VU computer science students are required to perform a literature study course (X_405111) in an area of their choosing. This work is an important exercise in building a skill set for understanding an area of research by searching papers, summarizing them, connecting the dots between different papers, building an overarching narrative, and writing scientific documents. However, due to the open nature of the work, it is challenging to find a way to start the work. I often find myself giving the same advice to multiple students. Here is my attempt to summarize these points.

Lastly, here are the evaluation criteria for your survey:

Computer Science is a fast moving field. Hence, good surveys are the closest reading material we have for the textbooks. A good survey from you will be publishable and perhaps used in courses.

Having said all of this, I am curious to hear your opinion about the process. Feel free to discuss with me what works and does not work for you, or if you have a different way of approaching survey work.

Good luck with the work!

Further reading:

  1. ACM regularly publishes a series of high quality surveys that you can check for their motivations, structures, writing styles: https://dl.acm.org/journal/csur.

  2. Also check out the “Useful links” section for scientific writing, and dos and don’ts in writing.


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