Synthesising the literature

Literature mapping
Below is an example literature map. The key concepts, shown in bold in the diagram below {adapted from Fisher (2004)}, have been identified in response to the following research question: Evaluate the impact of the Internet on practices for recruitment and selection used by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The literature has been assigned to these key concepts and each piece of literature (article, book, paper etc) is represented here numerically and would relate to your literature list. You may prefer to use the authors, names or include a little more detail, but that can take up more space and make the map difficult to read. It is entirely possible for an individual piece of literature to be applicable to more than one area. Additionally, some literature may give a good overview of the whole subject; for example, a good review paper.

Areas of dispute 5, 16

Areas of consensus 8, 9, 11, 13

Recruitment and selection practises within SMEs 12,20 General recruitment and selection

The internet: general information for the introduction 1, 4

The internet and recruitment and selection 17, 18, 19

Impact of the internet on recruitment practises within firms 14, 15

for the introduction 10

General overview including reviews 2, 3,

From The Research Observatory. Last edited 07/01/08 University of the West of England, Bristol