How to write a literature review
First, what is a literature review
The concept of literature review
Literature review is an academic paper which is a highly concentrated literature product by sorting out, screening, analyzing and refining a large number of documents of a certain discipline, specialty or topic. According to the different content ranges involved, Summary can be divided into two types: comprehensive review and thematic review. The so-called comprehensive review is aimed at a discipline or specialty, while the thematic review is aimed at a topic.
Literature review reflects the historical status, latest progress, academic opinions and suggestions of a branch discipline or an important topic in a certain field, which often reflects the new trends, new trends and new levels of related issues. New principles and new technologies, etc. Literature review is to analyze and describe what the predecessors have done in a certain research field, and to what extent they have made progress. It requires a detailed review of the trends and frontier issues of related research at home and abroad, and provides references. The author generally does not express his personal opinions and suggestions in it, nor does he make any comments. It only reflects the facts objectively and generally.
The function of literature review
Literature review is to highly concentrate the achievements, existing problems or controversial points of dozens or even hundreds of scattered and disorderly similar documents, and make them organized and systematic. It not only saves a lot of precious time for researchers to consult the analyzed documents in the early Labor Day when they complete their scientific research work, Moreover, it is also very helpful for researchers to learn from the achievements of others, grasp the main direction of attack and leaders to make scientific decisions.
The significance of asking students to learn to write a summary
Through the process of collecting documents and materials, they can be further familiar with the methods of searching documents and accumulating materials, and at the same time expand their knowledge;
Searching for documents and writing a literature review is the first step in scientific research topic selection, so learning the writing of literature review is also a process of laying the foundation for future scientific research activities;
Through the writing process of summary, the ability of induction, analysis and synthesis can be improved, which is conducive to the improvement of independent work ability and scientific research ability.
Second, the topic selection of literature review and the collection of literature materials
the principle of topic selection
1. Choose your own specialized or basic topics in combination with what you have learned. Otherwise, it is difficult to write a high-level summary.
2. Choose a topic according to the quality and quantity of the documents.
3. Choose a topic that can reflect the focus, new achievements and new trends of new disciplines.
4. The topic should not be too large and the scope should not be too wide. In this way, the number of documents consulted is relatively small, and it is easy to summarize and sort out when writing. Otherwise, the topic selection is too large and the time spent consulting documents is too long. Finally, the summary is short or irrelevant.
(2) Collection of documents and materials
1. Ways to collect documents and materials
(1) Use relevant retrieval tools (including catalogues, abstracts and indexes) to collect documents and materials.
(2) Use international online retrieval system to collect documents and materials.
(3) Use original documents. Monographs and standards, etc.).
(4) Collect documents by using three documents (including reviews, reviews, encyclopedias, yearbooks and handbooks, etc.).
(5) Collect documents through Interent and CD-ROM database.
2. Collection methods of documents
Store documents in the brain or other carriers to form a "database" that can be accessed from time to time. Newspaper clippings, note-taking and modern technology storage (such as copying, computer storage, CD storage, etc.).
Third, format and writing
The format of literature review is different from that of general research papers. This is because research papers pay attention to research methods and results, while literature review requires readers to introduce detailed information, trends, progress, prospects and comments on the above aspects. Therefore, the format of literature review. (2) Author unit; ③ abstract; 4 keywords; ⑤ preface; 6 theme; ⑦ Summary; (8) References. The following focuses on the introduction, theme part, summary part and references. When writing a literature review, you can write an outline according to these four parts, and then write according to the outline.
(1) Preface part
The preface part mainly explains the purpose of writing, introduces the relevant concepts and definitions, and the scope of the review, and briefly explains the current situation or focus of debate on the relevant topics. Make readers have a preliminary outline of the issues to be described in the full text. The preface should be clearly written:
(1) First, explain the purpose of writing.
(2) Define the relevant concepts.
(3) Specify the scope of summary, including: "the subject scope involved in the topic", the scope of summary should not be too wide or too miscellaneous, and the "time range" must be declared. Lead out the core theme of the review, which is the most concerned and interesting of the readers, and it is also the main line of the review.
(2) Theme part
Theme part is the main body of the review, which is written in a variety of ways and has no fixed format. It can be summarized in chronological order, according to different issues, and can be compared from different viewpoints. No matter which format is used for the review, all the collected materials should be summarized. Clarify the historical background, present situation and development direction of relevant topics, as well as comments on these issues. In the topic part, special attention should be paid to the references and comments that are representative, scientific and creative. < P > (3) Summary part < P > Summary part, which is somewhat similar to the summary of research papers, summarizes the full-text topics briefly, and the authors who have studied the summarized topics, It's best to put forward your own opinions.
(4) References
Although references are placed at the end of the article, they are an important part of literature review, because they not only show respect for the authors of the cited documents and the basis for quoting them, but also provide clues for readers to explore relevant issues in depth. Therefore, they should be taken seriously. The arrangement of references should be clear, easy to find and accurate in content.
Fourth, Precautions
Due to the characteristics of literature review, its writing is different from "reading notes" and "reading reports", and it is also different from general scientific research papers. Therefore, when writing literature review, we should pay attention to the following issues:
Collecting literature should be as comprehensive as possible, and mastering a large number of literature materials is the premise of writing a good review. Otherwise, it is impossible to write a lot of reviews by just collecting a little information. Even the articles written are not a summary at all.
Pay attention to the representativeness, reliability and scientificity of the cited documents. There may be similarities in opinions among the collected documents, and some documents have differences in reliability and scientificity. Therefore, when quoting documents, we should pay attention to the selection of documents with better representativeness, reliability and scientificity.
We should compare and analyze various viewpoints of the documents around the theme. Don't simply summarize and state the relevant theories and school views in a textbook way.
Literature review should be logical, that is, the literature that is far from near should be cited first, and the literature that is most closely related last.
Comments (especially when criticizing predecessors' shortcomings) should quote the original text of the original author (to prevent misunderstanding of the original author's arguments), and don't belittle others and raise themselves. We can't judge the original author's "mistakes" from second-hand materials.
The results of literature review should clarify the shortcomings of previous work and set off the necessity and theoretical value of further research.
The sources, models, charts and data should be indicated, not ambiguous.
There should be a brief summary at the end of literature review. It shows that the predecessors have laid the foundation for the research in this field.
All the references mentioned should be directly related to the research problems.
The documents used in literature review should be mainly selected from academic journals or academic conferences.
The documents cited should be the full text of the original works that you have read in person, and you should not quote them just according to the abstract, let alone the contents cited by the documents without seeing the quoted original texts, because this is often an important reason for misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the original intention. Sometimes it can cause irreparable losses to the scientific value of the review.
In short, a good literature review should have complete literature, comments and analysis, and accurately reflect the theme.
One of the model articles of literature review
Summary of institution and economic development and growth theory
Key words: (omitted)
Relationship between institution and economic development and The supply of national institutions is called the "four pillars" of new institutional economics, and in a great sense, the origin, change and innovation of institutions, supply and demand are all related to economic development and growth. In conclusion, efficient institutions promote economic growth and development; An inefficient system will inhibit or even hinder economic growth and development.
1. Looking back on the theory of economic growth and development
1. On the system in Marx's theory of economic growth
Marx believes that there is no abstract production, and there is no productivity and its development without the system (Marx refers to the production relationship, which is essentially the system). Productivity is always organized and operated in a certain production relationship. Advanced production relations will promote the development of productivity. Backward relations of production will hinder the development of productive forces. A relatively stable relations of production (institutional framework) that lasts for a certain time span provides an institutional "space" for the corresponding development of productive forces. This is an extremely important inspiration for many economists to study the relationship between institutions and economic growth and development.
2. Discussion of the main schools of western economic growth theory
(1) Model school
They believe that social and economic growth or development is the result of the combination, allocation, superposition and qualitative change of various production factors that promote economic growth. They regard various growth factors as independent variables and economic growth (usually using gross national product and national income) Per capita income, etc.) as a dependent variable, determine the functional relationship, establish various economic growth models and explain economic phenomena. The most famous ones are Harold = Thomas economic growth model, neoclassical economic growth model (that is, Solo = Swan model) and Cambridge economic growth model advocated by Caldo, Robinson, Pasinetti and others. These economic growth models only illustrate the relationship between long-term economic growth and short-term and medium-term economic growth. Strive to make the growth of total demand determined by output match the total production capacity of products, and gradually emphasize the role of technological progress in economic growth, ignoring the role of institutional factors.
(2) Structural school
They believe that economic growth and development is not only the process of growth and expansion of a country's economic quantity (gross and average) and capacity, but also the process of transformation of a country's economic structure. Mainly, Lewis and others' "dual structure theory"; Knox's "poverty cycle theory"; Rodin's "Great Propulsion Theory" arising from "inseparability of investment"; The theory of "development pattern" advocated by Chenery and others; As well as the theory of "two gap theory" and "balanced and unbalanced growth", etc. In this school, the factor and background of system have been implied. Among them, Lewis's theory of "dual structure" is particularly obvious. Therefore, some people even classify Lewis as a new system.
(3) The representative of the stage school is Rostow, who divides economic development into six stages, that is, the traditional society. The stage of high mass consumption and the stage of pursuing quality of life. It is not difficult to see that the framework of the institutional background is becoming more and more obvious.
(4) In the school of factor school or origin school < P >, Denison divides the factors of economic growth into two categories: the input of production factors and the productivity of production factors. It is subdivided into eight aspects (some people summarize them as seven), namely: the number and structure of workers used; Working hours; The education level of the workers; The scale of capital stock; The state of knowledge; The proportion of labor assigned to ineffective use; Market size; The pattern and intensity of short-term demand pressure.
Denison used the factor analysis method in Why the Growth Rate is Different: Experiences of Several Western Countries after World War II published in 1967. It is used to be called Denison Model. In this model, two problems have arisen:
The first question: The contribution rate of each factor to economic growth can be calculated by the model, but, What are the reasons (factors) that transform the potential productivity of these factors into real productivity
The second question: After calculating the factors that should be calculated, there is still "surplus" or "residual value", that is, the so-called "surplus overflow". Then, What factors should these "residual values" belong to? < P > Kuznets emphasized that the high change rate of demand structure has a great influence on the high conversion rate of production structure in modern economic growth. It will lead to the creation of new products, promote the formation and development of new industries, and ultimately promote the speed of modern economic growth and development.
(5) The new growth theory school < P > mainly includes Romer's "increasing income economic growth model"; Lucas's "professional human capital accumulation growth model"; Boyd's "Dynamic Consortium Capital Growth Model"; A Wenyang's "innovation and limited learning by doing mode" and so on. These theories not only introduce knowledge and human capital factors into the economic growth mode, but more notably, the new growth theory confirms the important influence of institutions and policies on economic growth, and summarizes a set of policies to promote economic development, such as supporting education; Stimulate the investment of material capital; Protecting intellectual property rights; Support research and development; Implementing an international trade policy that is conducive to the formation and transmission of new ideas around the world; Avoid the government's big distortion in the market, etc.
(6) Division of Labor Evolution School
This school, represented by Yang Xiaokai, first pointed out the inherent deficiency of neoclassical microeconomics, that is, taking the industrial structure or division of labor as a fixed factor, then studying the optimal allocation of resources in it, and then constructing a division of labor evolution model to explain economic growth. They believe that when people have little experience, their productivity is low, so they can't afford transaction costs. People only choose to be self-sufficient. Through practical learning, productivity can be improved and they can afford transaction costs. Therefore, people begin to choose a higher level of division of labor and specialization. This kind of specialized learning will accelerate the learning speed and thus pay higher transaction costs. This positive feedback (virtuous circle) will make the division of labor evolve spontaneously. The reason why division of labor can improve productivity is precisely because specialization has caused some information asymmetry. Sellers know a lot about the products they produce, but as buyers, they know very little.
Yang Xiaokai and others' theoretical model of division of labor evolution gives us two inspirations:
Enlightenment 1: promoting division of labor and transaction and the development of knowledge are extremely important for economic growth and development.
Enlightenment 2: A country's institutional innovation should develop in the direction of promoting division of labor, reducing transaction costs and improving transaction efficiency.
(7 Midos put population growth, food supply, capital