See the large picture
- Search keyword + ‘survey/tutorial’ in google/google scholar. For example, if you want to work on zero-shot learning, search ‘zero-shot learning’ + ‘survey/tutorial’.
- Find recent survey/tutorial on top conference/journal or conjunct workshop. You need to know the list of top conferences/journals in the related field (e.g., computer vision, machine learning).
Know the state-of-the-art
- Search keyword in the most recent top conferences (e.g., CVPR2018). Journal is generally lagging behind the conference, so focus on conference papers. You collect the paper list and will have a sense whether this topic is popular or crowded (e.g., only 1 paper or more than 20 papers on one conference).
Summarize existing methods
- You need to collect a paper list. Initiate the paper list following Step 2. Read the related works in these papers and add them to the paper list. Repeat this procedure to enrich the paper list. Try to categorize the used methods in these papers based on certain taxonomy.