Getting to know the academic literature quickly #phd #academicwriting #literaturereview

If you’re new to an academic field, getting to know the literature can be tricky, but there are ways to make it easier. First of all, we have to be selective. If you sit down and try to read everything, it’ll be a nightmare.

But here’s the secret… Most work is incremental, in that it has very little, if any, impact on the field (even if it’s good).

But occasionally there will be groundbreaking papers that have a massively disproportionate effect, changing the way other researchers think.

If you focus on these; what they did, why it was important and what effect it had on the field, it gives you a foundation for understanding the incremental work that followed.

From there, try to understand the trends in the literature, what people are working on and debating. This gives you context.

Only then is it worth getting into the details of the latest, highly specialised papers.

[vibatkevin]

How would you know if the paper is high impact vs incremental?