Using the Work of Others: Some Observations on Reviewing and Integrating

Abstract

THERE ARE MANY ways for a social scientist work. Large-scale review and integration of existing theory and research in some bounded area is one such way. Systematically reviewing and integrating what is nominally called the literature of a field may be considered a type of research in its own right-one using a characteristic set of research techniques and methods. Yet there is little formal or systematic analysis of either the methodology or the importance of this type of research. One suspects that there is a heavy degree of lip-service involved in the commitment integrations. Indeed, half-hearted commitment in this area might account in part for the relatively unimpressive degree of cumulative knowledge in many of the fields of the behavioral sciences. With regard sociology, it is unfortunately all too easy agree with the assertion by Reiss (1969:151) that sociologists fail to focus their research and scholarship on a limited set of problems with the objective of deliberately cumulating knowledge in that One reason that reviewvs and integrations can be so useful is that they deliberately aim at cumulating knowledge in an area. The purpose of this paper is highlight the importance of reviews and integrations by discussing the procedures, problems, functions, and values of this type of research.' This discussion will