Business Informatics, Systems and Accounting

Henley Business School

University of Reading

Assessed Coursework Set Front Page

Module code: INMG93

Module name:
Lecturer responsible:
Coursework title:
Work to be handed in by:
Research Methods
Professor Keiichi Nakata
Coursework 2 – Preliminary Literature Review
Full time students: 8 February 2019
Part-time students: 8 March 2019

This coursework contributes to 50% of the overall module assessment.

NOTES:

Coursework must be submitted to Turnitin via Blackboard, which gives it a date and
time stamp, by 2.00pm on the deadline day.

The following penalties will be applied to coursework which is submitted after the
deadline for submission:
• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any
formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available
for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day
(or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the
original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark
of zero will be recorded.

If a student believes he/she has a valid reason for being unable to meet the deadline
he/she must complete an Extenuating Circumstances form and submit it as soon as
is practicable (in principle before the deadline) to the Programme Administrator.

NOTE: It is recommended that you keep a copy of all coursework that you submit.

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Literature Review

This is a preliminary review of literature for your proposed project. The literature review will
cover the subjects related to your intended research topic so that the research problems
and research questions can be identified and justified.

1. A typical review should contain a brief description of the project, summary of the
subject/topic area, identification of your major findings and gaps in research, followed
by a critique and discussion of the relevance to your intended work.
2. A list of references and proper citations in the text are essential. The referencing style
should be Author-Year (e.g., APA and Harvard).
3. The expected length of the literature review is around 3000 words, with a 10%
variation, not including the list of references. A word count is required. According to the
University policy on overlength work, parts beyond the expected word limit may be
excluded from assessment.
4. Suggested structure – use only as a guideline as this would largely depend on the
nature of research and the topic chosen. The following is suggested for quantitative or
mixed methods research, but can be adapted for other types of research (cf. Creswell
(2003) Research Design, 2nd ed., Sage Publications):

Provisional Project Title

Choose an informative title – this is treated as tentative and provisional

1. Introduction
This provides the context of the literature review by introducing the research topic and
proposed project aim, its motivation, coverage of topic areas illustrated by the
organisation of the report.

2. (Section Heading 1)
This addresses the literature about the independent variable(s) in the proposed
research. This often provides the background context and key concepts.

3. (Section Heading 2)
This addresses the literature about the dependent variable(s) in the proposed research.
This often leads to the focus of research within the background context.

4. (Section Heading 3)
This addresses the literature that relates the independent variable(s) to dependent
variable(s). This typically covers related research that asks a similar question to the one
proposed, and might address various approaches and methods used, results and
knowledge derived from them, etc. This would also reveal the gap(s) in research which
the proposed project aims to fill.

5. Conclusion
This should provide a summary of the report and highlight key findings and emerging
issues that justifies why the proposed research is needed.

References
In an Author-Year (e.g., Harvard) format.

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5. The following aspects are assessed (percentage of weights in brackets); note that these
do not necessarily correspond to the structure of report, but the aspects that would be
looked at in the assessment:

Purpose/ Introduction/ Motivation (20%)

Clear statements and description should be provided as to the context of literature review
(project aims, topic/problem area, etc.), and justifications for the approach (coverage, topic
areas, etc.) chosen for the literature review.

Coverage of relevant literature (30%)

This includes identification of key papers and important leaders and groups in the area, made
evident by the coverage of literature, in appropriate width and depth.

Critical and comparative discussion (20%)

There should be discussions on key papers and which could include outlining of main issues and
comparisons. A critical-analytical approach should be demonstrated through discussion.

Relevance to proposed research (20%)

There should be evidence of awareness of relevancy of literature to the project and research
context, identification of gaps between the literature and the problem addressed by the proposed
project, and how the proposed project fits in to the body of knowledge.

Presentation (10%)
This includes structure, format, style, use of English, consistency, effective use of tables and
diagrams, proper use of citation and referencing style, length/word count.