Research Methods: Doing a literature review

Starting to analyse

Make critical comments as you read and this will help you develop critical analysis. For paper copies these could take the form of post-it notes and for electronic documents you could use margin notes. Critical comments on a journal article could focus on:

• whether the research design is appropriate to answer the research questions
• whether the sample is appropriate in relation to the research design and the extent to which the results can be generalised
• evidence of author bias
• your evaluation on the validity / reliability of the findings
• the rigour of the data analysis
• how the findings compare with those of other researchers in this area

(Adapted from O’Leary, 2010 and Punch, 2009)