Literature Search – How to Make Hard Work Easier? Prof. Haiying Huang Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering University of Texas Arlington

Flow Chart of Literature Review Formulate Questions Search Database Brief Reading Detailed Reading Write Literature Review Organize References Refine Questions

Why Literature Review? I am ready to start? Help! I am stuck!I made it!

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?

Help! I am Stuck! Mountain Climbing Goal: 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? Research Goal: 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?

I Made It! Mountain Climbing Goal: 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? Research Goal: 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?

Purposes of Literature Review Better understanding of the topic See if anyone else has done it before What approaches have not been tried?

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

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

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

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

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 on::init&groupcode=RWUTArlington Mendeley:

Reading the Paper Brief 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

Detailed Reading Background 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?

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.

Attribution and Citation Papers 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.

Questions & Answers