LITERATURE SEARCHES. Physics Senior Projects. 1of 13

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1 LITERATURE SEARCHES PHYS 352- Fall 2009 Physics Senior Projects 1of 13

2 REASONS FOR CONDUCTING A THOROUGH O LITERATURE SEARCH blog.cvsdude.com/portals/40480/images//expert.jpg Educate yourself - you must become an expert Credibility convince others you are an expert You should know the field s history, state-of-the-art and important issues Know your competitors they may also be great resources and eventual collaborators Don t reinvent the wheel - how (and how not) to proceed. Library research is far more cost and time-effective effective than laboratory research or computation. Has your project already been done elsewhere? Identify resources (equipment, samples, software) Literature review is required for publications & proposals of 13

3 YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY/REFERENCE SECTION Review of who has done what in your field - current state of knowledge - what is agreed upon and what is contentious Start a bibliography/literature review immediately - include it in your proposal and final report HAVE YOU STARTED? 3 of 13

4 AS YOU READ TAKE NOTES, USING A FORM THAT REMINDS YOU ABOUT IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF THE WORK AND HELPS YOU USE IT LATER AS A REFERENCE. Accuracy is critical, mischaracterizing a reference is a KISS of DEATH. Use a consistent style for your references. Record all the elements that might be needed for a reference, including the title. Record any information that might help you locate the reference again quickly. NSF Proposal Instructions nsf04_23.pdf e. References Cited Reference information is required. Each reference must include the names of all authors (in the same sequence in which they appear in the publication), the article and journal title, book title, volume number, page numbers, and year of publication. If the document is available electronically, the Website address also should be identified. Proposers must be especially careful to follow accepted scholarly practices in providing citations for source materials relied upon when preparing any section of the proposal. While there is no established page limitation for the references, this section must include bibliographic citations only and must not be used to provide parenthetical information outside of the 15-page project description. 4

5 SEARCH METHODS Snowball - given one paper, use its references & citations to find others, etc. Keyword - search for topics (jargon), people, institutions, etc. Journal review journals likely to contain relevant material. 4 of 13

6 SNOWBALL SEARCH Ask your advisor for his/her publications on the topic of your research. - published papers - preprints - Ph. D./M.S. and Senior Project theses by students Ask advisor for papers & names of others in the field. Limitations May miss papers not noticed by a group of researchers 5 of 13

7 TIME TRAVEL Look up references (articles, people, journals) found in the papers you read. Look up citations OF the people and papers you read. Use Citation Indices described below. 6 of 13

8 STAGES OF LITERATURE SEARCH Exploratory (gaining familiarity with the field and establishing goals for your project & subsequent literature searches) Specific (what you need to know to get going on your work and make progress) Continuing (keep up with literature throughout your project) It s hard to know everything! 7 of 13

9 QUALITY OF REFERENCES Home institution: Faber College vs. Cambridge Biases: Discovery Institute vs. Lawrence Krauss Credentials: sr. proj. thesis vs. Nat.Acad.Science member Year: newer is generally better although classic references have certain advantages. Citations Refereed journal vs. trade publications: Physical Review vs. Pasco Catalog Accessibility: private p communication Don t believe everything you read no matter what the source! 8 of 13

10 MISCELLANEOUS HINTS Review literature on a regular basis (1 hr/week?) ) Keep track of what you find and do this in a format that reminds you of the utility of each article and lets you cite it without digging it up again (but don t plagiarize) Organize these files (index cards or modern equivalent such as EndNote that interfaces with word-processing software) Use the title and abstract to judge the utility of a paper Don t mischaracterize a reference (Kiss of Death) ) Don t miss anyone important or anyone who might review your work (KOD) Don t include anyone in disrepute (KOD) 9 of 13

11 RESOURCES Textbooks (~goldmine but uncommon and often dated) Review articles (Reviews of Modern Physics) Electronic preprints as Journals - what are the important journals in your field? Conference proceedings (and abstract books) Professional resources such as APS division, forum, topical group, section information & Public search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Wikipedia may provide useful references BUT SHOULD NOT ITSELF BE QUOTED in a proposal. Dedicated electronic resources ~ ISI Web of Knowledge 10 of 13

12 LIBRARY RESOURCES Librarians & online guides hi /h l / h ti l l Interlibrary loan Journals on shelves ( $K per journal) Electronic resources (journals + search) 11 of 13

13 SOME ELECTRONIC RESOURCES - Research Databases (find PHYSICS) - ejournal portal h l l ti / - ISI Web of Knowledge (try DARK MATTER) Citation ti Index (Go to to Cited Reference Search, type in Chottiner, G* and examine citations of the first article.) - Current Contents ralsearch&sid=4b3mndc2bph5jbmien8 - AIP (American Institute of Physics) Journals Browse at - Physical Review Letters, B, C, E j j Reviews of Modern Physics - Dissertations 12 of 13

14 THE END! 13 of 13