In principle, there are two ways I source new papers. Both with advantages and disadvantages
Following the graph of papers
Take a paper that solves a problem directly or kind of. Read the related work and work on which the paper builds upon. Follow the references. They build a graph of papers. You can easily say from the context whether the papers are relevant or not.
This is a very efficient way of finding new relevant papers.
The problem is that this directed graph always points back in time and never forward. Therefore a big part of the whole graph of papers is not accessible to you. The latest research lies here, and you cannot find it this way.
Following the latest publication
Catching up with the latest publications is hard. In many ways. Where to find them? How to access them? How to handle the load of it?
I don't need most of the newly published scientific papers. Also, even they are in the right area and would help conventionally, I cannot distinguish if it is a dead-end. Nobody can. Science is a lot of trial and error. By checking the recent publications regularly, I get all of the trails, and most of them are errors or paths that nobody cares in the long run. In the graph-based solution, these are filtered out already.
But the most recent papers also include diamonds. And if I have an efficient way to find them brings enormous potential.
As always: It is the combination
Combining both leads to an excellent strategy. Following recent publications and trace the graph back from there ensures that I stay up to date and also get the papers from the past, which were good enough, that some other guy built its stuff on it.
Following the graph of papers
Take a paper that solves a problem directly or kind of. Read the related work and work on which the paper builds upon. Follow the references. They build a graph of papers. You can easily say from the context whether the papers are relevant or not.
This is a very efficient way of finding new relevant papers.
The problem is that this directed graph always points back in time and never forward. Therefore a big part of the whole graph of papers is not accessible to you. The latest research lies here, and you cannot find it this way.
Following the latest publication
Catching up with the latest publications is hard. In many ways. Where to find them? How to access them? How to handle the load of it?
I don't need most of the newly published scientific papers. Also, even they are in the right area and would help conventionally, I cannot distinguish if it is a dead-end. Nobody can. Science is a lot of trial and error. By checking the recent publications regularly, I get all of the trails, and most of them are errors or paths that nobody cares in the long run. In the graph-based solution, these are filtered out already.
But the most recent papers also include diamonds. And if I have an efficient way to find them brings enormous potential.
As always: It is the combination
Combining both leads to an excellent strategy. Following recent publications and trace the graph back from there ensures that I stay up to date and also get the papers from the past, which were good enough, that some other guy built its stuff on it.
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