Lecture 3: Literature Search &
Efficient Learning
Elena Dubrova
ELE/EECS/KTH
p. 2 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Overview
• Literature search
• Why to do it
• Where to start
• How not to get lost
• Techniques for efficient reading/learning
p. 3 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Why to do literature search?
• Sometimes a week of reading can save a year of
hard work
• To increase the likelihood that someone will care
about your work – Not duplicate an already known result: “Those who
don’t know the past are condemned to re-discover it.”
• To identify groups of people who will appreciate
what you are doing
p. 4 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Why to do literature search?
• To be able to write a convincing paper:
– Using standard terminology and notations
– Comparing your contribution to related work
– Not getting crushed by some crusty professor
who claims to have published your result
twenty years ago
p. 5 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Cons of literature search
• As a newcomer, you are in a unique position to
see the problem clearly from a fresh perspective
• By reading the literature, you may accept the
prevailing wisdom unquestionably, and
unconsciously close paths of investigation that
might otherwise have occurred to you
p. 6 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Cons of literature search
• Harish-Chandra (Cole Prize in Algebra, 1954):
“I have often pondered over the roles of
knowledge or experience, on the one hand, and
imagination or intuition, on the other, in the
process of discovery. I believe that there is a
certain fundamental conflict between the two,
and knowledge, by advocating caution, tends to
inhibit the flight of imagination. Therefore, a
certain naivete, unburdened by conventional
wisdom, can sometimes be a positive asset.”
p. 7 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Cons of literature search
• Albert Einstein (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1921):
”Imagination is more important than knowledge”
p. 8 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Compromise?
• A good strategy when starting research is to give
yourself some time for exploring first, and read
second
– Try to think of as many possible solutions and
approaches as you can
– Then do some literature search. If it’s a problem that
has been encountered before, most probably some of
your ideas have been explored already
• You may need to repeat explore-read cycle many
times – At each cycle you will have a higher level of expertise
p. 9 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Common structure of Publications
• Conference papers
• Workshop papers
• Journal papers
• Technical reports
• Tutorials
• Handbook papers
• Survey papers
• Textbooks and monographs
p. 10 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Specific of publications in our area
• In many science disciplines (physics, biology),
conferences are very informal, papers are
accepted based on abstracts of often incomplete
work
• In my area, conferences: – Many of are highly prestigious with very low
acceptance rates, e.g. ‹ 20% (DAC, ICCAD, DATE)
– Often papers are expected to be highly polished and
complete. Their level is comparable to journal papers.
– Due to space limitations (4-page limit) conference
papers are rarely self-contained
p. 11 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Specific of publications in our area
• In my area, journals:
– Often these are longer versions of papers
previously published at conferences, that
contain more background, details, etc.
– Many researches don’t bother sending to
journals
p. 12 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Where to start
• To search the literature effectively, you have to: – know which questions to ask, and
– use the right terminology in the field
• Identify all the research areas that seem relevant
to your problem
• Look for: – Textbooks
– Tutorials, surveys
– Introductory chapters of theses/dissertations
• These will introduce you to the right terminology
p. 13 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Where to start
• A good strategy is to search for your subject area
and one of these keywords:
– Tutorial, summer school, handbook,
dissertation, thesis, survey, introduction
p. 14 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Things to collect which searching
• As you search the literature, you should be
building sets of:
– Effective search terms and terminology
– Key papers
– Key researchers
p. 15 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Search strategies
• Backward bibliography search – Given a paper in a field, search backward through the
papers it cites
• Forward bibliography search – Given a key paper in a field, search forward to find
papers that cite it
• By researcher – Identify key researchers working in an area. Do
bibliographic search on their names.
p. 16 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
How not to get lost
• When you are trying to understand a new area,
nothing will make sense to you. – It is a waste of time to try to read a paper in detail,
you’ll only get frustrated
• Instead, briefly look through several of papers
and try to get a feeling for the material – Look for key concepts and collect keywords
• After a while, the field will gradually come into
focus, and papers that were impossible to
understand before will become more clear
p. 17 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Advices on efficient reading
• Typically, you spend 20% of time to read and
understand 80% of an article/book content and
80% of time to understand the rest
• This 20/80 rule also applies in many other
scenarios
p. 18 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
From ” Make the Most of Your Mind”,
T. Buzan, 1984
• Briefly run this your eyes through the pages of an
article/book (as you would do in a bookstore
when you decide whether to buy it or not) to get
an overall impression about 1. its content
2. its structure
3. its level of complexity
4. titles of sections
5. figures and charts
6. conclusions
p. 19 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
From ” Make the Most of Your Mind”,
T. Buzan, 1984
• When you start reading, decide how much time
you will read
• After that, decide which amount of material you
will cover during the allocated time (put a marker
at the beginning and the end of the selected
section) – Determining the end points (in time and space) is
important for maximizing your brain’s efficiently
– ”Cut elephant into small pieces”
p. 20 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
From ” Make the Most of Your Mind”,
T. Buzan, 1984
• Any learning process, including reading, should
be partitioned into intervals of length 20-50 min
with short breaks in between
• Breaks are important because: – They allow you to rest and relax
– The allow the new information which you just read to
be integrated with the information already stored in
your brain
p. 21 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
From ” Make the Most of Your Mind”,
T. Buzan, 1984
• The diagram below shows the amount of material which
is remembered during learning with and without breaks
1h 2h 0h
Amount of remembered
material Learning for 2 hours without breaks
Learning for more than 2 hours without breaks
Learning for 2 hours with short breaks
p. 22 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
From ” Make the Most of Your Mind”,
T. Buzan, 1984
• With time, the amount of remembered material
deceases sharply (after some initial “jump”)
2 days 1 week 1 month 4 months
Amount of remembered
material
p. 23 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
To remember for a long time …
• Repeat the material after 2 days, 1 week, 1 month
and 4 months
25%
50%
75%
100%
0% 2 days 1 week 1 month 4 months
1st 3rd 2nd
Repetition intervals 4th
To the long-term
memory
p. 24 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
From ” Make the Most of Your Mind”,
T. Buzan, 1984
• Before starting reading in more details, focus for
a few minutes on the subject and try to
remember what you already know
– This will help you to better ”tune” to the receiving of
the new material and activate your brain into the right
direction
• Next, think for a few minutes on what do you
want to learn from the article/book – Formulate questions which you would like to be
answered
p. 25 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
From ” Make the Most of Your Mind”,
T. Buzan, 1984
• It is OK to skip the hard parts first and return to
them later – We typically assemble a puzzle
from the corners, they are easy
• If you leave a hard part for later, your brain gets
a break during which it will continue working on
the problem on the subconscious level – Have you even been in a situation when
you cannot answer a question which
someone asks you, but later the answer comes
comes to you easily?
p. 26 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
NOTE: Learning process is individual
• It is very important to understand how do you
learn in the most efficient way
• How do you learn best?
– Are you visual, audio, physical or verbal learner?
– See a test at http://murdoch-university-futurestudents.blogspot.se/2011/11/are-
you-visual-audio-physical-or-verbal.html
• How do you think best? – Sit quietly and think by yourself
– Talk things over with others see http://www.keirsey.com/4temps/overview_temperaments.asp
p. 27 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Learning process is individual, cont.
• When do you work best? – Do you work better at certain times of the day?
– Our ability to concentrate changes during a day
• There are natural peaks and downs
• More generaly, it is important to understant what
is your strong side – A. Enstein: ”Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a
fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life
believing that it is stupid."
p. 28 - IL3606 – The Art of Doctoral Research
Source: doreenchew91tesl.blogspot.se/2013/12/for-fair-selection-everybody-has-to.html
Learning process is individual, cont.