Research Methodology-01: Review of Research Literature

Dr. Chetan B. Bhatt
Principal,
Government Engineering College,
Sector – 28, Gandhinagar
Research Methodology
Review of Research Literature

Unit - II
© Dr. C. B. Bhatt, VGEC,
Chandkheda
2
 Review of Research Literature: Purpose and use
of literature review, locating relevant information,
use of library & electronic databases, preparation
& presentation of literature review, research
article reviews, theoretical models and frame
work. Identification of gaps in research,
formulation of research problem, definition of
research objectives.

Presentation Outline
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 Research Process
 Literature Search
 Purpose and Use
 Locating Relevant Information
 Citation Index Services
 Search Engine
 Bibliography management

Research Process
Chandkheda
4
Identify
Topic of
Interest
State
Unsolved
Problem
s
Find or
Develop
Solution
Generate
Related
Question
s
Literature Search
Documentation

Research Process
Chandkheda
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Identify
Topic of
Interest
State
Unsolved
Problem
s
Find or
Develop
Solution
Generate
Related
Question
s
Literature Search
Documentation
Literature Search
(Review) is not one –
time process, it is
iterative

Research Process
Chandkheda
6
Identify
Topic of
Interest
State
Unsolved
Problem
s
Find or
Develop
Solution
Generate
Related
Question
s
Literature Search
Documentation
Research
Proposal

Research Process
Chandkheda
7
Identify
Topic of
Interest
State
Unsolved
Problem
s
Find or
Develop
Solution
Generate
Related
Question
s
Literature Search
Documentation
Research
Papers/Progr
ess report

Research Process
Chandkheda
8
Identify
Topic of
Interest
State
Unsolved
Problem
s
Find or
Develop
Solution
Generate
Related
Question
s
Literature Search
Documentation
Synopsi
s

Research Process
Chandkheda
9
Identify
Topic of
Interest
State
Unsolved
Problem
s
Find or
Develop
Solution
Generate
Related
Question
s
Literature Search
Documentation
Thesis

Research Process
Chandkheda
10
Identify
Topic of
Interest
State
Unsolved
Problem
s
Find or
Develop
Solution
Generate
Related
Question
s
Literature Search
Documentation
Literature Search
(Review) is not one –
time process, it is
iterative
ThesisResearch
Papers/Progr
ess reportResearch
Proposal
Synopsi
s

Purpose of Literature Search
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 A literature search serves three important
functions
 Gives background information
 Demonstrate your familiarities with research in your
field
 Shows how your work contributes to body of
knowledge in your field

Review Report
Chandkheda
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 The review report demonstrate
 What others have accomplished in your filed and
how your work differs from works of others.
 You demonstrate your understanding of the relevant
works of others and your ability to summarize this
information, for convenience of your reader

Finding Sources
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 Sources of literature are –
 Library
 Internet
 Sources are generally described as –
 Primary: primary sources are “materials of that you
are directly writing about, the raw material of your
own research”
 Secondary: books and articles in which other
researchers report the results of their research
based on (their) primary data or sources
 Tertiary: tertiary sources are “books and articles
based on secondary sources, on the research of
others”

Primary Sources
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 Examples of primary sources are data sets,
computer runs, computer programs, scale
models, drawings, and engineering notebooks. A
well-kept engineering notebook can provide
valuable information for later documentation of
test conditions and assumptions, materials used,
observations as well as measurements, and
unusual occurrences that prompted further
testing.

Secondary Sources
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 Examples of secondary sources include
conferences, proceedings, journals, and books.
Journal articles are often the most current source
of information on a topic of study that is new or
subject to rapid change. Lists of references at the
end of each journal article can provide leads to
further sources.
 Engineering journals are typically field-specific.

Tertiary sources
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 Examples of tertiary sources include dictionaries,
encyclopedias, guides, and handbooks.
“Dictionaries and encyclopedias are excellent
starting points for research. They can provide
general background information to help narrow or
broaden the focus of a topic, define unfamiliar
terms, and offer bibliographies of other sources.

Problems for novice researcher
© Dr. C. B. Bhatt, VGEC, Chandkheda17
 As a beginner
researcher, two of the
most common problems
one might encounter
are –
 Not knowing where to
find sources
 Once sources are
located, not knowing
how to sift or sort
through excess of
information to
determine what is
useful
Where are
resources?
Where I
am? What is
useful?

Systematic Approach
For literature Search and
Bibliography Management

Problems for novice researcher
 As a beginner
one might encounter
are –
find sources
how to sift or sort
through excess of
information to
determine what is
useful
Where are
resources?
Where I
am? What is
useful?
1. Not
knowing
where to find
sources

A Search Plan
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 Consider how the topic progress through the
research documentation life cycle.
 There are two approaches –
1. Look for books that are currently accepted reference text
in your research area and find out who has cited them in
recent years.
2. Look for original (seminal) reports, papers or these written
by known experts and see who has cited them in recent
years.
 For these two approaches; Citation Index
becomes a very important source.

Citation Index
Chandkheda
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 A citation index is a kind of bibliographic database,
an index of citations between publications, allowing
the user to easily establish which later documents cite
which earlier documents.
 Major citation indexing services
There are two publishers of general – purpose
academic citation index (available to library for
subscription) are –
 Thomson Scientific publishes ISI (Institute of Scientific
Information) citation index in print and CD form,
available on line with name “Web of Science”; which in
turn part of “Web of Knowledge”
 Elsevier, which publishes “Scopus”, available online only.
 IEEE Xplore (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org)
 ACM (Association for Computing Machine) Digital
Library (http://dl.acm.org)

Universally Available Free Citation Tools
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 Universally available free citation tools are –
 CiteBase (http://www.citebase.org); not yet
complete for academic evaluation. However papers’
abstract are available.
 CiteSeerX (http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu)
 Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com)
 Microsoft Academic Search
(http://academic.research.microsoft.com)

Next step in literature search
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 After locating and reading at least the abstract of
these papers
 Categorize the available papers by topic and
authors’ technical interest in a topic. (As most of the
work is interdisciplinary)
 Then look at the reference list for new papers. (As
not all citation search provides similar result)
 There are two possibility one may have
 Have too few information
 Have too many information

Have too few information
Chandkheda
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 If you have too few or no information, then topic
might be too narrow –
 Look for new topic heading or terms any newly
found used for information cataloging. Search for
that term in database
 If search still yields little information, get help from
library personnel or expert in field of your research.

Have too many information
Chandkheda
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 Plan to scale down your search to a manageable
amount.
 Specific aspects of a filed of study are often listed
in annotated bibliographies.
 Journal specific to a field can be a good resource.
 Get advice from expert.

Another sources of information: Search
Engines
Chandkheda
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 OAIster database (freely accessible);
http://www.oclc.org/oaister/; Union catalog of
millions of record available as open resource by
Open Archive Initiative
 Ebookee (http://ebookee.com) by tradepub (they
provide many digital magazine at no charge)
 Complete Planet
 O’Reilly’s CD Bookshelf (book accessible on-line)
 WebBrain (mind mapping site, provides
perspective of individual/organization)
 Google …and other general purpose search
engine

Another sources of information: Library
services
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 INFLIBNET (http://www.inflibnet.ac.in)
 Networked Digital Library of Theses and
Dissertation (http://www.ndltd.org) paid service
(individual member charge is $25)
 etd@iisc (http://etd.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/);
eprints@iisc (http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/)
 The DBLP computer science bibliography
(http://dblp.uni-trier.de/db/index.html)

Lost in Cyber Space/Information Overload
 As a beginner
one might encounter
are –
find sources
how to sift or sort
through excess of
information to
determine what is
useful
Where I am? What
is useful? So much
of information

 As a beginner
one might encounter
are –
find sources
how to sift or sort
through excess of
information to
determine what is
useful
Information Overload /
lost in cyber space
Where I am? What
is useful? So much
of information

 As a beginner
one might encounter
are –
find sources
how to sift or sort
through excess of
information to
determine what is
useful
Information Overload /
lost in cyber space

Tools to Manage Research

Best Practices
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 Keep bibliographic trail
 Keep track of source
 Use tool to search resources on your desk - top
 Use bibliography management tool
 Use standard template (Microsoft
Office/LaTeX/OpenOffice) for writing papers,
reports, and thesis

Keep Track of Resources
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 Location of resources
 Date of access
 Title
 Authors
 Page numbers
 Year of publication
 Library Call Number (LCN), International
Standard Book Number (ISBN), International
Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

Search resources on desk-top
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 There are many tools available for desk-top
search. Use one of desk-top search tool of your
choice.
 Copernic Desk Top Search
(http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-
search/index.html) (free home version)
 Google Desk Top Search
 Windows Desk Top Search
 and ….many more
 Disk catalog tool

Bibliography Management Tools: Features
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There are six basic requirements expected from a bibliographic
manager. Listed down below is a functional decomposing of
these requirements.
 Search: Search all the available academic/non-academic
databases.
 Store: Store the reference and possibly a soft copy of the
reference.
 Viewer: View soft copy (doc, pdf, etc.).
 Annotate: Keep notes on the reference.
 Overall: Just a single note on the reference
 Anywhere: A note anywhere in the document
 Communicate: Import from and export to different formats.
 Import (BibTex, End Note, XML, etc.)
 Export (BibTex, End Note, XML, etc.)
 Platform: Run on different platforms (Linux, Windows, etc.)
 Presentation: Present the data to some standard formats.
 Formats (MLA, APA, etc.)
 Document (doc, pdf, html, etc.)

Bibliography Management Tools: Off - line
Chandkheda
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 Some bibliography tools are –
 JABREF
 Microsoft Office Citation and Bibliography Tools
 Zotero (Bibliography plug-in for Firefox) and have
plug-in to insert citation in MS-Office and
OpenOffice.
 EndNote by Thomson Reuters (paid)
 On-line tools
 WebCite (archive web pages)
 OttoBib.com (alphabetic citation creation for Books
from a list of ISBN)
 KnightCite (free online tool hsted

Bibliography Management Tools: On - line
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 On-line tools
 WebCite (archive web pages)
 OttoBib.com (alphabetic citation creation for Books
from a list of ISBN); http://www.ottobib.com/
 KnightCite (free online tool hosted by Calvin
College; http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/)

Writing Style
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 There are various research writing style such as –
 APA Style (American Psychological Association)
 Chicago Manual of Style/ Turabian Style
 Colombia Guide to Online Style (CGOS)
 MLA (Modern Language Association) Style
 Harvard Style
 CBE Style (Council of Biology Editors)
 LSA (Linguistic Society of America)
 Templates are available for all these style and
Bibliography management tools generate citation
in various style.

References
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 Lois E. Reed, ‘Performing a literature review’
(publication journal is unknown)
 Other resources references are in slide as web
link.

Research Methodology-01: Review of Research Literature

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