Final year support thread on PostgraduateForum.com

chickpea
8 years ago

I did the same as you too. I found "cited by" check (on google scholar) especially useful too.

I am formally writing up my literature review chapter next month and I think I'm going to give the systematic review option a miss too.

I've been using google scholar a fair bit too, and Web of Knowledge/Science for citation searches. I think systematic reviews have their place in certain kinds of paper, where there's an attempt to cover everything that's been done on a very specific topic, but I'm trying to do more of a 'general overview' lit review so I'm allowing my searches to be a bit more free-form! I will trawl through things again though, to make sure I've not missed key authors.

jennifercheong
8 years ago

What is the best way to do a good literature review?

Is Google scholar good? I am using google search key words and pdf based on latest year, but then again, some articles are too weak in content, and not famous, maybe junk. I would like to know better options and methods, can anyone share?

C

chickpea
8 years ago

Google scholar is all right as it lets you see how many times an article has been cited in other papers. I mostly use my university's own library search engine - does your university's website have a library resources page? I also sometimes use Web of Knowledge (again via my university's website), which allows you to do things like search for the most widely-cited authors in your field.

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Zutterfly
8 years ago

Quote From chickpea:

I did the same as you too. I found "cited by" check (on google scholar) especially useful too.

I am formally writing up my literature review chapter next month and I think I'm going to give the systematic review option a miss too.

I've been using google scholar a fair bit too, and Web of Knowledge/Science for citation searches. I think systematic reviews have their place in certain kinds of paper, where there's an attempt to cover everything that's been done on a very specific topic, but I'm trying to do more of a 'general overview' lit review so I'm allowing my searches to be a bit more free-form! I will trawl through things again though, to make sure I've not missed key authors.

Thanks Chickpea, yes this sums up mine too- it's supposed to be a general overview. Remembering this calms me a fair bit; I do not intend to include everything. I think I will when re writing my Literature Review make a list of some more recent papers and wedge them in to cover me though; a journal recently gave me major amendments asking for some more recent literature to be included.

C

charmlessman
8 years ago

Quote From Zutterfly:
Is anyone taking the Bank Holiday weekend off? I am allowing myself a long weekend if I hit the quarter-way point of this findings chapter tonight!

I did. Friday-Monday. Except I did a little bit of writing with a pen and paper which I like to do as a means of getting me away from a laptop. I find it relaxing and not work-like at all so I'm happy to do it on 'days off'.

Spent the time to see friends, relax and come back fresh. Away again this weekend but with long train journeys that offer prime writing opportunity!

C

charmlessman
8 years ago

Quote From chickpea:
Oh, the literature review/how much to read seems like a bit of a minefield! I wrote a literature review in my first year, and am leaving it pretty much til the end to update, so that I'll be able to go back over papers without having too many other tasks still in the way (that's the theory, anyway!). I think that as long as you make it clear that you only reviewed papers up to a certain cut-off date, it doesn't matter if something spectacular came along after that date. My problem is that I wasn't very systematic with my initial gathering of the literature, and followed trails of stuff that interested me rather than going through all the results for my key terms, so I think I have some plodding literature searches still to do!

Anyway - hope you all have a good Easter weekend :)

Mine is structured specifically as 'this was the state of the knowledge when I started' anything new is irrelevant here and will be discussed as the story unfolds.

S

sonia0524
8 years ago

Dear all,

I am going to apply for doctorate course at Manchester, but I do not know how it is going in UK. Also I heard some kind of degree. So what is the difference between MPhil, MRes and PhD? Each based on the other?

And I heard not exist serial number on PhD degree. Is it true, or not? ...cause this case it may be not acceptable for nationalization (?)
Please give me an answer for these question, I am so confused.

Thanks,
Sonia

C

charmlessman
8 years ago

Quote From sonia0524:
Dear all,

I am going to apply for doctorate course at Manchester, but I do not know how it is going in UK. Also I heard some kind of degree. So what is the difference between MPhil, MRes and PhD? Each based on the other?

And I heard not exist serial number on PhD degree. Is it true, or not? ...cause this case it may be not acceptable for nationalization (?)
Please give me an answer for these question, I am so confused.

Thanks,
Sonia

MPhil and MRes are Masters degrees that are achieved by research as opposed to the traditional MSc/MA which are referred to as taught courses. PhD is a doctorate. I believe Oxford and some other universities refer to it as a DPhil which may be a source of confusion for some?

They do not have to be based on each other. Most PhD studentships require you to have a good BSc/BA as a minimum. I don't have a masters degree and have nearly finished my doctorate.

Hope that's been of some help, I don't understand your last question and you may get more help by searching through the forum for a more appropriate thread to ask on!

Z

Zutterfly
8 years ago

Quote From charmlessman:

Quote From Zutterfly:
Is anyone taking the Bank Holiday weekend off? I am allowing myself a long weekend if I hit the quarter-way point of this findings chapter tonight!

I did. Friday-Monday. Except I did a little bit of writing with a pen and paper which I like to do as a means of getting me away from a laptop. I find it relaxing and not work-like at all so I'm happy to do it on 'days off'.

Spent the time to see friends, relax and come back fresh. Away again this weekend but with long train journeys that offer prime writing opportunity!

I hope you had a good bank holiday weekend Charmlessman! I was just very lazy. It took a few days to get back into the writing 'zone' but yesterday and today have been productive. I am about 50% through my last findings chapter, but it is edging along slowly due to me having to revisit lots of literature that I read in my first year. How's everything coming along for you?

N

Natalia_G
8 years ago

Hello, everyone! I am conducting a survey about in-store technologies and consumer experience. I would really appreciate if you could fill out this quick questionnaire for my final dissertation! Thank you in advance! :)

http://goo.gl/forms/O3T5ZS7VsB

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Hugh
8 years ago

Hi all, how are you all doing? I am currently writing up the discussion section for my final chapter and it's proving much more challenging than I had anticipated! There's so many findings and prior relevant literature. Also teasing out findings as opposed to just results is much more challenging I suppose. Anyone else found the discussion section most challenging?

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chickpea
8 years ago

Quote From Hugh:
Hi all, how are you all doing? I am currently writing up the discussion section for my final chapter and it's proving much more challenging than I had anticipated! There's so many findings and prior relevant literature. Also teasing out findings as opposed to just results is much more challenging I suppose. Anyone else found the discussion section most challenging?

I imagine the discussion would be one of those really 'thick' chapters in terms of references and linking everything back - I'm not looking forward to that when I get there! Is that your final chapter to write, or the final one as it will appear in the thesis? Sounds like you are doing great! I've had another chapter 'signed off' for now (as in it doesn't need to be seen on its own again), so that's a relief. Still got loads to do, but one step at a time!

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chickpea
8 years ago

Sorry, just noticed you said discussion section, not discussion chapter :)

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Hugh
8 years ago

Chickpea, that's wonderful news, well done! :)

Yes it's just the section of the final findings chapter! I'm dreading the overall discussion though I hope it'll be easier than this. I'm sat with it now and already started procrastinating, I find I start procrastinating when I either find something too challenging or just too boring/repetitive!

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chickpea
8 years ago

I know what you mean - I go right to the wire with easy/boring things and difficult/challenging things too! Plus I think the thesis is just such a big deal that it's scary to start wading in to the harder parts of it - I need to keep telling myself that it's better to get something written and then start changing it than to sit there with nothing to work with!