4.1 Literature review

A literature review is a very specific type of documentary research, focusing on what is already known about the issue you are researching. It is very important that the literature is searched properly so that you know what research has already been done.

Figure 9 A literature review involves finding out what is already written about a topic

Show description|Hide description

Figure 9 is a photograph of a number of open books stacked on top of each other, with coloured bookmarks indicating certain pages.

Figure 9 A literature review involves finding out what is already written about a topic

There are two kinds of literature reviews:

• A traditional literature review is where you search for articles and use the footnotes to find others on the same topic.
• A systematic literature review is where you create keywords and search databases to find all of the relevant articles. It is very important that you keep notes of the databases searched, the date, the number of articles produced, and how many were relevant. Coming up with keywords is important to direct your searches for the literature.

Once you have looked at the available literature, you will need to write this up as a literature review for your final report. In policy research, your literature review is likely to start with a descriptive section, which explains what the law is. This description will be based on primary sources of law (the statute or cases you are using). You will then use the literature review to critically analyse what the scholarly sources have to say about it. You can organise your literature review in different ways.

A descriptive approach (Figure 10) describes the law with reference to what other scholars say about it, thereby addressing the legal framework and the critical analysis in one. It focuses on describing to the reader what is known about the topic and its major elements.

Figure 10 A descriptive literature review describes the current law

Show description|Hide description

Figure 10 is a note with the heading ‘1. Descriptive’. The text says: Human Rights Act 1998. s3 Interpretation of legislation. (1) So far as is possible to do so, primary legislation and subordinate legislation must be read and given effect in a way which is compatible with the Convention rights.’ A speech bubble at the top states ‘Bloggs says that … but Patel disagrees with this interpretation’. A speech bubble at the bottom says: ‘Levine compares this with … while MacIver takes the position that …’

Figure 10 A descriptive literature review describes the current law

A chronological approach (Figure 11) examines what the sources have had to say on a law over time, and this can be particularly useful when examining changes in the law.

Figure 11 A chronological literature review describes changes in the law over time

Show description|Hide description

Figure 11 is a note with the heading ‘2. Chronological’. The text says: ‘Before – R v Jogee, R v Ruddock (2016) – After. A speech bubble pointing to the text Before says: ‘R v Chan Wing-Siu [1985] set the rule as … The doctrine was crystallised in R v Powell; R v English [1999] as … Smith explains the rule was problematic because … Analyses of convictions showed …’ A speech bubble pointing to the case names R v Jogee, R v Ruddock says ‘These cases changes the law in two ways … Mansour argues that …’. A speech bubble pointing to the text After says ‘The following appeal cases demonstrate that  … Subsequent research by Holmes et al. demonstrates further …’

Figure 11 A chronological literature review describes changes in the law over time

A thematic approach (Figure 12) identifies important themes and discusses what the sources have to say about each one in turn.

Figure 12 A thematic literature review describes important themes

Show description|Hide description

Figure 12 is a note with the heading ‘3. Thematic’. Underneath the heading is a mind map. The central box contains the words ‘What motivates youths to join gangs’. Leading from this central box are four more boxes. The first contains the words ‘Gang attributes. How do they know they are in a gang?’ The second contains the words ‘Male and female reasons’. The third contains the words ‘Socio-psychological: (Sense of belonging)’. The fourth says ‘Instrumentalist/Materialist reasons’. This fourth box has two further boxes leading from it. The first contains the words ‘Reduce risk of victimisation by other gangs’. The second contains the words ‘No other opportunities’.

Figure 12 A thematic literature review describes important themes

You can find out more information on literature reviews in Section 3 of the OpenLearn course Introducing research in law and beyond [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

In the sections that follow, you will consider various research methods which may be new to you.