Guarantee

A literature review
 surveys scholarly articles, books and other sources
(e.g. dissertations, conference proceedings)
relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or
theory.

 provides a short description and critical evaluation of

work critical to the topic.

 offers an overview of significant literature published

on a topic.
(Lyons, 2005)

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 Determine if proposed research is actually needed.
• Even if similar research published, researchers might
suggest a need for similar studies or replication.

 Narrow down a problem.

• It can be overwhelming getting into the literature of a field
of study. A literature review can help you understand
where you need to focus your efforts.

 Generate hypotheses or questions for further

studies.
(Mauch & Birch, 2003)
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• Background knowledge of the field of inquiry
 Facts
 Eminent scholars
 Parameters of the field
 The most important ideas, theories, questions and
hypotheses.

• Knowledge of the methodologies common to the

field and a feeling for their usefulness and
appropriateness in various settings.
(Mauch & Birch, 2003)

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 Search across multiple databases and information
resources.
• It’s not adequate to use IEEE/Scopus as your one and only resource

 Read the literature throughout the search process.

• What you read will guide your subsequent searches and refine
your topic.

 Your search should help refine the topic and objective of

the overview being written.

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The Search strategy is a plan that helps you look for the
information you need:
 Identify the key concepts (Keywords). e.g. effect of snail trails on

PV module performance. The key concepts are: PV modules, snail

trails.

 Determine alternative terms for these concepts, if needed. e.g.

photovoltaic modules – whitish/greyish tracks/marks.

 Refine your search to dates, ages, language, etc., as appropriate.

 Practice helps

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 In search strategy development, it is important to remember
that the computer searches for words not concepts.

 Words can be searched in a natural language fashion

 The search of a word can be limited to a specific field.

 Without requesting a particular field, the search will be

conducted for the word automatically, or by default, in all the
fields.

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 Journal articles

 Review articles

 Primary research articles

 Conference proceedings

 Patents

 Dissertation: thesis/project report

 Books

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 Journal papers are current
Textbooks are often years out of date.
 Journals are generally the most accessible means of
obtaining the information that you need.
 You can get a good explanation for your data and enough
details to replicate what you read about.
 To find out exactly what the latest developments are in a
field.
 To find out how a certain piece of research was done.
 Because one day soon you could be writing papers too!
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i. Many reviews will be labeled as "review“ on the
first page of the article.
ii. Reviews don't have a "methods" section.
Read a review &
iii. In a review article, graphs, tables, make SUMARY
or figures containing actual data will (Assignment # 1)
It is also wise to read
contain citations in the figure legend several reviews by
different authors!
to the primary research papers that
originally reported the findings.

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 How?
 Active not passive reading.
 Use highlighter, underline text, scribble comments or questions on it, make
notes.
 If at first you don’t understand, read and DO NOT
re-read, spiraling in on central points. highlight whole
sentences or
To: paragraphs
 Understand the problem
 Understand the proposed solution
 Understand competing approaches / designs
 Evaluate the paper
 Peer review is the cornerstone of the scientific publishing process
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A general rule of thumb, regarding what goes where,
when both reading and writing a scientific article:
Title:
Abstract:
Short, succinct,
Why & Why
eye-catching Note: Some journals will
allow the Results and
Discussion sections to be
Introduction: combined. In this case, the
Methods What and the why are
When, Whom,
How & Where presented together.
What & Why

Results: Discussion:
What Why & How

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IMRaD
• Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion
Plus
• Title, abstract, authors, acknowledgements, declarations,
references
• Tables and figures; legends
Variations
• Combined Results and Discussion
• Methods at end
• On-line supplements

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Introduction: Provides background about the problem. Leads to
the research question. States the research question.

Method: Outlines the methods used to answer the research

question. Should include information about the variables studied
(and their definitions), time frames and design of data collection, and
type of analysis (data handling: summary, comparisons, etc.).

Results / Findings: Gives the results of the analysis.

Discussion / Implications: Discusses the findings in light of
the original problem. Provides possible implications, “so what” of
the findings in light of the original problem.
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You first read the ABSTRACT in order to understand the major
points of the work.
 It clarifies whether you in fact know enough background to appreciate the
paper.
 It refreshes your memory about the topic.
 It helps you as the reader integrate the new information into your previous
knowledge about the topic.
This is only easy to
Then do if the paper is
 Skim the Introduction. organized properly.
 To find logical flow of papers go straight
from the Introduction to Results.
 Then to Discussion for interpretation of the
findings.
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 Grab a blank piece of paper:
 Take notes.
 Draw figures/tables.
 Define vocabulary noting unfamiliar words, terms, and phrases.
 Answer these questions:
 What is the hypothesis being tested?
 What are the basic conclusions?
 The basic procedure behind results (figures/tables/…)
 The question a particular result sought to answer.
 What conclusions do the authors draw?
 Describe for yourself why these data significant?
 Does it contribute to knowledge or correct errors?
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 To know how it was done in order to understand what it
means
 To find a logical reason why the method can or may
answer the question
 To adapt methodological approaches to our own
experiments
 If you want to replicate an experiment, the methods
section is indispensable to find stimulating idea and to
check feasibility

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 By now, you may be tired of this paper…
 But don’t relax yet…
 Save energy for the overall
.

 Do you agree with the authors’ rationale for setting up

the experiments as they did?
 Did they perform the experiments appropriately?
 Were there enough experiments to support the major
finding?
 Do you see trends/patterns in their data?
 Do you agree with the author’s conclusions?
 What further questions do you have?
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 talk to other people about it.

 read commentaries.

 consult, dictionaries, textbooks,

 online links to references, figure

 legends to clarify things you don’t understand.

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 Try to understand

 Don’t be afraid to ask

 Be constructive

 Be polite

 Don’t be afraid to criticize (constructively!)

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 What is the problem being solved?
• Is it important? Relevant?
• What is the prior work in this area?
 Is the proposed solution ingenious?
• Ingenuity is orthogonal to importance!
 Are the assumptions and model reasonable?
 Impact
• Easier to evaluate for older papers
• Does other work build on it? Do other papers uses
techniques and solutions proposed in this paper?
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 Easy
access for
later use

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Summarized literature review constituting
minimum of 20 primary research articles

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Impact factor – Reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in
science and social science journals.
Eigenfactor – A rating of the total importance of a scientific journal according to the
number of incoming citations, with citations from highly ranked journals weighted to
make a larger contribution to the eigenfactor than those from poorly ranked journals.
Quartile rankings are derived for each journal in each of its subject categories
according to which quartile of the IF distribution the journal occupies for that subject
category. Q1 denotes the top 25% of the IF distribution, Q2 for middle-high position
(between top 50% and top 25%), Q3 middle-low position (top 75% to top 50%), and
Q4 the lowest position (bottom 25% of the IF distribution).
SCImago Journal Rank – A measure of scientific influence of scholarly journals that
accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the importance or
prestige of the journals where such citations come from.
h-index – Usually used as a measure of scientific productivity and the scientific
impact of an individual scientist, but can also be used to rank journals. If H articles of
a Journal are cited at least H times each and the remaining articles are not cited more
than H times, then H will be the H-index of a Journal.
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Source normalized impact per paper (SNIP) – a factor released in 2012
by Elsevier based on Scopus to estimate impact. The measure is calculated as
SNIP=RIP/(R/M), where RIP=raw impact per paper, R = citation potential and M =
median database citation potential.
Article Influence Score – for each journal is a measure of the per-article citation
influence of the journal. This tells us (in percentile) that how much the articles of a
journal have influenced the knowledge in a given subject area. We will assign a weight
of 100 marks to AIF. The percentile rank will be the mark obtained out of 100.
Journal Quality Ranking System (JQRS) – On the basis of 500 points formula, 5
categories of Journals, recognized in JQRSTM, are: Gold Journal (80% or above),
Silver Journal (70%- 80%), Bronze Journal (60%- 70% marks), Honorable (50%-
60% marks) and Quality Compliant Journal (Any Journal that does not meet Gold,
Silver, Bronze and Honorable Mention criteria but meets two conditions: Is an eligible
Journal, and Is a Free Journal).
5 year impact factor – It is calculated by dividing the number of citations in the JCR
year by the total number of articles published in the five previous years.
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 Web of science (Thomson Reuters)

 Scopus

 IEEE

 Science direct

 ……

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When one looks at
the duck-rabbit and
sees a rabbit, one is
not interpreting the
picture as a rabbit,
but rather reporting
what one sees.

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