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Preparing Literature Reviews in the Social Sciences - Research Guide

This informal guide identifies useful resources for preparing literature reviews in the social science disciplines. That is, it's primarily interested in examining the secondary literature in the social sciences. It also provides suggestions for using specific resources to grow citation lists.

CONTENTS

  1. Handbooks for the literature review process
  2. Reading other people's dissertations
    Penn dissertations | The world of dissertations
  3. Browsing likely journals
    Journal Citation Reports | Journal directories, author guides, and vade-mecums | Finding the right database
  4. Clever citation index tricks
  5. Reading other people's literature reviews
    Textbooks | Literature reviews in periodicals
  6. Tough-to-find literature
    Grey literature | Research centers, learned societies, organizations | Dataset bibliographies
  7. Specialized library collections
  8. Readings on literature reviews
  9. Reaching out for help

1. HANDBOOKS FOR THE LITERATURE REVIEW PROCESS

These books and others like them describe the basic steps of the research and writing process for creating literature reviews. Many vade-mecums and "student guides" also contain chapters on the literature review process, too. Although these books usually provide excellent guidance on notetaking and writing, their guidance on researching is often dated and may reflect only those resources favored by the author.

Conducting research literature reviews: from paper to the Internet / Arlene Fink. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1998.
[Chemistry Reference, Engineering: Q180.55 .M4 F56 1998]
Doing a literature review: releasing the social science research imagination / Chris Hart. London: Sage Publications, 1998.
[Van Pelt Reference: H62 .H2566 1998]
Handbook of social work research methods / Bruce A. Thyer, ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 2001.
[Van Pelt: HV11 .H342 2001]
Health sciences literature review made easy: the matrix method / Judith Garrard. Gaithersburg, Md.: Aspen Publishers, 1999.
[Biomedical: R118.6 .G37 1999]
Integrating research: a guide for literature reviews / Harris M. Cooper. 2nd ed. (Applied social research methods series, v. 2.) Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1989.
[Van Pelt: H62 .C5859 1989]
The integrative research review: a systematic approach / Harris M. Cooper. (Applied social research methods series, v. 2.) Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1984.
[Van Pelt, Biomedical: H62 .C5859 1984]
Political science research methods / Janet Buttolph Johnson, Richard A. Joslyn, H.T. Reynolds. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2001.
[Van Pelt Reference: JA73 .J64 2001]
Writing literature reviews: a guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences / Jose L. Galvan. Los Angeles, CA: Pyrczak, 1999.
[Van Pelt Reference: H61.8 .G3 1999]
Research methods in education and psychology: integrating diversity with quantitative & qualitative approaches / Donna M. Mertens. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1998.
[Van Pelt: LB1028 .M3966 1998]
Synthesizing research: a guide for literature reviews / Harris Cooper. 3rd ed. (Applied social research methods series, v. 2.) Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, 1998.
[Van Pelt: H62 .C5859 1998]

2. READING OTHER PEOPLE'S DISSERTATIONS

PENN DISSERTATIONS

Dissertations produced at the University of Pennsylvania are cataloged in Franklin. The Penn Library's current practice is to assign two subject headings whose elements rotate:

penn dissertations -- [awarding program]
[awarding program] -- penn dissertations

Franklin search for Penn dissertations in the social sciences , that is,
skey "penn dissertations" and (skey anthro? or skey archaeology or skey business or skey economic? or skey planning or skey communication or skey criminology or skey demography or skey education? or skey finance or skey health or skey soci? or skey management or skey relations or skey insurance or skey linguistic? or skey marketing or skey operations or skey organization? or skey poli? or skey psychology or skey public or skey regional or skey statistics or skey systems or skey urban)

Call numbering makes it easy to browse recent dissertations in your program! A circulating copy of each dissertation is kept in the appropriate library's open stacks, with call numbers constructed from the awarding program's Library of Congress class and a class number that puts dissertations at the very beginning of the class numbering sequence:

PsychologyBF001 Social WorkHV001
AnthropologyGN001 (at Museum) Political ScienceJA001
EconomicsHB001 International RelationsJX001
DemographyHB003 EducationL001
SociologyHM001 LinguisticsP001
CommunicationP002 (at Annenberg)
Within that call number, individual dissertations are arranged by year of award and then alphabetically by author's last name.

Of course, older dissertations will have been treated in different ways. For instance, pre-World War II dissertations often exist only as published offprints, sometimes escaping the usual subject heading and classification.

Dissertation Abstracts [Online via Penn Library Web] provides fulltext for Penn dissertations received since 1997, in Adobe Acrobat PDF-format -- as page images, rather than searchable fulltext. Abstracts of Penn dissertations received from 1980 to the present are searchable.

Hints in using Dissertation Abstracts
  • To restrict searching to Penn only, use these institutional codes:
    sc(0175) or sc(0839)
    University of Pennsylvaniasc(0175)
    Univ of PA School of Nursingsc(0839)
  • Dissertation Abstracts assigns three subject headings to each dissertation record. The first subject heading appears to designate the awarding program.
  • Use Dissertation Abstracts for subject searching among Penn dissertations. Franklin's subject access points are restricted to dissertation titles and the awarding program.

THE WORLD OF DISSERTATIONS

Dissertation Abstracts. ProQuest (aka UMI), 1861-present.
[Online via Penn Library Web]
The single best place to look for U.S. dissertations and a good place to start looking for foreign dissertations. Request dissertations you find in Dissertation Abstracts through Penn Library Interlibrary Loan. Be sure to include the DissAbs record number or order number.

Penn Library Web databases that describe dissertations
This is, of course, an incomplete list! Many discipline-focused databases merely crib Dissertation Abstracts records. But see especially:
  • Index to theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by the universities of Great Britain and Ireland and the Council for National Academic Awards. Aslib, 1950-present.
    [Online, 1970-present, via Penn Library Web (as Index to British university theses]
    [Print, 1950-present: Van Pelt: Z5055 .G69 A8. Latest 5 years in Van Pelt Reference.]

Monographic catalogs of dissertations
Franklin search for dissertation catalogs
skey dissertations and (skey abstracts or skey bibliography or skey catalogs or skey indexes)
Libraries specializing in specific subjects or individual postsecondary institutions may publish their own lists of dissertations.

Center for Research Libraries international doctoral dissertations collection
CRL acquires foreign dissertations through member institutions' demand purchase requests and through deposit arrangements with foreign postsecondary institutions. CRL owns approximately 800,000 foreign dissertations. [DissAbs lists 1.6 million dissertations, almost all domestic.] However, only half of CRL's foreign dissertations are cataloged
  • CRL Catalog
    Request dissertations you find in CRL Foreign Doctoral Dissertation Database through Penn Library Interlibrary Loan. Be sure to include the CRL dissertation call number.
  • OCLC WorldCat
    CRL is now adding brief records for its foreign doctoral dissertations into WorldCat. Search using these fields:
    thesis in Notes/Comments
    and doctoral in Notes/Comments
    and [institution name] in Notes/Comments

3. BROWSING LIKELY JOURNALS

Whether you've got a favorite journal and want to know which journals are similar, or don't even know where to start browsing, here are tools to begin wading.

JOURNAL CITATION REPORTS

Journal citation reports. ISI, 1999-present, annual.
[Online via Penn Library Web]

Hints in using Journal citation reports
  • "Subject category" searching allows you to identify the major journals in specific research areas (at least according to ISI's criteria).
  • "Cited journal" and "Citing journal" features allow you to identify journals whose articles frequently cite your journal or those which are frequently cited by articles in your journal.

JOURNAL DIRECTORIES, AUTHOR GUIDES, AND VADE-MECUMS

DARE: Directory in Social Sciences -- Institutions, Specialists, Periodicals. UNESCO.
[Online via UNESCO web]
The source database for the irregular serial World list of social science periodicals [latest: 8th ed. (1991), Van Pelt Reference: Z7163 .U52].
Social sciences: an international bibliography of serial literature, 1830-1985 / Jan Wepsiec. London: Mansell, 1992.
[Van Pelt Reference: H85 .W38 1992]
A barebones listing that predates the UNESCO products.

Magazines for libraries / Bill Katz, ed. New York: Bowker, 1969-present.
[Van Pelt: PN4832 .M343. Latest edition at Van Pelt Reference Desk]
Extensively annotated guide to periodicals -- scholarly journals, magazines, even newspapers and e-zines. Each subject section has a handy introduction identifying major indexing tools, the journals useful for book reviews, etc.
Ulrich's international periodicals directory. New York: Bowker, 1932-present.
[Online, BowkerWeb]
[Van Pelt, other locations: Z6941 .U5. Latest edition at Van Pelt Reference Desk.]
Enormous, comprehensive listing. Print version, arranged by subject with many indexes, is unwieldy, but there for the desperate and useful also for retrospective research.

"Author's guides"
Franklin search for "author's guides"
skey periodicals and skey publishing and skey directories
Although these are aimed at authors trying to publish, they also serve as handy subject-based directories.

Guides to the literature
Franklin search for guides to the literature
skey "reference books" and skey bibliography and (skey anthro? or skey poli? or skey soci? or skey linguistics or skey psych? or skey business or skey economics or skey education)
These describe the important reference materials for a discipline. They often identify major journals, summarizing their aims and orientations.

Vade-mecums
Many disciplines have their own "student's guide" or other handbook, not strictly guides to the literature. Owing to their broad purpose, these can be surprisingly tough to find using Franklin. Browsing the appropriate call number ranges in the Van Pelt Reference stacks may turn up good ones. Also, they're usually identified by guides to the literature. Two particularly well-known examples are:
  • Handbook of research synthesis / Harris Cooper and Larry V Hedges, eds. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1994. [Van Pelt: Q180.55 .M4 H35 1994]
  • Handbook of research design & social measurement / Delbert C Miller and Neil J Salkind. 6th ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 2002. [Van Pelt, Annenberg Reference: H62 .M44 2002]
Franklin search for dissertation manuals
skey "dissertations academic" and skey handbooks
A variety of vade-mecum that may help with dissertation style. For specific disciplines, these may identify useful tools or resources.

FINDING THE RIGHT DATABASE

You know the journal title, you need to know where it's indexed ... or available in fulltext. These will do the trick.

CAVEAT. We have renamed two databases that may appear in jake and Ulrich's. Their Expanded Academic ASAP is our Academic Index. Their SSCI is our ISI Web of Science.

jake (jointly administered knowledge environment.
[Online, 1978-present, via Penn Library Web]
Sometimes broken, often out of date, but a handy tool nonetheless!

Ulrich's international periodicals directory. New York: Bowker, 1932-present.
[Online, BowkerWeb]
[Van Pelt, other locations: Z6941 .U5. Latest edition at Van Pelt Reference Desk.]
Entries indicate the databases and print indexes and abstracting services covering the title. Not always reliable.

Penn Library Web databases
Within each community of interest, we've ranked individual databases according to their content and focus, comprehensiveness, and size. The [More] links provide lengthier descriptions as well as links to journal lists when available.

Penn Library Web e-journals
Keeping up to date with individual e-journal titles available to Penn readers can be very frustrating. This is the single best starting place for finding out if you have access to specific e-journal titles.

4. CLEVER CITATION INDEX TRICKS

"You are what you read, er, cite." By providing implied subject access through article bibliographies, and updating weekly, ISI Web of Science combines the three ISI citation indexes -- SCI, SSCI, and AHCI -- with ISI's Current contents tearsheets.

ISI Web of Science.
[Online, 1956-present, via Penn Library Web]
Social Sciences Citation Index [aka SSCI]. ISI, 1956-present.
[Various locations, 1956-1996: H1 .S616. 1956-1977 in Van Pelt Reference.]

Hints in using ISI Web of Science
  • Always use the "Full search" interface.
  • "Related records" feature finds articles that share items in your article's bibliography. Literature review articles can retrieve very powerful "related records" results.
  • "Combine searches" and "Advanced searches" features allow you to search for articles using several items in their bibliographies, very handy for cutting-edge or interdisciplinary topics that are difficult to describe yet are dominated by one or two authors or definitive publications.
  • Don't forget that data sets and procedures may also be cited in bibliographies!

5. READING OTHER PEOPLE'S LITERATURE REVIEWS

Published literature reviews can help you by identifying important works and also by framing the parameters of current and past scholarship.

TEXTBOOKS

What a clever idea! A textbook's chief purpose is to summarize its topic. Too bad the Penn Library tries to avoid purchasing textbooks. Also, Library of Congress subject heading practice does not assign a textbook format subdivision for this sort of book.

Hints in finding textbooks
  • Visit the Penn Bookstore's course materials section. Then search Franklin for interesting titles.
  • Visit Penn graduate and professional program homepages and Penn's Blackboard and other courseware sites for course reading lists. Then search Franklin for interesting titles.
  • Browse the Penn Library stacks in your subject area's call number ranges. Textbooks and other "general" materials are usually at the beginning of the call number sequence -- after Penn dissertations and relevant periodicals.

LITERATURE REVIEWS IN PERIODICALS

No two indexing or abstracting databases treat literature reviews consistently. Most databases treats articles that are literature reviews similarly to research articles that include brief literature reviews.

Hints in searching databases for literature reviews
  • If you've got a literature review published as a periodical article, try to find it in the database. From its complete or full record, try to pick out the subject headings, descriptors, or other buzzwords that distinguish its survey nature. Search again using those terms.
  • When stumped, try something stupid: search on "literature and (review or reviews)"

Few journals specialize in publishing literature reviews. But there are a few. Guides to the literature and vade-mecums will suggest some. These are a few major ones.

Annual review of ....
[Online via Penn Library Web (Annual Reviews and JSTOR)]
Annual Reviews, the publisher, produces several relevant titles, covering almost all the major social science disciplines. The Annual Reviews web site provides indexing for all years and fulltext for recent years; the JSTOR web site provides fulltext for the entire backfile except recent years.
Current sociology. 1958-present.
[Online, 1982-present, via Penn Library Web (CSA)]
[Van Pelt: HM1 .C877]
In recent years, this periodical has moved away from delivering its outstanding literature reviews.
L'Annie sociologique. 1896-present.
[Van Pelt: HM3 .A7]
This ancient periodical's monographic nature makes it a good source for literature surveys.
The Campbell Collaboration
[Online via Penn Library Web]
C2's coordinating groups on crime and justice, education, and social welfare produce systematic reviews on "what works" in social and behavioral issues.
ERIC digests
[Online, as part of ERIC, via Penn Library Web -- as Publication Type, e.g., "Information Analyses - ERIC Digest (Selected) in Full Text"]
[Unbound issues, latest five years only: Van Pelt Current Periodicals]
Not strictly a periodical, but an excellent collection of literature reviews on timely education topics.

Some indexes include regular or occasional literature reviews in individual issues. Online versions of these indexes other than JSTOR's do not provide fulltext and may, in fact, omit records describing their own original literature reviews!

Criminal justice abstracts. 1977-present.
[Van Pelt: HV6001 .C67. Latest five years in Van Pelt Reference.]
Journal of economic literature. American Economic Association, 1969-present.
[Online, current year and some recent years via Penn Library Web (Ingenta)]
[Online, lacking recent years via Penn Library Web (JSTOR)]
[Lippincott Reference: HB1 .J6. Latest five years only.]
Journal of planning literature. 1986-present.
[Online, recent years only, via Penn Library Web (ECO)]
[Fine Arts: NA9000 .J687]
Peace research abstracts journal. 1964-present.
[Van Pelt: JX1901 .P38. Unbound issues in Van Pelt Reference.]
Population index. 1937-1999.
[Online via Penn Library Web (JSTOR)]
[Van Pelt: HB848 .P665]
Social work abstracts. 1977-present.
[Van Pelt Reference: HV1 .A2742]

6. TOUGH-TO-FIND LITERATURE

GREY LITERATURE

"Grey literature", in its broadest sense, is the ephemeral literature of research and policy: conference papers, working papers, etc. These are difficult materials to identify and obtain, yet they're often where the cutting-edge appears.

Penn Library Web databases that describe scholarly grey literature
This is, of course, an incomplete list! See especially:

Penn Library Web databases that describe conference papers
Again, an incomplete list. See especially:
Directory of published proceedings. Series SSH: Social sciences/humanities. Harrison, NY: InterDok Corp., 1968/1972-present.
[Van Pelt Reference: H1 .D473]
Index of conference proceedings received. British Library, Lending Division, 1974-present.
[Van Pelt Reference: Z7403 .B768]

RESEARCH CENTERS, LEARNED SOCIETIES, AND ORGANIZATIONS

So many organizations put their research products on the web that it pays to locate the right organization first.

Directories -- Organizations (Penn Library Web)
A handy collection of web links. Also, as most major US learned societies are members of the American Council of Learned Societies, try starting with:

DARE: Directory in Social Sciences -- Institutions, Specialists, Periodicals. UNESCO.
[Online via UNESCO web]
The source database for the irregular serial Selective inventory of social science information and documentation services [latest: 5th ed. (1998), Van Pelt Reference: H61.9 .S45 1998].

Gale ready reference shelf.
[Online via Penn Library Web]
An anthology of standard organizations directories:
  • Encyclopedia of Associations (including International, National, Regional, state and local).
  • Research centers directory (including International ... and Government ...).
Print versions of these titles are available in the Penn Library as both current editions and backfiles.

DATASET BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Many social science datasets are distributed with the proviso that writings using the data are forwarded to the data producer. Bibliographies associated with these datasets can be very useful.

General Social Survey Bibliography Table of Contents.
[Online via ICPSR Web, but perhaps best used through individual codebook variables online via the SDA interface, ICPSR Web]
The most developed dataset bibliography. Documents "all publications that have used at least one GSS variable".

National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) Annotated Bibliography. Center for Human Resource Research for U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1968-present.
[Online via CHRR web]
Describes journal articles, conference presentations, working papers, and dissertations that use National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience (NLS).

Bibliography of Publications using Data from the National Survey of Families and Households.
[Online via NSFH web]

ICPSR Bibliography of Data-related Literature.
[Online via ICPSR Web]
More than 24,000 citations of known published and unpublished works resulting from analyses of data held in the ICPSR data archive.

Roper Center Bibliographic Database.
[Online via Roper Center web]
A recently developed product, describing publications using public opinion datasets distributed by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.

7. SPECIALIZED LIBRARY COLLECTIONS

Ever notice how every Franklin search turns up books about South Asia? Even the biggest research university libraries specialize in specific world regions or subject areas.

Penn Library & Union Catalogs (Penn Library web)
RLIN (RLG Union Catalog) and WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch Union Catalog) seem like competing union catalogs, but they're very different: RLIN covers mostly libraries like Penn's; OCLC covers the same but also covers -- often with sloppy records -- thousands of smaller libraries worldwide.
Libraries Worldwide -- Catalogs and Websites (Penn Library web)

Franklin search for library catalogs published by G. K. Hall
publ "g k hall" and skey catalogs
This publisher has long specialized in reprinting library catalog cards in book format. Although you will want to read every title listed in the appropriate catalog, the list of titles can also be useful for identifying major library catalogs to be searched electronically for current holdings.

Gale ready reference shelf.
[Online via Penn Library Web]
Includes Directory of special libraries and information centers.

Hints in finding specialist libraries
  • North American title count (every three years, latest is 2001) identifies relative collection strengths for some major U.S. and Canadian university research libraries. See me about using it.
  • Read the [More] pages for specific Penn Library Web databases or the front matter for printed indexes, abstracts, and bibliographies. Some bibliographic tools -- Anthropological Literature probably is the most prominent -- are based on one library's collections.
  • Read the prefaces and acknowledgements of relevant books. In addition to thanking their own library's interlibrary loan librarians, most scholars give thanks to the major specialist libraries for their subject.
  • American library directory and related special collections directories may also be useful, but I find myself turning pages with little results and even less lust.

8. READINGS ON LITERATURE REVIEWS

"Editorial" / Harris Cooper. Psychological bulletin vol. 129, no. 1 (2003): 3-9.
[Online via PennText]
The doyen of literature reviews writes ex cathedra, summarizing his earlier works on literature reviews, their types and characteristics, and their role in the research process.

"Scientific guidelines for conducting integrative research reviews" / Harris M. Cooper. Review of educational research vol. 52, no. 2 (Summer 1982): 291-302.
[Online via PennText]
A very useful article, approaching literature review as a research project. Suggests five techniques for information retrieval: "invisible college"; ancestry; descendency; abstracting services; online searching [a little dated, there, but the principle still stands].

"Scholars before researchers: on the centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation" / David N. Boote and Penny Beile. Educational researcher vol. 34, no. 6 (August/September 2005): 3-15.
[Online via PennText]
A good recent survey of the literature on literature review writing, with a rubric.

"Research students' early experiences of the dissertation literature review" / Christine Susan Bruce. Studies in higher education vol. 19, no. 2 (June 1994): 217-229.
[Online via PennText]
A useful summary of varieties of literature reviews based upon a survey of Australian graduate students.

"Thesis and dissertation writing: an examination of published advice and actual practice" / Brian Paltridge. English for specific purposes vol. 21 (2002): 125-143.
[Online via PennText]
In addition to providing capsule summaries of various popular dissertation-writing guides, Paltridge neatly categorizes dissertations (and their literature reviews) into four main kinds.

"Intepreting the scope of their literature reviews: significant differences in research students' concerns" / Christine Bruce. New library world vol. 102, no. 1163/1164 (no. 4/5) (2001): 158-165.
[Online via PennText]
Provides descriptions of literature scope and coverage: topicality, comprehensiveness, breadth, exclusion, relevance, currency, availability, and authority.

"'It's a PhD, not a Nobel Prize': how experienced examiners assess research theses" / Gerry Mullins and Margaret Kiley. Studies in higher education vol. 27, no. 4 (2002): 369-386.
[Online via PennText]
Some traditions take dissertation literature reviews seriously! An excellent presentation of grading rubrics among Australian PhD examiners.

"Promoting cognitive complexity in graduate written work: using Bloom's taxonomy as a pedagogical tool to improve literature reviews" / Darcy Haag Granello.Counselor education & supervision vol. 40 (June 2001): 292-307.
[Online via PennText]
Another rubric for literature reviews, very ambitious, providing criteria based upon Bloom's hierarchical levels of instructional outcomes: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

"Guidelines for the preparation of review protocols." The Campbell Collaboration
[Online via Penn Library Web]
See the "Guidelines" section of the C2 website for this very practical document. Harris Cooper is co-chair of the C2 Methods Group.

"Writing narrative literature reviews" / Roy F Baumeister and Mark R Leary. Review of general psychology vol. 1, no. 3 (1997): 311-320.
[Online via PennText]
A good presentation of weaknesses and mistakes encountered in literature reviews.

9. REACHING OUT FOR HELP

If you're stuck, or can't even find a thread to begin unravelling, ask for help!

Get Help/Ask Us -- Penn Library (Penn Library Web)
Identify Penn Library specialists in your discipline, send e-mail, e-chat, schedule appointments, whatever.

Discussion Lists and Blogs (Penn Library Web)
A handy list of e-mail lists and other electronic conferences. Colleagues in your department may have favorites. One good list is:
  • Directory of scholarly and professional e-conferences / Diane K. Kovacs, ed.
    • [Online via Kovacs Consulting web]
    Around for a VERY long time, and originally sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries. Usually called "Kovacs".

Send mail concerning this page to:
Lauris Olson
Social Sciences Bibliographer
Room 203 Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center / 6206
215 / 898-0119 (phone)
olson@pobox.upenn.edu

*