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Thanks to @ProjectHalfDone for recommending my resources on writing Literature Reviews. raulpacheco.org/resources/lite… and in response to @_Jackie_Bruce 's question on how to approach a LR, I have written a few entries, but I wanted to integrate what Dr. Vengrin mentioned in her tweets
1) Like @ProjectHalfDone I organize my physical materials mirroring my digital ones (books, chapters, articles) by topic and by paper raulpacheco.org/2015/09/organi… and my PDFs usually by paper, but also by topic raulpacheco.org/2015/09/organi… I synchronize two organizing/storing methods
2) I keep three digital databases: a) Dropbox folders and sub-folders by paper or book or chapter I am writing in Dropbox b) all PDFs I cite in Mendeley (you can use Zotero, Endnote, Refworks, Citavi, Papers, etc.). and c) Clippings of news articles, etc. in Evernote.
3) Because everything I do (organization wise) is redundant raulpacheco.org/2018/12/buildi… it is rare that these record-keeping practices fail me. Now, on to the literature review itself: when I read raulpacheco.org/resources/read… I take notes raulpacheco.org/resources/note…
4) For a literature review of a new field, I recommend this post of mine raulpacheco.org/2018/01/mappin… which uses my Conceptual Synthesis Excel Dump (the device you need to give yourself a panoramic overview of what you've read and learned from each reading) raulpacheco.org/2016/06/synthe…
5) One thing I've reflected upon as I've written more of these resources is that things we often lack are "overview" or "bird's eye" or "panoramic" devices: stuff that tells us how everything connects with everything else. I consider CSED and DTP two of my "overview devices"
6) I ask ALL my thesis students to write a Dissertation Two Pager DTP and update it regularly because it gives THEM and ME a bird's eye view of where they are in the research process raulpacheco.org/2018/08/the-di… I also frequently check their CSEDs to see if they've missed a key paper.
7) When I plan my academic year, I also keep a "bird's eye" view of what I'm doing all year (which is why I keep a printed copy of my year and a list of conferences and workshops and writing commitments at the beginning of my Everything Notebook) raulpacheco.org/2016/12/my-yea…
8, and I believe last tweet of this thread) I strongly believe in the power of looking at the forest AND the trees. Overview Devices keep me on track for that reason (Weekly Project Whiteboards, Google Calendar printouts, etc.). I also believe in the power of redundancy </end>
Post-script - mind maps are ALSO Overview Devices. This post explains mind mapping your results once you've reached conceptual saturation in your LR raulpacheco.org/2016/06/how-to… and this post is just on the value of mind maps for research raulpacheco.org/2016/12/mind-m… </fin>
NEW BLOG POST - Using Overview Devices in scholarly research and academic writing raulpacheco.org/2019/08/using-…
