Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
K P Mohandas
Department of Electrical Engg NIT Calicut
February 7, 2011 1
Definition
y Documentation of a
comprehensive review of the
published and unpublished work from
secondary sources in the
areas of specific interest
to the researcher
February 7, 2011 2
In this discussion the following
In this discussion the following
points are presented:
y 1. Sources for literature survey.
y Conventional sources
y Digital sources.
y 2. Library services
y Journals different types
y Transaction papers
y Categories of papers , full, short, survey etc
y 3. Impact factor & rating of journals
y 4. Internet resources
y Common search engines
y Google scholar and others
y 5. Skills for quick survey
y 6. Preparation of survey papers ‐ Dos and Don’t’s
y 7. Updating information
y 8.Open educational Resources(OER)
y 9. Other sources like Hindu articles
y 10 Learning materials on the web
February 7, 2011 3
Sources for literature survey
• CONVENTIONAL SOURCES
• Library services
Books
Journals
Current journals
Bound (back)volumes
Newspapers
Magazines
February 7, 2011 4
More Conventional sources
y Conference Proceedings
y Doctoral theses
y Masters theses
y Government publications
y Financial reports
y Etc . etc
February 7, 2011 5
Digital sources
y Internet and world wide web (www)
y Library Data bases
y Search engines of different types
y On‐line journals
y Correspondence
February 7, 2011 6
LIBRARY SERVICES
y Books
y Information generally not up to date
y Books contain material published 5‐10
years earlier.
Ideal for learning basics
Not very useful for research on new topics
Research reports & monographs exception
February 7, 2011 7
Number of journals ‐ large
• More than 6000 journals have been listed. By Reuters
More than 6000 journals have been listed By Reuters
• IEEE alone publishes
144 journals under 45 technical societies
44 j 45
Specialized journals
Interdisciplinary topics
Others IEE Journals
ASME Journals
I i i f E i
Institution of Engineers Journals
J l
IETE Journals etc
February 7, 2011 8
Journals
y Current journals
For those who are already deep into research
Bound (back) volumes helps in seeing the
historical development of the topic
To know the ‘state of the art’
Problem to locate which journals for what?
Proper catalogues essential
February 7, 2011 9
Types of journals
y Simple elementary information for public
eg. IEEE spectrum , Newsletters etc
Magazines and popular science articles
e,g. IEEE Magazines, Scientific American etc
written by eminent researchers in a simple
style starting with basics to current state
and suggestions for future research
February 7, 2011 10
Transaction papers
y Typical research publications
y Outcome of the research for a degree or part of it.
y Work done over two to three years compressed into a
five or six printed pages.
y A beginner may not make much out of it in one
A b i k h f i i
reading
y Many back references given at the end of the paper
may have to be read to understand the current work.
February 7, 2011 11
Categories of papers
y Some journals have categories
y Full papers – significant results experimental
or theoretical obtained over years.
Short papers – slightly less significant
Technical notes & correspondence
comments or minor extensions on
earlier published papers
February 7, 2011 12
Page restriction by publishers
y Usually the maximum no of pages allotted for a paper
y p g p p
is decided by the editorial board based on cost of
printing charges
y Full paper : 5 6 full pages
Full paper : 5 –
y Short paper : 1—2 full pages
y Technical notes / Correspondence: ½ page or less
y Editors & reviewers try their best to restrict a
submitted full paper to be compressed as short paper
y Short paper to technical notes/ correspondence etc
y Some journals ask for page charges if the no of pages of
the paper exceed the limit
February 7, 2011 13
Survey / Invited papers
y Many journals bring out Special issues on selected
topics, ideal for researchers as starting point
y Eminent researchers in the area are invited to
E i h i h i i d
contribute to such issues as guest editors and authors
in these special issues.
in these special issues
y Several articles start with basic issues, work done
till date and may even suggest possible directions
y gg p
for further research.
y Proceedings of IEEE publishes such papers often
February 7, 2011 14
RATINGS OF JOURNALS
y Very often journals have to be rated by some parameter.
y Reputed journals have a thorough review procedure
where at least 5 reviewers review the papers.
y The reviewers are chosen carefully from among the active
researchers in the area.
y U l j i f h i
Unless a majority of the reviewers recommend
d
publication, (without serious adverse remarks from
others) the papers are not accepted for publication.
y Very often one or two revisions are required for final
acceptance
y Review procedure can indicate the standing of journals
February 7, 2011 15
IMPACT FACTOR OR CITATION
IMPACT FACTOR OR CITATION
INDEX
y Impact Factor is generally considered as a standard /
quality indicator of journals.
y It is calculated (say in 2008) as IF A / B
It is calculated (say in 2008) as IF = A / B
y A = the number of times articles published in 2006 and
2007 were during 2008 cited by indexed journals
7 g y j
y B = the total number of "citable items" published in 2006
and 2007. (other than editorials reviews, notes etc)
y These are published by Thomas Reuters every year for large
h bl h d b h f l
number of journals ( 6228 journals in 2007 above
p
Impact Factor of 0.003) 3)
February 7, 2011 16
Criticism & validity of IF
y The impact factor is highly discipline dependent
The impact factor is highly discipline‐dependent
y The impact factor could not be reproduced in an
independent audit
y The impact factor refers to the average number of
citations per paper, but this is not a normal
distribution and being an arithmetic mean, the
impact factor is not a valid representation of this
distribution and unfit for citation evaluation.
y In the short term ‐
I th h t t especially in the case of low‐
i ll i th f l
impact‐factor journals ‐ many of the citations to a
certain article are made in papers written by the
author(s) of the original article
February 7, 2011 17
Personal Observation
y Very few science and technolgy articles appear to have
impact factor of 2 or above (2007 records)
y Most of the journals with high IF are health and
M f h j l i h hi h IF h l h d
bilogical sciences related.
y Journals on Basic sciences are next
y Our journals invariably have a low Impact factor
as listed.!!!!!
February 7, 2011 18
Collection and storage
y Proper documentation or book keeping essential for
quick retrieval of information
y Index cards (old style)
one card for one paper with authors, title,
jou a a es, vo . os, a d pages
journal names, vol. nos, and pages
brief contents or abstract
Digital data bases , faster search using keywords
Researchers can create a simple data base with
MsAccess or any other relational data base with the
following structure :
February 7, 2011 19
Digital Data base structure
y Category : Book/Journal/Thesis/Magazine/General
y Year of publication: Date (if available),Month, Year
y A th ( ) (
Author(s): (maximum three)
i th )
y Name of publication:
y Year of publication:
y Relevant Pages: from – to
y Brief abstract : (text maximum 100 words)
( )
y This will help in organizing data author‐wise,
chronological, topic wise etc using simple
commands
February 7, 2011 20
INTERNET SOURCES
y Search using search engines and keywords
y Correct use of keywords leads to pointed
iinformation
f i
y Wrong keywords bring redundant information
y Choosing the correct one difficult and time
Ch i h diffi l d i
consuming
y Unnecessary words
Unnecessary words ‘to’ ‘and’ ‘into’ ‘on’ etc
to and into on etc
February 7, 2011 21
Locating the papers only
y Some times search yields
only titles authors and abstracts
full text on nominal payment
hard copy from current journals or back
volumes
inter‐library services like INSDOC helpful
February 7, 2011 22
Common search engines
y Google and Google scholar
y http://www.google.com/ for general purpose
search
http://scholar.google.com Or
http://scholar.google.co.in/
technical and scientific search
February 7, 2011 23
Google scholar helps in
y What is Google Scholar?
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly
search for scholarly literature.
search for scholarly literature
y peer‐reviewed papers,
y theses books abstracts and
theses, books, abstracts and
y articles from academic publishers,
y professional societies
professional societies,
y preprint repositories,
y universities and other scholarly organizations
universities and other scholarly organizations.
February 7, 2011 24
Google scholar
y Features of Google Scholar
y Search diverse sources from one convenient place
y Find papers, abstracts and citations
y Locate the complete paper through your library or on
the web
h b
y Learn about key papers in any area of research
February 7, 2011 25
Other Search Engines ‐ 1
Sl No Name Web address
1 All the web all the time http://www.alltheweb.com/
2 Direct hit http://www.directhit.com/
3 Excite http://www.excite.com/
4 File search http://www.filez.com/
5 Fi d same
Find htt //
http://www.findsame.com/
fi d /
6 Go TO http://www.goto.com/
7 HotBot http://www.hotbot.com/
8 Infoseek http://www.infoseek.com/
9 InternetSleuth http://www.isleuth.com/
10 NetFind http://www aol com/netfind/
http://www.aol.com/netfind/
February 7, 2011 26
Other search engines
Sl
No
Name Web address
11 LookSmart http://www.looksmart.com/
12 Lycos http://www.lycos.com/
13 Netscape
p Portal http://guide.netscape.com/
p g p
14 Netscape search http://www.home.netscape.com/home/
15 Webcrawler http://www.webcrawler.com/
16 Yh
Yahoo htt //
http://www.yahoo.com/
h /
17 Askjeeves http://www.askjeeves.com/
18 SavvySearch(words dictionaries) http://www.savvy.search.com/
19 DogPille http://www.dogpile.com/
20 Mp3 search http://www.mp3.lycos.com/
21 Google search –general
general http://www.google.com/
22 Google scholar – search for scientific http://scholar.google.co.in/
literature
February 7, 2011 27
Search for books
Sl No Details Web address
1 Amazon www.amazon.com
2 y
Bibsys www.bibsys.com
y
3 Library of Congress www.lcweb.loc.gov
February 7, 2011 28
SOME SKILLS FOR QUICK SURVEY
• Reading and scanning a paper
• Time restrictions for complete reading
• How to scan a paper ?
Titles and authors from familiarity
Section headings
Introduction and conclusion
Abstracts
Subsections
February 7, 2011 29
PREPARATION OF SURVEY PAPERS
• Overview in a paper form
• Helps in understanding the topic
in chronological development
better understanding the contribution of
earlier researchers and research groups
avoids duplication/ ‘reinventing the wheel’
Develops the skill in writing a paper in concise
form
February 7, 2011 30
Some Dos and Don’ts
y Always note down what you have read or seen
y Always keep a note book or writing pad and pen
with you
i h
y Note down complete reference & location so that
you can locate it later.
you can locate it later
y Organize your documentation occasionally
y Revise and remove old and irrelevant data
y Prioritize important papers and read again
February 7, 2011 31
Some Don’ts
• Never copy paste from one soft copy into your
paper even in literature survey
• S
Search engines can detect copying now
h i d i
• It is called ‘plagiarism’ and some day you will be
caught
• Read, understand and then summarize
• After a few attempts at modification take a printout
and correct your paper, don’t do all on the
terminal
February 7, 2011 32
UPDATING INFORMATION
y Having collected information till a date , how do we
remain updated?
y P
Present day internet provides many ways of updating
d i id f d i
information
y Some of these are :
y RSS feeds of different types
y TOC (Table of contents ) of journals services
y Video and Audio tutorials
February 7, 2011 33
RSS Feeds
y RSS : Really Simple Syndication or
Rich Site Summary
is a family of webfeed formats used to publish
frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news
h dli
headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.
di d id i t d di d f t
An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed“,
or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus
) ,p
metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.
February 7, 2011 34
RSS Feeds ‐ contd
y Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them
syndicate content automatically.
y They benefit readers who want to subscribe to
Th b fi d h b ib
timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate
feeds from many sites into one place
feeds from many sites into one place.
y RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS
reader", "feed reader", or “aggregator", which can be
gg g
web‐based, Desktop based, or mobile‐device‐based.
February 7, 2011 35
A source of information on tools
y The Hindu Daily columns
y ‘IT Trends’ formerly written by Anand
Parthasarathy
P h h
y ‘NETSPEAK ‘ by J Murali
y Gives a wealth of information on
Gi l h f i f i
y ‐ Getting regular updates from frequented websites
‐ Table of contents from journals
T bl f t t f j l
February 7, 2011 36
L i t i l b
Learning materials on web
y Videos in Stanford Youtube channel
y http://www.youtube.com/user/stanforduniversity
y Video lectures on selected topics
y National Programme on Technology Enhanced
Learning(NPTel) Home
g
y http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/
y http://www.ignouonline.ac.in/sakshat/vod/nptelflash
7/
February 7, 2011 37
Open Educational Resources
y For teachers and students, the web offers large number
of resources for teaching & learning.
y The philosophy of free and open source (FOSS) permits
one to :
y Download
y U
Use
y Modify
y Redistribute resources from the net
y This is against the monopolistic policy of software giants
like MicroSoft for making profit
y A
A very good example is wikipedia
d l i iki di
February 7, 2011 38
Types of Open resources available
y Complete courseware on specific subjects
including course plan and animated videos
y Open books that can be downloaded and read,
O b k h b d l d d d d
some times printing a personal copy may ask for
payment
y Some sites provide text books free of cost even for
p
printing personal copies.
gp p
y Curriculum content and a wide variety of
learning and teaching materials which can be
d
downloaded and used by all.
l d d d d b ll
February 7, 2011 39
Some internet sites for OER
General info: http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook (
Open books:
htt //
http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/
fl t ldk l d /
http://ck12.org/flexr/
Text books:
http://globaltext.terry.uga.edu/home/
http://www.theassayer.org
p // y g
Curriculum :
http://www.ocwfinder.org/
http://curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/Webhome
February 7, 2011 40
Other tools
Other tools
y Table of contents service from different journals :
http://www.tictocs.ac.uk
http://www tictocs ac uk
y Author mapped :
y http://qa authormapper cmgsites com/
http://qa.authormapper.cmgsites.com/
y PDf search engine :http://www.pdfgeni.com/
y Book downloaders
y http://books.google.com/
y http://www.codeplex.com/
y http://googlebookdownloader.codeplex.com/
February 7, 2011 41