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Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination (Published in association with The Open University)

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Author: Christopher Hart
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd
Category: Book

List Price: ~~Ł19.99~~
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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

7 reviews
Sales Rank: 9164

Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 230
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 7.5 x 0.6

ISBN: 0761959750
Dewey Decimal Number: 300.72
EAN: 9780761959755
ASIN: 0761959750

Publication Date: November 6, 1998
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Bought for final year never used, very informative though

Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination (Published in association with The Open University)

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Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...

1 out of 5 stars

Doing your head in: releasing the aggression after trying to read this. August 4, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

I decided to buy this book having read all the fantastic reviews on here, but was sorely disappointed. I am in the process of writing a postgrad literature review for my CIPD and have to say, this book was absolutely no help whatsoever. Maybe it works for academics, but for business students, I would avoid this like the plague. If you're after a book that gives you practical hints on how to get started with your literature review, don't buy this. I found the content and writing style to be largely theoretical and abstract, which made it difficult to follow or glean any quick pointers from. Having trawled through the whole sorry dirge I was left none the wiser by the end of the book and found much more useful and practical tips online.

5 out of 5 stars

A brilliant book on writing a research project literature review! January 8, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I used Chris Hart's book as a postgraduate student and I was more than satisfied to say the least. After reading the book I was able to advise my classmates as to how to write a good literature review.

There are a lot of interesting illustrations which thoroughly explain the process of prior research than needs to be done and then how it's all combined and written up as a document i.e. a literature review.

Moreover, the most important elements that are described within the book are the types of research available to the researcher, the goals of a research, the issues of different types of research, the different ways of argumentation, how to cite references, a checklist of do's and don'ts.

I recommend Hart's book to every postgraduate student bound to a literature review write-up and academics in general.

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent! August 1, 2003
22 out of 24 found this review helpful

A brilliant book written in such a wonderful, transparent and
understandable style. A real gem that is best in its class. Excellent reference when judging graduate and post-graduate thesis works. Recommended warmly!

5 out of 5 stars

This is an excellent primer and useful for post-docs too February 12, 2002
46 out of 48 found this review helpful

The book covers the typical issues in conducting a literature review in the social sciences. It covers the role of the lit review. How to review. Classifying and reading research. Analysing arguments. Organising ideas. Mapping and expressing ideas. The later sections bring to light the real purpose of the review: not to read everything written on x but to put the reasons for your study within the context of the past research in a topic and explore the ideas that have underlain progress in a topic. Excellent

5 out of 5 stars

Magnificent guide to literature review May 7, 2001
57 out of 58 found this review helpful

Chris Hart's guide to doing a literature review presents a comprehensive perspective on the literature review as a research tool. While it is addressed to scholars in the social sciences, this book is useful in most areas of design research. Hart discusses the role of literature in research. He explains how reviewing earlier work releases the imagination rather than constraining it. He shows how to classify and read research literature, how to analyze arguments, and how to organize and express ideas. He also teaches the reader useful ways to map and analyze the ideas that each body of literature reveals. Finally, he demonstrates in careful, clear stages how to develop and write the literature review. At each point, Hart develops a serious, well-reasoned explanation that helps the scholar to understand why each step is important and how to do it well.

Ken Friedman
Professor
Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, and Denmark's Design School, Copenhagen

This review originally appeared in Design Research News, Volume 6, Number 5, May 2001 ISSN 1473-3862.