Assignment: Literature Search

This is a two part assignment, due in Week 4/5. Part 1 is due on Wednesday of Week 4 by class time, and part 2 is due by class time Monday of Week 5. As usual, "submission" will just be creation of log entries and web pages.

This week we are focused on performing a literature search.

Setting your weekly objectives

Before you begin, read through this whole assignment and identify the tasks/objectives you will complete this week. Record these at the start of your log for the week.

Lit Search Part 1 (due Wednesday): The lay of the land

This part of the assignment starts with the paper you read for week 2. You will search the literature related to this paper and try to get a better understanding of the field as a whole.

Create a document which you can link from your log. This can be a Google doc, a page on your research site, a PDF document, or anything else, as long as you can link it from your log and give access to myself, grad mentors, and your advsior(s). This assignment should be completed individually

Then, use the techniques we used in class on Monday of week 4 to perform a literature search in order to answer the following questions for part 1 in this document/page (make sure you label this section part 1, and include the question numbers):

1. List the 2-3 primary publication venues related to the topic of the paper you read. These may be conferences or journals. For each, give your reasoning about what makes you think this is a primary publication venue.
2. Make a clustered* list of at least 10 (more is better!) papers from the venues you cited in part 1 that you think are worth exploring that seem to either build on the work from your original paper or present an alternate solution to the same problem. These papers must be from authors other than the original authors of your paper. In your list, include at least the title and authors of these papers and a link to each paper, as well as a short note about how the paper relates to your original paper (1-2 sentences).
3. Cluster (group) these papers by how related they are to each other. E.g. some will extend the work in one direction while others will go in a different direction. Try to put some high level order in the related work space.

Note that you do not have to have read the whole paper to make this list. Read titles and abstracts only.

Lit Search Part 2 (due Monday of Week 5): Narrowing down

This part should be completed in your reading log so that you have these papers in your reading log too.

1. From the list of at least 10 papers you identified about, select at least 3 (again, more is better!) papers you feel are most relevant to the direction your own work will take. For each paper give:
   1. The complete citation for the paper (including authors, title, publication venue, publication year, and URL)
   2. A link to the paper
   3. A one-paragraph summary of the paper, in your own words
   4. The relationship between this paper and your original paper (i.e., how do the two complement each other to add to the general body of knowledge in the research field)
   5. Specifically why you chose the paper (over other papers you found)

Link this document from your log, and you are done with this part. Don't forget to document all your activities in your log as usual.