Reverse Literature Review with Sourcely

Dear Scholar,

A literature review usually starts with finding relevant papers and reading them to write your manuscript. However, sometimes the reverse can be more powerful: Write up ideas first before searching for relevant literature. This week's newsletter shows you how to do this with sourcely and its freshly released deep search capabilities.

But why, you might ask?

In my own research, I have come up with a few examples when this workflow is handy:

1. Identify relevant findings: You have analysed your data, found some results, and written up a paragraph or two. Now Sourcely's reverse lit review can find other works that found similar results(based on the paragraph you've written), allowing you to gauge which findings are the most impactful and helping you write a discussion.
2. Find new developments in your field: You are writing a paper that deals with the same topics you have written about in previous papers a few years back. Naturally, you will repurpose parts of your introduction and discussion, but you want to add the newest development. Use Sourcely to find relevant literature that is newer than your previous paper.
3. Identify good ideas: You have a few ideas and are unsure if someone has already worked on them. Write them up in a sloppy paragraph or two and run a deep search to find papers dealing with similar topics.

This article explores more use cases where a reverse literature review (write first, find references later) is beneficial. It explains how to use Sourcely, its strengths and weaknesses, and presents the newest update, which brought deep searches to sourcely.

Use the discount codes Effortless40 and Effortless20 for a 40% annual or 20% monthly discount for Sourcely, if you like the tool.

Testers for New Course: Literature Review With AI

I have just finished recording the most comprehensive course on literature reviews with AI, featuring in-depth videos on workflows that powerfully combine numerous tools to aid every part of the literature review process.

Whether you are a seasoned researcher looking to speed up and deepen your literature review or a first-year Master's student trying to tackle your very first literature review, this course will make it easier.

I am looking for a few testers who would be willing to work through the material quickly and provide some feedback on improving the course for everyone else. You'd get access for free. If you're interested, please fill out the form below and let me know.

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Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

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Ilya Shabanov, The Effortless Academic