1. “Reading” Working with the Literature
Bruno Buchberger
Part of the Block Course „Working Techniques“ in the Frame of the
International Master‘s Program for Informatics
Johannes Kepler University, Campus Hagenberg, Austria
September 2008

2. Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008:
No parts of this file may be copied or stored without written permission.
Storing and printed granted for the students of the International Master’s Program in Informatics, JKU, Campus Hagenberg, September 2008 under the condition that the file is kept unchanged and complete including this copyright note.

3. Points of Emphasis The Refereeing Procedure Efficient Search
Efficient Reading
Give Credit

4. Contents The Role of the Literature Categories of Documents
Bibliographic Data
Working with the Literature
Searching Literature
Reading Papers
Documenting

5. Questions: What do you do if your paper is rejected?
How do you search for literature on “the Galois groups of origami constructions”?
Under which keywords to you look for “non-linear equations”?
What is the difference between an editor, a publisher, and a referee?
What do you do if you are asked to write a referee report for a paper?

6. How do you find out whether a paper of 1992 was further pursued?
How do you find out whether a journal article is available in your library?
Do articles in conference proceedings count as “publications”?
Will journals become obsolete with the future advances of the web?
How long does it take to find out whether a paper is relevant for your research?

7. Is the following reference OK: “N. Nakatani. On Fibonacci Numbers
Is the following reference OK: “N. Nakatani. On Fibonacci Numbers. Technical Report, 2004 “ ?
Is the following citation OK: “For the resolution method, see [Miller, Mayr 2004]” ?
[Miller, Mayr 2004], A. Miller, C. Mayr, “An introduction to the resolution method”, J of S …, pp. ,

8. The Role of the Literature
own
thinking
consulting
the literature
Start here !

9. Categories of Documents
authorship,
contents,
originality,
quality control,
organization and production,
access,
scientific reputation
Books
Journal Articles
Conference Proceedings Articles
Collection Articles
Technical Reports
Program Documentations
Manuals …
Please see the lecture notes for details.

10. Similar but not identical notions:
“books”
“papers”
“articles”
“publications”
“refereed publications”

11. The organization of journals:
editor
and ed board
anonymous
referee
author
publishing
company
reader
Please see the lecture notes
for details.

12. Anonymous peer refereeing:
A corner-stone of modern science.

13. AN “Algorithm” for Refereeing:
saves time of referees
helps authors
authors can help referees
Read abstract,
conclusion, intro.
Reject.
In Scope? no
Report.
yes
Report.

14. Read paper superficially Reject. Clear? no yes Reject. Important? no
Report.
yes
Report.
Reject.
Important? no
Report.
Report.
yes

15. Reject. Difficult ? no yes Reject. Originality? no yes Report. Report.

16. Reject. Intuitively Sufficient correct? no details? no yes yes Revise.
Report.
Report.
yes
Report.
yes
Report.
Revise.
Goto
“Literature
Complete?”
Report.

17. Read and check paper in detail Reject. Correct? no yes Literature
Report.
Report.
Literature
Complete?
Revise. no
Report.
yes
Report.

18. yes
Revise.
Presentation
Good? no
Report.
yes
Report.
Accept.

19. The Role of the Literature
Categories of Documents
Bibliographic Data
Working with the Literature
Searching Literature
Reading Papers
Documenting

20. Bibliographic Data for unique identification of literature documents
for getting hold of documents
 completeness !
Please see the lecture notes for details.

21. The Role of the Literature
Categories of Documents
Bibliographic Data
Working with the Literature
Searching Literature
Reading Papers
Documenting

22. Working with the Literature: Search

23. An “Algorithm” for Literature Search:
Given: a “topic”.
Find: all relevant literature on the topic.
Form the
Symmetric,
transitive
closure of A B
cites
cites

24. An “Algorithm” for Literature Search:
Given: a “topic”
Find: all relevant literature on the topic.
Web
Search engines
Citation indices
Research Index, see citeseer.ist.psu.edu/cs
"CompuMath Citation Index " (CMCI), see
search for math / CS search engines
“forward search” is possible!

25. Ask colleagues.
Authors are happy if you ask about their papers!
Use available papers.
Use reference lists for backward search.

26. Use libraries.
authors’ index
keyword (subject index)
thesauri are a problem!
example: AMS Subject Classification Scheme.
the documentation of math is not problem oriented!

27. An experiment: search for “equations”:
for linear equations (over fields), search under the keyword "linear algebra"
for linear equations (over the integers), search under the keyword "number theory"
for nonlinear equations (over fields), search under the keyword "algebraic geometry"
for numerical methods for equations solving (in the real and complex numbers), search under the kewyord "numerical mathematics"
for nonlinear equations over the integers, search under the kewyord "recursive function theory" ("algorithm theory, or even "metamathematics").
for differential equations, search under the keyword "differential equations“.

28. Mathematics as problem types a 3-D space method types EQUATIONS
SOLUTION OF
BOOLEAN
EQUATIONS
BY ELIMINATION
Mathematics as
a 3-D space
problem types
method types
EQUATIONS
ELIMINATION
BOOLEAN ALGEBRAS
data types

29. Consult review journals,
contents journals,
bibliographies.
e.g. Mathematical Reviews
e.g. Current Mathematical Publications
bibliographies /= literature surveys

30. Iterate
i.e. form the symmetric, transitive closure of the
relation “A cites B”
(i.e. iterate forward, backward search)
and prune irrelevant items at each step
until the literature set stabilizes.

31. prune:
by reading title and abstract
 title and abstract are enormously important
the decision not to read a paper is very important

32. Advice:
Be embedded into the research community:
local
national
regional
global

33. The Role of the Literature
Categories of Documents
Bibliographic Data
Working with the Literature
Searching Literature
Reading Papers
Documenting

34. Working with the Literature: Read
Two opposing aspects:
analyze quickly the essential contents of a paper
understand and check details.

35. An “Algorithm” for Fast Reading: Given: a paper.
Find: the relevant contents.
Please see the lecture notes
for details.
Read (in this order)
title and abstract
reference list
conclusion
introduction and literature review

36. Clarify and formulate in your own words the essential problems treated
the new contribution to their solution
For each problem, proceed by “Gerber’s Rule”:
What is given?
What has to be found?

37. Look to concrete problem instances.
What is given and what has to be found in the example?
How would you solve the problem? What do you know about known solutions in the literature?
What is specific about the problem, i.e. what distinguishes the problem from other, similar problems?
What is the specific difficulty of the problem?
How could the problem be specified formally?

38. What might be the specific contribution of the paper to the solution of the problem (even if you did not yet see the details presented in the paper)?
Is the problem and its solution relevant for your topic?

39. Is Paper
Relevant
for You?
Exit. no
yes

40. Understand and check the relevant details.
Look up (in case you don’t know) the relevant terminology and results in the area.
Get the intuitions behind the formal details.
Checking the formal details.

41. For (getting the intuitions and) checking the formal details:
Complete mastery of the formal methodology of mathematics (“reasoning”) is necessary, see Course on “Mathematical Thinking”.
This can be learned!

42. The Role of the Literature
Categories of Documents
Bibliographic Data
Working with the Literature
Searching Literature
Reading Papers
Documenting

43. Working with the Literature: Document
Complete documentation of the literature used in your paper is obligatory:
For making the paper completely understandable.
For giving intellectual credit to the results used.

44. Steps:
documentation during work
the reference list
citing
the literature review
(bibliographies)

45. Documentation during work:
a list of all references (ordered alphabetically by authors) with complete bibliographic data
and keywords.

46. The reference list:
completeness of bibliographic data
uniformity.

47. Citing:
Cite all papers which you use in your paper.
Cite the papers in which the results appeared for the first time (“primary literature”).
Cite also papers in which the results are well presented (“secondary literature”)
Cite sufficiently many papers for making your paper understandable.
Do not include papers into the reference list which you did not use in your paper.
Be careful with self-citations.
Think about “personal communications”.

48. Literature review:
May go by authors.
Should be summarized in a “statement of originality”.
In addition, individual citations in the text will often be necessary.
Bibliographies are different: Are independent of one’s own paper, go by “topic” (preferably, by “problems”), see lecture notes.

49. Repetition: Points of Emphasis
The Refereeing Procedure
Efficient Search
Efficient Reading
Give Credit

50. Exercises
Check: Can you answer the initial questions?

51. Exercise:
choose (a very limited) topic (advice: a “problem”; we might take the problem of your future master’s thesis);
search the relevant literature using the “algorithm” above;
read the papers found (to the point where you can determine the relevance and essential contributions of the papers)
document the result of the literature search.