Getting started: reviewing the literature

The internet is a powerful aid to research but its ease of use sometimes causes problems. Complex sites may be difficult to navigate through a second time and the URL may well have shown up via a search. Some people advise the saving (or book-marking) of searches, a simple procedure. In any event, the full URL and access dates are required for proper referencing. Because of the dynamic nature of the internet, your sources should be downloaded and saved for presentation (if required).
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 112-115

“The most obvious reason”, “is that you want to know what is already known about your area of interest”, including relevant concepts and theories. The process of writing a literature review should enhance your learning and help you to write a “proper” dissertation, but these are by-products. You could reasonably start reading the existing literature to find out what the current areas of debate are, particularly in the academic journals close to your field of interest. This could help you to develop research questions of your own. Answer (a) may be an outcome, but this is not a numbers game: quality counts a lot more than quantity.
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 90

A narrative review is highly subjective and remote from the concept of systematic reviewing, although the gap is beginning to narrow. Narrative reviewing is closer to the idea of trial and error than exhaustive surveying. Usually guided by a hypothesis, the researcher can change the focus of research as a result of this kind of review. Clearly more appropriate to qualitative research, in that separate viewpoints are likely to be more interesting than a gradual build-up of a conclusion, it must be fully and comprehensively referenced.
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 91-94

The review needs an explicit statement of purpose of the review so that decisions about key issues, such as what kinds of research need to be searched for and what kinds of samples the research should relate to, can be made in a consistent way. Therefore it is necessary to define the purpose and scope of the review.
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 99

The Harvard convention takes a little time to get used to but its popularity as a form of author-date referencing lies in its ability to leave the main body of text relatively uncluttered and obliges the use of a bibliography, or list of references. In the bibliography, titles are listed alphabetically by author, followed by year of publication, full title and publisher details. Tips and skills, on pages 113 and 114, provide many examples.
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 113-114

“Developing a critical approach [to your reading] is not necessarily one of simply criticizing the work of others”. Not all of what you read will be relevant to your task, so you must have a clear focus on your research questions as you read. Taking notes of your reactions is advised, in addition to recording content. Most reading is uncritical by nature, meaning that things are accepted just because they are written somewhere. Even reading these comments critically would mean referring back to the text for confirmation or elaboration. Critical, in that sense, really just means using your intelligence and judgement. It also implies openness, so beware of “judging the book by its cover”!
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 95

Plagiarism if not just taking someone else’s work and passing it off as your own. When a person lifts material that they have previously written and pass it off as their own work.
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 115

Option (d) might be favored by some academics but it is, perhaps, too extreme a punishment for what is undoubtedly a crime. Perpetrating a fraud, or a lie, knowingly is reprehensible and, in the realm of research, may be destructive of others’ work. There is a danger with on-line resources, particularly, to fall victim of the very advantages offered. These include copying and pasting utilities, contained in most computer software packages. Institutional rules vary but most agree on upper limits of the amounts of direct quotation that may be used. It is a lot lower than many students seem to imagine. Another consideration, of no less importance, concerns copyright. Authors and publishers will permit a very small amount of direct quotation if full attribution of the text is given. Larger amounts need express permission.
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 115-11

Bryman cites Tranfield et al’s (2003) definition of systematic review as a “replicable, scientific and transparent process”. A systematic review tends to reduce researcher bias, it is argued, and the process obliges the researcher to be more comprehensive and thorough. For dissertation writing, this would mean explaining your reading choices: ‘why those and not others?’, followed by a write-up of the methodology used to access sources. This is a long way away from simply going online and accepting what pops up in a Google search.
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 98, 99