Literature Matrix

Copy to notes/literature-matrix.md. Build this once you have about fifteen paper notes.

Choosing the columns is the intellectual work. Pick the three to five dimensions along which your subfield actually varies — not generic ones like "year" or "venue". Choose them so that your gap appears as an empty region of the table.

This table usually becomes the highest-value element in your related-work chapter and a good defense slide.

Dimensions I am comparing along

Why these dimensions: (one or two sentences — this justifies the framing of your whole related-work chapter)

The matrix

Replace the column headers. The example headers below suit a learned-scheduling thesis; yours will differ.

Include a This thesis row. It makes your positioning visible at a glance.

The gap, stated from the table

One paragraph. Which region of this table is empty, and why does it matter that it is empty?

Then name the closest two or three papers and state precisely how your work differs from each. Be fair — overclaiming novelty against a paper whose author may be on your committee is a bad outcome, and the honest version is stronger anyway.

• Closest: citekey — differs in that:
• Second closest: citekey — differs in that:

Thematic groups for the chapter

Related work is an argument, not a list. Group the papers, and for each group write the shared limitation that motivates your work.

Group A — (name the approach): papers x, y, z. Shared limitation:

Group B — (name the approach): papers p, q. Shared limitation:

Group C — (name the approach): papers r, s. Shared limitation: