Kirby is conducting a literature review in preparation for his study of "expectations regarding the sharing of financial and practical responsibilities among married and cohabiting couples in which both partners are between the ages of 20 and 29." Conducting a keyword search on "couples" and "responsibility," Kirby has generated a lengthy list of research articles. He decides to shorten the list

Question

of potential articles by eliminating all articles that were not published in prestigious research journals. He will include all the remaining articles in his literature review. What is your opinion of Kirby's approach to selecting articles for the literature review? Explain.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Kirby is right that the quality of the journal in which articles are published is one factor worth noting when making decisions about what to include in the literature review. However, there were more important distinctions Kirby should have made before taking that particular step. The keywords Kirby used in his search were overly general. His list of articles undoubtedly contains many that are only remotely related to his research problem, as well as many that are closely related. To maintain appropriate focus in the literature review, Kirby needs to first narrow his list of articles to those most relevant to his particular research problem. It may later make sense to eliminate additional articles from the list on the basis of journal quality, but that decision is premature at Kirby's present state.