Econ 191: Skills Lecture How to Write a Literature Review K. Dawn Powers 25 Sept. 2012 Univ. CA - Berkeley
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Why do we need a literature review? Why do we need a literature review? To show the reader that you know the literature: Yes, I am aware of so-and-so s results on this topic. To educate the reader about the literature: If you want to know about this aspect of the topic, read so-and-so. To motivate our research: The literature has looked at this and that, but there is no good answer to this important question, which I address in this paper.
Finding relevant literature There is so much out there. How do we find the relevant literature? 1 Find one (or more) relevant journal articles. 2 Trace papers backwards. 3 Trace papers forwards.
Finding relevant literature 1. How to find one (or more) relevant journal articles: Google Scholar (www.scholar.google.com) is excellent, but is increasingly affected by copyright restrictions and manipulation of its search algorithm.
Finding relevant literature 1. How to find one (or more) relevant journal articles: EconLit, JSTOR, and Academic Search Premiere, found at the UC-Berkeley library s website (lib.berkeley.edu), are also excellent for finding technical papers relating to your topic. These databases allow you to limit your searches by academic field, subject, etc. You should limit yourself to journals in economics. This will make it easier to find other resources within the economics field, and allow you to familiarize yourself with the organization, verbiage, and statistical techniques of economics research papers. Search for the right keywords. How? Try some, and then try some more. We ll talk about how to read an article quickly in a moment.
Finding relevant literature The Journal of Economic Perspectives is particularly suited to obtaining a broad, non-technical overview of a topic.
Finding relevant literature 2. How to trace papers backwards: Look at papers references (bibliography), and pick out what to search for next. Repeatedly. If you want a quick hint at what is behind each title, skim the literature review (it is often embedded in the introduction, with no title).
Finding relevant literature 3. How to trace papers fowards: On Google Scholar, you can find a paper and then see all subsequent papers citing that paper. Take a look!...then repeat. Sometimes, the number of times a paper is cited is a good indicator of its importance. Just remember, older papers have had more time to be cited.
How to read so many papers quickly? The unfortunate truth is that academic papers in economics tend to be long, difficult, and very often boring. How do we get around that? The good news is that academic economics papers give you the bottom line in the abstract, the complete and non-technical version in the introduction, and the full rundown in the rest of the paper. So...
How to read so many papers quickly? Read the title and abstract. Then stop to judge whether or not to delve deeper. If you do decide to delve deeper, read the introduction. The introduction should suffice for you to get the main idea and understand what the author did, without going into much detail. If the paper is relevant to your research, skim the relevant sections. Pay special attention to tables and figures - they often tell the whole story. Only read an entire paper if it is very relevant. Expect 3-5 such papers.
How to read so many papers quickly? If you find yourself slogging through every paper or never passing the abstract, adjust your standards and revisit the previous slide. As you read papers - abstract, intro or more - take notes! You will need them.
How to structure a literature review? After taking in so many papers: How do we make sense of it all? How do we convey the sense that we ve made to someone else?
How to structure a literature review? Go over the notes of every relevant paper (see why they are important?). Seek common themes that tie together more than one paper. Can you lump papers together in multiple ways? Is there an order within each strand? Is the chronological development important? Do authors agree with one another in their conclusions, or do they contrast with each other? Do they agree on methodology? Are there papers that fit in more than one strand of literature? Tie these literatures together?
How to structure a literature review? Once you ve figured out how all of the relevant papers should organized, write the organization down! Organize by themes/conclusions, not by individual papers. Furthermore, organize subthemes within themes. Think: How can I bring my reader to understand how my question came about, and how I am filling in gaps leading to its solution? If papers within themes chronologically or logically preceded other papers within the theme, mention those papers first.
How to structure a literature review? Once you ve figured out how all of the relevant papers should organized, write the organization down! Place papers with concurring conclusions together, and contrast these conclusions side-by-side with contradictory conclusions found by other papers (if applicable). If there s something important about methodology for instance, if it improves drastically between papers under a theme make sure to mention it.
How to structure a literature review? Final thoughts on structuring the literature review: You don t have to go into great detail about every paper. A sentence or two is often enough, but the 3-5 papers very closely related to your topic may warrant a bit more space. Remember, the entire literature review should be less than 5 pages!
How to structure a literature review? Do you have an example? Indeed! Consider this week s articles: Tabellini (2008) and Gorodnichenko and Roland (working paper) both have an abstract preceding the paper and a literature review in the introduction. Guiso et al. (2006) has no abstract, but has an excellent literature review in the introduction.
Several databases provide quick and free access to well-respected economics journals and papers. Organize your literature review by themes, and search for other clues on organizing within these themes. Spend no more than 1-2 sentences on most papers, and do not exceed 5 pages for the literature review.
Sources used for this tutorial Issi Romem s Literature Review Tutorial for Econ 191, Spring 2012.