HOW TO REVIEW THE LITERATURE AND CONDUCT ETHICAL STUDIESPeriodicals.Study results appear in newspapers,
in popular magazines, on television or radio broad-
casts, and in Internet news summaries, but these are
not the full, complete reports of research you need
to prepare a literature review. They are selected,
condensed summaries prepared by journalists for a
general audience. They lack many essential details
that we require to seriously evaluate the study. Text-
books and encyclopedias also present condensed
summaries as introductions to readers who are new
to a topic. These too are inadequate for preparing a
literature review because many essential details
about the study are absent.
Navigating the world of published scholarly
articles can be intimidating at first. When asked to
do a “literature review,” many beginning students
Google the topic on the Internet or go to familiar
nonprofessional, nonscholarly magazines or news-
paper articles. Social science students need to learn
to distinguish between scholarly publications that
report on research studies and popular or layperson
entertainment or news articles for the lay public (see
Table 1). They need to move from lay public sources
and rely on serious scholarly publications written
for a professional audience.
Professional researchers present the results of
studies in one of several forms: academic research
books (often called monographs), articles in schol-
arly journals, chapters in edited academic books,
and papers presented at professional meetings. Sim-
plified, abbreviated, and “predigested” versions of
articles appear in textbooks written for students who
are first learning about a topic or in journalistic sum-
maries in publications for the public. Unfortunately,
the simplified summaries can give an incomplete or
distorted picture of a complete study. Researchers
must locate the original scholarly journal article to
see what the author said and the data show.
Upper-level undergraduates and graduate stu-
dents writing a serious research paper should rely on
the academic literature, that is, original articles pub-
lished in academic scholarly journals. Unfortunately,
students may find some of the scholarly articles too
difficult or technical to follow. The upside is that the
articles are the “real McCoy,” or original reports, not
another person’s (mis)reading of the original.
Researchers also may find a type of nonresearch
publication with commentaries on topics or research
questions. These are discussion-opinion magazines
(e.g.,American Prospect, Cato Journal, Commen-
tary, Nation, National Review, New Republic, New
York Review of Books, Policy Review, and
Public Interest). In them, professionals write essays
expressing opinions, beliefs, value-based ideas, and
speculation for the educated public or professionals.
They do not contain original empirical research or
actual scientific studies. They may be classified as
“academic journals” (versus general magazines) and
may be “peer reviewed,” but they do not contain
original reports of empirical research. For example,
Policy Reviewcovers many topics: law enforcement,
criminal justice, defense and military, politics, gov-
ernment and international relations, and political sci-
ence. The leading conservative “think tank,” the
Heritage Foundation, publishes material as a forum
for conservative debate on major political issues.
At times, professors or professional researchers
who also conduct serious research studies contribute
their opinions and speculation in such publications.
These publications must be used with caution. They
present debates, opinions, and judgments, not the
official reports of serious empirical research. If you
want to write a research paper based on empirical
research (e.g., an experiment, survey data, field
research), you need to rely on specialized sources. If
you use an opinion essay article, you need to treat it
as such and never confuse it with an empirical social
science study.
Researchers use specialized computer-based
search tools to locate articles in the scholarly liter-
ature. They also must learn the specialized formats
or citation styles for referring to sources. Profes-
sional social scientists regularly use search tools to
tap into and build on a growing body of research
studies and scientific knowledge. Knowing how to
locate studies; recognize, read, and evaluate stud-
ies; and properly cite scholarly sources is a very
important skill for serious consumers of research
and researchers to master.Scholarly Journals.The primary source to use for
a literature review is the scholarly journal. It is filled