L7 - Chapter 2

• Value of related literature

  • A good research is designed to build on and use existing knowledge
  • Researcher must look for academic and research journals, books, and other similar documents that contain reports of previous research studies about a topic related to the present research
• Process of related literature

  Identifying, locating, organizing, and analyzing information about a research topic
• Functions of literature in the research process

  • Provides information about past research studies related to the intended investigation, preventing the duplication of research undertakings
  • Prevent gaps in the field of the study
  • Affords confidence and authority to the researchers
  • Gives information about the methods used in similar studies
  • Enumerates findings from previous studies that may support those of the present study
  • Provides ideas on how implications may be drawn out of the analysis and interpretation
• Types of Sources


  • General References (research articles, professional journals, books, monographs, conference proceedings)
  • Primary Sources (academic and research journals published by universities and learned organizations)
  • Secondary Sources (meta-analysis, textbooks, single authored books, books edited by different authors)
  • Tertiary Sources (books and articles based on secondary sources)
• Theory


  A statement that makes a claim about a certain phenomenon, ranging from complex, well-researched claims to formal guesses about specific situations
• Related Literature Concept


  A particular phenomenon that can be both abstract and concrete, with different interpretations by people with distinctive culture and language
• Writing a Review of Related Literature

  • Introduction (discuss briefly the research problem and the significance of the study)
  • Body (contains a narrative of relevant ideas and findings found in the reports of other researchers that support the present research problem)
  • Synthesis (presents an overall picture of what is established up to the present and how the review can support the development and conduct of the research)
  • Bibliography (full bibliographic information of all the sources mentioned in the review)
• Organization of Information from Related Literature

  • Chronological (topics are arranged for a usual timeline of development)
  • Conceptual (organization of the review is by claims and arguments forming a small body of knowledge that supports the present research)
  • Stated Hypothesis (topics are listed based on each hypothesis made in the research and the discussion is done through topic listing)
• Guidelines in Citing Author(s) of the Related Literature

  • By author or writer (the respective authors or writers are then cited in the footnote)
  • By Topic (if many authors have the same opinion or idea about the same topic, discussion and citation of the topic is under the names of the authors or writers)
• Ways of Citing


  • APA Format
  • MLA Format
  • Chicago Manual Style
• APA Format


  American Psychological Association style, the most common way to cite sources in the field of social sciences, uses the author-date method of in-text citation
• MLA Format


  Modern Language Association style, most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities, uses parenthetical citation
• Chicago Manual Style


  Presents two basic documentation systems: notes and bibliography, and author-date, favored by different groups of scholars depending on the subject matter and the nature of sources cited
• Citing in APA Style - Work by two authors


  • Name both authors in the parentheses whenever their work is cited, use the word "and" between the author's names within the text and use ampersand (&) in the parentheses
• Citing in APA Style - Work by three to five authors


  • Include the entire author's surname in parentheses the first time source is cited, use the word "and" between the author's name within the text and use the ampersand in the parentheses
• Citing in APA Style - Subsequent citations of work by three to five authors


  • Use the first author's surname followed by the words "et al." which means "and others" in parentheses
• Citing in APA Style - Work by six or more authors


  • Use the first author's name followed by et al. in parentheses, if two sources have six or more authors but with some identical surnames cite the first author followed by many names to distinguish one source from the others
• Citing in APA Style - Associations, corporations, government agencies, etc. as an author


  • Cite the full name of the organization in the first citation, use the abbreviation in subsequent citations
• Citing in APA Style - Indirect sources


  • If a source was mentioned in another source, cite the original source as (as cited in [secondary source], [year], p. [page])
• Citing in APA Style - Electronic sources


  • Cite the same way as any other document by using the author-date style
• Citing in APA Style - Citing websites


  • Cite the same way as any other source, using the author date style if known, if no author then cite the title and date, if no date use "n.d."
• Plagiarism is an act of claiming another's work or copying a portion of someone else's writing
• Self-plagiarism is defined when the researchers reuse their own work or data in a "new" written product without letting the readers know the manuscript already appeared in another literature
• For researchers who want their papers to be published in conventional journals, the usual agreement is for copyright of the researcher's work to be transferred to the publisher of that journal, allowing the publisher to reproduce and distribute the research legally