Research Methods

School of Economic Information EngineeringDr. Xu YunEmail ： michael.xuyun@gmail.com xuyun@swufe.edu.cn

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How to develop an interesting research question? Examining own strengths and interests Looking at past project titles Discussion Searching the literature Searching the media Keeping a notebook of ideas Exploring personal preferences using past

projects Relevance trees/Brainstorming

Important questions • What should I research? • What should I read? • Where can I find more on …? • What have others done? • Is there anything left for me to research? • How do I know this hasn’t been done before? • When should I start to write? • What should I write about? • How do I do a literature review?

What is a “Literature Review”? “…a literature review surveys scholarly

articles, books and other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, providing a description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work.”

http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/literaturereview.html

NOT just a summary

What is a “Literature Review”? A literature review should reach some

conclusion on the current state of knowledge in an area, and suggest the next step in the investigation of the problem or question of interest.

Smyth (2004, pp. 113-114)

What is a “Literature Review”? Organize information and relate it to the

thesis or research question you are developing

Synthesize results into a summary of what is and isn't known

Identify controversy when it appears in the literature

Develop questions for further research

Purpose of a literature review Get ideas Get an overview (learn) Provide an integrated overview of your field of

research. Get a feeling for what's doable, what's worthwhile Don't reinvent the wheel (My personal experience) Better understand your research project Helps map and define your research topic Explain what you’re doing

What is Literature? Include articles in journals, books or

chapters in edited books, conference papers, documents published on the web

How to find related literature?

Find the literature Colleagues and students doing research in

related areas Literature review sections in the literature

you are reading Library databases and indexes Librarians

Find the literature Browsing related website/magazine Citation searches Consultation (help from experts or peers)

Keywords & Parameters To help you search, you should make a list

of key words and define your parameters. Think of synonyms for terms, topics and

keywords.

Parameters. Title, author, abstract, keyword Subject area Geographical area Publication period

Decide your coverage. Has my search been wide enough to ensure I've

found all the relevant material? Has it been narrow enough to exclude irrelevant

material? Publication time The discipline (IT, IS, management, psychology,

sociology, etc) Top journal vs. General journal

Typical mistakes!!! exclusion of landmark studies emphasis on outdated material adopting a parochial perspective

Organize literature

Organize literature Use EndNote ( 一种文献目录管理软件包 ) or

other software

Structuring the Review

Structuring the Review

An example

DeLone, W. H., and McLean, E. R. Information Systems Success: The Quest for the Dependent Variable, Information Systems Research (3:1), 1992, pp. 60-95.

Literature review of system quality

Literature review of IS use

Literature review of organizational impacts

Being selective

Tone A successful literature review constructively

informs the reader about what has been learned. In contrast to specific and critical reviews of

individual papers

“another indicator of amateurism was an overly negative approach to the previous literature. Previous work is always vulnerable. Criticizing is easy, and of little value; it is more important to explain how research builds upon previous findings rather than to claim previous research is inadequate and incompetent.”

Tense Present or past tense

Be consistent!!!

Good? Bad?