Dave Ballard, formerly of the School of Criminal Justice

A review of the literature is critical for any research project. It will enable you to gather an understanding of the topic, identify key issues, and gain an awareness of relevant research that has already transpired. Looking for and finding what you need from the various sources of published information can be time-consuming. It is important to plan and carry out this task effectively. This guide will help you to do this. I strongly suggest you systematically follow these stages.

1. Define your research topic. Clarify the meaning of the topic and/or particular words. Discipline specific dictionaries may be useful.

2. Decide on scope and boundary of your search. If the area/topic is too large, you need to choose a specific part of this larger problem. Be mindful of resources constraints like time, library resources, and paper directions.

3. It will help to define your topic in terms of "keywords." Define your topic in terms of words to search for in the various information sources. Think of words that may be used as alternatives for your topic (e.g. gambling, gaming, slot machine players). Try and think about alternative meanings and contexts for your keywords and try to think of ways of combining words to ensure that only the meaning you want is retrieved. Think of possible changes in terminology when looking for older materials. These can be due to the development of a more technical vocabulary (e.g. tuberculosis for consumption), to social changes (e.g. firefighter rather than fireman) and to changes in what is considered appropriate language (e.g. visually-impaired rather than blind). Bear in mind the name-changes of places and countries, such as Peking/Beijing, Persia/Iran, and of the emergence of many new countries/names over the last few years.

4. Set limitations to your search. For example, publication date - how far back do you want to search? Range - what types of publication or documentation do you wish to include? Language - is it appropriate to limit your search to languages you can read yourself? Are there any other limitations (for example age or gender of the subjects)?

5. Make a list of sources/databases in which to search for references. Sources may be print-based or computer-based. There are many subject-specific guides to resources in the Library and on the Internet.

6. Conduct your search for sources and databases. Always look for the "one" sources that everyone seems to cite in their research. Make sure you get that source. Some experts in this area suggest that you start with the most recent publications and work back. MAKE SURE TO KEEP A RECORD OF YOUR SEARCHES. An essential part of literature searching is keeping accurate, consistent and correct records, so make sure that you record all useful information.

7. Review your progress after searching about 10 sources. Ask yourself if you have found material that is likely to be relevant to your topic? If there seems to be too much or too little, you may need to redefine your topic. Repeat steps three to six above. While most of use like to find the required number of references in as short of a time as possible, remember to assess the value of the search in terms of relevance and usefulness; it's quality, not quantity of references that counts.

8. Obtain copies of promising references. Some databases have links to the full-text of the articles, though usually only to journals for which the Library has a separate subscription. In most cases, you will have to check the actual journal. If we do not stock that journal, you may obtain them via Inter-Library Loan.

9. Read them! This task requires you to make an assessment of the usefulness of the articles and then make a judgment on the quality of the article. Be wary of out of date, superseded, non-scientific, and irrelevant material.

10. Write your paper. Follow directions from in-class discussion and after following the steps below.

Your deadline for finding and bringing to class your required sources for a literature review is soon.

These articles must be:

1. Full text.
2. At least 5 pages long.
3. Have at least 5 references/sources.
4. Be from academic journals.
5. Be focused around on particular topic.