Doing Literature Survey: Some General Tips on Sources to Be Consulted T. S. Kumbar Resource Centre 22nd July, 2008

Outline Information Generation Cycle Types of Information Sources Research Process Literature Survey Search in Bibliographic/Citation Databases ( Abstracting/Indexing) Use of RC Resources Search in Library Catalogues Searching on the Web Reference/Citation Style Resources Avail RC Services & Assistance Evaluation of Web Resources Staying in Touch with Recent Literature IPR issues/ Plagiarism Conclusion

Information Generation Cycle It begins with a idea. The idea is researched & developed. Initial findings are shared with colleagues in the research community, research guides, often by email, news groups, or in person. Preliminary results are communicated in a letter to the editor, comment in a journal or brief papers e.g., Electronics Letters. Full findings are presented in a conference

Information Generation Cycle Results appear in a research or technical reports or thesis. Findings are submitted to a journal publication. Paper is indexed in a database Idea is incorporated in to text books, reviews, encyclopedia, handbooks and other sources. Book is indexed in pub/lib. catalogue. Information contained in these sources is used. Information use triggers new ideas The Cycle continues

Players in the Information Cycle Scientists, engineers, academicians, researchers and others Authors Publishers Abstracting & Indexing Databases Aggregators Libraries & Information Centres Users

Types of Information Sources The entire scholarly information sources are grouped in to, Primary Sources Secondary Sources Tertiary Sources

Primary Sources… Sources that include first, the publications of original research findings, record of events, original thoughts, ideas etc. Journals Conference proceedings Dissertations/Theses Patents Standards Reports Plan/policy documents

Primary Sources Research monographs Autobiographies Manuscripts News papers Magazines Annual reports Correspondences Speeches Minutes of meetings etc.

Secondary Sources… Sources that digest, analyze, evaluate, interpret and present the information in organized manner contained in primary sources. Review articles Text books Biographies Indexing & abstracting serials/databases Bibliographies Book reviews

Secondary Sources News digests Encyclopedia Handbooks Dictionaries and Thesaurus Directories Almanacs Geographical sources, etc.

Tertiary Sources These sources are compilation of primary and secondary sources. These serve as a guide in locating various information sources on specific subjects Usually compiled keeping in view researches and academicians in mind Library subject guides Pathfinders Computer Science and Computing: A guide to the literature Guide to sources on nanotechnology etc

Research Process Selecting an area of interest Reading background information Selecting the promising research problem (proposal) Determining types of information needs Searching literature- from all types of sources Refining the topic & restating the problem Analyze the literature Work on the research problem Putting it together ( writing) Reference & citation format/style Reference & citation of sources collected Presenting the final report/dissertation/thesis

Literature Survey… Need for literature survey To know what others have done To follow the trend and identify the problem To avoid duplication To support your argument To follow theoretical, empirical, methodological and design work of related fields To gather data to extend your methods, findings & discussions Basically, it serve as basis for the practical work

Literature Survey… Selecting specific area Split in to sub topics Identify keywords, phrases, subject headings, etc. Subject Dictionaries, Thesauri, etc. Selecting materials for background reading (use RC resources) Encyclopedia Handbooks Text books Monographs Select articles, reviews, (print& e-resources) Dissertations (previous batch) Refine your area/select the topic/proposal Write down the statement, proposal with scope, objective, hypothesis, methodology, data collection and analysis, deciding style format, compiling bibliographies

Search in Bibliographic/Citation Databases ( Abstracting/Indexing) INSPEC http://www.ei.org/databases/inspec.html COMPENDEX http://www.ei.org/databases/compendex.html Web of Science http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/products/wos/ SCOPUS http://www.scopus.com/scopus/home.url

Use of RC Resources ACM Digital Library http://portal.acm.org/ ACM Guide to Computing Literature http://portal.acm.org/guide.cfm ASA Digital Library http://asadl.org/ ACM Computing Reviews http://www.reviews.com/ IEL Online Library http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/

Use of RC Resources ITU Recommendations http://www.itu.int/publications/ JSTOR Archive http://www.jstor.org/ LNCS Online Collection http://www.springerlink.com/ ScienceDirect (Comp. Sc.) http://www.sciencedirect.com/ Springer Online Engineering Journals http://www.springerlink.com/content/103882/

Search in Library Catalogues RC Catalogue http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/catalog/rccatalog.html#rc Catalogues of other libraries http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/catalog/rccatalog.html#olibraries Union Catalogues Online Book shops e.g., Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/, Firstandsecond.com & others Publisher Catalogues http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/publishers.html

Searching on the Web Visible web Invisible web- three times bigger than the visible We strongly recommend you to use, Scholarly Search Engines/Resources http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/scholarly_search_engines.html Subject Gateways/Virtual Libraries http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/gateways.html Open Access Resources http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/open_access_res.html

Scholarly Search Engines/Resources… SCIRUS http://www.scirus.com/ CiteSeer http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/ http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/ Scitopia.org http://www.scitopia.org/scitopia/ Google Scholar http://scholar.google.co.in/ Ingenta http://www.ingentaconnect.com/

Scholarly Search Engines/Resources Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies http://liinwww.ira.uka.de/bibliography/ Networked Computer Science Technical Reference Library http://www.ncstrl.org/ DBLP Computer Science Bibliography http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/index.html

Subject Gateways/Virtual Libraries INFOMINE http://infomine.ucr.edu/ Intute http://www.intute.ac.uk/ Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org/ref/ Internet Scout Report http://scout.wisc.edu/ Librarians Index Internet http://lii.org/ National Science Digital Library http://nsdl.org/ BUBL http://bubl.ac.uk/

Open Access Resources Directory of Open Access Journals http://www.doaj.org/ Open J-Gate http://www.openj-gate.com/ Eprints Archive [arXiv] http://arxiv.org/help OAIster http://www.oaister.org/

Reference/Citation Style Resources… IEEE Editorial Style http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs_iportals/iportals/publications/authors/transjnl/stylemanual.pdf IEEE Computer Society Style Guide http://www.computer.org/portal/site/ieeecs/menuitem.c5efb9b8ade9096b8a9ca0108bcd45f3/index.jsp?&pName=ieeecs_level1&path=ieeecs/publications/author/style&file=index.xml&xsl=generic.xsl& IEEE Standards Style Manual http://standards.ieee.org/guides/style/2007_Style_Manual.pdf Chicago/Turabian Style http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html http://www.ithaca.edu/library/course/turabian.html

Reference/Citation Style Resources Harvard Style APA Style ACS Style AMA Style MLA Style AIP Style

Avail RC Services & Assistance Send us your topics to assist you better Assistance in literature searching/locating Inter Library Loan Service Document Delivery Services Purchase of Reading Materials Permission to visit other libraries Delivering documents when you are off campus

Evaluation of Web Resources Is it somebody’s personal page? What type of domain does it come from? Is it published by well known organization? Is the page dated? Is it current enough? What are the author’s credentials on the subject? Are sources documented with footnotes or links? If it is reproduced information ( from some other source), is it complete, not altered, not fake or forged? Are there links to other resources on the topic? Is the page listed in one or more reputable directories or virtual libraries? What do others say about the author or responsible body?

Staying in Touch with Recent Literature Table of Content Alerts Visit RC site regularly Join email based discussion forums Watch out for Conferences resources (RC site) Visit Blogs Visit professional/R&D org. sites Visit major publisher sites Subscribe to research news Visit professional peer’s sites

IPR issues/ Plagiarism Copyright Patents Designs Trademarks Plagiarism Be aware & avoid http://web.mit.edu/writing/Resources/Teachers/detect.plagiarism.html

Conclusion Knowing what others have done Referring the resources with due credit Optimum use of RC resources Seek RC assistance Stay in touch with recent developments

Questions & Clarifications?