So… the second part of my literature review will seek to ‘plug the gaps’ by datamining bibliographies of papers already found. In this method, the bibliographies of papers that are relevant are searched to find additional papers that might be relevant. Having found another paper, that papers’ bibliography is then searched… ad nauseum. In my undergrad days, I asked the question “how do you know when you have done enough reading?” It is a recurrent theme in research and, of course, there is no definitive answer, but the reply came back “when you keep being referred to papers you have already read”, which seems to fit the bill. Of course, this sometimes requires an enormous amount of reading, but actually, when your subject has been narrowed to such a degree as is required to write a paper on a specific topic, often the reading list can be counted in double digits.
So, a final sift of the papers I have found to ensure they match the inclusion criteria and then I can start on the datamine method. I suspect this will take longer as it has the potential to be far more complex, but it should be enjoyable.
I also have some work on another paper to try and finish by the end of the week, so reaching a natural break is a good thing. Well… there is a great deal to do, so I had better make a start…
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