14/09/2024
Research Skills
Goede database: Science Direct
Online databases
- University library
o Access information and ensure reliable sources
o Serves as a portal to a much broader range of resources
o Systematic and productive methods for discovering useful/credible sources
o Keyword searching / browsing / scanning bookshelves / bibliographic trails /
citation indexing
o Use reference works to shape your search efforts
o Bibliographic work provide abstracts summarizing articles/books on atopic
o Online databases with subscriptions to indexes and databases
- Web of Science:
o Forward and backward search (which papers did this article cite and which
papers cited this article?)
- Business Source Complete (EBSCO)
o Full text articles for English language journals published worldwide
o Covers all areas of business and management
o Most from 1990s onwards
o Includes Datamonitor company profiles for large companies, Datamonitor
industry profiles of various industries, Economist Intelligence Unit country
reports
- Business Source Premier
o Fewer papers but business-related
- Emerald (Emerald Management eJournals)
o Full text articles for English language journals published in the UK by Emerald
o Covers all areas of business and management
- JSTOR
o Full text articles for science, social science, arts and humanities journals
o Great coverage, usually best place to find “old” articles
- Blackwell Reference Online
o “Handbooks” and “Companions” covering business and management
- Wiley Online
o Coverages includes several full text journals on sciences, business, law,
humanities, psychology, and social science
- Nexis
o Full text of articles in UK national and regional newspapers, as well as
international news providers
, - Google Scholar
o Ranks scholarly literature consisting of articles, theses, books, abstracts or
court opinions of many disciplines and sources
o Usually with web link, but access depends on subscription
o Literature ranked according to full text of each document, where published,
author(s), how often and how recently cited in other scholarly literature
o Extremely broad, with non-academic works (e.g., patents), no quality check
- The internet and ‘google’
o Most information are reliable, but not everything is. It is essentially
unmonitored. Maintain a healthy skepticism.
o Based on algorithm and paid prompts by advertisers.
o Useful to get our bearings on a new topic, to explore potential keywords, to
remind ourselves of learned facts, to locate sources, or get a “feel” of what we
are likely to find
o Be wary of copyright materials
Undertake your search: use Boolean operators (and or not) to link two or more search terms
and use wild cards (* or?) to truncate search terms.
Main types of literature:
- Textbooks: use to get overview of research topic and find out who are experts
- Peer-reviewed (refereed) academic journal articles, including meta-analyses: most
useful for literature review
- Non-refereed academic journal articles (may have bias)
- Professional and trade journal articles (use with caution)
- Newspaper articles: use for topical events/developments (may have bias)
- Conference proceedings: useful if theme matches research
- Reports
Three types of sources: primary (original materials providing raw data yet to be tested),
secondary (books, articles, reports based on primary sources), tertiary (books, articles that
synthesize and report on secondary sources).
Evaluating literature:
- Relevance: is it recent/similar topic/is the author cited more?
- Value: emotional words used/theory and method described clearly/list of references?
- Reliability: peer reviewed/reputable press/current/cited by others?
,The literature review: what, why how?
Literature review: offers overview/summary of significant/relevant literature available in
chosen topic/question. Provides discussion/critical evaluation to your research questions. As
section of scientific paper, it contextualizes/justifies research by developing a clearly defined
argument.
- As a stand alone literature review article: provides background on the topic and
describes the objectives of the literature review
- As part of a research paper, thesis or dissertation: reiterates the central problem and
briefly summarizes the scholarly context
What it does What is does not do
Identify relevant/significant search to topic Include all research possibly relevant to topic
Discuss/evaluate this research Just summarize/describe research
Identify recognized experts Fail to mention recognized experts
Contextualize/justify research questions Fail to mention/justify research questions
Consider/discuss research that supports idea Only discuss research that supports idea
Consider/discuss research that opposed idea Ignore research that opposes idea
Justify points made logically with valid evidence Make unjustified/poorly justified points
Distinguish between fact and opinion Mix up fact and opinion
Include up-to-date relevant research Miss our research relevant search
Fully reference all items referred to Fail to reference all or some items referred to
Why?
- Provides the base on which you build research project
- Helps decide on the topic you want to research
- Can give insights into secondary data that are likely to be available
- Can give insights into ways of collecting/analyzing data
Aims:
- Provides bridge between research questions and research findings
- Provides wide and in-depth knowledge of theoretical, empirical and methodological
issues
- Speak with authority on research topic and the wider subject area
- Compare research methods, theoretical framework and findings with work already
done
- Set the scope and range of research topic
- Excellent starting point for researchers beginning, by summarizing, evaluating and
comparing
- Provides constructive analysis of methodologies and approaches of other researchers
- Ensures researchers do not duplicate already done work
- Provides clues where future research is heading and recommends areas on which to
focus on
How -> structuring the literature review:
- Are there common themes that tie together in more than one paper? Can you lump
them together, e.g. concepts, theories, data (definitions, key papers etc.)?
, - Is there an order within each strand? Is chronological development important? Do
authors agree or contrast with one another? Are there papers that fit in more than
one strand?
Format literature review
- Introduction: establishes the purpose
- Body: analyzes, interprets, and critically evaluates literature (may be divided in
section, synthesizes and cites different sources)
- Conclusion: summaries key findings
Theoretical framework and hypothesis
The theoretical framework, data methodology and results make up the body of our research
paper, which is the largest part of our paper.
Theoretical framework:
- First ‘building block’ of the body text: forms the scholarly background of research
- Contextualize research topic within existing theoretical approach and present
comprehensive discussion of relevant literature
- Based on literature’s finding, formulate here the general expectations as regards
answering the central research question
Structure theoretical framework: start with an explanation of the economic theory in which
you intend to embed your research -> then, discuss any previous literature -> discussion will
eventually leas to the presentation of hypotheses/hypothesis.
Purpose: to present current scholarly knowledge/insights relating to topic, which create a
context within which the research question needs to be embedded. Central question of your
research serves as stating point. Only provide information relevant to answering sub-
questions.
Theoretical Empirical
Can be discussed by means of theoretical Can be answered by analyzing data
analysis, based on present academic literature
Existing theory should be further developed, Ideal basis for defining a hypothesis
challenged, refined or updated
New insights are generated based on earlier Fitting for an argument-based organizational
research format: describe state research, then offer
arguments to arrive at a hypothesis
Difference between theoretical and empirical sub-questions ^
Arranging information: using sub-questions that help structure the report:
- Discuss all sub-questions one by one to answer the central question
- Sub-questions may be presented explicitly and implicitly in the report, either some/all
in the introduction to show how central question is defined
- Headings indicate what specific sub-question you are discussing (use structural
markets)
- Discuss economic theory first, then findings of empirical literature
Research Skills
Goede database: Science Direct
Online databases
- University library
o Access information and ensure reliable sources
o Serves as a portal to a much broader range of resources
o Systematic and productive methods for discovering useful/credible sources
o Keyword searching / browsing / scanning bookshelves / bibliographic trails /
citation indexing
o Use reference works to shape your search efforts
o Bibliographic work provide abstracts summarizing articles/books on atopic
o Online databases with subscriptions to indexes and databases
- Web of Science:
o Forward and backward search (which papers did this article cite and which
papers cited this article?)
- Business Source Complete (EBSCO)
o Full text articles for English language journals published worldwide
o Covers all areas of business and management
o Most from 1990s onwards
o Includes Datamonitor company profiles for large companies, Datamonitor
industry profiles of various industries, Economist Intelligence Unit country
reports
- Business Source Premier
o Fewer papers but business-related
- Emerald (Emerald Management eJournals)
o Full text articles for English language journals published in the UK by Emerald
o Covers all areas of business and management
- JSTOR
o Full text articles for science, social science, arts and humanities journals
o Great coverage, usually best place to find “old” articles
- Blackwell Reference Online
o “Handbooks” and “Companions” covering business and management
- Wiley Online
o Coverages includes several full text journals on sciences, business, law,
humanities, psychology, and social science
- Nexis
o Full text of articles in UK national and regional newspapers, as well as
international news providers
, - Google Scholar
o Ranks scholarly literature consisting of articles, theses, books, abstracts or
court opinions of many disciplines and sources
o Usually with web link, but access depends on subscription
o Literature ranked according to full text of each document, where published,
author(s), how often and how recently cited in other scholarly literature
o Extremely broad, with non-academic works (e.g., patents), no quality check
- The internet and ‘google’
o Most information are reliable, but not everything is. It is essentially
unmonitored. Maintain a healthy skepticism.
o Based on algorithm and paid prompts by advertisers.
o Useful to get our bearings on a new topic, to explore potential keywords, to
remind ourselves of learned facts, to locate sources, or get a “feel” of what we
are likely to find
o Be wary of copyright materials
Undertake your search: use Boolean operators (and or not) to link two or more search terms
and use wild cards (* or?) to truncate search terms.
Main types of literature:
- Textbooks: use to get overview of research topic and find out who are experts
- Peer-reviewed (refereed) academic journal articles, including meta-analyses: most
useful for literature review
- Non-refereed academic journal articles (may have bias)
- Professional and trade journal articles (use with caution)
- Newspaper articles: use for topical events/developments (may have bias)
- Conference proceedings: useful if theme matches research
- Reports
Three types of sources: primary (original materials providing raw data yet to be tested),
secondary (books, articles, reports based on primary sources), tertiary (books, articles that
synthesize and report on secondary sources).
Evaluating literature:
- Relevance: is it recent/similar topic/is the author cited more?
- Value: emotional words used/theory and method described clearly/list of references?
- Reliability: peer reviewed/reputable press/current/cited by others?
,The literature review: what, why how?
Literature review: offers overview/summary of significant/relevant literature available in
chosen topic/question. Provides discussion/critical evaluation to your research questions. As
section of scientific paper, it contextualizes/justifies research by developing a clearly defined
argument.
- As a stand alone literature review article: provides background on the topic and
describes the objectives of the literature review
- As part of a research paper, thesis or dissertation: reiterates the central problem and
briefly summarizes the scholarly context
What it does What is does not do
Identify relevant/significant search to topic Include all research possibly relevant to topic
Discuss/evaluate this research Just summarize/describe research
Identify recognized experts Fail to mention recognized experts
Contextualize/justify research questions Fail to mention/justify research questions
Consider/discuss research that supports idea Only discuss research that supports idea
Consider/discuss research that opposed idea Ignore research that opposes idea
Justify points made logically with valid evidence Make unjustified/poorly justified points
Distinguish between fact and opinion Mix up fact and opinion
Include up-to-date relevant research Miss our research relevant search
Fully reference all items referred to Fail to reference all or some items referred to
Why?
- Provides the base on which you build research project
- Helps decide on the topic you want to research
- Can give insights into secondary data that are likely to be available
- Can give insights into ways of collecting/analyzing data
Aims:
- Provides bridge between research questions and research findings
- Provides wide and in-depth knowledge of theoretical, empirical and methodological
issues
- Speak with authority on research topic and the wider subject area
- Compare research methods, theoretical framework and findings with work already
done
- Set the scope and range of research topic
- Excellent starting point for researchers beginning, by summarizing, evaluating and
comparing
- Provides constructive analysis of methodologies and approaches of other researchers
- Ensures researchers do not duplicate already done work
- Provides clues where future research is heading and recommends areas on which to
focus on
How -> structuring the literature review:
- Are there common themes that tie together in more than one paper? Can you lump
them together, e.g. concepts, theories, data (definitions, key papers etc.)?
, - Is there an order within each strand? Is chronological development important? Do
authors agree or contrast with one another? Are there papers that fit in more than
one strand?
Format literature review
- Introduction: establishes the purpose
- Body: analyzes, interprets, and critically evaluates literature (may be divided in
section, synthesizes and cites different sources)
- Conclusion: summaries key findings
Theoretical framework and hypothesis
The theoretical framework, data methodology and results make up the body of our research
paper, which is the largest part of our paper.
Theoretical framework:
- First ‘building block’ of the body text: forms the scholarly background of research
- Contextualize research topic within existing theoretical approach and present
comprehensive discussion of relevant literature
- Based on literature’s finding, formulate here the general expectations as regards
answering the central research question
Structure theoretical framework: start with an explanation of the economic theory in which
you intend to embed your research -> then, discuss any previous literature -> discussion will
eventually leas to the presentation of hypotheses/hypothesis.
Purpose: to present current scholarly knowledge/insights relating to topic, which create a
context within which the research question needs to be embedded. Central question of your
research serves as stating point. Only provide information relevant to answering sub-
questions.
Theoretical Empirical
Can be discussed by means of theoretical Can be answered by analyzing data
analysis, based on present academic literature
Existing theory should be further developed, Ideal basis for defining a hypothesis
challenged, refined or updated
New insights are generated based on earlier Fitting for an argument-based organizational
research format: describe state research, then offer
arguments to arrive at a hypothesis
Difference between theoretical and empirical sub-questions ^
Arranging information: using sub-questions that help structure the report:
- Discuss all sub-questions one by one to answer the central question
- Sub-questions may be presented explicitly and implicitly in the report, either some/all
in the introduction to show how central question is defined
- Headings indicate what specific sub-question you are discussing (use structural
markets)
- Discuss economic theory first, then findings of empirical literature
