Citation
Nazari, M. (2014), "Reviews of recent research literature – 8", Online Information Review, Vol. 38 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR.26438baa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Reviews of recent research literature – 8
Article Type: Reviews of recent research literature – 8 From: Online Information Review, Volume 38, Issue 2
The literature of research, including theory, method and methodology, has become a substantial subset of the publishing industry in its traditional, electronic and hybrid forms. In this occasional series of reviews we focus on recent titles that address the many issues of research. The intention is to inform both established researchers and students of research. The reviewers assessment of each title is indicated by the number of stars (five being the highest recommendation).
Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review
Andrew Booth, Diana Papaioannou and Anthea Sutton
SAGE Publications
London
2012
279 pp.
Price not reported soft cover
ISBN 9780857021359
Assessment * * *
An Introduction to Systematic Reviews
David Gough, Sandy Oliver and James Thomas
SAGE Publications
London
2012
288 pp. Price not reported soft cover
ISBN 9781849201810
Assessment * * * *
Methodological Thinking: Basic Principles of Social Research Design
Donileen R. Loseke
SAGE Publications
London
2013 [May 2012]
194 pp.
£22.99 soft cover
ISBN 9781412997201
Assessment * * * * *
Real World Evaluation: Working under Budget, Time, Data and Political Constraints
Michael Bamberger, Jim Rugh and Linda Mabry
SAGE Publications
Thousand Oaks, CA
2012
666 pp.US$62.00 hard cover
ISBN 9781412979627
Assessment * * * *
How to Do Critical Discourse Analysis: A Multimodal Introduction
David Machin and Andrea Mayr
SAGE Publications
London
2012
236 pp.
£22.99 soft cover
ISBN 9780857028921
Assessment * * * *
In the world of research, systematic reviewing is an acquired skill that enables us to approach previous research as part of the process of creating new knowledge. Depending on the purpose of a review, different types of approaches may be taken. The first two titles discuss various approaches to reviewing, each for a different purpose. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review sees reviewing as a compulsory part of any empirical investigation, whose product appears as a literature review in research. The second title, An Introduction to Systematic Reviews, sees reviewing itself as a form of research or enquiry that needs to be treated like empirical research.
Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review focuses primarily on ways of approaching a quality literature review as part of any empirical research. The authors discuss the requirements and various phases of a systematic literature review. The book has been designed in 10 chapters. The first two chapters discuss the vital role of systematic literature reviews within research and introduce various systematic approaches. In the remaining eight chapters the reader is taken through an eight-phase process intended to result in a successful systematic literature review. Each chapter begins with a set of learning objectives and ends with key learning points and a reading list, supplemented with exercises and resources to support learning.
The process begins with planning and preparation, considering time, quality and money. This includes access to databases and libraries from which the literature will be obtained, a system for managing references and documents, analysis software appropriate for the sources of evidence used in the review, a timetable for the review, and a training plan for each member of the review team. The last element includes generic study skills applied to systematic searching, systematic appraisal, systematic synthesis, systematic analysis, and writing and presentation skills.
Following planning and preparation, the remaining seven steps are each presented in individual chapters:
Defining the scope.
Searching the literature.
Assessing the evidence base.
Synthesising included studies.
Analysing the findings.
Writing up and presenting data.
Managing the literature project.
In addition to the reading list for each chapter, a webography at the end of the book lists free-of-charge online resources. These guides plus the use of visual examples throughout the book, a glossary of terms and an index makes the content of this book highly accessible to the reader. The learning resources listed throughout the book are also available at www.sagepub.co.uk/booth. This book is suggested to all researchers who wish to gain a holistic knowledge on the “what and “how-to of systematic approaches to the literature review in any research.
The second title, An Introduction to Systematic Reviews, provides an introduction to the logic of systematic reviews and to the range of current and developing methods for reviewing. It partly covers the same material as the previous title but presents different views of systematic reviews. This is because this book presents the results of collective learning of 12 authors at the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information (EPPI) Co-ordinating Centre between 1993 and 2011.
The authors see systematic reviews as “a tool of democracy, informing sound decisions in the public sphere. With this perspective they provide researchers with first-hand knowledge of “the logic of systematic reviews, the “range of current and developing methods for reviewing and “consequences of reviewing systematically for the production and use of research.
The need for different approaches to systematic reviews lies in the diversity of the types of questions, methods and data addressed in each research undertaking. This book has been designed to help reviewers produce new knowledge useful for policy-makers in different sectors, considering the challenge of “diversity. It presents examples across policy sectors by drawing on the social sciences: health, education, social welfare, international development and environmental science.
The first three of 11 chapters describe the nature, logic and diversity in the approaches can be taken for a systematic review, considering the same assumptions as those applicable in empirical/primary research (i.e. research aims, assumptions, methodology, time and resources constraints). Highlighting the vital role of the “participatory approach in systematic reviews, the authors describe the practical implications of drawing on the perspectives and participation of stakeholders in reviews for service development and “evidence-informed decision-making.
Chapters 4 to 10 discuss the process of systematic reviews, as a form of research, informing public policy and practice. Chapters 4 to 8 discuss how to conceptualise, locate, describe and assess the quality of studies in systematic reviews. The authors of this chapter provide the reader with hints and instructions on how to plan the components of a review, prepare its requirements (ranging from reviewers skill needs to information management systems to handle the retrieved studies effectively), become involved in the process of finding and assessing relevant studies to meet the purpose of the review.
Chapter 9 focuses on the issue of synthesis for the production of the final results emerging from the synthesis of individual studies. It describes how to go about combining the results of research studies, of any type, and ascertain what they mean as a collective body of knowledge in the context of the review. This includes various types of synthesis, ranging from statistical meta-analysis to non-statistical meta-ethnography.
Chapter 10 is about “turning knowledge into action: communicating systematic reviews to appropriate users. To help reviewers with this task, the authors set a scene for the various uses of reviews and highlight different ways of communicating reviews in that context.
Highlighting the increasing profile of reviews that address public policy, the final chapter further discusses the importance and implications of systematic reviews for the research community in working across disciplines, across policy sectors, and across cultures.
The diversity in the reviews and methods discussed in this book and the rich examples drawn on throughout the text makes this book a must-read for anyone doing systematic reviews, and especially to those who are interested in conducting and using reviews for public policy-making.
The third work, Methodological Thinking, sets a new path for learning research design in the social sciences – that is, digesting the logic underlying research by thinking critically about the components of research and their relationship with each other. As stated by the author, “rather than thinking about research methods as a series of technical procedures and words to memorise, methodological thinking emphasises understanding the logic underlying research.
In taking this approach, Donileen Loseke teaches the reader how to develop research evaluation skills. She exposes her readers to different models of research and forms of data, using examples from published research, to help budding researchers treat research methods as “ways of thinking about the world.
The book is designed in eight chapters. The first two engage readers in thinking about social research as “a way of knowing and discuss the basic principles and fundamentals needed to develop practical knowledge of research design in the social sciences. This includes understanding the building blocks of social research design (i.e. data, concepts and theories) and various ways of using them in social research, and different models of social life and social research.
Chapters 3 to 8 discuss different components of social research as a chain of detective work, beginning with “research questions and ending with “writing and evaluating social research design.
Chapter 3 describes the nature and process of articulating and modifying good questions as an iterative and “messy process starting with “fuzzy ideas. Chapter 4 takes the reader to the next level of polishing research questions: reviewing the literature. Loseke opens the readers mind to the fact that reviews of previous studies help researchers to define the foundation for new studies, determine what new research is needed and discover guidelines for research design.
Chapter 5 helps readers link the “physical world of data to the “social world of meaning. This chapter help readers develop their understanding of, and ability in, “conceptualisation and “operationalisation as two key requirements for linking data to concepts in social research, and preparing to select appropriate data-generating techniques, discussed in the next chapter. In Chapter 6 Loseke guides readers in thinking about how to obtain data by illuminating the kind of thinking and ability that this requires. With this mindset she then introduces a wide range of techniques for data generation in social research, ranging from experiments to document analysis, and offers some criteria for assessing the appropriateness of the techniques. This is perhaps the best chapter of the book.
Chapter 7 carries on the research journey through a discussion of sampling and the various techniques employed in effective sampling. The final chapter is a summary of the journey, encouraging the reader to re-think social research design, but this time from an evaluators perspective: to check the validity and trustworthy of the design.
The generous use of examples and the simple language make this book very easy to use. It helps transmit practical knowledge of concepts and activities that is transferrable to real-world research. This book is suggested to all researchers who are willing to deepen their understanding of research and who want to know why they do what they do when undertaking social research.
The fourth book in this collection, RealWorld Evaluation, presents practical guidance on how to conduct rigorous and valid evaluations when working under budget, time and data, political and organisational constraints. In this new edition (the first was published in 2006), the authors consider the constraints in the broader context of both developing and developed countries. This makes the book usable for all evaluators across the world.
The book contains 19 chapters in three parts, and eight appendices. Part 1 (The Seven Steps of the RW Evaluation Approach), consisting of eight chapters, begins with an overview of the seven steps of RW evaluation tools and techniques that help evaluators and their clients deal with a variety of real-world constraints. Chapters 2-8 discuss the seven-phase process of evaluation considering the challenges that evaluators may face. The process begins with clarifying the purpose of the evaluation, addressing time, budget, data and political constraints and ends with some hints and strategies on how to help clients and other stakeholders utilise the evaluation.
Part 2 (A Review of Evaluation Methods and Approaches and Their Application in RealWorld Evaluation) also contains eight chapters. The first two address the basic principles and standards of “good practice that guide the ethical conduct of the evaluation and introduce “theory-based evaluation as an essential building block in the RW evaluation approach. The next five chapters discuss the various research designs, sampling and approaches (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods) in the context of RW evaluations. These discuss when, why and how each design or approach should be used for such studies. The final chapter in this part of the book discusses new evaluation designs and approaches to support the more complex, multicomponent, national-level developments influencing RW evaluations.
Part 3 (Organising and Managing Evaluations and Strengthening Evaluation Capacity) contains three chapters written especially for those dealing with the funding and management of evaluations. The first chapter defines and discusses the main stages in the preparation, recruitment of evaluators, implementation, dissemination and use of an evaluation. The second chapter discusses quality assurance matters and requirements and considerations for strengthening evaluation capacity at the agency and national levels. This part ends with a discussion of the challenges that some approaches and designs may pose to evaluators who aim at doing “rigorous impact RW evaluations. The authors then present some solutions to overcome the challenges.
This book is rich in content and well planned in terms of presentation. The generous use of real examples and a wide range of tools for programme evaluation (e.g. assessment checklists, worksheets, concept mapping, relevant framework models for evaluation, a reading list, glossary, and information on useful websites) make this book a self-contained handbook. It is recommended to anyone interested in understanding or doing real world evaluations.
The final work, How to Do Critical Discourse Analysis, presents a range of tools for analysing discourse in various forms, including spoken language, texts and the visual features of texts to uncover meaning that is not obvious to typical readers. Discourse is described as “the broader ideas shared by people in a society about how the world works. Its disciplinary focus is media and cultural studies, where peoples words, thoughts and gestures are the main source of evidence to understand the actual thinking and intention of speakers and actors. Nevertheless, it has applications in any field where discourse analysis is viewed as a valid form of data analysis.
The work is designed in eight chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the theoretical concepts underpinning Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) as a “loose combination of approaches founded in linguistics. Using a wealth of examples from media and cultural studies, Chapters 2 to 8 then discuss the analysis of various modes of communication such as language, image, toys, films, sounds, advertisements, etc. and their implications for understanding actual meaning and messages hidden in the words, images and gestures.
Chapter 2 explores the application of “basic lexical analysis of a range of texts for signifying meanings that are not explicit in speech and texts. Chapter 3 shows how analysing semiotic resources, including different categories of quoting verbs, and “visual semiotics help to reveal the thoughts and intentions behind words and gestures. Chapter 4 looks especially at the linguistic and visual semiotic resources (language and images) representing people and discusses how the analysis of these resources reveals their identity. Chapter 5 deals with the linguistic and visual semiotic resources for representing what people do and how that shapes our perception of participants, events, and circumstances. Chapter 6 deals with “metaphorical tropes in discourse as the basic part of what people describe and think about the world. Chapter 7 deals with “nominalisation and presupposition in language. Chapter 8 deals with “modality and hedging in texts and visual communication. And the final chapter discusses some criticisms of critical discourse analysis and MCDA.
Maryam Nazari, University of Tehran