific considerations.
This study and its analysis are quite relevant to the research topic that is forming for me now. As our economy tightens further and the number of credentialed graduates grows every year, many unsuccessful job applicants are finding that old assumptions about the value of education in employability are not what they once were. Thus it seems that a stronger emphasis on providing forthright, complete, and detailed post-graduation statistics might be necessary. Although I look to a more concentrated research subject group, the question, methodology, and analysis in this article offer an exceptional starting point for designing a research study.
Below are examinations of this article based on nine considerations given in Chapter 13 of Fred Pyrczak’s Evaluating research in academic journals: A practical guide to realistic Evaluation (2008).
Problem Statement:
This study and its report attempt to address whether college students are getting information about prospective colleges in a useful way. It looks to what information students find most relevant to deciding on what college to attend and also to how completely that information was provided to them while they were seeking it. Dolinksy, the researcher and author, attempts to rectify any discrepancies between information need and information access.
Dolinsky has definitely identified an important problem. As the need for higher education as a credential continues to grow, it becomes ever more important to assess what the information needs of prospective students are so that they can make informed choices when picking an institution.
Literature Review
Dolinsky's literature review is well done and reflective. He examines the existing literature for holes in the information landscape and designs his study to address some of the most glaring deficiencies he can identify. He walks through several previous studies spanning roughly 35 years of inquiry, and notes how each of these speaks to an aspect of his current research problem. Specifically, he notes that studies have been done regarding information sources for prospective college students, sources of influence on college choice, the chief considerations in choosing one college over another, and the impact of gender on the above. He further notes that none of these studies has focused on the sufficiency of such information and therefore sets forth the boundaries of his research problem.
Method
Dolinksy's method is to utilize a random sample of undergraduate students at a university and survey them regarding the importance of given college-related attributes in deciding to attend their particular college and, further, to inquire about the sufficiency of the information they were given while prospective students regarding those attributes. Both variables (attribute importance and information sufficiency for each attribute) are rated on a scale of 1-7 (a "Likert scale"). Information sufficiency results are then considered or analyzed both independently and in combination with attribute importance to aid in prioritizing information given to prospective students.
Dolinsky is very reflective regarding his analysis (as he is with his literature review). He analyzes his results in a concise, objective manner and is careful to neither overstate nor miss any of his results. His conclusions are carefully drawn and look both back to how his research corroborates earlier related studies and also forward to how it might be improved and how it might be put to practical use.
Caveats
There are no major methodological flaws that were unavoidable, though there are some minor issues that the report should discuss. The research was gathered by survey, and the report has inadequate caveats about the reliability of such research. Furthermore, as a matter of necessity for conducting the study the researcher was forced to categorize types or bundles of information as 'attributes' in order to create the research survey. There could be better recognition that such categories were at some level chosen or formed arbitrarily.
Conclusion
Dolinsky's report is very cohesive and follows a very clean and clear path from problem statement through a review of literature to the culminating study (namely its methodology, results, and an analysis of its results). The entire document works as a whole and is quite effective. It is clear about its intention to extend the boundaries of knowledge on its topic as it identifies shortcomings and missed opportunities in previous studies that it seeks to address. Perhaps more importantly, it indeed addresses these opportunities and provides several suggestions regarding how future researchers might contribute to the extension of knowledge in this area.
As such, Dolinsky's research is likely to inspire additional research in this area and in fact encourages it. Moreover, one of the chief stated goals of this study and report is to provide suggestions for practical application of their results. In other words, this research inspires further inquiry and also aids in decision making (particularly by institutions serving the subject group).
This report is certainly worthy of its publication in an academic journal. It is on the whole well-written, has a solid and inclusive literature review, is focused and concise, and provides understandable and useful data and analysis. Any peer would be proud to be attached to this research article.
Bibliography
Dolinsky, A.L. (2010). The adequacy of the information that students utilize when choosing a college: an attribute importance and information sufficiency approach. College Student Journal, 44(3), 762-76.
Pyrczak, F. (2008). Evaluating research in academic journals: A practical guide to realistic evaluation. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.
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