Evaluations will often go through two stages. First, how relevant is it to your topic? If it is, then is it credible? The Library also has some videos and tips on evaluating your results.You will want to know:
- What methods were used to gather data? Were they appropriate? Could this have affected the results one way or the other?
- Thoroughness of coverage? Did they maybe make some mistakes or overlook something leading to further research?
- Have you included oppositional research? It is important to cover those who may disagree with the direction of your research direction in previous research.
- You could do further research on the authors. How well-known are they in their field? What journals did they publish in? How well accepted are those journals? Is the author(s) well-cited (in other articles)? Has this article (that you are looking at) been cited much? Maybe not if it is a recent article. It may be worth watching in the future.
You will want to note in a summary just how your research relates to the studies you list. Are you corroborating previous research? Are you starting a whole new branch? Are you trying to disprove something? Are you filling in some missing gaps in coverage?
Purdue's OWL (Online Writing Lab) has some excellent suggestions on types of organization (thematic, chronological, etc.) and much more on literature reviews.
