What is the most efficient way to do lit review?
December 3, 2014 2:39 PM Subscribe
When you consume multiple books on one topic, what does your notebook look like afterwards? Does making a wiki, or a concept map, or a relational diagram help?
I've been hired as a contractor to work for a university researcher to do work I know, but in a field I'm unfamiliar with. My first task: to "get to know" the field by reading through five hefty books and textbooks. I've never had to self-guide this type of information consumption before and could use some advice on how to do it most efficiently.
Note: I don't need to write anything; I need to understand it all, and be able to use my notes to go back to the original work.
I've been hired as a contractor to work for a university researcher to do work I know, but in a field I'm unfamiliar with. My first task: to "get to know" the field by reading through five hefty books and textbooks. I've never had to self-guide this type of information consumption before and could use some advice on how to do it most efficiently.
Note: I don't need to write anything; I need to understand it all, and be able to use my notes to go back to the original work.
What you will be interested in learning is what is agreed upon, and what is argued about.
The big textbooks and classic tomes provide the overview, but the research will likely involve sifting through and assessing arguments in journals and key books. The scholarly literature in a field is largely comprised of give-and-take in articles debating fine points of argument, evidence, models, statistics, etc. Sometimes scholars will try to take stock of the state of the discipline, or the degree of consensus on key issues; but many articles will drill down into the details of seemingly minor points to bolster an argument or rebut another, with the overall goal of building a story, or theory, or method, and advance it against its rivals.
You'll be wanting to figure out how to fit the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle together by following the citations and bibliographies down to the details, and summarize who has the best arguments.
posted by lathrop at 9:26 PM on December 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
The big textbooks and classic tomes provide the overview, but the research will likely involve sifting through and assessing arguments in journals and key books. The scholarly literature in a field is largely comprised of give-and-take in articles debating fine points of argument, evidence, models, statistics, etc. Sometimes scholars will try to take stock of the state of the discipline, or the degree of consensus on key issues; but many articles will drill down into the details of seemingly minor points to bolster an argument or rebut another, with the overall goal of building a story, or theory, or method, and advance it against its rivals.
You'll be wanting to figure out how to fit the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle together by following the citations and bibliographies down to the details, and summarize who has the best arguments.
posted by lathrop at 9:26 PM on December 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
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Notes all depends on what works best for you. A wiki would be overkill for me: I like to take notes in OneNote, and tag things. But it is all about what works for you.
For the books:
- Scan the chapter titles and headings. See if there are any commonalities. Write those down
- Skim the introductions. Take basic notes
- Go to the main subject titles, and begin skimming.
You won't be an expert, but you will get a good sense of what the field/subject looks like.
posted by troytroy at 3:22 PM on December 3, 2014