How to write a thesis and which software tools to use.docx

How to write a thesis and which software tools to use.docx

《How to write a thesis and which software tools to use.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《How to write a thesis and which software tools to use.docx（17页珍藏版）》请在冰点文库上搜索。

Howtowriteathesisandwhichsoftwaretoolstouse

Howtowriteathesis（Bachelor,Master,orPhD）andwhichsoftwaretoolstouse

HowtowriteaPhDthesis?

Thisisnotatrivialtask.Relatedliteratureneedstobefound,notesneedtobetakenandfinallythethesishastobedraftedandwrittenincludingthecreationofthebibliography.DozensofbooksexistabouthowtodoaliteraturesurveyandhowtowriteaPhDandscholarlyliteratureingeneral（e.g.[1-9]）.However,softwaretoolsthatmighthelpindoingaliteraturesurveyorwritingathesisarehardlycoveredbythesebooks,ifatall.ThisissurprisingasmanysoftwaretoolsexistfacilitatingthedailyworkofaPhDstudent.

InthistutorialwepresentanewmethodtoreviewingscholarlyliteratureanddraftingaPhDthesiswithmindmappingsoftware,PDFreadersandreferencemanagers. ThistutorialfocusesonPhDstudents.However,BachelorandMasterstudentscanusetheherepresentedmethodsaswelltoplanandwritetheirthesis.Whatmakesthistutorialspecialisthefactthateverything–PDFfiles,thecontentofPDFs（bookmarks）andreferencesareintegratedwithmindmappingandwordprocessingsoftware.

TomakethetutorialbetterunderstandableweprovidemanyexamplesforwhichweassumethatyouwanttowriteaPhDthesisaboutacademicsearchengines.

Pleasenotethat

∙Alltoolspresentedinthistutorialarefreeandopensource（exceptMicrosoftWord）

∙AlltoolspresentedinthistutorialarebasedonJavaandrunonWindows,LinuxandMacOS（again,exceptMicrosoftWord）

∙Alltoolsusedinthistutorialmaybesubstituted:

oSciPloreMindmappingmaybesubstitutedwithFreeMind,MindManager,XMINDandmostothermindmappingtoolsallowingtolinkPDFfiles

oFoxitReadermaybesubstitutedwithAdobeAcrobat

oJabRefmaybesubstitutedwithanyotherreferencemanagersupportingBibTeX（e.g.BibDesk,ReferencerandMendeley）

oMicrosoftWordmaybesubstitutedwithOpenOfficeorLaTeXoranyotherwordprocessorthatBibTeXsupport/pluginsexistfor

YouwillspendthenextcoupleofyearsdoingyourPhD（ormonthsifyouaredoingaMasterorBachelor）.WehighlyrecommendtoreadthisandothertutorialstofindoutthewaythatisbestforyoutomanageyourliteratureandreferencesandwriteyourPhD.Spendingafewhoursnowwillsaveyoudaysifnotevenweekslater.Thistutorialwillbeupdatedfromtimetotimetoconsiderthelatestfeaturesofthetoolspresentedhere.Lastupdateofthistutorial:

Mai2010

Beforestarting,wepresentsomeuserfeedbackthatwegotbyemailforoursoftwareandthistutorial.Wehopeitmotivatesyoutoreadthecompletetutorial

.

Thistutorialisdividedintothreeparts.thefirstpartcovershowtomanageliterature.ThesecondpartcovershowtodraftaPhDthesis.ThefinalpartcovershowtowriteaPhDthesisandhowtomanagereferences.

HowtoWriteaPhDThesis（PartI）:

LiteratureManagement

TowriteagoodPhDthesisitiskeytokeeptrackofrelatedworkinyourfield.Thatincludesthatyouknowalltherelevantstudies,results,facts,ideasandsooninyourfield.Keepinmind,bytheendofyourliteraturereviewyouwillhavereadoratleastskippedthroughhundredsofbooksandpapers.Youmustbeageniustoremembereveryinterestingfactandideayouhavereadinapaperwithoutanytools.Beforethecomputer-age,academicscouldonlyrelyonindexcards,（postit）notes,highlightingpens,indices,etc.Withcomputers,andespeciallymindmappingsoftware,newpossibilitiesevolved.

Inthispartofthetutorialweexplainhowtosearchforliteraturewithacademicsearchengines.ThenweshowhowyoucreatesummariesofyourPDFswithbookmarksandkeeponoverviewofallimportantinformationinourmindmap.Bytheend,yourmindmapwillcontainliterallyallinformationthatyouhaveconsideredtobeimportant.Wheneveryouwanttoknowsomething,youcanlookitupinyourmindmap,andreadinmoredetailaboutitbyclickingonthelinktothePDF.

Searchingfor（Electronic）Literature

AprerequisiteforagoodPhDthesisistoknowwhatothershavedoneinyourfieldofresearch.Buthowtofindthisrelatedwork?

Duetocomputersandtheinternet,searchingforliteraturehaschangeddramaticallyoverthelastyears.Insteadofusingcataloguesinlibraries,studentscanusefulltextsearchofferedbyacademicsearchenginesanddatabasessuchasGoogleScholar,SciPloreandACMDigitalLibrary.Inaddition,academicsearchenginesusuallyoffersophisticatedrankingalgorithmswhichhelpinfindingthemostrelevantdocuments[10-12].

Dozensofacademicsearchenginesexist.Somearefocusingonspecificdisciplinessuchascomputerscienceandsomearetryingtocoverseveralorevenalldisciplines.Forthefieldofcomputerscience,popularacademicdatabasesareSpringerlink,ACMDigitalLibraryandIEEEXploreaswellasScienceDirectandtosometimesEmeraldInsight（Wikipediaprovidesyouwithanextensivelistofavailableresources）.Allthesedatabasesrequireasubscriptiontoaccesstheircontent.Ifyouarelucky,youruniversityhasanagreementwiththesedatabasessoyoucanaccessalltheirarticlesforfree.Askyoursupervisororinyourlibrarywhichdatabasesyouhaveaccessto.FreealternativesareCiteSeerandSciPlorewhichprovideyoufreeaccesstomanyacademicarticles.GoogleScholarisaspecialcase:

Oftenyoucandownloadthelinkedcontentforfreebutnotalways.

Inthistutorialwewillfocussolelyonthemanagementofelectronicliterature.

StoringFilesinFolderStructures

MostacademicsearchenginesanddatabasesoffertodownloadscholarlyliteratureinPDFformat.Theprobablysimplestwaytostore（andretrieve）thesePDFsisareasonablestructuredfoldersystem.EachPDFcanbestoredinonefolderwhichislabeledwithanappropriatedescriptor.ItisusuallyhelpfultogiveameaningfulfilenametothePDFsuchasthearticle’stitle.Incasethatonedocumentfitsintotwoormorecategories,mostoperatingsystemsallowcreatingashortcutoraliasforafile（seepicure）.Somefeelthisapproachasbeingtoostructuredandprefertagging.

Possibility:

SavePDFsforyourPhDindifferentfolders

Tagging

Taggingallowsassigningmultiplekeywords（tags）toafileindependentlyofwherethefileisstored.Basedonthesetags,userscanretrievethefilesfromtheirharddrive.PopulartaggingtoolsforthedesktopareTag2Find,iTag,andPunakea.TherearealsoservicesallowingtotagandstoreacademicarticlesonlinesuchasConnotea,CiteULikeorBibsonomy.

However,fortheapproachwepresentinthistutorialwewillfocusondesktoptoolsand,moreimportantly,neitherfolderstructuresnortagsareimportantfortheapproachwepresent.Ofcourse,agoodfolderstructureneverharmsbutyoudonotreallyneedit.

StartingtoSearchandStoringFilesinOneflatFolder

InthebeginningofyourPhDyoushouldjustsearchforthemostrelevantkeywordsinacademicsearchenginesandstorewhateverpaperyougetonyourharddrive.IfyouwantedtodoaPhDaboutacademicsearchengines,itmightmakesensetostartdoingsomeresearchaboutGoogleScholar,oneoftheleadingacademicsearchengines.Let’sassumeyouhavefoundahandfullofinterestingPDFsandstoredtheminc:

\myliterature\（don’tspendtoomuchtimewithjudgingtherelevanceofaPDF.Ifthetitleorabstractsoundinteresting,storeit）.

YourfirstPDFsforwritingaPhDthesis

MemorizingaPDF’simportantinformation

Whatyoureallyneedtoknowasaresearcheris:

WherehaveIreadwhichinformation?

Foryourthesisitisworthlesstoknowsomethingbutnotwheretheinformationisfrom.Eventuallyyouwillhavetoreferencetheorigin（ideallywithpagenumber）.Asafirststept,PDFreadersareperfecttokeeptrackofaPDF’smostimportantinformation.YouneedaPDFreaderthatcancreatebookmarksandideallyhighlightpassagesandcreateannotations.IfyouhaveaccesstoAdobeAcrobatthat’sgreat（thefreeAcrobatReaderisnotsufficient）.OtherwisewewouldrecommendthefreeversionofFoxitReader.

Now,wheneveryoureadaninterestingPDFyoucreateabookmarkforeverystatementthatmightbeinterestingforyourPhDthesis.Wewouldalsosuggesthighlightingtheinterestingtextdirectlyinthedocument.Havealookatthepicture.

HighlightingimportantinformationforyourPhDthesis

ThisisthePDFofanarticletitled“AcademicSearchEngineOptimization（ASEO）:

OptimizingScholarlyLiteratureforGoogleScholarandCo.”.ItisabouthowtogetyourpapersindexedandwellrankedbyacademicsearchenginessuchasGoogleScholar.IfyouwriteyourPhDaboutacademicsearchenginesitmightbeinterestingtokeepinmindthatthispaperistheveryfirstpaperaboutacademicsearchengineoptimization.Andalsothedefinitionof“academicsearchengineoptimization”mightberelevantlaterforyourPhDthesis.Thereforeyoucreateabookmarkforeachofthisinformation（seethepicture）.

Itisuptoyouhowdetailedyoumakethebookmarkstructure.Intheverybeginningitmightbeappropriatetocreatejustonebookmarkthatbrieflydescribesthepaper（e.g.“firstpaperaboutacademicsearchengineoptimization”）.Ifyouneedmoreinformationyoucouldcomebacktothispaperlater.Itiseasytogetlostwithalltheinformationyouread.So,forthebeginning,really,createbookmarksonlyfortheveryimportantinformation.WhenfinishingreadingthefirstPDFyouproceedwiththeotherPDFsinthesameway.

ManaginginformationfromvariousPDFs

Inthelongrun,itisnotveryhelpfultohavetheinformationonlyinthePDFs.Hereiswheremindmappingjoinsthegame.Mindmapswere‘invented’byTonyBuzaninthe1970s[13].Am