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HARIDUSTEADUSED Tallinna Ülikooli üliõpilaste 2015/2016. õppeaasta PARIMAD TEADUSTÖÖD / Artiklite kogumik
SoFTWARE TooLS
for supporTing liTeraTure reviews: an overview anD a Case sTuDy
KIRJANDUSÜLEVAADETE KOOSTAMIST TOETAV TARKVARA. ÜLEVAADE JA JUHTUMIANALÜÜS
III koht magistritööde kategoorias
RogER PUkS
abStract
Conducting literature reviews is an essential part of most academic research. Regardless of this, the exact work methods of conducting literature reviews are o en le undescribed. is leads to confusion in regards to the methods that di erent reviewing methodologies enforce and which so ware tools can be used to support conducting them.
is paper aims to give an overview of di erent literature reviewing methodologies and the so ware tools that can be used with them. A list of di erent reviewing methodologies is provided and each methodology is de ned through the same framework. To analyse which so ware tools are best suited for each methodology, the work methods of each methodology are listed with the corresponding tools that can be used to support them. To demonstrate and analyse the e ectiveness of employing so ware tools in literature reviews, an exemplary literature review is carried out.
Keywords: literature reviews, reviewing so ware, reviewing methodologies intrOductiOn
Conducting a methodological review of literature is an essential part of most academic endeavours [1]. Literature reviews are used to provide researchers with information on di erent elds of knowledge, but also to identify gaps in current research in order to suggest areas for further investigation [2], hence they o en serve as a starting point for many research projects.
Each set of literature review work methods can be categorised into a methodology or a set of guidelines. Although most methodologies share the same end goals, they may di er in terms of how data is gathered, analysed and synthesized [3]. As stated by Grant & Booth [3], these variations are most clearly evidenced in the structures and methodologies that distinguish review types from each other. Although the main stages of conducting literature reviews are similar in most methodologies (de ning
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