1. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 3 Points of Emphasis The Refereeing Procedure Efficient Search Efficient Reading Give Credit

4. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 4 Contents The Role of the Literature Categories of Documents Bibliographic Data Working with the Literature –Searching Literature –Reading Papers –Documenting

5. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 7 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., 2004.

8. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 8 The Role of the Literature own thinking consulting the literature Start here !

9. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 9 Categories of Documents Books Journal Articles Conference Proceedings Articles Collection Articles Technical Reports Program Documentations Manuals … Please see the lecture notes for details. authorship, contents, originality, quality control, organization and production, access, scientific reputation

10. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 10 Similar but not identical notions: “books” “papers” “articles” “publications” “refereed publications”

11. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 11 The organization of journals: author publishing company editor and ed board anonymous referee reader Please see the lecture notes for details.

12. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 12 Anonymous peer refereeing: A corner-stone of modern science.

13. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 13 AN “Algorithm” for Refereeing: saves time of referees helps authors authors can help referees Read abstract, conclusion, intro. In Scope? no Reject. yes Report.

14. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 14 Read paper superficially Clear? no Reject. yes Important? no Reject. yes Report.

15. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 15 Difficult ? no Reject. yes Originality? no Reject. yes Report.

16. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 16 Sufficient details? no Reject. Goto “Literature Complete?” Revise. Intuitively correct? no yes Report.

17. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 17 Read and check paper in detail Correct? no Reject. yes Literature Complete? no Revise. yes Report.

18. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 18 yes Presentation Good? no Revise. yes Accept. Report.

19. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 19 The Role of the Literature Categories of Documents Bibliographic Data Working with the Literature –Searching Literature –Reading Papers –Documenting

20. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 20 Bibliographic Data for unique identification of literature documents for getting hold of documents  completeness ! Please see the lecture notes for details.

21. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 21 The Role of the Literature Categories of Documents Bibliographic Data Working with the Literature –Searching Literature –Reading Papers –Documenting

22. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 22 Working with the Literature: Search

23. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 23 An “Algorithm” for Literature Search: Given: a “topic”. Find: all relevant literature on the topic. cites BA Form the Symmetric, transitive closure of cites

24. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 24 Research Index, see citeseer.ist.psu.edu/cs "CompuMath Citation Index " (CMCI), see www.isinet.com/products/citation/specialty/cmci search for math / CS search engines “forward search” is possible! An “Algorithm” for Literature Search: Given: a “topic” Find: all relevant literature on the topic. Web Search engines Citation indices

25. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 25 Authors are happy if you ask about their papers! Ask colleagues. Use available papers. Use reference lists for backward search.

26. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 26 authors’ index keyword (subject index) thesauri are a problem! example: AMS Subject Classification Scheme. the documentation of math is not problem oriented! Use libraries.

27. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 28 data types method types problem types EQUATIONS BOOLEAN ALGEBRAS ELIMINATION SOLUTION OF BOOLEAN EQUATIONS BY ELIMINATION Mathematics as a 3-D space

29. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 29 e.g. Mathematical Reviews e.g. Current Mathematical Publications bibliographies /= literature surveys Consult review journals, contents journals, bibliographies.

30. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 31 prune: by reading title and abstract  title and abstract are enormously important the decision not to read a paper is very important

32. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 32 Advice: Be embedded into the research community: local national regional global

33. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 33 The Role of the Literature Categories of Documents Bibliographic Data Working with the Literature Searching Literature –Reading Papers –Documenting

34. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 34 Working with the Literature: Read Two opposing aspects: –analyze quickly the essential contents of a paper –understand and check details.

35. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 35 An “Algorithm” for Fast Reading: Given: a paper. Find: the relevant contents. Read (in this order) title and abstract reference list conclusion introduction and literature review Please see the lecture notes for details.

36. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 39 Is Paper Relevant for You? no Exit. yes

40. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 42 The Role of the Literature Categories of Documents Bibliographic Data Working with the Literature Searching Literature Reading Papers –Documenting

43. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 44 Steps: documentation during work the reference list citing the literature review (bibliographies)

45. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 45 Documentation during work: a list of all references (ordered alphabetically by authors) with complete bibliographic data and keywords.

46. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 46 The reference list: completeness of bibliographic data uniformity.

47. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 49 Repetition: Points of Emphasis The Refereeing Procedure Efficient Search Efficient Reading Give Credit

50. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 50 Exercises Check: Can you answer the initial questions?

51. Copyright: Bruno Buchberger 2008 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.