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Questions tagged [literature-review]

Questions about evaluating the current state of research on a topic by searching published material.

252 votes
8 answers
21k views

How to read papers without falling into a rabbit hole?

Often while reading a paper, I will see a citation that that seems more relevant than my current one. I'll switch to the new paper, only to experience a similar feeling. Or maybe I need to look ...
jds's user avatar
  • 4,436
55 votes
2 answers
3k views

How can I do a literature review efficiently?

For a new project I want to compile a literature review to determine the state of the art and possible approaches to start with. Last time I adhered to the following scheme, but it felt very ...
Jean's user avatar
  • 895
52 votes
6 answers
11k views

How should I respond to a reviewer's complaint about self-citation?

Recently, I submitted an article and got a response from a reviewer that I cited 6 of my own articles out of 44. The reviewer said that it’s a cheap act of self promotion. If I do not cite my own ...
Mohaqiq's user avatar
  • 5,133
49 votes
8 answers
8k views

Strategies to remember papers that you read

What strategies do you use to remember papers that you read? I usually take notes, but when after a while I look at the notes, I don't remember most of the details. So I have to go back to the ...
CentAu's user avatar
  • 1,478
42 votes
4 answers
14k views

How common is it for a paper to be wrong?

I am a student in computer science and I recently started working on my M.Sc. thesis. Now I am reading a 2011 paper with about 170 citations that was published in a well-known conference. In part of ...
user avatar
42 votes
8 answers
3k views

Literature searches in publications when you have limited access to journals

I'm currently at an institution that has a phenomenal library system. I think every journal article or book I've ever needed, no matter how old or obscure, was available to me. I consider myself ...
iwantmyphd's user avatar
  • 1,613
40 votes
6 answers
10k views

How can I express "I can't find any papers written about this"?

I'm an undergraduate writing a paper for a philosophy course in logic. My paper is exploring a relationship between Leibniz' logic and graph theory. In writing the paper, I've found some material in ...
Patrick Collins's user avatar
38 votes
2 answers
63k views

Literature Review versus Literature Survey. What is the difference?

I have read several articles about literature reviews. At the same time I found some guides about literature surveys. I am confused... how is a literature survey different from a literature review? ...
Npn's user avatar
  • 525
37 votes
10 answers
3k views

Research before surveying the literature - is it ever a good idea?

The dominant narrative on how research "should be" done is to begin with a literature survey and then make your own contribution. But I get the impression that it often happens the other way around - ...
Sideshow Bob's user avatar
37 votes
6 answers
8k views

Is it reasonable to not study previous research to avoid bias?

I am currently a student at a tech school and otherwise unemployed. I’ve never been a scientist or published a paper. So I am a little skeptical of some results I have been hearing about experiments ...
Caston's user avatar
  • 479
37 votes
7 answers
4k views

Learning new topic: read literature from oldest to newest or the other way around?

I need to start learning about a new research topic, I've been collecting articles for about a year now. I collected +400 articles, spanning a range of ~40 years. I haven't had the time to read them ...
Gabriel's user avatar
  • 2,831
35 votes
8 answers
11k views

How to find a gap in knowledge, for my PhD? [closed]

I just started my PhD and this is my fourth week. I understand that as a PhD student, my main aim is to find a gap in the knowledge and then trace this gap by using scientific approaches that I might ...
Mahran's user avatar
  • 585
34 votes
5 answers
6k views

Should I cite a really bad research paper published in my small research area?

I am working on a special topic in applied math. We are trying to explore a new and largely unexplored area in our line of research. Our hope is to be the first researchers to have solid results in ...
Fraïssé's user avatar
  • 11.5k
30 votes
5 answers
5k views

How can I efficiently check the originality of my work?

I have worked on many ideas where I found later that they were already published, which was frustrating. I usually look around before developing my idea, but sometimes the articles I read or the ...
sapienswatson's user avatar
28 votes
4 answers
14k views

How to write a good PhD literature review?

I am in the early stages of my PhD and I am trying to put together a literature review of my topic. My intention is that this review will eventually be included in my thesis, something like "the ...
Pascail's user avatar
  • 381

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