Literature Surveys

Source : : Keshav P. Dahal (Bradford University) : Prof Jiang, Prof McClachey

Research literature survey

Many operations involved

Finding literature

Reading reading

Writing reviews of papers and tracking

papers

Discussing ideas

Having brilliant ideas and discovering

which ones are worth bothering with

The hierarchy of information.

Information

Primary sources Secondary sources

Experiments Interviews QuestionnairesConversations Publications Lectures

Why survey the literature?

Discover the state-of-the-art

Identify gaps in the body of

knowledge

Identify relevant work

Find useful expertise

Keep abreast of developments

Doubts about the Topic

Happens all the time! …others still

interested? - it is probably worthwhile!

Look at future work section of papers

and

other dissertations, Masters and PhDs.

Rightsize your dissertation problem.

The world of literature.

• Textbooks.

• Learned Journals.

• Conference proceedings.

• World wide web.

• Trade papers.

• Newspapers.

Types of academic publication

• Original paper

• Review of a research topic

• Bibliography

• Thesis

• Dissertation

• Technical Report

The project context

• What related work is being undertaken?

• What is the motivation for the work?

• How does it help me?

• Why am I studying this aspect of the

problem?

The area of investigation.

What techniques are in use?

What are the findings of other people?

What are the views of other people?

How do they compare with my views?

Literature surveys are a critical appraisal

rather than a simple list of papers.

A literature survey demonstrates :

an awareness of an adequate body of knowledge

the ability to apply that knowledge to the project

Where to find Journals andconferences in your field

• Ask the faculty members at your universityWhere have you found papers?

• Become a member of any associations thatinterest you

• Go to the websites of the conferences in whichyou are interested

• Register for the mailing lists in your area ofresearch.

• Most of conferences announcements are mailedto the mailing lists.

Conference for networking

• Standard paper presentation conferencesessions – informative but passive

• Attend professional development workshops andsocial events

• Meet other PhD students and high profile faculty• Explore opportunities for :

– greater insight into the field– collaborators for co-authorship– critical reviewing of your research– Becoming member

Guidance for finding materials

• Have a particular conference in mind

– Look through the proceedings for the past two years

• Authors’ web site for technical report and not-quite-yetpublished

papers

• Papers cited by the papers from recent proceedings

– do not assume their comments are an accurate reflection of the

cited paper

• Use citeseer to find more recent papers that cite the

proceedings'

– find the even more recent papers that cite those papers

• Search for relevant papers written by the program

committee in past instances

Guidance for finding materials

• google, yahoo type search engines are toogeneral may not be enough– Paper before 1997 may not be posted in web– Cannot be found if different terminology than

theauthors

• Review request by colleagues – but not enough,may not be in public domain

• Search the digital libraries of acm.org, IEEEcomputer.org, and any other professionalsocieties relevant to your field– Membership of some organisation is free for

students• Library may have online search capabilities

Online search

• CMU Library

Guidance for literature review

• Do not cite from a cite - go to the source• Read the whole papers that you cite• Do not be shy about contacting authors• Citing papers more than 3-4 years old

– OK for seminal work (journal) but– not appropriate when comparing your results– citeseer for more recent papers citing those papers.

• journal citation is usually preferable• Use specialised citation formats• Use standard terminology• Do not over cite your own previous work• Do not assume anything about concepts and work done

in others’ paper

Reading papers

• Be selective in what you read– find appropriate conferences– quiz your supervisor or academic staff

member– scan before reading, read abstract and

conclusions first– if it still looks interesting, read and read

again– summarise the ideas in journal/work

notes– its normal to be overwhelmed

Evaluating Papers

• Did the ideas described really work?

• Cut through the jargon, are there any

interesting ideas underneath at all ?

• What motivated the authors ?

• What choices were open to the authors ?

• Validity of assumptions ?

• What was their result ?

• Any future directions ?

The purpose of publication.

• Expand the body of knowledge.

• Prevent replication of effort.

• Enable independent checks on

results.

• Disseminate opinions.

• Provoke discussion.

• Gain wider recognition for our

work.

How to submit a paper to a journal or

conference?• Submission processes varies

• Decide upon the appropriate outlet for your

paper

• Visit website for scope/topics covered

• Find submission guidelines

• Most journals/conferences publish their

submission

requirements

• Follow guidelines precisely - papers not following

the

format may be rejected

• Two stage submission process in some cases

Chances of acceptance - journal

• acceptance rates for journals vary

• depend the journal's prestige, quality/rigor of the

content.

• top tier journals less than 10% - first submission

• reviewers almost always require at least one

revision

• Revise taking considering every comments – write

separately why you can not address any.

• acceptance rate for revisions is generally around

50%

• most peer-reviewed journals are reviewed blindly

• the scope, quality of work and format are

important

Chances of acceptance - conference

• acceptance rates for conference also vary

• depend the conference's prestige and

associations

• tend to be much higher than for journals – 30%

typically

• usually decision is made in one review

• most prominent conferences use blind,

peerreviews

• Usually the same high quality feedback is

received

• the scope, quality of work and format are

important