Limiting or expanding your search

Limiting or expanding your search

Make sure you are focused when choosing your sources, considering each in terms of its relevance to your research question and sub-questions. If your search produces too many sources, perhaps including many which seem irrelevant, you will need to

narrow your search by including more search terms. If the amount of literature still seems infinite, it may be sensible to limit yourself to research published within a certain time frame or jurisdiction, or to identify other parameters for narrowing your scope.

On the other hand, for some emerging topics there may appear to be little litera- ture or even none at all. If your search identifies too few sources, you will need to broaden your search by using more general words. For example, if your study is about corrosive substance attacks/acid throwing as a form of gang violence, the body of academic literature remains limited at the time of writing. You may find it helpful to draw on the broader literature on this type of attack, much of which is associated with gender violence in South Asia, as well as the general literature on gang violence. In turn, it may then be necessary to limit the literature search to work published in your own country in the past ten years.

Reading and note-taking

An initial appraisal of the literature will help clarify the key issues, controversies and debates and provide a basis for future readings. What are the main theoretical per- spectives, major research studies and their methods and results? If there is an up-to-date student textbook or chapter among your sources that is directly relevant to your topic, start here for a comprehensive overview of the field, key texts and further readings.

In this initial phase, researchers can waste a lot of time reading in too much detail. Rather than reading a whole book, why not look for book reviews which summarize and evaluate the content for you? You should be able to get the measure of a book with thoughtful use of the contents and index pages and from the summaries pro- vided in the introductory and concluding chapters, or of an article by reviewing the abstract (summary). Different reading techniques include skimming, where you look quickly through the text focusing only on these elements; scanning, which is search- ing rapidly for specific information, such as a keyword, and ignoring everything else; and reading to understand, which involves more detailed study of a key source (Freeman and Meed, 1999).

Once this initial appraisal is complete, you need to make a decision about which aspect of the topic to focus on. Hopefully certain themes within the literature will have intrigued you, and you will find it helpful at this stage to discuss your findings with your supervisor and agree a feasible research question and specific research sub- questions. Following this, a more extensive and thorough literature review is needed for the purpose of obtaining a detailed knowledge of the specialist area being stud- ied, in order to devise an appropriate research design. As outlined earlier in the chapter, the approach to this will differ depending on whether you are carrying out a narrative review, a systematic review or a rapid evidence assessment.

As you conduct your detailed literature review, be sure to record the full biblio- graphic details of any texts you think will be relevant, using a consistent format. It is usual in the social sciences to employ the Harvard or APA systems of referencing, and to adopt a consistent approach to the recording of bibliographic information. Specialist bibliographic software such as EndNote is a useful aid in this process. Look for online study skills guides to help you with your referencing. The University of Portsmouth’s Referencing@Portsmouth website (http: //referencing. port. ac. uk), for example, provides a referencing tool as well as guidance pages to support student research.

It is also critical that you make sure any phrases copied directly into your notes are placed in quotation marks and page referenced, to avoid the risks of inadvertent plagiarism.

Annotated bibliographies

A useful way both of organizing your material and of making notes is to put together an annotated bibliography. Numerous online examples are available, many of which can be accessed via the bibliographies section of the World Criminal Justice Library Network website, although the quality and recency of the bibliog- raphies are variable.

Box 3. 6 provides an example of an annotation, which should include at the very least the full bibliographic citation; a brief summary of the content, including theo- retical frameworks and methodological approaches; and a short evaluation or analysis. Other elements may include the background of the author, the target audi- ence, the reliability of the text, and any special features (such as tables, diagrams or graphs) that are particularly useful. For each source, it is also a good idea to note how the material will address your research question and sub-questions.