Page 74 - Tallinn University

Tallinna Ülikooli üliõpilaste 2015/2016. õppeaasta PARIMAD TEADUSTÖÖD / Artiklite kogumik HARIDUSTEADUSED the research questions, browsing for relevant papers, excluding irrelevant papers etc.), the means in
which these stages are carried out (the requirements and work methods) can di er.
According to Grant et. al. [3], the amount of literature review methodologies present is vast, with more approaches constantly being de ned. Most methodologies are de ned on a theoretical basis, with researchers describing the methods that should be used and the contexts they should be applied in. e technological solutions that could assist researchers in conducting these literature reviews remain widely unspeci ed, which leaves most novice researchers with no information in regards to how information should be categorised and analysed.
Although researchers employ di erent literature reviewing approaches, most do so without describing their exact work methods in detail. e research problem is that the sequence of steps required to perform a certain type of literature review must o en be derived from descriptions of existing reviews. is can lead to confusion in regards to the exact work methods of di erent methodologies and which so ware can be used to support them.
Using di erent applications and tools for conducting literature reviews may improve the quality of the research [4], but it can also hasten the entire process of carrying out a literature review. To aid researchers in identifying which tools to use with di erent work methods and methodologies, this paper provides an overview of the various so ware that can support conducting literature reviews. To propose technological solutions, the requirements for carrying out di erent methodologies must be understood rst.
In order to give an overview of how literature review methodologies could be supported by using di erent so ware solutions, an assessment is conducted of what requirements di erent methodologies enforce. For each requirement (e.g. text highlighting, tagging), a suitable tool is proposed. A hypothesis is put forth that using di erent tools for supporting di erent procedures of literature reviews will positively a ect the process, thus improving the quality of the review.
To demonstrate the usage of the so ware proposed, an exemplary literature review is carried out.
literature reviewS
A literature review provides background on a certain area and details about previous research [5]. In addition to giving an account of what has been researched, a thorough literature review attempts to find conflicting views and deficits in existing papers, trying to explain where these discrepancies may originate from.
Reviewing what has been previously written on a topic before conducting research on it can be seen as a crucial endeavour for most academic projects [6]. Carrying out a literature review can give researchers an overview of what has been done in a field of research previously. It can be seen as a thorough account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers [7]. A literature review must convey to the audience what has been established on a certain topic, what the strengths and weaknesses of the research are and which areas are in need of further improvement. This helps researchers avoid “reinventing the wheel” and find out what remains to be done in the field and build upon that foundation.
74