Google Scholar: gateway to published scholarly research
"Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research."
(Google Inc.)
Fig.1 Uploaded by Google on 6 Jan 2012
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Writing a Literature Review
"A literature review is a survey and discussion of the literature in a given area of study. It is a concise overview of what has been studied, argued, and established about a topic, and it is usually organized chronologically or thematically. A literature review is written in essay format. It is not an annotated bibliography, because it groups related works together and discusses trends and developments rather than focusing on one item at a time. It is not a summary; rather, it evaluates previous and current research in regard to how relevant and/or useful it is and how it relates to your own research."
(Saint Mary's University)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Annotated Bibliography
"An annotated bibliography provides a brief account of the available research on a given topic. It is a list of research sources that includes concise descriptions and evaluations of each source.
The annotation usually contains a brief summary of content and a short analysis or evaluation. Depending on your assignment you may be asked to reflect, summarise, critique, evaluate or analyse the source.
An annotated bibliography may be a component of a larger assignment or it may be a stand-alone assignment. While an annotation can be as brief as one sentence, the standard annotated bibliography consists of a citation followed by a short paragraph."
(University of New South Wales, 2005)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
list of scholarly research related resources
"ResearchStudent.com where we understand that the nature of academic study by research is a different ball game to simply completing assigned coursework. We invite anyone undertaking, considering or completing study by research at PhD, Masters, and Honours levels to visit us and share your experiences and insights."
(ResearchStudent.com)
[List of research related resource links.]
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
What is a literature review?
"A literature review is the review of a collection of published research relevant to a research question. All good research and writing is guided by a review of the relevant literature.
...
the purpose of the literature review remains the same. It is an essential test of the research question against that which is already known about the subject.
The literature review reveals whether or not a research question has already been answered by someone else. If it has, often the question needs to be changed or modified, so that an original contribution to the research is made.
What are some tips for literature review research?
Focus the search.
Having the research question written down, and on hand, can prevent inefficient wandering into research areas unrelated to the subject.
When to narrow the search.
If too many citations appear for a question then it is too broad, and a more focused question needs to be asked.
When to broaden the search.
If few citations appear for a question, then the topic is too narrow. Perhaps the question needs to be broadened.
Conduct a systematic search.
If little research has been done in an area, then a systematic search is necessary. One option is journals that print abstracts in a subject area which can provide an overview of the scope of the available literature. Other options are a general source, such as a book, or a specific source, such as a research paper, which can provide a starting point and a list of references to begin investigating.
Take thorough notes.
Taking thorough notes saves research time, as references can be quickly accessed again. (Suggestion: open a document in WordPad (Windows) or SimpleText (Macintosh) while running a computer search, and toggle back and forth between the search screen and document to record findings)."
(Union Institute & University)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
