Sources of information for a literature review.

 Relevant Literature Review

Sources of information for a literature review.

 Activity - Identifying keywords to use in a literature review

      Using the ERIC system

 Searching the World Wide Web

Sources of information for a literature review

There are a wide variety of resources available to assist you in locating articles for your review of related literature. Many of these are available through college or public library in computerized database form.

1. Education Index - covers professional publications, precedes the use of CIJE (current Index to Journals in Education).
2. Readers Guide to Periodical Literature - covers articles from 200 widely read magazines (popular literature).
3. Expanded Academic Index - covers journal articles from over 1500 periodicals.
4. Dissertation Abstracts International - contains bibliographic citations and abstracts from doctoral dissertations and master's theses worldwide.
5. Psychological Abstracts - presents summaries of studies completed in psychology, including developmental psychology and educational psychology. These two areas are of special interest to educational researchers.
6. ERIC - the Educational Resources Information Center collects and disseminates reports of current educational research, evaluation, developmental activity. ERIC maintains two databases searchable by computer. ERIC is probably the single most important source of information for educational researchers. We will do an extensive activity using the ERIC database system.
• RIE - Resources in Education, this ERIC database contains bibliographic citations and summaries to information not published in journals, e.g. conference presentations, technical reports, and unpublished research results. The items in this database are identified by ED numbers.
• CIJE - Current index to Journals in Education, this ERIC database contains bibliographic citations and article summaries to journals. The items in this database are identified by EJ numbers.
7. Internet Search - We might also like to look on the world wide web for information on our proposed research topic using one of the internet search engines such as Ask Jeeves, LookSmart, Lycos, Netscape, NBCi, Overture, or Google.

Activity - Identifying keywords to use in a literature review

Prior to conducting a literature search, we have to identify the key words or key descriptors that we will be using in our literature search.

As an activity, jot down some descriptors you might use to search for articles and other materials related to each of the following research topics.

1          The relationship between personality correlates and anorexic symptomatology in female undergraduates.

2          The effect of expressive arts on counseling efficacy of adolescents.

3          The effect of cognitive-behavioral techniques on chronic pain management for the elderly.

4          The effect of a structured peer consultation model to address the needs of regular counseling supervision for school counselors.

5          The relationship between social integration and academic performance among minority university students.

6          The educational characteristics of gifted learning disabled students in the middle school.

Now that you have generated a list of key words for the above research topics, here are some suggestions, probably similar to those you thought of.

1        The relationship between personality correlates and anorexic symptomatology in female undergraduates.
Possible keywords: personality, anorexia, and female.

2         The effect of expressive arts on counseling efficacy of adolescents.
Possible keywords: expressive arts, counseling, and adolescent

3         The effect of cognitive-behavioral techniques on chronic pain management for the elderly.
Possible keywords: cognitive, behavioral, chronic pain, and possibly geriatric

4        The effect of a structured peer consultation model to address the needs of regular counseling supervision for school counselors.
Possible keywords: peer consultation, supervision, and counselors.

5        The relationship between social integration and academic performance among minority university students.
Possible keywords: social integration, academic performance, and minority student

6        The educational characteristics of gifted learning disabled students in the middle school.
Possible keywords: gifted, learning disabled (or learning disabilities), and possibly middle school or junior high school.

Using the ERIC system

As an example, let's take the last research topic, the educational characteristics of gifted learning disabled students in the middle school, and do an ERIC search to see what articles we come up with for possible inclusion in a review of related literature.

We can access the ERIC system on the internet at Minnesota State University Moorhead, as well as other places. To do an ERIC search at MSUM, point your web browser at http://www.pals.msus.edu/cgi-bin/pals-cgi?palsAction=restart&documentName=selectre.htm and you will come to the MSUM online Library Catalog.

Searching the World Wide Web

There will also be a large body of information on our research topic on the World Wide Web. We may wish to explore the World Wide Web and look for further information.

Try following search techniques:

1.                  Simply type the key word :   computer, education,

2.                  Keyword grouping: “computer education”, “Gifted students”

3.                  Specifying words that must appear:

“gifted students”+achievement

gifted students+achievement

+”gifted students”+achievement

4.                  Excluding words:

+”gifted students”+achievement-chemistry

5.                  Boolean searchers

AND, OR, NOT

Activity 2

In this assignment you are going to generate key words for one research topic relevant to Science/Mathematics Education and then do search using these keywords.

After you have identified the articles/books/journals which it is appropriate to retain for your review of related literature, create an APA style reference for each article/book/journal and put all of the relevant references in a reference list.

You should be aiming for 10-20 references for this assignment. If you have too few articles you might want to widen your search. For example if "word recognition problems" identifies too few references try "reading problems" which should get more references. You can also identify additional appropriate references by looking at the reference lists in the articles you have identified.

In the assignment you should include the following three items:

1. Research topic
2. Keywords for your literature search
3. Reference list in APA style (15-25 references)

Use the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association  to completely understand APA style for references. Here are some examples from the manual. You can also look at the references in the sample reference list below.

Example of references to periodicals, journal article, one author (APA, 1994, page 195):

     Bekerian, D. A. (1993). In search of the typical eyewitness. American Psychologist, 48, 574-576.
Example of reference to periodical, journal article, two authors, journal paginated by issue (APA, 1994, page 195):
     Klimoski, R., & Palmer, S. (1993). The ADA and the hiring process in organizations.  Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 45(2), 10-36.
Example of reference to report available from the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) (APA, 1994, pages 208-209):
     Mead, J. V. (1992). Looking at old photographs: Investigating the teacher tales that novice teachers bring with them (Report No. NCRTL-RR-92-4D). East Lansing, MI: National Center for Research on Teacher Learning. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 346 082).
Elements of references to on-line information (APA, 1994, page 218):
     Author, I. (date). Title of article. Name of Periodical [On-line], xx, Available: Specify path
     Author, I., & Author, I. (date). Title of chapter. In Title of full work [On-line]. Available: Specify path
Research Topic: The educational characteristics of gifted students with learning disabilities
Descriptors for ERIC search: gifted, learning disabilities

References

This example reference list, of course, does not have as many references as it should have (10-20 references).
     Baum, S. (1990). Gifted but learning disabled: A puzzling paradox [On-line]. Available: http://members.aol.com/discanner/ld.html
     Beckley, D. (1998). Gifted and learning disabled: Twice exceptional students. Storrs, CT: National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 424 711)
     Brody, L. E., & Mills, C. J. (1997). Gifted children with learning disabilities: A review of the issues. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 30, 282-296.
     Dix, J., & Schafer, S. (1996). From paradox to performance: Practical strategies for identifying and teaching GT/LD students. Gifted Child Today Magazine, 19(1), 22-25, 28-31.
     Doney, C. J. (1995). Creating opportunities, or what is it like to be a WHALE? Journal of Learning disabilities, 28, 194-195.
    Hannah, C. L., & Shore, B. M. (1995). Metacognition and high intellectual ability: Insights from the study of learning-disabled gifted students. Gifted Child Quarterly, 39, 95-109.
     Hishinuma, E., & Tadaki, S. (1996). Addressing diversity of the gifted/at risk characteristics for identification. Gifted Child Today Magazine, 19(5), 20-25, 28-29, 45, 50.
     Norton, S., Hartwell-Hunicutt, K., & Norton, R. C. (1996). The learning disabled/gifted student. Contemporary Education, 68(1), 36-40.
     Silverman, L. (1997).  Gifted children with learning disabilities [On-line]. Available: http://members.aol.com/discanner/gtld.html