One of the main steps of scientific research is to find other research and works that have already been done. Scientists build their work on the works of others and advance their fields by collaboration. But how do you find other works in the literature? Here are five simple and practical pieces of advice for finding the most relevant papers.
- Search thoroughly on databases: Start looking at the main search engines like google scholar and Scopus with several keywords. You can use a combination of these keywords and do not through them all at once. Keep a copy of the papers that you think might be useful. You can discard them later if you don’t want them.
- Identify the leading researchers: As you are looking for papers, have a look at the author’s profile. They may be leading authors in the field and you can find more papers from them. You can also find out who their main collaborators are and look into their profiles as well.
- Skim the articles to choose the most relevant ones: Once you have a number of papers relevant to your problem, have a quick look at their abstract and skim through the paper. Try to choose the most relevant ones to read in detail. If something is irreverent, you can filter it out at this stage.
- Read the main articles in detail: Once you have identified 3-5 papers that are most similar to what you are aiming to do, read them in detail. Make sure you check their references as well. Pick notes and research thoroughly to understand them deeply.
- Contact the authors if needed: Don’t be afraid to contact authors for more details or advice on other relevant works. This can accelerate your research and open up new directions.