Emma Tosch, Thought FollowerApr 13

This question is for folks who have done some kind of computing research.

Did you ever get formal training in how to do a literature review? What about informal training?

Some options, in case that lowers the barrier to entering the conversation:

Learned in a formal course
7.3%
Learned from peers
27.3%
Learned from advisor
34.5%
Other
30.9%
Poll ended at .
Show threadEmma Tosch, Thought FollowerApr 13
As a follow-up question: what platform do you do use for search?
Google Scholar
76.9%
JSTOR/EBSCOhost/via library
0%
ArXiv
7.7%
Other
15.4%
Poll ended at .
Show threadcynthiaApr 13
@etosch
for computers: acm
for everything else: library search
in general: following citation chains from any work that i'm starting from
Show threadEmma Tosch, Thought FollowerApr 14

@cxli re: citation chains.

Ever notice that older papers have fewer citations? Is it because there's been more growth in the field? Or is because citation practices have become bloated at best and polluting at worst?

Put another way: perhaps citation practices perform one function during review but two (possibly conflicting) functions once published?

Show threadShae Erisson

@etosch @cxli I approached citations differently. I wanted to know if cross field citations were beneficial, the only paper I've found for that is:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2329496514540131

Apr 15 at 11:54amWeb
Show threadEmma Tosch, Thought FollowerApr 15
@shapr @cxli In a lot of ways, computer science isn't exactly a "field." It's unclear what phenomena computer scientists study; classically the answer was "computation" but IMO that's quite a stretch for the vast majority of us to claim. I'd say most of the computer scientists who study computation could just as easily be called mathematicians, philosophers, or logicians, depending on their phenomenological focus.
Show threadEmma Tosch, Thought FollowerApr 15
@shapr @cxli Of course, disciplinary differentiation is a new concept and one that is more about politics than some kind of taxonomy of disciplines. In that context, citation practices are also political.
Show threadEmma Tosch, Thought FollowerApr 15
@shapr @cxli All of that is to say that there are forces at play that incentivize cross-disciplinary citation when it confers legitimacy on an interdisciplinary project and forces that discincentivize cross-disciplinary citation when it might attract accusations of epistemic trespassing.