Hey,
The literature is going slowly but surely, have managed to at least create a series of sections which I need to read within, and a very very draft knockabout format for the research i'd like to do. However a few areas are quite elusive and I am just trying to get to grips with including what others have written while staying firmly on the correct side of referencing and forming my opinion/research direction.

Herein lies my problem. I have found a single paper which neatly on one pages summerises exactly what I am looking for as background to a section but the author has gathered this info from a wide variety of sources I do not have access to (have spent hours trying but our uni doesn't sign up to those journals). Any tips on how I can go about including this information without looking lazy? I did wonder about a table with the information summerised within and her references, and then under my table I put "Adapted from x, 2009".

any thought muchly appreciated as always, many thanks:-)

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I'm trying to create such a table for my literature review which is completed and passed by my supv but he saw one in somebody else's lit review (he was external) which he thought looked great - hence I have to compile one:-(. To be honest although it is correct to reference somebody else's table 'After Smith, 2011' for example I think at PhD level I really have to go back to the literature myself. Also if you were quizzed on the contents of the table in your viva but had not read the originals it would be a sticky question to answer.

Try posting on this forum for the articles you need. I have quite good access across a wide variety of journals (most things except pubmed). No problem pmng me if you want to send me a list and I will have a look - else just post them here (maybe not all in one go as it can put people off!!) and you should eventually get most of what you need.

A

Thanks Ady - I am just sitting down to work out what I can and can't get hold of. I was pretty certain I had read someone that its ok to do it at masters but at phd you should go back and read the original papers.

And there was me thinking i'd have this whole thing nailed by hometime. *joke*

Gregory, S.V., Swanson, F.J., McKee,W.A., Cummins, K.W., 1991. An ecosystem per- spective of riparian zones. BioScience 41 (8), 540–551

Would like to read this but cannot get it - can anyone help? ty in advance

p.s. when do you stop with references? i.e. i read a paper, and look up say 10 ref, those ten refs each have 10 refs etc etc

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Phew, I can get it (after me saying earlier I have good access!). If you want to pm me your email Hiccup I'll email you the pdf

Theoretical saturation, ie when you just can't read any more theory;-)

There does come a time when you have to call a halt but not for quite a while. Even if you write your lit review in your first year (which I think you're in??) you would still be expected to update it as you progress in your studies. It is very unlikely that you could consider it 'done' in first year.

3rd edit :$ (it's late for me) - you don't have to chase all the references in a paper up. You will probably find that the same core references keeps cropping up so you should try to get those. Then as you fine tune your topic, you will have a better idea which references you need, which would be nice to have, which are tenuously useful and which are not worth pursuing!

emailed you your paper :-)

The one you have for me is a 'crop up over and over' one! The task I have been set (or set myself) is to have a good enough understanding of the various strands of my research so that I can hold a decent conversation with my supervisory team at the end of May about my proposed research, possible methodologies and software i need to learn/ethical approval etc. The last few meetings I have been going 'Um' and 'Er' a lot and frantically writing copious notes!

The damn thing will *have* to evolve, there is no way I can weigh through all this by the end of May as well as raise a child, manage a house move and arrange our first family holiday, I have set myself a few targets though which I want to try and meet. I was working within a well lit quite noisy office of PGRs but at the drop of a hat I've today been moved to a room away from my research group due to a reorganisation. I'm taking up residence in our library instead where I get staggering amounts done. Every cloud...