Information – Sources and Reviewing
Learning Objectives
In this chapter you will learn:
- how to source and review the best available evidence for research purposes
- multiple ways to review information obtained
- learn about writing a literature review.
4.1 Best Available Evidence
- Empirical studies published in reputable scientific journals (scientific literature).
- Professional expertise from practitioners in the targeted area.
- Values and concerns from stakeholders involved in the business (project).
- Internal data from within the organisation from various departments.
- Ask – take your practical problem/issue and write it as an answerable question.
- Acquire – systematically search for relevant, reliable literature from the four sources to obtain what is required.
- Appraise – carefully consider and critically evaluate the information obtained (from the literature), is it relevant, is it trustworthy?
- Aggregate – judge the importance of the evidence you have sourced, then combine it in a concise manner.
- Apply – include evidence obtained into the organisation’s decision-making.
- Assess – carefully evaluate the outcome of applying the decision made (Criado-Perez et al., 2020).
4.2 Sources of Information
Scientific literature
Scientific literature undergoes a rigorous publication process. Scientific literature are articles published in reputable scholarly journals that have a ‘double-blind, peer review’ of each submitted article. This means each article is reviewed by other authors in the article’s field of study. The reviewers are not aware of the authors’ names, and the authors are not aware of the reviewers’ names (hence, double-blind). The reviewers critique the article and can suggest to the journal editor that the article be accepted without any changes, accepted subject to addressing the suggestions put forward, or rejecting the submission as being below the journal’s standards. This is a process that aims to ensure each journal only accepts papers of high quality, that are accurate, and academic integrity is maintained. You may find some who ascertain articles published in conference proceedings are not held to the same high standard as those published in scholarly journals. However, most reputable conferences require full articles and abstracts to be double-blind peer review prior to acceptance to the conference, and hence, publication in the conference proceedings.
Each journal publisher has specific criteria for publishing in their journals. For example, the following are four of the major publishers of business-related scientific articles (click on the hyperlinks to go to their websites):
To access scientific literature at JCU, go to the JCU Library site. If you are not familiar with the JCU Library One Search, you can find instructions in the One Search guide. There is also a pop-up that gives you the opportunity to chat with a librarian on each page. These are real people who are happy to assist.
Another option for finding relevant scientific literature is Google Scholar. To use Google Scholar’s advanced search features, see these instructions.
Industry literature
Industry literature is publications available in print and/or electronic formats, by governments, academics, businesses, and other areas of industry. These publications are not controlled by commercial publishers and include industry reports, trade journals, newsletters, and non-academic conference proceedings.
Industry and organisation websites are another source of useful information; here you can locate annual reports, media releases, case studies, and more. Other useful sites are news sites, such as:
However, before you reference any article from these news sites, you must do due diligence. Check where else the information has been reported; you want to ensure you are referring to fact and not fiction.
Internal information
Organisations hold enormous amounts of data regardless of their size. For example, you go to the local coffee shop, it is only small, but they have a loyalty card. To register your loyalty card, you go to their website or social media site and complete your details to activate the card. You may only have needed to put in an email address; however, some require a postal address and phone number. The small local coffee shop scans your loyalty card when you purchase a coffee from them. They now have a database of all their customers with loyalty cards. They know what your favourite coffee is, how often you buy a coffee, and the size of the coffee you purchase. This enables them to calculate how much you are ‘worth’ to the shop. If you have not been to the shop for a while, they have your email address and can send you email greetings and/or offers to encourage a return visit.
Large organisations have large amounts of data. However, it is not always in a central database that is easy to access. Often, the databases are ‘siloed’; each department stores its own information, for example, the human resources department stores data relating to staff (annual pay, annual leave, superannuation, the date they started, training undertaken, etc.). The finance department may store data on financial assets and liabilities, but may not be aware of the value of physical assets, and the future cost of staff in relation to long-service leave, for example. Even though the finance department may hold ‘the purse strings’ they may not be connected to the other databases. Most organisations have data regarding staff, physical assets (buildings, equipment, inventory), clients and customers, suppliers, financial assets and liabilities, operations, marketing and sales, and quality. Although large organisations have a plethora of data if you are external to the organisation, you may have considerable difficulty and cost associated with any access unless you have been contracted by the organisation to conduct research on their behalf.
Stakeholder information
The term stakeholder is used to describe individuals, groups, and organisations whose interests are affected by, or can affect an organisation’s project. Internal stakeholders would be the project manager, the customer, the project team, and the sponsor of the project. However, there are other stakeholders who can influence the organisation’s project outcomes, for example, local residents, local groups (e.g., sporting), suppliers, local businesses, the local council, and other members of society.
An example of the power of external stakeholders was evidenced in NSW in 2019. A proposal for a 23-turbine wind farm project on the Southern Tablelands in NSW was rejected. This was due to the unacceptable visual impact on nearby properties (external stakeholders). These external stakeholders had informed the Planning Commission that the proposed wind turbines would affect their land value, aesthetics, and health. While a cattle producer was quoted as saying wind turbines were “scenic vandalism” (Fookes, 2019). Interestingly, in other parts, such as Ravenshoe in Far North Queensland, the wind turbines are a tourist attraction with off-road parking to enable safe viewing. The cows sharing the paddock use them as scratching posts, and birds nest near the top of the inspection platforms.
4.3 Reviewing the Information
A critical literature review
You have collected literature relevant to your topic/problem. You then conduct a critical literature review, here you conduct an in-depth analysis and critical evaluation of your collected literature. This assists you in developing a clear argument around what has been published and what has not been published on your topic/problem, you identify the gaps in the literature (Raimi et al., 2021). You analyse each piece of literature, critically looking at the theories, methodology, arguments, and results, look for biases, and whether the analysis has been conducted and interpreted correctly and is therefore valid.
A thematic literature review
When you conduct a thematic literature review you are organising the literature around a topic/problem, not a progression of time, although the progression of time may be part of your thematic literature review. For example, you are focusing on one topic, the topic can be organised chronologically as it reflects developments or changes over time. However, most thematic reviews are not conducted chronologically, with the emphasis placed on the theme (University of North Carolina, n.d.).
A systematic literature review
The systematic literature review is a scientific approach that summarises and aims to identify all relevant studies on a specific topic. The systematic literature review is highly structured, and protocol driven so every part of the research process can be repeated. When conducting a systematic literature review, you must remain neutral and objective to ensure any instances of bias or error are minimised. Systematic literature reviews are generally quantitative, using statistical data, however on occasion they may include a limited number of qualitative studies (Efron & Ravid, 2018). A properly executed systematic review may take a considerable amount of time.
You should find a good guide to assist you with writing a systematic or a systematic-style review, such as some of the reviews mentioned below.
A rapid literature review
A rapid literature review is just that; it is conducted quickly due to time constraints. There are decisions made at the outset on what theories or methods to focus on and which to ignore. High-quality resources are obtained, and published literature reviews can be of advantage here as they summarise several studies on a specific topic/area (Efron & Ravid, 2018).
The integrative literature review
This type of review critically analyses existing literature, carefully considering the main ideas relating to the topic of interest. Here, the focus is on identifying directions for future research or offering a new topic, or a new perspective on the existing topic. The integrative literature review is generally the approach taken in fields where the research is mature, that is there are numerous empirical, and theoretical studies (Toronto & Remington, 2020).
The meta-analysis literature review
The meta-analysis literature review is a type of systematic literature review, generally using quantitative studies. Here, numerous quantitative studies are collected, and their findings are statistically combined to detect patterns of causal relationships among variables of interest and arrive at a conclusion (Petticrew et al., 2013).
The narrative literature review
The narrative literature review is comprehensive, obtaining literature from a variety of academic disciplines relating to the topic/problem. This type of review includes literature with diverse research methods, and qualitative, quantitative, and theoretical studies. The narrative literature review seeks to critically and objectively analyse current knowledge on the topic/problem and may be useful in building theories (Baumeister & Leary, 1997).
A conceptual literature review
A conceptual literature review offers a conceptual framework for the topic under study. Here the literature on the topic is investigated to identify and analyse different concepts. For example, you might critically discuss how the topic was conceptualised in the literature, how this was reflected in empirical studies, and the implications of the conceptualisations (Efron & Ravid, 2018).
Writing a literature review
The following hyperlink takes you to a resource on how to write a literature review.
Key Takeaways
- The main sources of reputable evidence are scientific literature (journal articles), practitioners, stakeholders, and organisations.
- There are several search protocols for obtaining scientific literature.
- Industry literature may be referred to as ‘grey’ literature.
- Due diligence is highly important.
- Even though there is a plethora of internal information available to organisations there can be issues with accessing it
- The term stakeholder describes individuals , groups, and organisations whose interests are affected by or can affect an organisations project, for example.
- There are several different types of literature reviews.
- Writing a literature review is not scary as long as you follow the process prescribed.
References
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1997). Writing narrative literature reviews. Review of General Psychology, 1(3), 311-320. https://www.academia.edu/109166359/Writing_narrative_literature_reviews
Criado-Perez, C., Collins, C. G., & Jackson, C. (2020). Enablers of evidence-based management: Clues from the absorptive capacity literature. Australian Journal of Management, 45(3), 468-487. https://doi.org/10.1177/0312896220919784
Efron, S. E., & Ravid, R. (2018). Writing a literature review: A practical guide. Guilford Publications.
Fookes, T. (2019, November 1). Wind farm rejection leaves clean energy advocates baffled. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-11-01/wind-farm-rejection-leaves-clean-energy-advocates-baffled/11649366
Petticrew, M., Rehfuess, E., Noyes, J., Higgins, J. P. T., Mayhew, A., Pantoja, T., Shemilt, I., & Sowden, A. (2013). Synthesizing evidence on complex interventions: How meta-analytical, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches can contribute. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 66, 1230-1243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2013.06.005
Raimi, L., Che, F. N., & Mutiu, R. M. (2021). Agricultural information systems (AGRIS) as a catalyst for sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Africa: A critical literature review. In F. N. Che, K. D. Strang, & N. R. Vajjhala (Eds.), Opportunities and strategic use of agribusiness information systems (pp. 109-133). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-4849-3
Rousseau, D. M. (2020). The realist rationality of evidence-based management. Academy of Management and Learning Education, 19(3), 415-424. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2020.0050
University of North Carolina. (n.d.). Literature reviews. https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/literature-reviews/
