Assessment 2
Assessment type: Written review
Weight: 40%
Length: 2,000 words
Instructions
In this assessment, students prepare a
written review/synthesis
of the academic and professional literature (including grey literature) relating to a
problem
of interest that they want to investigate. The literature review should be comprised of the following parts:
·
Project objective
(i.e., clearly write your research question or project aim and objective) (
10 marks
).
·
Institutional context
(i.e., the literature review/synthesis) should comprise two sections:
(i) Previous research (
15 marks
);
(ii) Contribution to the literature (
15 marks
).
Advice
As noted above, your institutional context section should consist of two sections:
(i) The first part should discuss previous research (i.e., the academic and professional literature)
that is
directly relevant to your project
(and not every single paper written on the topic).
(ii) The second section should explain your proposed contribution in a little more detail. How does your approach differ from what has been done below? Is it new data? A new model? Are you answering a question more broadly/specifically? In this section, you should think creatively about external validity issues: are your findings relevant for a population/institutional environment that is different from previous work, and could this be why your findings differ?
Please ensure that your
written review/synthesis
is clear, concise, and well-presented (as style and substance go hand in hand).
Reasearch question:
What are the Causes and effects of climate change?
Searching journal databases, books and reports
As you probably already know, finding the most relevant studies in a journal database can be a very time consuming process. There are some tips that you can use to improve your searching efficacy, including the use of syntax logics
Another mechanism that you can use to accumulate journal articles related to a topic is to select a particular journal that is known to be of high, or of the highest, quality for a particular line of study. Once you have accessed this journal through the Southern Cross University Library database, you can scroll through the list of publications year by year, and collect studies that you think might have bearing to your own research. Almost every year a list is developed that showcases the ranking of journals. You may like to check this list and make a note of the highest ranked journals in your field. Also consult theAustralian Business Deans Council list of Journal Qualitywebsite , which you can visit and then download the Master Journal List for your reference.
When reviewing the literature (in the form of an article, book, presentation etc.), you should take note of the following factors:
Research question/aims: Does the research pose an effective research question or research aim (i.e. one that can be answered)
Constructs reviewed: What are all the constructs identified in the literature section, assessed in the study and what relationships did the authors note in the Findings and Discussion section of the paper?
Method: On the face of it, does the method adopted by the researcher to address a research aim (or answer a research question) appear to provide a mechanism that will deliver an adequate result?
Sample size: If a paper is making a claim about the relevancy of an item of research to a large population, does it have an adequate sample size?
Results: Do the results make sense? Are they explained effectively? Are unforeseen effects justified? Have the research questions been answered?
Use of language: Is the paper effectively written? Are ideas and claims clearly outlined and supported?
Limitations: Good researchers list the limitations of their studies in their articles: are the limitations listed? If not, can you see any potential limitations?