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Literature Search – How to Make Hard Work Easier?

Prof. Haiying Huang

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

University of Texas Arlington

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Flow Chart of Literature Review

Formulate Questions

Search Database

Brief Reading

Detailed Reading

Write Literature

Review

Organize References

Refine Questions

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Why Literature Review?

I am ready to start?

Help! I am stuck!

I made it!

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Ready To Start!

Research

Goal: identify a research problem and propose possible solution(s)

Identify your topic of interest Significance/Publishable

Perform a literature review Is the problem solved? Who has been attempted? What methods did they used? What are the limitations of tried methods?

Propose solution(s) Improve existing methods Start a new approach? New tools?

Mountain Climbing

Goal: find a unclimbed mountain peak & plan the route(s)

• Choose a peak– Is the climbing to the top of the mountain

worth it?

• Ask around the village– Did anyone reach the peak before?– Who has tried to climb it?– Which route did he/she take?– Why did not he/she reach the peak?

• Plan the route(s)– Improve existing route(s)?– Start a new route?– New tools?

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Help! I am Stuck!

Mountain ClimbingGoal: Find a solution to unstuck

• Why I am stuck?– Is the route correct? – Other route(s) that can circumvent the

problem?– Should I back down and try a different

peak?

ResearchGoal: Find a solution to unstuck

• Why I am stuck?– Is the approach I choose correct?– Other methods to overcome the

difficulty?– Should I give up and try a different

topic?

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I Made It!

Mountain ClimbingGoal: prove it & show off• Did anyone make it before me?• How did I make it while others did not?

– New route? – New climbing technique?– New tools?

• What is in the other side?• What is next?

ResearchGoal: publish papers & show off• Did any one publish before me?• How did I make it while others did not

– New insights?– New approach?– New tools?

• What did I learn?• What is next?

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Purposes of Literature Review

Better understanding of the topic

See if anyone else has done it before

What approaches have not been tried?

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Purpose of Literature Review

Understand what has been done

Understand the important topics and applications

Know the players

Identify journals related to your field

Find future research topics

Learn the methodology

Convince others your contributions

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Literature Review for Journal Paper

Give the reader background information regarding your own research;

Demonstrate your familiarity with research in your field;

Show how your work contributes to one more piece in the puzzle of advance the knowledge base in your field

•You understand what others in your field have accomplished •How your work differ from the works of

others

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Formulate Questions

Why is it important Why is UAV important? Why is nonlinear control of UAV important?

What methods have been tried to solve this important method What are their limits?

For a specific method, what has been done?

How do I address the limitations

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Where to Find Papers?

Search for keywords in database Engineering Village Citation index Review & tutorial papers Google scholar Google

Search by players

Search by forward & backward citations

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Manage Literature

Keep a Bibliographic Trail Developing a tracking method to maintain a complete record of all of the

bibliographic information Note on-line addresses and other pertinent information so that a search can

be duplicated if necessary

RefWorks

https://www.refworks.com/refworks2/default.aspx?r=authentication::init&groupcode=RWUTArlington

Mendeley: http://www.mendeley.com/

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Reading the PaperBrief Reading: Read Abstract, Introduction, and conclusion to determine whether the paper is actually useful for you

Make a complete bibliography entry and make some detailed notes about what you read

It can be very counterproductive to try to read everything in detail Categorize and understand what sources you have and what might still

be missing

Detailed Reading: ask the following questions What is the motivation of the paper? What approach is used? What results are obtained? Any unanswered questions?

Hall, C.D. Conducting a literature review for a research project

Analyze Accurately and Critically

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Detailed ReadingBackground and significance

The background of the author(s) The background of the paper and its contribution What problem does the author(s) attempt to solve

Principle of operation: explain clearly how it works

Experiment and/or simulation method Explain the procedure and the methods used

Results Explain the results presented

Conclusions What are the main findings of the authors?

Your own evaluation of the paper Does the results support the hypothesis? Any unanswered questions? If you were the author, what would be the next step?

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What is Plagiarism

Plagiarism represents a serious ethical breach, and may constitute legal breach of copyright if the reproduced material has been previously published.

Reproducing text or other materials from other papers without properly crediting the source.

Material is regarded as being plagiarized regardless of whether it is cited literally or has been modified or paraphrased.

Authors who wish to quote directly from other published work must fully cite the original reference, and include any cited text in quotation marks.

Figures may only be reproduced with permission and must be fully cited in the figure caption.

http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/page/Ethics%20policy

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Attribution and CitationPapers published should include citations to previously published papers

which are directly relevant to the results being presented.

Deliberate refusal to credit or cite prior or corroborating results, while not

regarded technically as constituting plagiarism, represents a comparable breach

of professional ethics, and can result in summary rejection of a manuscript.

An unintentional failure to cite a relevant paper, while regrettable, does not

necessarily imply misconduct.

Authors are expected to devote the same care to the correctness and

appropriateness of literature citations as to the other components of the

manuscript, and to heed the recommendations of referees and editors to correct

and augment the citations when appropriate.

Responsibility for updating references after acceptance (but before

publication) of a paper rests fully with the authors, but the same principles

should apply. http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/page/Ethics%20policy

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Questions & Answers