Salah satu dampak positif dari perkembangan teknologi adalah perubahan paradigma bahwa karya ilmiah harus terpublikasi seluas-luasnya. Artinya hasil-hasil penelitian harus berkualitas dan memiliki kebaruan (novelty) sehingga layak terbit di jurnal ilmiah bereputasi.

Dalam tradisi lama, penulisan karya ilmiah mengikuti IMRAD, yaitu :
1. Introduction / Pendahuluan (dilanjutkan Tinjauan Pustaka)
2. Methods / Metode
3. Results / Hasil
4. Discussion / Pembahasan (dilanjutkan Kesimpulan dan Daftar Pustaka)

Di banyak perguruan tinggi bereputasi di dunia, pola penulisan hasil penelitian (terutama disertasi) tidak lagi menganut sistematika tradisional, yang terdiri atas Pendahuluan, Tinjauan Pustaka, Metode, Hasil dan Pembahasan, Simpulan dan Saran, serta Daftar Pustaka.

Setidaknya ada empat ciri penulisan karya ilmiah dengan paradigma baru :
1. Ringkas dan Tidak Berkepanjangan
Tak lazim lagi ada perguruan tinggi yang menentukan jumlah halaman minimum karya ilmiah tugas akhir, yang ada justru adalah batasan maksimum jumlah kata. Masih lekat diingatan kita bahwa Tinjauan Pustaka tak ubahnya adalah kliping koran dan rawan plagiat. Duh! Prinsip hari ini : ringkas + bermutu adalah lebih baik daripada tebal dan penuh kutipan.

2. Hemat Sumber Daya
Karena ringkas maka hemat sumber daya, baik itu hemat kertas, hemat tinta, hingga hemat ruang simpan.

3. Wajib Disebarluaskan
Saat ini, luaran penelitian mahasiswa harus dipublikasikan bersama dengan dosen pembimbing, baik di jurnal ilmiah, maupun makalah yang dipresentasikan secara lisan atau poster dalam konferensi ilmiah. Article-based Dissertation pun sudah mulai populer di Indonesia, alih-alih harus berupa Monograph.

4. Dapat Diakses Internet
Ada plus dan minus terkait hal ini, bahwa akses informasi melalui internet sangat memudahkan dan mempercepat pencarian informasi. Namun, kecanggihan ini dapat disalahgunakan untuk memilih sumber acuan secara sembarang dan yang lebih buruk lagi adalah melakukan plagiat. Kita harus lebih berhati-hati dan bijak.

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Muhammad Fauzan
Sabtu, 11 Maret 2023 (12.08 WIB)

Ini adalah lanjutan dari tulisan sebelumnya, Developing Your Literature Review, oleh Lantsoght (2018) dalam bukunya The A-Z of the PhD Trajectory A Practical Guide for a Successful Journey.

From Literature Review (LR) to Research Question (RQ)

1. From LR to RQ
A. Identifying gaps in the knowledge
When you have read broadly and deeply in your field and tangentially related fields, you will start to see the open opportunities.

(Sumber gambar : Lantsoght [2018])

Your RQ is not something you write one morning after a God-sent dream. It’s the result of reading, thinking about what you read, and discussing these thoughts with your peers and supervisor.

It’s a highly iterative procedure, and often your RQ gets molded and shaped along your PhD trajectory.

While reading the literature, there are a number of different “empty spots” you can identify.

Here are a few examples to get your started :
(1) Case where the boundary conditions of the usually applied theories are not valid anymore
(2) In experimental work : parameters that have not been tested
(3) Applying methods from “field X” to problem in “field Y”
(4) Application of new materials and new technologies
(5) Computational analysis and simulation of physical phenomena

If you think you have an idea for your RQ, prepare “a short document” outlining the gaps you found in the literature, or the open options to explore that you identified from your LR.
(1) Briefly discuss the key references, and how you see your first idea of a RQ framed inside the literature.
(2) Have “something on paper” to discuss with your supervisor, and show him the main references on which you plan to base your work  ->  ini lebih baik dari sekedar “saya punya ide tentang a, b, c, d, … “  ->  harus ada “sufficient background and depth on the how and way of coming to your first idea of a RQ”

There are a number of “technical requirement” your RQ needs to fulfil, for it to actually be a RQ :
(1) Your RQ should be specific
(2) Your RQ should have its limits
(3) Your RQ should not show bias or an opinion

B. Self-Assessing your RQ
Use the following criteria:
(1) Originality
You have to develop work that has not been done before.
This does not mean you have to reinvent the wheel, but it means that you need to find your little corner of interest and knowledge in your field, and make a novel contribution inside that little corner.
(2) Practically
Do you have an idea og the methods that you want to use to investigate your RQ?
Are these methods possible from a practical point of view?
(3) Feasibility
Can you finish it within the required time?
(4) Ethics

C. Creative thinking
Scientific research is an extended endeavor of creativity. One the key elements to creative thinking is to learn to ask yourself questions. Questions are the best tool for actually pointing out a lack in our knowledge.

When carrying out your LR, it is important to ask yourself why certain assumptions are at the basis of a theory, and if this assumptions are always valid.

The reason why qustions are so quintessential to creative thinking:
(1) Mindset: open, inquirring mind, asking questions along the way, without feeling pressure to perform
(2) Breaking down a problem: pecah menjadi subquestions sehingga menjadi lebih spesifik. Start by solving your subquestion and use this information as building blocks to solve your main RQ
(3) Identifying key points: catat poin penting dan pelajari lebih dalam

Feynman bilang : “You don’t need the perfect conditions to do creative work.”
Here are the ingredients to create optimal conditions for creative work :
(1) Scheduled time: jadwalkan waktu kerjamu
(2) Comfort: suasana nyaman, bersih
(3) Mindset: keep that open and inquirring mind

Creativity is a skill. You are not born creative or not.

2. Putting Your RQ to Action
A. From RQ to Subquestions
Your subquestions identify the next actions you need to take. Each subquestion should be something for which you will select one method to solve it. A subquestion should not involve more than one method.

(Sumber gambar : Lantsoght [2018])

B. From Reseach Subquestions to Dissertation Chapters
Your main subquestions, which bring together a number of smaller questions and ideas of methods, become your “dissertation chapters”.

C. From Reseach Subquestions to Actions and Planning
Start with the first small question, and list all the actions you need to undertake to answer it.
Schedule time for these actions.

(Sumber gambar : Lantsoght [2018])

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Muhammad Fauzan
Selasa, 31 Januari 2023 (22.03 WIB)

Gimana sih memulai langkah untuk melakukan literature review?

Berikut tahapannya menurut Eva O.L. Lantsoght (2018) dalam bukunya The A-Z of the PhD Trajectory A Practical Guide for a Successful Journey.

Pertama. Browsing the Academic Literature

A. How to find references
Start to browse your research topik based on “keywords” in Scopus/Google Scholar. Another good starting point : a review paper written by an authority in your field.

There are no real shortcut to know which references are important.

Read a lot!!
Recent issues of important journal, classic papers, books and technical documents.

If you start with a limited understanding of the scholarly output in a certain field, and you start to do research on a topic, you risk building something on a poor foundation.

B. Reading broadly and deeply
You need to gain an understanding of your research topic in depth, so you should study the reference that are important in your field in a detailed way.

Important that you understand :
(A) The key publication in your filed, vs
(B) Papers require less of your mental space and focus

Six stages of reading : 1. The novice, 2. The apprentice, 3. The sponge, 4. The concluder, 5. The interrelater, 6. The mongrel. (Selengkapnya bisa dibaca disini).

Kedua. Processing References

A. Storing references
Once you have started to download, copy, print references, you need to think about how you will keep your references accessible and searchable. Having your data structured, easily searchable, and regularly backed up.

Physical copies : binders (sort alphabetically by first author)
Digital copies : folder, software (mendeley)

B. Engaging with the literature
Don’t sit down and read for months on end. Engange with the literature from the beginning.

1. Summary : write a short summary of the paper you read
2. Discussion of set of papers
3. Discussion of a certain parameter (variabel-variabel yang dipake ..)
4. List of questions to discuss with supervisor
5. Description of short calculation
6. Derivation of theory

By developing small document discussing papers, you are gradually shaping your final literature review report.

When the day comes to start writing your literature review, you won’t be staring at a blinking cursor on a white screen, but you will have material available that you rearrange and interconnect to develop your full literature review report.

Ketiga. Finalizing Your Literature

A. When have you read enough?
Akan ada waktunya kita bertanya, “When am I done with reading?”.
Rephrase menjadi “When am I ready to write my literature review?”

Once you have reached : The Interrelater, you are in the right mindset to see the connections between the publication you have analyzed.

You move away from writing summaries of papers separately, and you move towards writing pieces that bring together a number of references -> You have enough material to bring it all together and write your literature review.

Another indicator :
(A) when you feel confident you have covered all the important references,
(B) when you read a new article : you find yourself nodding in agreement vs frowning in disagreement

B. Bringing everything together
When you feel ready to bring everything together, decide how you want to outline your literature review -> by theme/topic, subtopic

C. Keeping track of the literature after finishing the literature review
(A) Subscribe to updates of your favorite journal
(B) Follow your favorite researcher
(C) Google scholar recommendations
(D) Attend conferences
(E) Don’t forget to explore the history
(F) Don’t just pile, Read!
(G) Volunteer as a reviewer

Keempat. The next step : Turning your literature review into a dissertation chapter and journal paper

A. …… into a Dissertation Chapter (Big book PhD thesis)
The challenge lies in taking your information from the literature review report, and condensing it into an overview of 10-20 pages

B. …… into a Journal Paper
I would not recommend that the first paper you write is a review paper!

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Muhammad Fauzan
Selasa, 31 Januari 2023 (11.30 WIB)