what is state of art in thesis

State of the Art (SoTA)

by Bastis Consultores | May 13, 2021 | Thesis Development | 0 comments

The State of the Art (SoTA) is a step to demonstrate the novelty of your research results. The importance of being the first to demonstrate research results is a cornerstone of the research business. You cannot get a Nobel prize (ever again) by learning einstein’s law of the photoelectric effect by heart and presenting it as your own. Einstein did it before you, and everyone knows it because he published it. When Einstein published his theory the theory was new. Einstein was able to prove the novelty of his theory by presenting a SoTA and showing that no other researcher had ever presented such results.

What is the State of the Art?

A state of the art is the identification of prior knowledge to avoid reinventing. Performing a state of the art allows to verify or justify that a new knowledge is produced, for a doctoral thesis or the filing of a patent, for example. The state of the art usually also includes the identification of the actors – academic or industrial – that are at the origin of knowledge: the “ecosystem”.

Better, this ecosystem can be questioned to complete and reinforce the state of the art. This is where open innovation comes in. Especially since the data mining and classification algorithms of the Open Innovation platforms allow to accelerate the research tasks of publications and actors that are often tedious. Let’s dig into an example of state-of-the-art.

Important Properties of SoTA

In addition to demonstrating the novelty of your research results, a SoTA, according to Páramo (2013), has other important properties:

It teaches you a lot about your research problem. By reading the literature related to your research problem, you will learn from other researchers and find it easier to understand and analyze your problem.

Show that your research problem is relevant. If many people are trying to solve the same research problem as you, and if you can prove it in your SoTA, then no one will be able to tell you that the problem you are trying to solve is not important.

It shows different approaches to a solution. By seeing the different approaches adopted by other researchers, you can easily evaluate your own approach and realize its novelty (or lack thereof). You can also see which approaches are the most popular and which are dead ends.

It shows what you can reuse from what others have done. Especially when you do research on a new software, it’s amazing how many people have made exactly the software you’re planning to make. Just do a search on sourceforge and github.

How to write a good SoTA?

Writing a good SoTA depends 110% on having a clear definition of the problem. Létourneau and Amaya (2007), explain that if you have not defined your problem clearly, you will not be able to write a good SoTA. The reason is that you won’t know what related research you need to investigate. Therefore, if you have problems with your working document, rework on defining your problem. Here are some steps/tips to get started writing:

The SoTA is not a one-way road. You won’t sit down one afternoon to write your SoTA. You’ll do it all the time while you’re writing your document/report. Knowing what other researchers are doing should be part of your life throughout the research. So an important step is to create a system of recording and summarizing what you read. Use some bibliography software like Mendeley, BibTeX or EndNode or Zotero, record everything you read and record your understanding of what you read, in your own words.

Be critical when choosing your bibliography. Don’t read everything. There’s a lot of junk on the net, and you won’t want to waste your time on it. An important criterion in choosing the bibliography is to ensure that it is peer-reviewed and has already been presented/published in renowned conferences/journals. When it comes to IT-related technical material, ACM and IEEE are good places to start (search Engineering Village). It’s also a good idea to establish an initial list of SoTA literature together with your thesis supervisor.

SoTA Examples

Here’s an example of state of the art using Open Innovation. We can ask ourselves the following questions: How to get a state of the art How to perform a state of the art? and How can Open Innovation help? Some simple answers below.

For this state-of-the-art example, let’s take a real case dealt with by an industrial company: the problem of fallen leaves on train tracks in the fall. Dead leaves cause a loss of adhesion between the rails and wheels of trains, in particular due to the transformation of the leaves as trains pass. The transformed material causes a loss of adhesion between the wheel and the rail that forces the braking distances to be lengthened and, therefore, disturbs the rhythm of the trains.

In this case study, discover how Alstom™ was able to apply open innovation in the rail sector to solve a century-old problem using the ideXlab platform.

In fact, the dead leaves cause a loss of adhesion between the rails and the wheels of the trains, mainly due to the transformation of the leaves as the trains pass. The transformed material causes a loss of adhesion between the wheel and the rail that lengthens the braking distances. This phenomenon, which alters the timetable of trains, causes delays and other inconvenience to passengers and economic losses to operators.

Get started with scientific publications

The prior art will consist of multiple queries using a search engine. We recommend starting with an investigation of scientific publications (which are usually richer and more explicit than patent sources). In our example, this scan begins with a combination of keywords such as “wheel,” “rail,” “leaves,” “adhesion,” which will return posts on these topics. Interesting publications are saved.

Identify keywords and draw a mind map

The first results of these consultations will also allow to identify other useful keywords to deepen the topic: “friction”, “adhesion enhancer”, “adhesion coefficient”, and will gradually raise research topics that we will have to structure (we recommend using a mental map): ways to restore adhesion, study of the “black layer” that is formed when the wheels crush the fallen leaves , cleaning techniques of the layers of leaves (by laser heating, by projection of substances, by air jet, etc.). ) As consultations progress, knowledge is deepened, structured, new publications are saved and added in the right place on the mind map.

Finding interesting patents

In a second step, the most interesting queries are exploited with patent data sources. Also, in addition to identifying interesting patents in the field, they help to better understand the ecosystem. In our case, a very rich university (and, to a lesser extent, industrial) ecosystem has appeared in Europe (Great Britain, Germany, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Italy, …), in Asia (China, South Korea, Japan) and in North America (United States, Canada).

Contact with experts: a specific approach

Finally, to complete the state of the art, the industrial company decided to contact a number of university groups. It has the advantage of offering the possibility of talking to specialists in the field who can update the state of the art with the most recent and even unpublished data from the research. Even through a conversation of less than an hour, it is possible to identify important points or project into the future, which a purely bibliographic search allows only in a very limited way. It’s like going to an annual conference and interviewing the world’s most famous experts!

Contacting experts: asking the right questions

One final point. In any case, before contacting an expert to perfect a state of the art, you have to ask yourself “why would I spend time on my subject?”. In our case on dead leaves, a large company was at the origin of the question and many experts are interested in a dialogue that can lead to collaboration. But there are other possible options: a simple exchange of information, the possibility of launching a joint project, remuneration, etc.

General recommendations

Masías (2008), presents below the following general recommendations.

Stop reading. Make an initial selection of bibliography (10-20 articles, depending on the research problem) and limit yourself to it for a while. Don’t keep looking for new articles all the time, or you’ll never finish your thesis.

Spend time analyzing and not summarizing. A mere summary of 10-20 articles is not a SoTA. There are computer programs that can summarize any article for you, automatically and much faster than you can. Your summaries become a SoTA only when you relate the SoTA documents to your own analysis of the problem.

You always have to give credit! Not giving credence to the research of others is also called plagiarism.

For the most advanced writers: It is always a good practice to document your methodology for making the study of the state of the art. This means that you must document how you searched for literature, which literature you included and which you excluded, how you did your analysis, etc.

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You may also be interested in: Justification of the Investigation

Bibliographic References

Masías Núñez, R. (2008). Grave words, rebellious words: lexicon of social science research. Bogotá: Universidad de Los Andes, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Departamento de Ciencia Política, CESO, Ediciones Uniandes.

Létourneau, J., & Amaya, J. A. (2007). The toolbox of the young researcher: a guide to intellectual work. Medellín: La Carreta Editores.

Páramo Bernal, P. F. (2013). Research in social sciences: epistemological discussions. Bogotá: Universidad Piloto de Colombia.

State of the Art (SoTA). Photo: Unsplash. Credits: Stephanie Hau @stephiime

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Why and how to write the state-of-the-art.

State-of-the-art (SoTA) is a step to demonstrate the novelty of your research results. The importance of being the first to demonstrate research results is a cornerstone of the research business. You cannot get a Nobel prize (anymore) by learning Einstein ‘s law of photoelectric effect by heart and presenting it as your own. Einstein did it before you, and everyone knows it because he published it. When Einstein published his theory the theory had novelty. Einstein could demonstrate his theory’s novelty by presenting a SoTA and showing that no other researcher had ever presented such results. That’s why he got a Nobel prize and you will not.

Besides demonstrating the novelty of your research results, a SoTA has other important properties:

• It teaches you a lot about your research problem. By reading literature related to your research problem you will learn from other researchers and it will be easier for you to understand and analyze your problem.
• It proves that your research problem has relevance. If many people are trying to solve the same research problem as you, and if you can demonstrate this in your SoTA, then no one can tell you the problem you are trying to solve is not important.
• It shows different approaches to a solution. By seeing many different approaches taken by other researchers, you can evaluate your own approach and realize its novelty (or lack of it) easily. You can also see which approaches are the most popular and which are dead ends.
• It shows what you can reuse from what others have done. Especially when doing research on new software, it is amazing how many people have made the exact software you are planning to make. Just do a search on sourceforge and github .

So how to write a good SoTA? Writing a good SoTA is 110% dependent on having a clear problem definition . If you have failed in defining your problem clearly, you will fail in writing a good SoTA. The reason is that you will not know what related research you should investigate. So if you have problems with your SoTA, please go back and work on your problem definition! Here are some steps/hints on starting to write:

• SoTA is not a one-way road. You will not sit down one evening and write your SoTA. You will do it all the time while writing your paper/report. Knowing what other researchers are doing should be a part of your life for all the duration of your research. So an important step is to create a system of registering and summarizing what you read. Use some bibliography software such as Mendeley , BibTeX or EndNode or Zotero , register everything you read, and register your understanding of what you read, in your own words.
• Be critical when choosing your literature. Don’t read everything. There is a LOT of garbage out there on the web, and you don’t want to waste your time on garbage. One important criteria for choosing your literature is to make sure that it is peer-reviewed and is already presented/published in well-known conferences/journals. In case of technical IT-related stuff, ACM and IEEE are good places to start (do searches in Engineering Village ). It is also a good idea to set up an initial SoTA literature list together with your supervisor.
• Stop reading! Make an initial selection of literature (10-20 papers, depending on research problem) and stick to these for a while. Don’t go on finding new papers all the time, or you will never finish your thesis!
• Spend time on analysis and not on making summaries! A mere summary of 10-20 papers is not a SoTA. There is software out there that can summarize any paper for you, automatically and much faster than you ever will be able to. Your summaries become a SoTA only when you relate the SoTA papers to your own problem analysis.
• Always give credit! Not giving credit for others’ research is also called plagiarism .
• For more advanced writers: It is always a good practice to document your methodology for doing state-of-the-art survey. This means you should document how you searched for literature, what literature you included and what you excluded, how you did your analysis and so forth. This is called systematic review, and a de facto guide for doing systematic reviews in the field of software engineering is available here . You can also find many useful links on wikipedia .

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Background/state of the art, background/state of the art.

The background section of the project description must account for the scientific and theoretical framework of the project. Rather than providing an exhaustive description of your entire field of research, you should focus on presenting the information needed to understand your project and situate it in a relevant context.

For this reason, you should also clarify what remains to be understood/done in your field. In other words, you should point out ‘holes’ in existing knowledge – and demonstrate that the aim of your project is precisely to fill these holes.

This section must:

• outline the current state of knowledge within your research field (‘state-of-the-art’) with an emphasis on how your project can fill a hole in the existing research
• demonstrate the scientific rationale for carrying out the project
• if possible, present arguments in support of the project being carried out at this particular time
• if possible, draw attention to your previous contributions to the research field
• maintain a clear and coherent connection to the project’s objectives and perspectives.

Thesis Statements

What this handout is about.

This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can craft or refine one for your draft.

Introduction

Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement:

• tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.
• is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.
• directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.
• makes a claim that others might dispute.
• is usually a single sentence near the beginning of your paper (most often, at the end of the first paragraph) that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

If your assignment asks you to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you may need to convey that position or claim in a thesis statement near the beginning of your draft. The assignment may not explicitly state that you need a thesis statement because your instructor may assume you will include one. When in doubt, ask your instructor if the assignment requires a thesis statement. When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate cause and effect, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a thesis and to support it persuasively. (Check out our handout on understanding assignments for more information.)

How do I create a thesis?

A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a “working thesis” that presents a basic or main idea and an argument that you think you can support with evidence. Both the argument and your thesis are likely to need adjustment along the way.

Writers use all kinds of techniques to stimulate their thinking and to help them clarify relationships or comprehend the broader significance of a topic and arrive at a thesis statement. For more ideas on how to get started, see our handout on brainstorming .

How do I know if my thesis is strong?

If there’s time, run it by your instructor or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get some feedback. Even if you do not have time to get advice elsewhere, you can do some thesis evaluation of your own. When reviewing your first draft and its working thesis, ask yourself the following :

• Do I answer the question? Re-reading the question prompt after constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question. If the prompt isn’t phrased as a question, try to rephrase it. For example, “Discuss the effect of X on Y” can be rephrased as “What is the effect of X on Y?”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it’s possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like “good” or “successful,” see if you could be more specific: why is something “good”; what specifically makes something “successful”?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? If a reader’s first response is likely to  be “So what?” then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.
• Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering? If your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change. It’s okay to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of writing your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? If a reader’s first response is “how?” or “why?” your thesis may be too open-ended and lack guidance for the reader. See what you can add to give the reader a better take on your position right from the beginning.

Suppose you are taking a course on contemporary communication, and the instructor hands out the following essay assignment: “Discuss the impact of social media on public awareness.” Looking back at your notes, you might start with this working thesis:

Social media impacts public awareness in both positive and negative ways.

You can use the questions above to help you revise this general statement into a stronger thesis.

• Do I answer the question? You can analyze this if you rephrase “discuss the impact” as “what is the impact?” This way, you can see that you’ve answered the question only very generally with the vague “positive and negative ways.”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not likely. Only people who maintain that social media has a solely positive or solely negative impact could disagree.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? No. What are the positive effects? What are the negative effects?
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? No. Why are they positive? How are they positive? What are their causes? Why are they negative? How are they negative? What are their causes?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? No. Why should anyone care about the positive and/or negative impact of social media?

After thinking about your answers to these questions, you decide to focus on the one impact you feel strongly about and have strong evidence for:

Because not every voice on social media is reliable, people have become much more critical consumers of information, and thus, more informed voters.

This version is a much stronger thesis! It answers the question, takes a specific position that others can challenge, and it gives a sense of why it matters.

Let’s try another. Suppose your literature professor hands out the following assignment in a class on the American novel: Write an analysis of some aspect of Mark Twain’s novel Huckleberry Finn. “This will be easy,” you think. “I loved Huckleberry Finn!” You grab a pad of paper and write:

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.

You begin to analyze your thesis:

• Do I answer the question? No. The prompt asks you to analyze some aspect of the novel. Your working thesis is a statement of general appreciation for the entire novel.

Think about aspects of the novel that are important to its structure or meaning—for example, the role of storytelling, the contrasting scenes between the shore and the river, or the relationships between adults and children. Now you write:

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore.

• Do I answer the question? Yes!
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not really. This contrast is well-known and accepted.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? It’s getting there–you have highlighted an important aspect of the novel for investigation. However, it’s still not clear what your analysis will reveal.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? Not yet. Compare scenes from the book and see what you discover. Free write, make lists, jot down Huck’s actions and reactions and anything else that seems interesting.
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? What’s the point of this contrast? What does it signify?”

After examining the evidence and considering your own insights, you write:

Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave “civilized” society and go back to nature.

This final thesis statement presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an analysis of its content. Of course, for the essay itself to be successful, you must now present evidence from the novel that will convince the reader of your interpretation.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers , 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 2018. The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing , 8th ed. New York: Pearson.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. 2010. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers , 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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How do I define the state of research for my dissertation?

The state of research is very important in a dissertation. You can only find the research gap if you already know what you want to know. Without this gap, you will not receive a doctorate. But how do I find out what we already know? With a proven scheme.

What is the state of research, anyway?

This is a systematic overview of previous findings on a specific topic, question or object of investigation. The overview is either a table, a full text or both.

Why input do I need for the research status?

You will need the information from the state of research for these phases of the thesis:

• for the introduction (short study overview),
• to deduce the research gap,
• for consultation on the subject and the procedure,
• in the colloquium, to describe the research gap,
• for defending your findings at the end of the thesis.
• to define your own research design with methods, samples and procedures.

What exactly should I look for when I determine the state of research?

You are looking for scientific studies (papers) on your topic. The aim is to provide an overview of the following contents in these studies:

• they examine models and factors,
• the data basis (the so-called sample),
• the respective methodology of the investigation,
• the results of the analyses and their interpretation,
• the outstanding issues.

When, where and how do I start compiling the state of research?

You start with it on your first day of work! You need related studies quickly.

• Define your most important keywords. Look at the terms of the first studies.
• Familiarize yourself with the criteria for evaluating scientific sources.
• Search for the best articles and papers in the best catalogs for scientific studies.
• Limit the time you give yourself to search to 2 hours at a time, otherwise you will lose days
• Find the studies that best match your search terms.
• Don't read into the articles, just read the abstracts first.
• You need a list of relevant articles as soon as possible.
• Be selective and evaluate fewer studies at the beginning. That sounds paradoxical but when you include studies on less relevant issues, you carry these less important questions around with you for far too long. They only end up taking up your time.

How can I recognize that my research status is "complete"?

Complete means that you will not find any other scientific sources on a specific topic. You can see this from the fact that well-known papers are repeatedly quoted in later studies.

By the way, you will also notice it very quickly based on the source list of the article that is closest to your topic and most current (because such an article will list all the important sources).

How do I present the state of research in the text and at what point?

This is a separate longer main chapter in the monograph. This chapter follows a certain structure.

A table is also welcome. This will make previous research on the topic transparent. This so-called Review Matrix follows a certain structure and can be downloaded in the Dissertation Guide.

In the case of article-based dissertations, the state of research is presented only very briefly. Actually only the authors and their questions are listed. The interested reader must then find the details himself.

How do I work with the research status?

• I define and operationalize the research gap in my own thesis.
• With the state of research I classify my own project into the research area and make my supervisors happy.
• I use the same terms as the authors of the studies and build on the appropriate models of the evaluated studies.
• The methods and data samples of the studies give me orientation for my own choice of methods and samples.
• In the end, I classify my own findings into the state of research chapter. Discussion and Conclusion.

How long will it take to determine the state of research?

At the beginning of the dissertation, this will take about 3-4 weeks but then you have the most important 20-30 studies on the topic. After that you will always find new studies to add to the chapter with the state of research.

Compile the state of research according to the plan using the instructions and templates in the PhD-Guide. A thorough survey of previous findings will make the path to the finished dissertation much easier. You will finish faster and receive a better grade.

We wish you success with your dissertation! Silvio and the Aristolo Team PS: Check out the PhD Guide for writing a PhD in 200 days .