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Literature Search Techniques 2

Literature Search Techniques 2. Strategic searching. In this lecture you will learn: The function of a literature search The structure of academic literature Revision of the previous lecture An overview of search strategies. 1. The function of a literature search.

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Literature Search Techniques 2

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  1. Literature Search Techniques 2 Strategic searching • In this lecture you will learn: • The function of a literature search • The structure of academic literature • Revision of the previous lecture • An overview of search strategies

  2. 1. The function of a literature search

  3. What is the Purpose of a Literature Search/Review? (1: Cognitive) • To avoid reinventing the wheel • To find out what other scholars are writing about your topic • To learn methods and approaches that are appropriate for your study • To learn appropriate theory to underpin your work

  4. What is the purpose of a Literature Search/Review? (2: social) • To demonstrate to your audience that your contribution is new – different from everyone else’s • Nobody will believe you unless you can demonstrate through the literature review that you know what everyone else has done • In an MSc: to demonstrate to your teachers that you can do an effective literature review • Because literature reviews are an accepted part of university projects/research and your project will not look like a good project without one

  5. What Information Should You Look For? • Publications that cover the same or a similar topic to yours • Publications that support your methods • E.g. Stats, Systems Analysis, Database Normalisation, Project Management, OO programming • Background information books • E.g. The Web, The JAVA programming language, electronic security

  6. 2. The structure of academic literature

  7. Overall Structure Research Topic Specialist sub-area Relevant Primary research Your research question

  8. Advanced literature search Topic 1 5% 10% 5% Specialist area 50% 5% 10% Topic 3 10% 5% Topic 2

  9. Afieldstructure

  10. 3. Revision of the previous lecture

  11. Sources for Literature Reviews • The Library • Look through the list of journals and browse the books on the shelves to find relevant ones • Digital Libraries • Need to use keyword searches to identify relevant articles • The Web • Use keyword searches in Google (which indexes PDF and PostScript academic publications)

  12. The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Different Sources • Books vs. journal articles vs conference proceedings vs. the web • Which tend to be the best for • Currency • Authority • Understandability? • Which types of task would each source be best for? • Academic papers are quality controlled – many are rejected as being incorrect or uninteresting

  13. Literature search techniques • Keyword search • To find topically relevant information from digital libraries, databases, or the web • Good in most cases • Browsing • To sift through collections of potentially relevant text • Good where there are many relevant books/articles, but only a few can be selected • Chaining • Tracking references and citations to find articles relevant to a topic • Good where the topic is very small

  14. Example: search engines • Look for web page on search engines: read page • Look for book on search engines: read introduction, contents list, look for subtopic • Start keyword searching for subtopic in digital libraries • Chain key authors and papers for subtopic • Read the likely papers and pick one as your main paper

  15. Exercise • [Class vote on answers]

  16. 4. Overview of search strategies

  17. Literature search strategy

  18. Literature search -real?

  19. Alternative literature search strategy • A practical strategy? • Do general searches until you find a paper that you think you could understand & use it as the basis for your research • Author/reference/citation chain from this paper • Keyword searches to get papers relevant to subtopic

  20. Alternative literature search strategy

  21. Your progress • The following should occur as you progress • Increase in knowledge of the subject • Increase in general knowledge of the specialist topic • Increase in your specialist vocabulary • Increase in confidence that you can complete the task

  22. Homework Task • Conduct a literature search for your chosen sub-area for the second assessment • Report • The searches conducted (digital libraries, OPAC etc) • The titles found from each search • Discuss which types of publication (books, journal articles, Web, conference papers) should be used to give the different types of information needed • Make a list of problems/issues that arose with your search • You do not need to print out all the articles you found

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