The document provides guidance on conducting literature reviews in the social sciences. It discusses why literature reviews are important, where to find relevant literature, and how to conceptualize, read, take notes on, and construct the review. The key purposes of a literature review are to understand existing research, identify gaps or contradictions, and establish the importance of one's own work. Literature can be found using academic search engines and reference management tools. When reading sources, the entire paper should be considered critically rather than just reported. The review should synthesize findings into a cohesive narrative rather than a list.

1. Literature Review in Social
Sciences:
Dos and Don’ts
Dr. Chinchu C..

2. Objectives
• Why and What of Literature Review
• Places to look for literature
• Approaches to literature review
• Reading literature
• Constructing the review
• Examples: Good and Bad

3. What does it do?
• Provides an overview of the
status of research/knowledge on
a topic, the sources we have
explored while researching the
topic, and demonstrates how our
research fits within the larger
scheme of things

4. Where can it help?
• Understand the relationship among existing research works
• Understand apparent contradictions or gaps that exist in evidence
• Avoid duplication and facilitate replication
• Establish the importance of our own work
• ….

5. Purposes of a review
• For a Systematic Review paper
• For Introduction/Literature Review (and discussion) section(s) of a
manuscript
• To start working on a new area
• For a research proposal

6. How to conceptualize it?
• As a synthesis, not a mere summary
• A synthesis is like a story, with the major variables being main
characters.
• We can report, interpret, and evaluate the existing theories,
findings, and debates
• The approach will define the actual structure and flow of the
review

7. BTW, what constitutes ‘literature’?
• Journal articles, books, book chapters, conference
proceedings, presentation, newspaper article, online articles,
magazine article, podcast, tweet, video, report, letter,
manuscript, thesis, email, film, TV Series, blog post, software
etc.
• Visit https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-
examples.pdf for some common reference examples in APA Style

8. Where to find literature?
• Better avoid generic search engines
• Use academic search engines and services
• Use multiple services and reference management software

9. Some useful tools
•Semantic Scholar
•Microsoft Academic
•Connected Papers
•Publish or Perish
•Pen and Paper (Or Note taking software)

10. Semantic Scholar - https://www.semanticscholar.org/

11. Results from questionable sources may also get included in search

12. MS Academic - https://academic.microsoft.com
• YYY

14. What Generic Search Engines Give Us

17. Connected Papers and Publish or Perish

18. Connected Papers - https://www.connectedpapers.com/

19. Connected Papers - https://www.connectedpapers.com/
• Node Size: Number
of Citations
• Node Colour: Year
(Recent works in
darker colours)
• Similar papers are
clustered together
• Outliers may have
used different
approaches

20. Connected Papers
• Prior Works and Derivative Works
• Build graphs from papers in nodes
• Download list of citations

21. Publish or Perish - publish-or-perish.en.softonic.com

22. Publish or Perish - publish-or-perish.en.softonic.com/
• Different platform
searches
• Save searches
• Different metrics
• Save results in
different formats
• Look up citations of a
paper

23. The reading (and note taking) process
• A well-defined research problem is a prerequisite
• Initial literature survey may help refine the research problem
• Without a good research problem, all sources may seem relevant
• Once you have gone through some literature, patterns can be
identified
• Nowadays, quality of the journal is also a factor to be considered
• What to ignore is an important decision
• Use summary tables if they help you comprehend better

24. Reading articles
• Abstract: Helps decide whether to be explored or discarded
• Introduction: The importance of the study
• Method: Critically look at Participants, Tools, Procedure…
• Results: Logical conclusions, possible bias, blind spots etc.
• Discussion/Conclusion: Again, critical analysis, See limitations, future
research suggestions.

25. Generic format for summary table
Source/Au
hors
Year Major
Problem/Question
Design Population Method Findings Remarks

26. Constructing the review
• Prepare an introduction (without that title) – describe the content
and boundaries
• Decide on the approach and the structure/basis of organization of the
main body of the review
• Do not just report, but be a critical observer
• Use flowing text, not bullet points
• Include a summary/conclusion – most relevant outcomes, need for
our study, relationship with the proposed design/methodology
• Use APA style citations; Use a software such as Zotero/Mendeley if
needed

27. The Approach
• Argumentative: Trying to support or refute an assumption or argument
• Integrative: Synthesizing existing knowledge to propose a framework for
study and/or new perspectives
• Historical: Tracing the emergence, evolution, and debates on a topic
• Methodological: The use of different methods to study a topic
• Systematic: Provides an overview of existing evidence on a research
question. Can make substantive claims. Follows guidelines such as
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-
Analyses)
• Theoretical: Reporting the status of theories on a topic; what they are,
the relationships, the evidence, and new possible hypotheses

28. Organizing the main body
• By Chronology/Year of Publication: Establishing the emergence of a concept
• Thematic/Conceptual: Organized around topics/themes. Chronology may be
a secondary concern
• Eg: Parenting Style Effect, Peer Bullying and Self-Esteem in College
Students
• Studies on Parenting Style
• Studies on Peer Bullying
• Studies on Self Esteem
• Studies connecting the variables
• Methodological: Focusing on the methods employed. Used for
methodological approach

29. Some Snapshots

30. • YYY
Bareket, O., & Shnabel, N. (2020). Domination and Objectification: Men’s Motivation for
Dominance Over Women Affects Their Tendency to Sexually Objectify Women. Psychology
of Women Quarterly, 44(1), 28–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684319871913

31. • YYY

32. • YYY

33. • YYY

34. Methodological Review

35. How NOT
TO Write
Literature
Review

36. From a PhD
thesis
submitted to
a State
University’s
Psychology
Department

37. In Summary
• A story/synthesis, not a list or report
• An introduction and a summary, if writing as a chapter
• Avoid generic search engines; use specialized tools
• Engage with the studies that we read; don’t just report them
• Follow accepted standards of the field, not previous years’ theses