SE4450 - Software Engineering Design II

This page contains information and links to resources that will help you with your SE4450 projects, and in particular with your literature review.  For help at any stage of your project, contact Lise Doucette.

If you are not on campus, start by logging in for off-campus access (to the left).

1. What is a literature review? [pdf]
2. Reading an Article
3. Writing your Literature Review
4. Citing your References / Avoiding Plagiarism
5. Finding Information for your Project

Reading an Article

Taylor Library’s tutorial on reading articles:
http://www.lib.uwo.ca/researchmodules/physicalsciences/readingaresearcharticle/

Writing your LITERATURE REVIEW

Using a Synthesis Matrix: http://www.ncsu.edu/tutorial_center/writespeak/download/Synthesis.pdf

Taylor Library’s tutorial on writing your own paper: http://www.lib.uwo.ca/researchmodules/physicalsciences/writingyourownpaper/index.shtml

Example of a Synthesis Matrix

Efficiency of solar cells made of various materials

	Paper 1	Paper 2	Paper 3	Paper 4
Main Theme/Idea 1: Preferred materials	Note/information and page number	cadmium telluride (page 312)	copper-indium selenide (page 1209)	polycrystalline silicon (page 54)
Main Theme/Idea 2: Efficiency of solar cell	Leave blank if a paper does not discuss a main idea	12% under STP (page 65)	15% (page 1215)	22% at 45 degrees Celsius (page 56)
Main Theme/Idea 3: Use of thin-film solar cells	Also make a note if an author does not agree with the main idea	depending on application, can be preferred (page 320)	cannot be used above 50 degrees Celsius (page 1213)	not preferred - cost to efficiency of silicon is higher (page 59)

Citing your references / AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

• In-depth IEEE Style Guide (short guide available on ECE course page)
• See Projects in computing and information systems : a student's guide by Christian W. Dawson.
• See Project research in information systems : a student's guide by Tony Cornford & Steve Smithson.
• RefWorks (bibliographic citation management and bibliography generating software) | about | importing instruction | Write-N-Cite (plug-in for MS Word)

 

finding information for your project

Search Strategy Worksheet [pdf]

• Select keywords from your research topic
• Find synonyms or related terms for each of the keywords you identified above.
• Use Boolean operators to connect your keywords (AND, OR, NOT)
• Select search tools (library catalogue, databases, etc.)
• Conduct your search
• Review your search results and revise your search

If you are new to your topic or would like to start by reading some more general background information, here are some good places to start:

• Library Catalogue - find books by searching by keyword, title, author
• ENGnetBASE - 1000+ online handbooks
• AccessEngineering - 250+ online engineering handbooks
• Safari Tech Books Online (e.g. O'Reilly books, handbooks for C++, SQL, UML, use case modeling)

• ProQuest ABI/Inform - Trade & Industry
• CBCA Business
• Note: can search both (and others) at the same time -- click "Select multiple databases"

• Inspec and Compendex - can search at the same time | export to RefWorks instructions
• IEEE Xplore - IEEE publications only | export to RefWorks instructions
• ACM Digital Library - ACM publications only
• SPIE Digital Library - SPIE publications only | export to RefWorks instructions
• Google Scholar - easy to use, multidisciplinary; not complete | export to RefWorks instructions
• InterLibrary Loan (RACER) - order articles the library doesn't subscribe to; free
• Find out if a journal is peer-reviewed using Ulrich's Periodicals Directory

• espacenet (European Patent Office)
• US Patent and Trademark Office
• Canadian Intellectual Property Office: Patents
• Google Patents

Free resources - links to databases, journals, patents, standards that you can access free of charge (also useful after you graduate).