The subtitle of the book, 'Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination', echoes C. Wright Mills' The Sociological Imagination. The mimicry is not idle one. If one thing is evident about Hart's book it is that it is not yet another cookery book with easy-to-follow recipes for inexperienced researchers in a hurry to get a PhD. The book is didactic and pitched at the right level for students but it does not oversimplify the intellectual task. On the contrary, the examples chosen to illustrate its points are not from the easiest of social sciences writing: Weber, Marx, Durkheim, Garfinkel and, Geertz, among others, are often quoted in the text.

The book is constructed in a pedagogic way, with a sense of progression and internal logic that runs from chapter to chapter until the final conclusion which integrates the whole argument of the book. Chapter one, 'The literature review in research', is focused on the definition of literature review, the specific skills needed in research and what is expected today of a postgraduate student; the understanding of literature review as a form of information management using information technology; and the concept of scholarship. Chapter two, 'Reviewing and the research imagination', deals with the purpose of a literature review and what research imagination is, emphasising issues such as the history of a topic and the structure of knowledge in a particular field. Chapter three, 'Classifying and reading research', concentrates on developing the necessary skills to read the research design that underlines scientific publications. Chapter four, 'Argumentation analysis', is constructed around the examination of logic and different types of arguments, situating them in broad epistemological contexts. Chapter five, 'Organizing and expressing ideas', explores rhetoric options to present information, both from the point of view of the analysis of the literature and of the construction of the review. Chapter six, 'Mapping and analysing ideas', is more concerned with the organisation of the review in the stages prior to the structuring the writing. Finally, chapter seven is focused on the actual writing of the review.

All chapters are written addressing the reader directly. A brief introduction sets out what will be discussed in each particular chapter. Examples, situated at the end of each chapter, help the reader to understand, through a demonstration, what the author means to teach. Reference to the example is brought into the text whenever it is needed. At that point the reader is asked to look at examples at the end of the chapter or a particular section. All examples of texts are presented in two column tables. The column on the right displays the text under scrutiny, while the one on the left brings in the author's comments and guidance to read the text.

The five appendixes are devoted to: contextualising the literature review in the broader structure of the proposal (appendix 1); showing different systems of citation (appendix 2);proposing a possible structure and presentation of a dissertation (appendix 3); suggesting ways to keep records and manage information in the process of doing the review (appendix 4); and, recommending a list of dos and don'ts of reviewing to check one's work against (appendix 5).

Chris Hart, a sociologist by training, is currently a Reader in Information Studies at the University of Central England in Birmingham. He has put 20 years of experience as a lecturer and a researcher in the field of information management into the explanation and description of the ideas on which methods and techniques for analysing a literature review are based. Hart does this with an audience of social sciences postgraduate students in mind. Thus, there are permanent references to the thesis and the place the literature review has in it as well as on the writing of a proposal. Moreover, Hart distinguishes between the characteristics of a literature review for a master's dissertation and a doctoral thesis. The book is clearly focused on the social sciences. The examples chosen, as well as the methodological and epistemological issues brought up in the different chapters, reinforce the focus of the book.

Contrary to some of the local texts on research methodology and proposal writing, Doing a Literature Review, is a book about the progression of scholarly work quite capable of exciting students' imagination in the multiple directions of intellectual enquiry. Finally a useful list of basic epistemological as well as disciplinary bibliography supplements a well-thought -through textbook.

The book can be recommended for teachers of research methodology as a useful resource. Supervisors working with students without prior methodological or epistemological training might find it equally useful. Postgraduate students can read it and benefit from the book without much guidance from lecturers, tutors or supervisors.

One can only hope that the Open University soon will publish a similar volume focused on the humanities.