Literature Review: Evaluating Your Results

This guide presents tools and advice for conducting a Literature Review.

Critical Analysis Books

Critical Thinking by Arp; Galen A. Foresman; Peter S. Fosl; Jamie C. Watson
Call Number: EBook click on link to access

Publication Date: 2016

Analysing the literature

When analysing the literature, consider the purpose of your literature review.

You need to take notes on the literature, and then analyse and interpret the content.

Organise the findings of your research into key concepts or particular themes.

Position your research question in the context of the literature you have read.

Synthesise the research material to identify similarities and differences, key relationships, controversies and weaknesses.

Demonstrate how your work contributes to the area of study and formulate questions for further research.

Evaluating your results

When reading critically the references you have located you must:

identify the author's arguments and the conclusions drawn in the text.
Evaluate the strength of the evidence that the author provides as support for his or her arguments and conclusions, asking a series of questions:
- is the evidence sufficient and relevant?
- Are the authorities cited reliable?
- Are the data and the interpretation of the data adequate to support the line of reasoning and the conclusions drawn in the text?
Identify the implicit assumptions which underpin the text and decide on how these assumptions affect the arguments and conclusions that are presented, i.e.what political moral and value judgments does an author seem to hold?

(Ridley, D. 2012, The literature review: a step-by-step guide for students, pp. 117-8)

Click on the above tabs to find more information about looking critically at your references or check out our tutorial below.

Is the author an expert in the field of study? What are his/her credentials?

Is the author affiliated to any institution?

Are the authors findings supported by evidence?

What else has the author written?

has the author been cited in other publications?

Is the publisher a reputable academic publisher?

If a journal, is it an academic journal?

Whe was the information published?

Is the information current or out-of-date?

Are there later editions or revisions of the publication?

If you are using a web source, what is the date the web page was last updated?

Is teh information organised in a logical manner?

Has the research methodology been outlined?

Is the information supported by evidence?

Has the work been peer reviewed (reviewed by experts in the field) and if so, do the reviewers indicate its value?

Does the content of the source cover your research topic in detail?

Is teh author writing for a scholarly audience?

Is the source a primary information source (evidence that comes directly from the source or person, for example journal articles reporting original research) or a secondary information source (material that provides comment and interpretation on primary information, for example newspaper reports)?

Is the information appropriate in terms of time period and geographical area?

has the author provided sufficient references?

Is the author's perspective objective i.e. free from bias?

Does the author or publisher demonstrate a particular bias?

From the author's writing style are you able to detect a factual or opinionated point of view?