Search less, learn more: Skills for efficient and effective literature reviews
Date:
05/05/2020 - 21/06/2020
Organised by:
University of Essex
Presenter:
Dr Jon Chamberlain is an interdisciplinary researcher and lecturer based at the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering in the University of Essex whose research focuses on human-computer interaction in the areas of language technology, information retrieval, crowd sourcing and artificial intelligence.
Dr Tony Russell-Rose is a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at the University of Essex, Director of UXLabs, a research and design consultancy specialising in complex search and information access applications, and founder of 2Dsearch, a start-up applying AI, natural language processing and data visualisation to create professional search tools. Together they investigate professionals who use search engines as part of their job and discovered that these expert searchers have very different behaviours and needs to casual searchers. This research lays the foundations for digital research skills courses they are developing at the University of Essex to equip the next generation of scientists with robust skills in information retrieval.
Level:
Entry (no or almost no prior knowledge)
Contact:
Proficio@essex.ac.uk
01206 873077
Description:
Performing a literature review of published research work and prior art is a vital skill for postgraduate students in order to understand where research ideas fit within the scope of knowledge and to identify promising areas of research to investigate. However, it can be difficult to know where to start with a literature search and, perhaps most importantly, when to stop. Being able to effectively assess the relevance of documents is an important ability in order to maximise time spent in the analysis process, in which the key findings of research papers are summarised and discussed. The search and synthesis process can lead to divergent avenues of interesting work, so maintaining a clear search focus is core to an efficient literature process. Finally, knowing how to report your search strategy so it can be repeated is good methodological practice for research students and one that will strengthen research publications during the peer review process.
This course involves two half-day modules that will show postgraduate students how to:
1) develop Boolean search strategies beyond single keyword searches and find relevant documents.
2) analyse search results, how to assess literature quickly for relevance and when to stop.
This course teaches both foundational skills based on professional best-practice and a research-driven approach to creating efficient and effective search strategies using state-of-the-art tools so participants will be able to search less and learn more.
Cost:
External academics/ students - £150
Commercial - £200
Website and registration:
https://shortcoursesgateway.essex.ac.uk/Guests/GuestCourse.aspx?CourseRef=CE:SLLM&dates=
Region:
East of England
Keywords:
Research Management and Impact, Research Skills, Communication and Dissemination, Researching Literature, Literature reviews, published research work , search and synthesis process , peer review process
Related publications and presentations:
Research Management and Impact
Research Skills, Communication and Dissemination
Researching Literature
Literature reviews