Module 2

Literature Review and

Technical Reading
Attributions and Citations
• Literature review

• Primary Goal of Literature review

• To know the use of content / ideas / approaches in the
literature
• to correctly identify the problem that is vaguely know before
hand
• To advocate specific approach adopted to understand the
problem
• Access the choice of methods used

• Helps researchers to
• Understand problem
• Contribute new and innovative ideas / thoughts/ approaches /
contents / products
 New and Existing Knowledge
Strong Foundation with
lots of references
Defining Knowledge that
Doesn't exist
Different
Interpretation
Addressing missing
Different points
Literature Reviews Perception
Existing New
Reading and Knowledge Already existing Knowledge Should be original
Surveying the problem
erature in the field
Context/
Should allow new
Significance/
research
Originality /
Tools
 Text Books Research Papers

• Older Established Knowledge • Newer Knowledge

• Reading provides established • New works are usually recorded
knowledge and background
• Not too difficult to read • Goal is to share small piece of
• Written as teaching new knowledge
instrument • Written for other researchers
• Starts with basics and takes • Assumes reader already knows
readers through everything about the field
for better understanding • Researcher continually goes
back to other sources to try &
interpret the information
• Difficult to find correct work to
read
• Reading and learning gets
 Explain
how
research
items Should
build on explain
another how and
Centred one why
around
certain
concepts
technical
process
took place

Ease the
reader to
Open new Review comprehe
avenues of nd why
possible Proces subject is
work
s being
undertake
n

Comprehensive
Should Literature
provide
Facilitates
convincing
Review
theoretical
outcome • Methodologically analyse
growth Ensures to the and synthesise archived
firm question
foundation word
for • Provide firm foundation to
advancing the topic
knowledge • Provide suitable research
methodologies
• Good literature review is a two step process
• Identify the major topics or subtopics or concepts relevant to
the subject under consideration.
• Place the citation of the relevant source
(article/patent/website/data, etc.) in the correct category of
the concept/topic/subtopic.

• Reviews can be as one reading or across something

very important
• Core principles
• Description of something that sounds good
• One is excited bout it

• Highlighting section, underline, asterisks etc… –

marking not to forget
• Good Literature Survey/Review
• First expectation of Supervision from research scholar based on field
being studied/understood
• Should not draw sudden/ hasty conclusions
• Look into individual references to determine the underlying
cause/assumption/mechanism
• Synthesise available information in a meaningful way
• Summarise what is already known
• State of art,
• Key concepts
• Main factor or parameters
• Relation between them
• Approaches
• Consistencies
• Shortcoming
• Identify results as conclusive or inconclusive or contradictory
• Compulsive reason for future research
• After highlighting
• Close the material – book/ research
• Write highlighted part without copying in own words
• Write why is it important, what it contains

• Writing enables fitting into ones foundation

• To build knowledge foundation reading and learning is

continual and one has to write.
 Simple Rule for effective literature
review
Keep
Choose
Search the
Define a the Type
and Re- Take Review
Topic of
search Notes Focused,
and Review
the While but
Audienc You
Literatur Reading Make It
e Wish to
e of Broad
Write
Interest

Include
Your Be Up-
Be Own to-Date,
Find a Make
Critical Relevant but Do
Logical Use of
and Researc Not
Structur Feedbac
Consiste h, but Forget
e k
nt Be Older
Objectiv Studies
e
Assignment – write in detail
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3715443/
 Analysis and Synthesis of Prior Art
• After collecting sources (articles) to be used in literature
review, researcher should
• Break down the article
• Identity useful contents
• Synthesize the contents

• Review grid of N topics and M sources for

Source 1 Source 2 Source 3 Source M
categorization
Topic 1
Topic 2
Topic 3

Topic N
• Analyses of information based on
• Understanding the Hypothesis
• Understanding the model and the experimental conditions
used
• Making Connections
• Comparing and contrasting various information's
• Finding out the strong porin and the loopholes

• Good to be suspicious on claims made and source that

have been thoroughly reviewed

• If you are easily accepting whatever available – difficult

to go beyond the limits and fail to analyse with
suspicion.
• Goal of Literature Review - Bring out something new to
work
• Identification of problems unsolved
• Determination of problems in existing model/experiments
• Present Novel Ideas and recommendation

• Relying on refereed Journals/publications saves time

• Critically evaluating information's that needs to be cited
• Analyze available materials, to determine the suitability of
research
• Criteria's for evaluating the information

Authority Accuracy Scope

• What are the • Is the • Is the source
authors information at an
credentials credible appropriate
and affiliations • Does author comprehensio
• Who publishes cite other n or research
the sources in level
information reference/bibli
ography to
support info
Bibliographic Databases
• Aka Abstracting and Indexing Services

• Useful for citation related information and abstract of

research articles from scholarly literatures, making
them available though search.

• Perform simultaneous search though large databases.

• Researcher should quickly able to identify the databases

that are of use in the idea or problem that one wishes to
explore.
Web of Science https://mjl.clarivate.com/search-results

• Multiple databases with

specialized search tools
• Requires licenses at
institutional level
• Allows Structured search
• Narrowing and refining what one
is looking for
• Search for specific topic
• Sorting (Citations/years)
• Language
• Adding keywords, quotes around
phrases
• Enable alternate search
• Website provides title of paper,
authors journal type, volume,
issue, year, publication,
keywords, abstract
Google & Google Scholar
• Helpful in providing freely available information –
reports, conference articles, journals, etc.
• Google Limitations
• Black box of information
• Searchers everything on the internet
• No quality control – from where the results are coming ??
• Limited search functionalities and refinement options
• Google Scholar allows for searching scholarly
literature
• Limitations
• Some of the results are not actually scholarly (not a
good source)
• Not Comprehensive – not all is contents available
• Limited search functionality and refinement options
• Search operators can help to narrow results
• Operators can be combined
• or
• Brackets/Parenthesis
• Quotation Marks
• Site
• Filetype
 Assignment
• Search on topics of your interest in Google, Google
Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, Research Gate, Wiley

• In your own words with screenshots

• Describe about these webpages
• What does they do and what are the outcomes
• Search options
• Advantages and disadvantages
Effective Search: The Way forward
• Engineering (Any) Research required to refer articles (journals,
books, peer reviewed sources), for useful content.
• Informal in approach and aims to reach larger section- research
outcome are meant for general reading
• Researcher should
• Look form information needed and where it could be found
• Comprehensive search using search tools (Multiple places and multiple
sources)
• Look for similar studies, specific topics, broad information, specific
contexts Experime
For
nt with Evaluate
• Searching is iterative relevant
different and
Modify articles,
key assess
search as look for
words results,
needed citation
and use
and
operator filters
reference
s
• After search is complete researcher needs to
• Engage in critical and thorough reading.
• Make observation of salient points in those sources.
Multiple times
• Summarise finings
• Detailed comparison and contrast of findings

• Conclusion of Literature review process includes

• Summary of relevant and important works
• Identify missing links (gaps)
• Challenge open problems

• Literature revies is a continual process and is cyclic – need to go

back and forth in research project.
• Develop skill of reading by reading papers, taking help to
understand confusing parts, relavent course works.
• Not to loose sight of the purpose of extensive
search.

• Spend sufficient time to develop ideas based on

what is read.

• New literatures keeps appearing and

understanding the problems keep
growing/evolving.

• Write Synopsis based on extensive literature

survey based on prorblem
Introduction to Technical reading
• As against easily available random material, it is Important to know
• Where to read from
• Relying on refereed journals
• Books published

• Goal of reading research is to understand the technical contributions

• Given abundant research (journal) articles, it is useful to adopt quick,

purposeful and useful way of reading manuscripts.

• Reading technical papers – needs multiple readings, for hours to

days

• With quality time spent – careful initial skimming of articles to decide

its worth of reading

• Skimming based on titles and key words, abstract, conclusion,

 Search for Titles and Key words

Read Abstract – overview of the paper in minimum time

Read Conclusions – to understand if paper is relevant for study

Read figures tables, captions – broad idea of what is in the paper

Read introduction – to understand background information, why

the study has been made, what is new
Read Experimental setup / Model – to understand meaning of data
and interpretation

Read Results and Discussion

• Should consider knowledge,
reputation of the people,
publisher

• For small projects – advisor

would suggest articles

• For large projects – own

literature review – strategy on
what works to be reviewed.
Conceptualising Research
• Characteristics of Research Objectives
• Must have new knowledge
• Must be accepted by research community
• Recognised as significant.

• Conceptualising research problem -Think about tools,

methods for obtaining new knowledge; their significance &
originality; theory behind

• For good research – conceptualising research that meets

all requirements.
• Must be aware of literature that already exists( get expertise
in the area of study).
• Ph.D. or higher level – conceptualising research is done
by oneself. Should bring together
• Significant problem
• Knowledge that will address it
• Possible ways to make knowledge.
• Masters Thesis (or lower)
• Take help of supervisor who is expert and (or) active
researcher in the field for finding literature
• Engineers
• Objective is to make knowledge
• Going step back and check if new knowledge can be formed
Critical and Creative Reading
• Reading should be critical
• Without any assumptions on reported results and
argument.

• Suspicious and question,

• weather the fact is right/wrong, good/bad
• Have authors attempted to solve the problem right way
• Is the right problem addressed
• Are there any other or simple solutions
• Are the hypothesis and assumptions reasonable
• What are the limitations
• Is the logical flow of paper correct or wrong
• Any flaws in reasoning
• Is the work relevant and how important is this.
• Use Judgemental Approach and Boldness to make
judgement

• Flexibility to discard previous erroneous judgement

• Ascertain data
• Presented in the paper is right to substantiate the argument
made
• Gathered and interpreted in a correct manner
• Other datasets are more or less compelling

• Critical reading –relatively easy as reading find mistakes

• Creative writing allows the researcher access to the
individual, but also to go beyond the personal, whereby
the 'methods and theoretical ideas as paradigms may be
viewed ashttps://uwlpress.uwl.ac.uk/newvistas/article/id/150/#:~:text=Creative%20writing%20allows%20the%20researcher,138%2C%20original%20italics).
the apparatuses, or procedures of production
from which the research design emerges

• Creative reading
• Requires positive approach in search
• Provides the researcher and reader with unique insights,
• Exploit findings and outcomes
• Actively look for
• Other applications
• Generalisations
• Extended work authors would have missed
• Plausible modifications
• Practical challenges
Taking Notes while Reading
• Bridge between reading and actually writing a paper is act of
taking notes during and shortly after the process of reading

• Taking notes on margins of the copes of paper or even digitally

• Highlight for later use viz., definitions, explanations, concepts, and

question of criticism

• Writing summary of paper in own words – few statement's

describing contributions, technological merits

• Bring out if new / different ideas or novel contributions exists

Reading Mathematics and
Algorithms
• Must read derivations, proofs, advancements and
evolutions
• By meticulously reading proofs/algorithms, one
develops understating of problem being solved /
attempted to be solved.

• Don’t try to implement intricate algorithms as they are

prone to error or algorithms will not work
• Implement the codes using programming language to
understand the working principle
Reading Dataset
• Datasheets – instruction manuals of components (electronics or anything)
• Provides details of components, how to use them
• Enables the user to make/build their own equipment, circuit and debug as necessary
• First page – provides summary of parts functions, basic specifications, block diagrams

• Pinouts – provides location of pins so parts can be correctly pinned in a circuit

• Look out for truth tables, timing diagrams, supply voltage, temperature, etc.

• What part to be used would be based on the datasheets understanding

ATTRIBUTIONS AND
CITATOINS
Citations: Functions and Attributes
• Citations / References credits others for their work, allows readers to
trace the source of publication if needed.
• Any portion of the work should be clearly cited
• Ideas, If not
• cited
Papers (Conference, Journals, Communications)
• Patents Then
• It is
Presentations,
PLAGARIS
• Drawings,
M
• Texts Based on the
• Sounds research material
Infringes
• Images type Cite them
on rights
• Textbook of
• News papers researche
• Websites rs who did
• Online resources original
Etc… work
• Growth of knowledge in field of study in incremental
and builds on prior knowledge

• Researcher needs to leverage the prior art in the area

of research interest to make further developments

• Bibliography – provides connections between previous

and current work
• Citations
• helps readers to verify the quality and importance of the new
work and justifications to the findings
• Must contain enough details so that the reads can easily find
• Citation = Currency for research's = credits for contribution
• Citations honours authors who have initiated ideas

• Citation happens twice

In-Text Citation References

In the text of article At the end of the

exactly where the article/ book / chapter
source is quoted or
paraphrased
• Styling of citation varies with respect to journals / publishers
• Must be consistent
• Important to mention date of source published and some times
date of access of the web material
• Authors demonstrate their skills by identifying, estimating and
incorporating others research work , then crete and empress
Main functions of Citations Authors have scope for
Finding
Verificatio • Distortions
n • Misleading statements
• Assertion is properly
described

Promotion of
individual research
Acknowle
Enhance reputation dgment
and provide detailed
background of study

To document specific
concepts
Document
ation Trends and historical
progress of
technologies
• LaTeX

• Mendeley

• EndNote

• Zotero
 Cases where references doesn't fulfil Actual goals of citations

• When citations • Citing work of • Nothing wrong in • Despite

Spurious Citations

Coercive Citations
Biased Citations

Self Citations
are not needed or friends and self citing shortcomings,
not appropriate colleagues relevant work impact factor
citations made despite no remains primary
significant • Natural since the moto
• Citations doesn't connections new papers
add value to depends on • Creates an
reader to properly • Not Citing the previous papers incentive for
understand the significant work editor to indulge
paper as they do not • Advantageous to in coercion to add
wish to give readers due to citations to
• Must be avoided credit to citation of editors journal.
individuals relevant work of
same author • Authors could add
• Neglecting works editors
contradicting • Helpful and suggestions or
current research ethical if all risk rejections
papers are really
relevant

• Sometimes can
Authors must give dew credit whenever due be spurious and
biased
•
Impact of Title and Keywords
• Citation rate depends on
• Significance and availability of article
• Significance of Journal/Publisher
• Publication type
• Research Area
• Importance of Research

• Factors that impact citation

• Length of Title
• Type of Title
• Keywords
• Title
• Most important attribute of any research paper
• Main induction of research area/subject
• Marketing – making papers traceable
• Good Title
• Is Informative
• Represents a paper effectively to readers
• Gains readers attention
• Some titles are effective but doesn't capture attention of
readers/ non informative / not related to readers
• Download count and citation depends on title

Behaviour of title depends on Presenc

Type of Length e of
title of title Specific
Markers
• Lower citations of Titles if
• Question Mark
• Colon
• Specific Geographic area
• Higher citation
• Review articles
• Original works
• Keywords within the tiel
• Keywords
• Represent essential information as well as main content
of the article in relevance with research.
• Search Engines, Journals, Digital libraries, Indexing
services use key words for categorisation of research
articles to direct work to different audience.
• Ensure that readers are aware of the research topic and
their content
• Using maximum allowable keywords, search becomes
easier
• Usage of new keywords should be minimal as research
community would not know and leads to low visibility
Knowledge flow through Citation
• Knowledge flow primarily through
books, thesis, articles, patents ,
reports, books, documents, video,
audio, images, communications. etc.

• Citing source is important for

transmission of knowledge for
previous work to an innovation.

• Knowledge production is directly

related to citation network

• Knowledge flow happens between co-

authors, researchers, institutions,
departments, research fields,
research elements or topics
 Citing Datasets
• Engineering Research has evolved and relies on data to justify
claims and provides evidences, Citations must fetch proper credit
to the creator of dataset.
• Data citations should
• have provisions to give credit and legal attributions to all contributors
• Enable identification and access
• Recognize a specify style may not be applicable to all data
• Researcher must obtain permissions for using data from
particular source.

• Citations must include enough information so that reader could

find same dataset again and again in future
 Citation Styles
• Differs primarily in the order
syntax of information, depending
on difference in priorities
attributed to conclusion,
readability, dates, authors and
publications

• Commonly used – ACSE, IEEE,

ASME, Harvard, Chicago,
Vancouver etc..
IEEE

ACSE
Acknowledgement and Attributions
• Acknowledgement
• Provides brief appreciations of contribution of someone
/organization/ funding body
• Common practice to recognise in some form
• Displays relation with people, agencies, institutions and
research.
• In some cases individuals who work and are not authors are
acknowledged
• Types
• Moral
• Financial
• Editorial
• Institutional
• Technical
• Conceptual
• Acknowledgments and attributions
• Important in the publications – Journal or conference or books
• Even minor, give proper credits
• Should name the persons when ever possible

• Reward Triangle theory gives relation between

acknowledgement, citation and authorship

• Engineering Research
• Technicians, students, funding agencies, grant numbers,
institution, scientific inputs, unpublished research, equipment
providers, data providers, participants in discussions
What to be acknowledged
• Quotations, Ideas, Facts, Paraphrasing, Funding Organizations, Oral
Discussion, Laboratory, Computer work etc.

• Quotation:
• Direct – Using actual words or statements as that of original, should use
Quotes (“………..”)
• Indirect – Summarizing or paraphrasing actual quotes
• Authors:
• Contribution to research – scientific and technical guidance
• Results else where
• Results presented in abstract of journals, meetings, symposiums, gatherings
• Research grant received
• Funding agency with full details of funding program with grant number
• Can withheld until final submission
Acknowledgment in
Books/Dissertations
• Usually at beginning of thesis immediately following
table oof contents

• Longer than few statements, can go upto few pages

• In Journals & Conferences (2 statements or 3)
• Enables researcher to thank all those who have
contributed directly and indirectly
• Order of acknowledgment should be carefully ordered
• Main Supervisor, Second Supervisors, Peers in Lab, Other
academic staff, technical or support staff, students, families
and friends
Acknowledgments or Dedications
• Dedications – Never used in Journal
paper/conference/patents
• Exclusively for large documents viz., Books, Thesis or
Dissertations

• Acknowledgements – reserved for those who helped

• Dedications – to whom so ever author wises to

• Acknowledgement length is proportional to length of

document
THANK YOU