Transcript Literature Search - Brigham Young University

Literature
Search
Bill Barrett (originator)
David W. Embley (editor)
Why Search the Literature?
To address several questions:
• Is the work you are proposing new? (How can you know if
you don’t check Prior Art (i.e.what has already been done?)
• To avoid wasting time by repeating Prior Art
• If you are going to research a topic, you need to become
knowledgeable about it.
• To make your proposed research better: in what you write
about; in how you write about it; and in the ideas used to
you create your proposal. If the literature search doesn’t
affect, change or improve your proposal, you did it wrong.
Where Do I Look?
• On the Web
– Web sites of research groups and researcher
– On-line Public-Domain indexes
• Google Scholar
• Cite Seer
• DBLP
– Table of Contents Services
– Publisher-specific digital libraries (ACM & IEEE at BYU)
– Conference web sites
• At the Library: similar material shelved together
• From references of related papers and journals
When Am I Done Looking?
• Never
– Literature search continues throughout the research.
– New research results continuously appear.
• But, being practical – here are some rule-of-thumb guidlines
– Enough is enough
• No more than about 25-30 references for an MS thesis proposal
(perhaps 2-3x that in the final thesis)
• Fewer if an honest search only uncovers very few
– When you keep coming across the same papers
– When you start hitting cycles when you follow the references in
the papers.
– Like coming into a movie half-way. When the “scenes” (papers)
start looking familiar (been there, seen that) you are probably
just about done.
• Zobel’s hint (pg. 164): Newer literature has “explored and
digested older literature.”
What Do I Do As I Look?
• Read the abstract and (perhaps) the conclusions.
• Is it related? Does it apply? If not, terminate.
• What are the main claims/results of the paper? You should
be able to summarize this (high level) in 2-3 sentences.
• Include your summary in your annotated bibliography.
L.I.T. Head and U. Lift, Helium: More than a Balloon, in Proceedings of Chemical
Magic, Vol. 73, Nr. 2, 2007, 123-135.
This paper illustrates the diverse uses of helium and claims that …
– Make your citation complete.
– Your annotation should be a good reminder when it comes to
writing your literature review.
How Do I Decide What To
Read?
• Categorize your references into a few (< 8) groups and
select 2-3 of the best (seminal) papers from that group.
Your references do not need to be exhaustive, only
representative.
• Choose from the best venues
– More competitively refereed
– The best researchers publish in the best venues
– How do you know what venues are best?
• Check conference rankings and journal rankings
• Ask a long-time expert in your area
• Choose from the best researchers (one place to look is Microsoft Academic
Search)
How Do I Read What I Find?
• Some guiding comments (Zobel)
– “There is rarely a need to understand every line.”
– “Number of papers that a researcher working on a particular project
has to know well is usually small.”
– A brief look is usually sufficient to determine whether a paper is
relevant.
• Some knowledge about CS publications helps
– Few papers are perfect
• “While the fact that a paper is refereed is an indicator that it is of value, it is
not a guarantee.”
• “Too many people submit work that did not deserve to be written;
sometimes it gets published.”
– Be skeptical
• Deadlines mean that mistakes are undiscovered and that some issues are
unexplored.
• A paper only captures a snapshot of a research program at a moment in
time.
– Be forgiving (Your papers won’t be perfect either.)
– This knowledge is not an excuse to dismiss past work.
• Do (only) focused reading
What Is Focused Reading?
• Identify contributions and shortcomings rather than simply
read.
• Read by asking questions
–
–
–
–
–
What is the main result?
How precise are the claims?
How could the outcomes be used?
What is the evidence?
… (Zobel, pg 167)
• Skim when appropriate
– Search only for insights
– Ask fewer questions
– Check headers and topic sentences – then skip or read in
depth for the insights and answers to your questions
What If I Find the Dreaded
“Someone Else Has Already
Done It!”
• Be honest (It does little good to redo.)
• But
– Some aspects of your work may be novel.
– It may be possible to make further
contributions in an area.
– Most research (only) incrementally adds to our
knowledge.
BTW, The Secrets for Success
Have a Side Benefit.
• From the vantage point of literature
search and review, can you see the
reasons for these secrets?
– Secret #1: The abstract answering four
questions
– Secret #2: Embed the review in the paper
• If everyone did this, how would this
simplify your job of searching the
literature?