Avoiding Problems With Your Dissertation's Review of the Literature

Avoiding Problems With
Your Dissertation Review of the Literature
©1999 Edward G. Rozycki, Ed. D.

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edited 8/19/11

It is important that you distinguish among different types of literature and not mix them indiscriminately through your review. The important distinctions are:

Theoretical meta-analyses.
Empirical meta-reviews
Books with a substantial base of empirical references.
Books with a substantial base of theoretical references.
Reports of empirical research
Theoretical analyses
Policy papers
Opinion papers.

These various kinds of works differ in the authority of their conclusions and the reliability of the methods they employ. Commonly, reliability of method lends authority. Let us call these dimensions of a published item an indicator of its epistemic strength.

The chart below ranks them by epistemic strength, indicates common uses for their contents, mentions typical sources, and finally indicates disadvantages in using them for your dissertation.

Of course an item may fit in more than one category and consequently lose or gain epistemic strength.

(epistemic rank) Type of Literature	Common Use in Dissertation	Examples of Sources in Education	Disadvantage to Dissertation Writer
(1) Theoretical meta-analysis.	Broad review of theory Research Base	AERJ Jour Res Math Ed	Difficult to incorporate
(1) Empirical meta-review	Broad review of results Research Base	AERJ Jour Res Math Ed	Difficult to incorporate
(2) Report of empirical research	Review (and critique) of results Research Base	Jour Res Math Ed AERJ	Usually narrow in scope. Assessment and critique may be difficult.
(2) Theoretical analysis	Review and critique of theory Research Structure, Justification	Ed Theory Ed Studies	Assessment and critique may be difficult.
(3) Book with a substantial base of empirical references	Broad review of results Research Base, Justification	Berliner & Biddle The Manufactured Crisis 1995 Addison-Wesley	Mixed contents. See above and below
(3) Book with a substantial base of theoretical references	Broad review of theory Research Base, Justification	J. Thompson Studies in the Theory of Ideology 1984 Berkeley	Mixed contents. See above and below
(4) Policy report	Indicator of concern Indicator of organizational commitment Research Base, Justification	National Council of Teachers of Mathematics	Recommendations are not results. May be wishful thinking or special pleading.
(5) Opinion article	Indicator of concern Research Base, Justification	Educational Leadership Phi Delta Kappan School Boards Journal	Recommendations are not results. May be wishful thinking or special pleading.

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