Research Methodologies

Chapter Three
Literature Review and Referencing
 Literature Review

• A literature review is a text of a scholarly

paper, which includes the current
knowledge including substantive findings,
as well as theoretical and methodological
contributions to a particular topic.
 Searching for Literature
• What are you trying to find out?
– Try to specify exactly what you need to know
• What type of information do you want to find?
– An answer to a specific question?
– An overview of a subject area?
– A specific document?
• How quickly do you need the information?
– Immediately: Internet
– In a day: Library
– In a week: Inter Library Loans
 Where to Search: Sources
• Sources for literature on the internet:
– Freely available collections (personal/institutional)
• Publishers’ websites/databases
• Literature databases
 Where to Search: Interrelationship of
Sources
• Authors submit paper to conference/journal for peer
review
• If accepted, the paper is revised by the authors and
submitted to conference/journal editor
• The paper is processed to bring it into the publisher’s
format (typesetting/layout)
 Where to Search: Interrelationship of
Sources
• The paper is then
– included in the publisher’s database,
– made available on-line via the publisher’s website, and
– possibly published in printed form
• Literature databases
– collect the bibliographic information from several publishers
– add additional information (references with links, citation
index)
– link back to publisher for full-text of papers
 Databases and Search Engines: Web Search
Engines
• Freely available (scholarly) web search engines include:
– Citeseer
• Digital library which is freely available papers in computer and
information science
• http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/
– Google
• General internet search engine
• http://www.google.co.uk
– Google Scholar
• Searches scholarly literature on the web.
• http://scholar.google.com
…Databases and Search Engines: Web Search
Engines
– Scirus
• Searches journals (Science Direct) and web resources
• http://www.scirus.com/
– Windows Live Search Academic
• Academic search engine - search academic journals and content for
article titles, author names, article abstracts, and conference
proceedings.
• http://academic.live.com/
Databases and Search Engines: Comparison
• Journal - A daily written record of (usually personal)
experiences and observations.
• There is an important difference to remember:
– Library catalogue: Allows to search for a journal, but not for
journal articles

– Publishers’ and literature databases: Allow to search for

journal articles, but not in the full-text journal articles

– Web search engines: Allow to search in the full-text of

journal articles, but have difficulties with their structure
…Databases and Search Engines: Comparison
• Literature databases cover a vast number of journals
and conferences, but they
– do not cover all journals and conference
– do not cover textbook, handbooks, collections of articles in
book form
– do not cover workshops and similar scientific meetings
– do not cover technical reports and pre-prints
• Web search engines provide much better coverage of
these types of publications, but
– typically also return a lot of irrelevant material to a query
– leave it to the user to distinguish high quality from low
quality material
 Queries
• Search terms might be simple keywords, phrases, or consist of field
identifiers, modifiers, operators, and keywords
– Examples:
• author = Ambuhl
• author like Ambuhl
• Queries are typically constructed from search terms using boolean
operators
– Examples: AND, OR, NOT.
– AND retrieves records where ALL of the search terms are
present.
– OR retrieves records containing either one term OR another.
– NOT retrieves records NOT containing a particular term.
 Queries (cont’d)
• Mode of search is very important:
– narrow: you are looking for exactly one record
– use a search term which is as specific as possible ‚cell microprocessor‛
instead of cell
– use additional criteria
• publication date year = 2006
• type type = journal
• language language = english
• publisher publisher = Springer
• wide: you are looking for all records relating to a subject
– try alternative words/phrases
• microprocessor / computer processor / computer chip
– try alternative spellings
• judgement / judgment
 References
– A detailed description of a source from which you
have obtained information
• Why do we cite the work of others?
– To acknowledge the work of other writers and
researchers
– To demonstrate the body of knowledge on which
our work is based
– To enable the reader to trace our sources easily
and lead her/him on to further information
 References (cont’d)
Quality of source
– ‘Originality’
• Original paper  secondary paper / translation
– ‘Language’
• If possible, a source should be in the language you write
in
– Readability of source
• Well written  badly written
 References

• References need to include the following

information, with the order and format
depending on the chosen style:
– Author(s) or editor(s) responsible for
writing/editing the work cited
– Title and subtitle of the work
– Where the work can be obtained or found
– Year the work was created, presented, and/or
published
 Plagiarism

• Plagiarism could be defined as:

• the word for word copying of another’s work
without appropriate and correctly presented
acknowledgement;
• the close paraphrasing of another’s work by
simply changing a few words or altering the
order of presentation, without appropriate and
correctly presented acknowledgement;
 Plagiarism (cont’d)

• unacknowledged quotation of phrases from

another’s work;
• the deliberate and detailed presentation of
another’s concept as one’s own.
• Copying of another’s work, then adding a
reference to that work, is NOT considered an
‘appropriate and correctly presented
acknowledgement’
 Referencing
• Citation / Quotation
– Formally recognizing, within your text, the sources from which
you have obtained information
– A passage or words quoted within your text, supported with a
reference to its source.
• List of references
– List of all sources which are cited in the body of your work
• Bibliography
– List of all sources which have been consulted in preparation of
your work
 Citing Rules

• References to your own previous work is

allowed if it is relevant to your current work
• Claims, statements of fact, discussions of
previous work should be supported by
references, if not supported by your current
work
– But: Do not cite to support common knowledge; do
not end every sentence with a reference.
 References: Types of work

• Book
– Author(s) or editor(s)
– Title and subtitle
– Edition, if not the first, for example 2nd ed.
– Series and individual volume number (if any)
– Publisher
– (Place of publication)
– Year of publication
 References: Types of work (cont’d)

• Examples:
– A. A. Fraenkel, Y. Bar-Hillel, and A. Levy.
Foundations of Set Theory, 2nd revised edition.
Studies in Logic and The Foundations of
Mathematics 67. North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1973.
– A. Robinson and A. Voronkov, editors. Handbook of
Automated Reasoning. Elsevier, 2001.
 References: Types of work (cont’d)

• Chapter/section of a book
– Author(s) of the chapter/section
– Title and subtitle of the chapter/section
– Author/editor of collected work
– Title and subtitle of collected work
– Chapter/section referred to Page numbers of
chapter/section referred to
– Publisher
– (Place of publication)
– Year of publication
 References: Types of work (cont’d)

• Example:
– W. Bibel and E. Eder. Methods and calculi for
deduction. In C. J. Hogger, D. M. Gabbay and J. A.
Robinson, editors, Handbook of Logic in Artificial
Intelligence and Logic Programming, Volume 1,
chapter 3, pages 67–182. Oxford University Press,
1993.
 References: Types of work (cont’d)

• Journal article
– Author(s) of the article
– Title and subtitle of the article
– Title of the journal
– Volume and part number
– Page numbers of article
– Date, month or season of the year, if appropriate
– Year of publication
 References: Types of work (cont’d)

• Thesis and dissertation

– Author of the work
– Title and subtitle of the work
– Type of work
– Awarding institution including its address
– Year, possibly month, of publication
 References: Types of work (cont’d)

• Web pages
– Author(s) of the web page(s)
– Title and subtitle
– URL
– Date of last modification, if available
– Date of access
 References: Types of work (cont’d)

• Examples:
– The PHP Group. PHP: Hypertext preprocessor.
http://www.php.net/. 22 October 2006.
– The International DOI Foundation. The Digital
Object Identifier System. http://www.doi.org/.
25 July 2006 (accessed 22 October 2006).
 Reading Assignment

• Harvard Referencing style

 Evaluating Research Papers

• Whenever you read a research paper, you

should try to evaluate at the same time.
• Try to answer the following questions:
– Is the topic of the paper sufficiently interesting (for
you personally or in general)?
– Did the author miss important earlier work?
– Are the evaluation methods adequate?
– Are the theorems and proofs correct?
– Are arguments convincing?
– Does the author mention directions for future
research that interest you?
 Structure of research papers: Questions

• What elements constitute the structure of the

papers?
• Are the elements and their order identical for
all the papers?
• What characterises each of the elements of the
papers?
 Structure of a Research Paper
• Title
• List of authors (and their contact details)
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Related work (part of, or following introduction, or before
summary)
• Outline of the rest of the paper
• Body of the paper
• Summary and Future Work (often repeats the main result)
• Acknowledgements
• List of references
 …Title
• As short as possible, but without abbreviations or
acronyms
• As specific as necessary and as general as possible
• Include key phrases which are likely to be used in a
search on the topic of the paper
• Avoid phrases which are too common
• Use phrases that describe distinctive features of the
work
 Authors

• An author of a paper is an individual who

– made a significant intellectual contribution to the
work described in the paper
– made a contribution to drafting, reviewing and/or
revising the paper for its intellectual contribution
– approved the final version of the paper including
references
 …Authors

• Some organisations / publishers have strict

rules regarding authorship
• Order of authors may depend on
– subject area: pure theory often alphabetical
– applied research often based on contribution
– research assessment
• (e.g. bibliographic measures associating order with
contribution)
 Authors

• In Computer Science, academic degrees and

membership of professional organisations are
typically not indicated
• List of authors is typically followed by contact
information consisting of affiliation and e-mail
address (not postal address)
• Some journals allow authors to provide longer
descriptions of themselves including
photographs
 Abstract

• Typically not more than 100–150 words

• Should aim to motivate people to read the
paper
• Highlight the problem and the principal results
• The abstract will be included in literature
databases
• Keep references to a minimum
• Keep equations and other mathematical
expressions to a minimum.
 Introduction

• State the general area of research

• Introduce the problem
– state why the problem is important and/or
interesting
• Outline the approach taken to solve the
problem
• Outline the solution or principal results
• Do not repeat the abstract
 Related Work

• Related work is previous work by the same or

other authors which addresses the same or
closely related problems / topics
• Section on related work gives credit to such
work and establishes the originality of the
current work
• Extent depends on the space available and
relevance of the related work to the work
presented in the paper
 …Related Work

• Make sure all related work is cited and

correctly described
• Failure to give credit can result in a bad
evaluation and kill your paper
• Section on related work is either part of the
introduction or is placed at the end of the body
of the paper
 Body of the Paper

• Depends strongly on subject area and topic of

the paper
• Typical structure of a Computer Science paper
on theoretical research:
– 1 Basic definitions
– 2 Description of a new algorithm, calculus, or
formalism
– 3 Sequence of theorems accompanied by proof or
proof sketches
– 4 Applications / consequences of the results
 …Body of the Paper

• Typical structure of a Computer Science paper

on applied research:
– 1 Architecture of a new system
– 2 Description of the new system
– 3 Evaluation
• Papers on action research, case studies, surveys,
experiments are also common and have their
own structure
 Conclusion and/or Future Work

• Summarises the contributions of the paper

• Describes the implications and/or applications
of the contributions made by the paper
• Outlines future directions of research
 Acknowledgements

• Acknowledges external funding sources

• Thanks non-authors that made a significant
contribution
– colleagues or fellow researchers with which the
authors had discussions related to the topic of the
paper
– anonymous referees provided they have given
exceptional level of feedback or important insights