Review the Literature

In the week 1 module, you requested your Purple File and hopefully have received relevant sources that you can use as you begin your literature review.  As you identify key pieces of literature that you find useful, you may be able to find additional sources by examining the literature cited sections of those articles.

A literature review is an evaluative report of the literature relating to a particular research topic.  The literature review is more than just a summary of the current literature.  The literature review should describe, summarize, evaluate, and clarify the literature. It should provide the foundation to support the new insight your additional research can provide. The literature reviewed is most commonly journals, scholarly books, and databases.  However, it may include newspaper articles, magazines, other books, films, audio, video and other secondary sources.  The purpose of reviewing the relevant literature in your manuscript is to:

• Establish a framework for the topic or subject
• Define key words and terminology
• Identify studies, case studies and models that support your research topic
• Provide a chronology or progression of the knowledge on the subject
• Identify and articulate relationships in the previous research with your research
• May provide a new interpretation of previously published literature
• Illustrate how the subject has been studied previously (methodology)
• Highlight flaws in the research and identify gaps to set the stage for the purpose of your research
• Describe where your research will fit in the current body of knowledge
• Help define and establish the area of research

Beginning to review the literature can be a daunting task.  It is a like a jungle of information. You will need to limit yourself and create a plan for reviewing and organizing it or you may find yourself totally bogged down.  Following are tips for reviewing your literature that should help you get started:

• Check time spans for articles; read the newest material first
• Focus on the main journals in your field and identify publishers that have relevant sources
• Skim and discover - look for the main points, strengths, and weaknesses in articles
• Limit note-taking and do plan to use many direct quotes
• Focus big picture and not the details
• Look for arguments, contributions, and gaps that support your research
• How does the literature relate to your study?  Which articles are most helpful in strengthening your argument and proving how it is important to the field?  Find articles that identify inadequacies or gaps in the knowledge.  Or identify articles that segway into your research, showing how your research advances knowledge in the field.

Use the information gathered from the literature review to revise and add to your outline from Week 1.  The literature will help you present evidence and strengthen your argument in your introduction and literature review section. Add as much detail as possible to the introduction of the outline to facilitate the writing process that will begin in Week 3.

Using RefWorks to Manage Your Citations

About RefWorks

Refworks is web-based bibliographic management software that enables users to easily store, organize, and manage citation information as well as generate bibliographies in a wide variety of citation styles.  It includes a plug in called Write-n-Cite that can be used with Microsoft Word to easily insert citations and automatically generate a bibliography for content cited in a paper.  This can save the researcher considerable time that is typically lost locating citation information and manually entering and correctly formatting citations.

RefWorks functions as a personal database of citation information that is accessible anywhere that Internet access is available.  Researchers can quickly add bibliographic information during the research process in several different ways. Citation information can be directly exported to RefWorks from many of the library databases and even from Google Scholar.  Citations stored in different bibliographic software programs, such as EndNote and Zotero can be imported.  Citations can also be manually entered.  Once citations are in RefWorks, they can be organized, edited, and searched. Duplicate checking is available.

Getting Started with RefWorks

Before using RefWorks, GCU users will need to set up their free RefWorks account.  To set up this account, you must either be on campus, or log in to RefWorks through the GCU Library Website.  Once your account has been created, you can access RefWorks either through the library or directly at https://www.refworks.com/refworks2/.  If you previously had a RefWorks account through another institution, you can move the citations from that account to the new account you set up through GCU. Please contact the library for assistance with this.

Using Write-n-Cite

When you are ready to write your research findings, Write-n-Cite is a great tool for formatting your in-text citations and bibliography.  To download Write-N-Cite, log in to your RefWorks account and locate Write-N-Cite in the Tools menu.  Select the correct version to download and install based on your operating system and version of Word. Be sure to copy the Download Code on the download page.  You will need this later to connect Write-N-Cite to your RefWorks account.

After installation, open Word.  You will see a RefWorks tab in the Office ribbon.  Go to this tab and click on Log in. You will need either the Download Code or the RefWorks Group Code to log in.  Contact the library for assistance if you need the Group Code.  Log in using the credentials you created for RefWorks. After this initial login, Write-N-Cite will remain connected to your RefWorks account unless you log out. 

Syncing your RefWorks database to Write-N-Cite makes all of the citation information in your RefWorks account available for you in Word without an active Internet connection.  For this reason, you may want to sync Write-N-Cite any time you add new references to RefWorks.

Getting Help

There are many ways to get help with using RefWorks and Write-N-Cite. Refworks has extensive help files available on their website as well as a LibGuide.  The GCU Library offers a monthly RefWorks webinar, where you will learn how to create an account, export from the Library databases, and manually create citations.  The Library also has a Guide with information on Citing Sources that includes some basic information on RefWorks. Please feel free to contact the library directly for additional help.