Chapter 3

Searching, reading, and referring

literature

Read: 7.1 Searching for Research Papers of

Krishnan Nallaperumal (2013)
 Outline
• Discussing 2nd week assignment
• Searching for materials
• Literature study and referencing
• Appropriate References
• Citations
• Reference /Research management/ tools

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Second week Assignment

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Literature review – why ….

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 Purpose

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 Searching for information
• information flows through different
publications over time.
– Primary literature is where new research or
theories are first revealed, and includes journals
and conferences (Proceeding)
– Secondary literature provides a more digested
overview of a subject e.g. books
– Tertiary literature records facts and brief
descriptions of key information, as in reference
material.

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 How to read an article

How to read a scientific paper

(By Prof Pete W. Carr)

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 Discussion Points
Structure of a Journal Article. Your Take Away for listening to Prof Pete W. Carr

1) Title

2) Keywords

3) Abstract

4) Introduction

5) Experimental

6) Results and Discussion

. Tables, Figures

7) Summary/Conclusions

8) References

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 Why referencing?
• Show how your work extends the current state-
of-the-art knowledge in the area
• Show the originality of your work
• Give credit to other people’s work (and thereby
avoid being accused of plagiarism)
• Support and validate arguments made in your
report (any claim made in the report must be
supported either by your own research or by
citing results published by other people)
• Show that you are familiar with the work done in
the area
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Documents that you can use as references

• Scientific research journals typically publish

high quality articles.
• Conference and workshop proceedings
• Theses (M.Sc., Ph.D.) contain valuable
information which, to a varying degree,
present the state of the art for a subject.
• Textbooks are usually a good source for
understanding the fundamentals in a variety
of subjects

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 Documents that you can use as references …

• Magazines can be viewed as a popular version of

research journals.
• Web pages can contain useful information, but in
general, they should be avoided since their
content is normally not reviewed.
• Newspapers can provide interesting pieces of
information, which you can use as examples in
your report.
• Other documents such as manuals, modelling
documents, and commercial information should
also be treated with care.
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 Citations
• A citation is the use of a reference in the text.
• Why: Everything in your report that does not come with
a citation will be assumed to be your own work.
• So: citations is used to distinguish clearly
between your own work and that of others.
• Example: the following three citations highlight
that the journal article by K. Anderson is used:
– Anderson (2008) describes/identifies……
– ………. (Anderson, 2008). • Anderson [1] …
• …….. [1].
– According to Anderson(2008) ……… • Acc to Anderson [1] …..
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 References
• List of cited works.
• All references used should be included in
acceptable standards/styles.
• Use research management tools
– Mendeley
– EndNote
– Zotero

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Review of literature: why relevant?
– Original (incremental) contribution to knowledge
Vs.
– Scholarship (type of study):
• synthesis and analysis of existing theory, ideas,
and findings of other research, in seeking to
answer a particular question or to provide new
insights.

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Protecting from predatory journals
• seeking to exploit others,
• Journals: journals that runs for solicit cash out
of publishing; not for advancing knowledge .
Fake journals. Prays on anyone interested to
get his/her paper fast (without blind review)

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 How for us
• Journals subscribed by consortium of
Ethiopian Universities(sciencedirect.com)
• Open –access journals (doaj.org)
• Journals supported by international initiatives

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 What to do
• Finding a research problem
– Narrow vs. board
– fundamental vs. applied
– P vs. NP
• Classical vs. hot topics
– Introvert vs. customer driven
• Review a literature
– Build a skill of critical reading
of a literature

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 Doing The literature Review
• …. Evaluating the paper of others

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 End of Unit-3
Next: Research Design …