COSC 5050 Research Writing for Computer Science

1
COSC 5050Research Writing for Computer Science

• Spring 2004
• Dr. Rex Gantenbein
• Lecture 7 Reviewing research methods and
  literature

2
Course information

• Prospectus due 2 March
• First draft due March 25
• Reading assignment
• Hacker R5-6
• Finkelstein, chap 9-10

3
Literature review

• A literature search is often necessary to get
  background information or find support for the
  claims you make in your paper
• Have a strategy in mind while searching
• Learn how to search effectively

4
Literature review

• Annotated bibliographies are a useful tool for
  reviewing and maintaining relevant readings
• Describe key contributions of a particular source
• Show relevance to your work and other published
  research
• Consist of a complete reference and a descriptive
  (informal) abstract, plus notes

5
Literature review

• What to extract from a reading for an annotated
  bibliography
• Subject (This may be obvious from title.)
• Task (What results or methods are presented?)
• Significance (Whats important here?)
• Relationship to other work (Whats relevant?
  Whats new or different with respect to others?)
• Relationship to YOUR work (Does it support your
  research or not?)

6
Literature review

• This process is largely informal, although some
  publications accept well-structured
  bibliographies
• Save your results in a searchable form!
• Note cards
• Journal/research notebook
• Database with keywords
• Tape recorder
• Etc.

7
Citing other work

• Citation in text gives credit to others
• Work used as background information definitions,
  descriptions, etc.
• Previous work on which you are building
• Studies that support your claims
• Alternatives or comparators to your approach
• Bibliography (list of references) provides
  sources of citations

8
Citing other work

• A bibliography is not the same as a list of
  related readings
• A bibliography for research lists only those
  articles referenced in the paper and are directly
  related to the topic of the paper
• Related readings usually points the reader to a
  larger body of related work that isnt
  immediately relevant

9
Citations v. plagiarism

• To use someone elses ideas or words in a formal
  research paper without their permission or proper
  credit is plagiarism
• This is not looked upon kindly in research
  circles
• It can be taken as dishonesty at worst, careless
  research or writing at best

10
Citations v. plagiarism

• Ideas or points of information from other
  published sources can be used if properly cited
• Another authors language must not be used
  directly without making quotation clear
• Important points should be summarized or
  paraphrased

11
Citations in the paper text

• Use of an outside source is usually signaled by a
  number in the text following the restatement or
  summary of the information
• Citation may be in brackets 16 or a
  superscript16
• Bibliography then lists the source of the
  information with enough information for reader to
  go look it up if he/she desires

12
Citations in the paper text

• The typical citation in computer science doesnt
  give the authors name in the text
• The framework is based on an n-tier distributed
  environment where any number of tiers of
  application logic and business services can be
  separated into components that communicate with
  each other across a network 4.
• However, using authors to refer to a specific
  source can make a paper more readable and the
  context more clear
• As discussed in Bang and Olofson 6, sound
  quality over the Internet suffers greatly at
  lower transmission rates. Bevis and Buthed,
  however, present convincing evidence that sound
  quality is less important than volume to many
  users 7.

13
Citations in the paper text

• An extended discussion based on a single source
  can be used without citing every sentence
• Use a credit sentence to avoid repeating the
  citation
• The following discussion on medical records and
  security on the Web is taken from Reedem and Weap
  14.
• This can go in the text or as a footnote to the
  first sentence
• ALWAYS paraphrase or summarize statements instead
  of appropriating someone elses words

14
Bibliographic references

• In computer science, the bibliography typically
  goes at the end of the paper
• References may be ordered by appearance in the
  paper or alphabetically by first authors last
  name
• Reference MUST be complete enough so that the
  reader can find the source
• Note that if you have used a word processor to
  record your references, you can cut and paste
  sources into your bibliography directly

15
Bibliographic reference

• Each reference includes the author(s) and
  publication information
• Standard formatting makes it easier for the
  reference to be correct and complete
• Unfortunately, computer science has no
  discipline-wide standards
• Most standards are determined by publication or
  by publisher (and may not be consistent even then)

16
Bibliographic references

• The IEEE Computer Society has published a style
  manual for its publications
• View here
• Included here is a reference style sheet
• View here
• This is probably the closest thing to an industry
  standard that exists at the moment

17
Bibliographic references

• Other publications or organizations will have
  different standards
• Look at a recent copy of the publication or
  publisher
• If in doubt, extrapolate!
• Find something that uses similar information and
  copy it
• Use common sense

18
Bibliographic references

• The most important thing in formatting a
  bibliography is consistency and completeness
• Use a style that clearly differentiates the types
  of references used and tells where to find them
• Books
• Journal papers
• Conference papers
• Web sites
• Theses
• Technical reports

19
Bibliographic references

• Avoid using references to unpublished paper or
  personal correspondence
• This typically indicates sloppy literature review
  and poor quality of your references
• Try to cite refereed studies or articles in
  quality publications as your backup (more
  convincing)
• Make sure to include authors and dates
  (especially from Web sites) to assure relevance
  and currency