Chapter 1: “Reading” Working with the Literature Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2004 No parts of this file may be copied or stored without written permission

Chapter 1: “Reading”

Working with the Literature

Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2004

No parts of this file may be copied or stored without written permission.

• The Role of the Literature

• Categories of Documents

• Bibliographic Data

• Working with the Literature– Searching Literature– Reading Papers– Documenting

Questions:

• What do you do if your paper is rejected?

• How do you search for literature on “the Galois groups of origami constructions”?

• Under which keywords to you look for “non-linear equations”?

• What is the difference between an editor, a publisher, and a referee?

• What do you do if you are asked to write a referee report for a paper?

• How do you find out whether a paper of 1992 was further pursued?

• How do you find out whether a journal article is available in your library?

• Do articles in conference proceedings count as “publications”?

• Will journals become obsolete with the future advances of the web?

• How long does it take to find out whether a paper is relevant for your research?

• Is the following reference OK: “N. Nakatani. On Fibonacci Numbers. Technical Report, 2004 “ ?

• Is the following citation OK: “For the resolution method, see [Miller, Mayr 2004]” ?

The Role of the Literature

ownthinking

consultingthe literature

Categories of Documents

• Books

• Journal Articles

• Conference Proceedings Articles

• Collection Articles

• Technical Reports

Please see the lecture notes for details.

authorship,

contents,

originality,

quality control,

organization and production,

access,

reputation.

• “books”• “papers”• “publications”• “refereed

publications”

The organization of journals:

author

publishingcompany

editorand ed board

anonymousreferee

reader

Please see the lecture notes

for details.

Anonymous peer refereeing:

• A corner-stone of modern science.

• An non-trivial invention (~ 1650).

• An ingenious invention: the purifying effect of anonymous criticism.

• Independent of belief, religion, race, sex, nationality, age, authority, politics, …

• The essence of “scientific” literature independent of the “medium”.

• The basis of “democracy”.

• A gift for the authors.

A refereeing “algorithm”: • saves time of referees• helps authors• authors can help referees

Read abstract, conclusion, intro.

In scope? no Reject.

yes

Report.

Report.

Read papersuperficially

Clarity? no Reject.

yes

Importance? no Reject.

yes

Report.

Report.

Report.

Report.

Difficulty? no Reject.

yes

Originality? no Reject.

yes

Report.

Report.

Report.

Report.

Sufficientdetails? no

Reject.

Goto“presentation?”

Revise.

Intuitivelycorrect? no

yes

yes

Report. Report.

Report.

Report.

Report.

Read and checkpaper in detail

Correctness? no Reject.

yes

Presentation? no Revise.

yes

Accept.

Report.

Report.

Report.

Report.



• Bibliographic Data


Bibliographic Data

• for unique identification of literature documents

• for getting hold of documents

completeness !

Please see the lecture notes for details.



Bibliographic Data


Working with the Literature: Search

• Research Index, see citeseer.ist.psu.edu/cs•"CompuMath Citation Index " (CMCI), see www.isinet.com/products/citation/specialty/cmci

• search for math / CS search engines

• “forward search” is possible!

A literature search “algorithm”:

Given: a “topic”Find: all relevant literature on the topic.

Web•Search engines•Citation indices


for details.

citesA B

The fundamental relation between papers:

backward search

forward search

• Authors are happy if you ask about their papers!

Ask colleagues.

Use available papers.

• Use reference lists for backward search.

• authors’ index• keyword (subject index)

• thesauri are a problem!• example: AMS Subject Classification Scheme.

• the documentation of math is not problem oriented!

Use libraries.

An experiment: search for “equations”:

• for linear equations (over fields), search under the keyword "linear algebra"

• for linear equations (over the integers), search under the keyword "number theory"

• for nonlinear equations (over fields), search under the keyword "algebraic geometry"

• for numerical methods for equations solving (in the real and complex numbers), search under the kewyord "numerical mathematics"

• for nonlinear equations over the integers, search under the kewyord "recursive function theory" ("algorithm theory, or even "metamathematics").

• for differential equations, search under the keyword "differential equations“.

data types

method types

problem types

EQUATIONS

BOOLEAN ALGEBRAS

ELIMINATION

SOLUTION OF BOOLEAN EQUATIONSBY ELIMINATION

Mathematics asa 3-D space

• e.g. Mathematical Reviews

• e.g. Current Mathematical Publications

• bibliographies /= literature surveys

Consult review journals,contents journals,

bibliographies.

Iterate

• i.e. form the symmetric, transitive closure of the “A cites B” relation (i.e. iterate forward, backward search)

• and prune irrelevant items at each step

• until the literature set stabilizes.

• prune:

• by reading title and abstract

title and abstract are enormously important

• the decision not to read a paper is very important

Advice:

• Be embedded into the research community:

• local• national• regional• global



Bibliographic Data

Working with the Literature Searching Literature– Reading Papers– Documenting

Working with the Literature: Read

Two opposing aspects:

– analyze quickly the essential contents of a paper

– understand and check details.

A “algorithm” for quick reading:

Given: a paper.Find: the relevant contents.

Read (in this order)

• title and abstract• reference list• conclusion• introduction and literature review


for details.

Clarify and formulate in your own words

• the essential problems treated• the new contribution to their solution

For each problem, proceed by “Gerber’s Rule”:

– What is given?

– What has to be found?

• Look to concrete problem instances.

• What is given and what has to be found in the example?

• How would you solve the problem? What do you know about known solutions in the literature?

• What is specific about the problem, i.e. what distinguishes the problem from other, similar problems?

• What is the specific difficulty of the problem?

• How could the problem be specified formally?

• What might be the specific contribution of the paper to the solution of the problem (even if you did not yet see the details presented in the paper)?

• Is the problem and its solution relevant for your topic?

Understand and check the relevant details.

• knowing terminology and results in the area

• getting the intuitions behind the formal details

• checking the formal details

• For (getting the intuitions and) checking the formal details:

• Complete mastery of the formal methodology of mathematics (“reasoning”) is necessary, see Chapter “Thinking”.

• This can be learned!



Bibliographic Data

Working with the Literature Searching Literature Reading Papers– Documenting

Working with the Literature: Document

• Complete documentation of the literature used in your paper is obligatory:

– For making the paper completely understandable.

– For giving intellectual credit to the results used.

Steps:

• documentation during work

• the reference list

• citing

• the literature review

• (bibliographies)

Documentation during work:

• a list of all references (ordered alphabetically by authors) with complete bibliographic data

• and keywords.

The reference list:

• completeness of bibliographic data

• uniformity.

Citing:

• Cite all papers which you use in your paper.

• Cite the papers in which the results appeared for the first time.

• Cite sufficiently many papers for making your paper understandable.

• Do not include papers into the reference list which you did not use in your paper.

• Be careful with self-citations.

Literature review:

• May go by authors. • Should be summarized in a “statement of originality”.

• In addition, individual citations in the text will often be necessary.

• Bibliographies are different: Are independent of one’s own paper, go by “topic” (preferably, by “problems”), see lecture notes.

Literature work:

• is essential

• is a pleasure

• must be professional

• must minimize the effort of the potential readers.

Summary

Check: Can you answer the initial questions?

Questions:

• What do you do if your paper is rejected?

• How do you search for literature on “the Galois groups of origami constructions”?

• Under which keyword to you look for “non-linear equations”?

• What is the difference between an editor, a publisher, and a referee?

• What do you do if you are asked to write a referee report for a paper?

• How do you find out whether a paper of 1992 was further pursued?

• How do you find out whether a journal article is available in your library?

• Do articles in conference proceedings count as “publications”?

• Will journals become obsolete with the future advances of the web?

• How long does it take to find out whether a paper is relevant for your research?

• Is the following reference OK: “N. Nakatani. On Fibonacci Numbers. Technical Report, 2004 “ ?

• Is the following citation OK: “For the resolution method, see [Miller, Mayr 2004]” ?

Exercise:

• choose (a very limited) topic (advice: a “problem”)

• search the relevant literature

• read the relevant papers (to the point where you can determine the relevance and essential contributions of the papers)

• document the result of the literature search.

My office hour: Mo, Oct 11 and Oct 18, 14-16 h.