Learn about Methodological Literature Reviews
by Janet Salmons, Ph.D., Research Community Manager for SAGE Methodspace
A feature topic in the Organizational Research Methods journal, Rigorous and Impactful Literature Reviews, explores methodologies for conducting review research. Some of the articles are open access, the others are available in your academic library.
Sage Research Methods community highlighted this useful collection with a series of interviews and related resources in 2023. Review research is an broad term that describes various types of review articles. Kunisch et al. (2023) define it as
a class of research inquiries that employ scientific methods to analyze and synthesize prior research to develop new knowledge for academia, practice and policy-making.
In this interview Dr. Herman Aguinis and Dr. Ravi Ramani discuss the article they wrote with Dr. Nawaf Alabduljader, “Best-Practice Recommendations for Producers, Evaluators, and Users of Methodological Literature Reviews.” This practical article has been downloaded 10,974 times since it was originally published in 2020.
Additional articles from Dr. Aguinis are available open-access:
Bradley, K. J., & Aguinis, H. in press. Team performance: Nature and antecedents of non-normal distributions. Organization Science. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1619
How to measure variables that are not normally-distributed and learn what type of non-normality exists—this has implications for how to analyze the data correctly.
Aguinis, H., Beltran, J. R., Archibold, E. E., Jean, E. L., & Rice, D. B. in press. Thought experiments: Review and recommendations. Journal of Organizational Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2658
How to conduct thought experiments, a method used successfully in many fields (e.g., Einstein and Galileo in physics), but under-utilized in the social sciences.
Schwab, A., Aguinis, H., Bamberger, P., Hodgkinson, G. P., Shapiro, D. L., Starbuck, W. H., & Tsui, A. S. in press. How replication studies can improve doctoral student education. Journal of Management Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1177/27550311231156880
How to use replication research as a teaching tool to advance theory and also make sure doctoral students receive appropriate methodological training.
Aguinis, H., Bergh, D. D., & Molina-Azorin, J. F. 2023. Methodological challenges and insights for future international business research. Journal of International Business Studies, 54(2): 219-232. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-022-00578-8
How to address the most critical contemporary methodological challenges regarding design, measurement, and analysis.
Herman Aguinis is the Avram Tucker Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Management at The George Washington University School of Business and he served as President of the Academy of Management in 2021-2022. His research is interdisciplinary and addresses the global acquisition and deployment of talent in organizations and organizational research methods (i.e., behavioral science and data science). Every year since 2018, Web of Science Highly Cited Researchers Reports has ranked him among the world's 100 most impactful researchers in Economics and Business and he has been inducted into The PhD Project Hall of Fame. Professor Aguinis has published 11 books and more than 200 refereed journal articles, and delivered more than 30 keynotes and about 170 invited presentations in all seven continents except for Antarctica.
Ravi S. Ramani is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management in the Business Administration department of the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan State University. His research interests include career development, progression, and outcomes; management education and scholarly impact; and organizational research methods. Dr. Ramani’s work has been published in Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Academy of Management Perspectives, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Knowledge Management, Journal of Management, Organizational Research Methods, and elsewhere.
Critical appraisal of research papers is a component of everyday academic life, whether as a student as part of an assignment, as a researcher as part of a literature review or as a teacher preparing a lecture. Learn more from this post.