CS710: Related Work

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CS710 Related Work

• Norman Paton

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The Purpose of Related Work

• Why is related work important in a thesis?
• To situate your contribution.
• To differentiate your contribution.
• To show you know the area.
• To make explicit your view of the area.

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The Location of Related Work

• Where might related work be in a thesis?
• In a Related Work chapter near the start.
• In a Related Work chapter near the end.
• At the start of each of the main chapters.
• At the end of each of the main chapters.
• Scattered throughout the text.

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Related Work Chapter

• Benefits of an early chapter
• Gives your world-view up-front.
• Situates claimed contribution early.
• Clean separation of chapter roles.
• Conforms with expectations.
• Problems with an early chapter
• Precedes principal definitions.
• Cannot relate precisely to contribution.
• Too early to argue for contribution.

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Chapter-based Related Work

• Advantages
• Closely relates related work to relevant
  contributions.
• Avoids bitty related work chapter for broad
  theses.
• Disadvantages
• Breaks the flow of technical case.
• Defers situating of overall contribution.
• Prevents thesis-wide classification of related
  work.

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Scene Setting and Critical

• Following Slomans notes
• Scene-setting early material to sketch the area
  and where you fit in.
• Critical comparison later material to show how
  your work relates to that of others.

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Related Work and Surveys

• Good surveys are relevant to related work, but
• A related work section is not principally a
  survey.
• Related work sections in papers
• Are often very poor.
• Are too often a bolt-on.
• Suffer from length restrictions.
• As such, they are rarely a good model for theses.

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Tables Can Be Useful
Related Proposals
Key Features
Controlled Vocabulary
Paton Diaz, Computing Surveys, 1999
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Dos

• Make notes on papers you read.
• Get to know key papers very well.
• Classify related work systematically.
• Relate other papers to each other.
• Relate your work to that of others.
• Learn from other related work sections.
• Create a bibliography database.
• Cite sources precisely.
• Give concrete examples.

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Donts

• Write an introductory textbook.
• Treat all papers as equal.
• Summarise large numbers of papers.
• Adopt the terminology of the authors.
• Criticise work
• Imprecisely.
• Without justification.
• You dont want to have to withdraw a criticism.
• Accept a papers claims without question.

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Summary

• In a thesis
• Related work material is mandatory.
• Related work material is important
• To your ability to claim novelty.
• In characterising the nature of your claims.
• Knowledge of related work is essential
• For planning research, as well as
• For arguing for results.