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 researcherresearch groups –On-line Public-Domain indexes Google Scholar Cite Seer DBLP –Table of Contents ServicesTable of Contents Services –Publisher-specific digital libraries (ACM & IEEE at BYU)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 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.annotated bibliography L.I.T. Head and U. Lift, Helium: More than a Balloon, in Proceedings of Chemical Magic, Vol. 73, Nr. 2, 2007, 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. 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 rankingsconference rankingsjournal rankings Ask a long-time expert in your area Choose from the best researchers (one place to look is Microsoft Academic Search)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?