7 Creating Your Reading List

The Role of Literature in Your Thesis

A comprehensive reading list serves as the bedrock of any scholarly research, playing a crucial role in informing and shaping the entire thesis process. First and foremost, it deepens your understanding of the subject, ensuring that you’re not reinventing the wheel but rather building upon or challenging established knowledge. By immersing yourself in a wide range of perspectives and findings, you gain a nuanced understanding of the topic, which allows you to formulate a more informed and robust argument. Furthermore, a well-curated reading list demonstrates your scholarly rigour and engagement with the field. It lends credibility to your work by showing that you’re conversant with the key texts and debates surrounding your research question. In essence, the more comprehensive your reading list, the more grounded and persuasive your thesis will be, reflecting a thorough engagement with your topic and positioning your work within the broader academic conversation.

When looking for articles, don’t limit yourself to just one source. Use various academic databases like Google Scholar, PubMed, JSTOR, and others relevant to your field. If you need a refresher on the various search engines visit the relevant content from last week titled “Navigating Search Engines & Databases” for a list of the most popular sources, their strengths and weaknesses along with the exercise on optimizing your search in Google Scholar. Here we will also discuss some strategies to help you refine your search.

Prioritize Your Reading

Identify and start with the seminal works in your field. These are often the most cited or discussed papers and will provide you with a solid foundation. However, you shouldn’t only rely on the number of citations a paper has. Conducting research and publishing articles is a long, long, process, so older articles typically are cited more. So ensure that you’re up-to-date with the latest research.

Identify and start with the seminal works in your field. These are often the most cited or discussed papers and will provide you with a solid foundation. However, while citation count can be a strong indicator of a work’s influence and relevance, it shouldn’t be your sole criterion. Keep in mind that academic publishing is a lengthy process, and consequently, older articles have had more time to accumulate citations. This can sometimes skew the perceived importance of more recent, yet potentially groundbreaking, studies. Therefore, it’s crucial to balance your focus between these foundational texts and the cutting-edge research that represents the latest developments in your field.

To stay updated on current trends and theories, actively seek out recent publications. Engage with contemporary journals, conference proceedings, and other platforms where scholars share their latest findings. This approach ensures that your research is not only grounded in the established knowledge base but is also informed by the most recent insights and innovations. By striking this balance, your work will reflect both a deep respect for the field’s history and a keen awareness of its current trajectory.

Seek Expert Recommendations

Begin by consulting with your supervisor, they are a field expert, so they can assist in creating an initial reading list for you. A good rule of thumb is to set the goal of reading at least one article per week but keep in mind that your supervisor may have different expectations. Be sure to discuss what they anticipate in terms of your reading schedule. Moreover, if possible, aim to discuss your readings with your professor. Arranging regular, weekly discussions with your professor to meticulously analyze and dissect your assigned readings can significantly enhance your understanding and perspective.

Additionally, engaging in dialogues with your peers and colleagues is invaluable. Often, the best resources come from a recommendation by someone who’s recently been deep in research. Should you encounter a peer delving into a related topic, consider forming a reading group. This collaborative approach can foster a dynamic exchange of ideas, critiques, and interpretations. Engaging with your readings in the company of motivated peers and lab members during regular sessions can yield rich, multifaceted insights, often sparking innovative ideas and approaches that solitary study might not reveal. Such interactive scholarly dialogues not only deepen your understanding but also strengthen the communal knowledge base, paving the way for collective breakthroughs and advancements.

Keep Your List Organized

Organizing your reading list may seem like a daunting task, but you will thank yourself for the effort when the time comes to write the introduction to your paper. Organizing your reading list offers a multitude of benefits that can significantly enhance your research process and overall understanding of your subject. Firstly, it brings clarity and structure to the vast array of information you encounter, helping you navigate through the literature more efficiently. By categorizing sources, you can quickly locate materials relevant to specific themes or methodologies, saving valuable time and reducing the overwhelm of handling numerous articles.

This organization also aids in identifying patterns, trends, and gaps in the literature, which are crucial for shaping your research question and methodology. Furthermore, a well-organized list encourages a deeper engagement with the material. It prompts you to think critically about how each piece fits into the larger puzzle of your research, fostering a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the topic. Additionally, it streamlines the writing process; with a structured reading list, you can easily access and cite sources, ensuring a smoother and more coherent development of your arguments and analysis. Ultimately, an organized reading list is not just a practical tool for managing resources but a strategic asset that enhances the quality and depth of your research. Here are a couple of strategies for categorizing your reading list:

• By Themes
  • Look for overarching themes or topics within your research area. These could be theoretical perspectives, key issues, or common findings. Under each major theme, you might find sub-themes or more specific topics. This will help you navigate your list more efficiently when you’re looking for information on a particular aspect of your research. Moreover, creating themes can help inform and refine your search for more articles using keywords.
  • Benefit: This approach helps you see how different pieces of literature are connected and how they contribute to a broader understanding of your topic.

• By Methodologies
  • Group your readings by the research methods they employ, such as qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, case studies, etc. Pay attention to the results and conclusions drawn from these different methodologies. How do they compare or contrast?
  • Benefit: This organizational style is particularly useful if you’re still deciding on a research method, as it allows you to see the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches.

• Chronological Order (Timeline of Research)
  • Arrange the literature from oldest to most recent. This helps you understand how the discourse has evolved. Pay attention to how theories, methodologies, and findings have changed. Are there any clear shifts or significant milestones?
  • Benefit: This approach gives you historical context and can help you identify seminal works that laid the groundwork for subsequent research.

Reference Management Tools

I strongly recommend using a reference management tool. These tools significantly simplify the tasks of organizing, searching, and citing literature, streamlining what can often be a complex and time-consuming process. One of the key advantages of such tools is their ability to make your reading list readily accessible across various devices. They typically offer synchronization and online backup features, ensuring that your valuable work is securely stored and effortlessly retrievable. Furthermore, these tools often support collaborative efforts, allowing you to share your library with colleagues and thus enhancing collective research endeavours. An additional, invaluable feature is their capability for note-taking. This allows you to annotate each source with personal insights and summaries, making it considerably easier to remember the relevance of specific materials to your research. Perhaps most impressively, these tools are equipped with advanced citation functionalities. They can adeptly format in-text citations and bibliographies in a multitude of styles, which not only saves you a significant amount of time but also greatly enhances the accuracy and consistency of your referencing. In essence, a reference management tool is more than just an organizational aid; it’s an integral component of efficient and effective academic research.

When choosing a reference management tool, consider factors like cost, ease of use, specific features you need, and the type of research project you’re undertaking. It’s also worth checking if your institution provides access to any paid tools. Each tool has its unique strengths and might cater to different user needs and preferences. Additionally, many institutions offer training sessions on how to use these tools effectively. Online tutorials and community forums are also great resources for tips and troubleshooting.

Expanding Your List

If your schedule allows, aim to read beyond one article weekly — the more you read, the more you’ll gain. Take the initiative to broaden your reading list in your spare time. This will involve honing your skills in navigating academic databases and journals to uncover further pertinent literature.

From personal experience, a valuable strategy is to begin your research journey with recently published review articles. These works provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of the literature, presenting the latest developments and debates in the field. They’re particularly beneficial as they translate complex research into more digestible summaries, giving you a clear and current picture of the topic. Additionally, the references in these review articles are a gold mine. They lead you directly to seminal and influential works that you might want to include in your reading list. By starting with a review article, you not only save time in understanding the broader context but also ensure you’re building your knowledge on a solid, up-to-date foundation.

Regularly Evaluate and Adapt

Keep your list dynamic and expect it to evolve as you dive deeper into your research and reading. The important thing is to get started with an initial list this week to get you reading. Regularly review and update your categories as your understanding of the topic deepens and your focus shifts. Understand that these academic publications form the foundation of your research. By actively and critically engaging with these works, you’ll be better equipped to craft a compelling narrative for your study, which will prove invaluable when you begin to write your introduction.

In the upcoming chapter, we will delve into effective strategies for note-taking, designed to maximize the benefits you derive from your literature review. This next segment aims to equip you with practical techniques that will enhance your ability to capture, organize, and assimilate key information, thereby enriching your overall research experience. Stay tuned for insightful guidance on honing this crucial skill.