Development of a working title for research work

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1 Parameters to create a working title: RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING Development of a working title for research work Focus the subject and scope of study Summarize main idea Avoid using abbreviations, Use words that stimulate reader interest, Identify key variables, both dependent and independent, Is limited to 10 to 15 substantive words, Titles are usually in the form of a phrase, but can also be in the form of a question. 1

2 Strategy for developing a research topic Background research Concepts/Thinking Develop a research question What's your general approach to the topic? Start doing some exploratory, in-depth research. 2

3 Consider the scope of your topic Too Narrow: History of organic labelling of meat products in the city of Portland 3

4 Research Proposal Designing Research Proposal It is a written document that describes the topic, problem, design and methodologies to be adopted to conduct the proposed research. Why Research Proposal Required 4

5 Research Problem Statement A section of the introduction that indicates the problem to be discussed and also describes the proposed solution. Problem statements lead the reader from a shared context to the perception of a problem, and on to a proposed solution. 5

6 Problem Statement: An Example from Nano Biotechnology The properties of water at the nanoscale are crucial in many areas of biology, but the confinement of water molecules in sub-nanometer channels in biological systems has received relatively little attention Advances in nanotechnology make it possible to explore the role played by water molecules in living systems, potentially leading to the development of ultrasensitive biosensors. perception of a problem, and proposed solution.

7 Purpose Statement in Research proposal 7

8 Structure of Research Proposal RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING 1. Title 2. Background 3. Problem Statement 4. Purpose Statement 5. Time-Span 6. Research Design 7. Methodology 8. Significance 9. Bibliography 10. Ethical Statement 8

9 Writing Exercise 2 Class Activity 9

10 Assignment Develop a working title, problem statement and purpose statement for you research proposal 10

11 Problem Statement: An Example from Plant Biotechnology Plant origin defense proteins are vital to combat stress situations, but a little knowledge is there for deep insight to understand the multiple stress regulatory network Advancements in genetic engineering has made it possible to develop transgenic crops having resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses. Shared context perception of a problem, and proposed solution. 11

12 Literature Review Sometimes the literature review is incorporated into the introduction section. However, most often it is a separate section, which allows a more thorough review of the literature. 12

13 Pattern of literature review A general organization looks like an inverted triangle Broader topics Subtopics Studies like yours 13

14 A Good Literature Review is: Focused Concise Logical Developed Integrative Current 14

15 Steps to conduct Literature Review 15

16 Sources of Literature Review 1. Primary Sources 2. Secondary Sources 3. Tertiary Sources 16

17 Sources of Literature Review 1. Primary Sources RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING A primary source provides direct or first hand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches, and art objects. Interviews, surveys, fieldwork, and Internet communications via , blogs, and newsgroups are also primary sources. In the natural and social sciences, primary sources are often empirical studies research where an experiment was performed or a direct observation was made. The results of empirical studies are typically found in scholarly articles or papers delivered at conferences. 17

18 Sources of Literature Review 2. Secondary Sources RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING Secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, evaluate, summarize, and process primary sources. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that discuss or evaluate someone else's original research. 18

19 Sources of Literature Review 3. Tertiary Sources RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING Tertiary sources consist of information which is a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources. They present summaries of or an introduction to the current state of research on a topic, summarize or condense information from primary and secondary sources, or provide a list of primary and secondary sources of more extensive information. 19

20 Sources of Literature Review: Examples Primary Sources Secondary Sources Tertiary Sources Letters/corresponde nce, Diaries, Memoirs, Autobiographies, official or research reports, Empirical research articles. Academic journal articles Conference proceedings, Books (monographs or chapters books), Documentaries. Almanacs; Dictionaries and Encyclopedias Directories; Fact books; Guidebooks; Indexes, abstracts, bibliographies used to locate primary and secondary sources; Manuals; Textbooks 20

21 The literature review serves several important functions Ensures that you are not "reinventing the wheel". Gives credits to those who have laid the groundwork for your research. Demonstrates your knowledge of the research problem. RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING Demonstrates your understanding of the theoretical and research issues related to your research question. Shows your ability to critically evaluate relevant literature information. Indicates your ability to integrate and synthesize the existing literature. Provides new theoretical insights or develops a new model as the conceptual framework for your research. Convinces your reader that your proposed research will make a significant and substantial contribution to the literature (i.e., resolving an important theoretical issue or filling a major gap in the literature). 21

22 Online Resources for Literature Bibliographic Searching The Bibliographic Search allows you to search bibliographic entries of reference works that were used to compile the Biographical Archives. You can search for bibliographies based on one or all of the following characteristics Keyword Short Title Author Title Series Place of Publication Publisher Publication Year Archive Document ID 22

23 Online Resources for Literature RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING Bibliographic Searching.Cont. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of that person or organization. In general, archives consist of records that have been selected for permanent or long-term preservation on grounds of their enduring cultural, historical, or evidentiary value. Archival records are normally unpublished and almost always unique, unlike books or magazines for which many identical copies exist. This means that archives are quite distinct from libraries with regard to their functions and organization, although archival collections can often be found within library buildings. 23

24 Data Archiving Data archiving is the process of moving data that is no longer actively used to a separate storage device for long-term retention. Archive data consists of older data that is still important to the organization and may be needed for future reference. Data archives are indexed and have search capabilities so files and parts of files can be easily located and retrieved. Data archives are often confused with data backups, which are copies of data. Data backups are used as a data recovery mechanism that can be used to restore data in the event it is corrupted or destroyed. In contrast, data archives protect older information that is not needed for everyday operations but may have to be accessed occasionally. The data archives serve as a way of reducing primary storage consumption and related costs, rather than acting as a data recovery mechanism. Some data archives treat archive data as read-only to protect it from modification, while other data archiving products treat data as read / write. Data archiving is most suitable for data that must be retained due to operational or regulatory requirements, such as document files, messages and possibly old database records. 24

25 Data archiving benefits The greatest benefit of archiving data is that it reduces the cost of primary storage. Primary storage is typically expensive because a storage array must produce a sufficient level to meet operational requirements for user read / write activity. In contrast, archive storage costs less because it is typically based on a low-performance, high-capacity storage medium. Archive storage also reduces the volume of data that must be backed up. Removing infrequently accessed data from the backup data set improves backup and restore performance, and lowers secondary storage costs. 25

26 Online Resources for Literature Bibliographic Searching Cont.. Points to consider Important to remember that although each database covers thousands of journal titles, no single database is ever complete. If you are having difficulty finding material on a topic use the keywords you find in any relevant reference and search again. Take time to explore the various available databases. 26

27 Examples: Scopus Web of Knowledge BioOne FSTA- Food Science and Technology Abstracts Global Health Google Scholar MedlinePlus PubMed SpringerLink SciELO RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING Online databases and search engines for Biosciences 27

28 Online databases and search engines..cont.. RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING 28

29 Online databases and search engines..cont.. RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING 29

30 Online databases and search engines..cont.. Web of Science Result Page RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING Re-order your results Your search strategy and results display here Citation information on right hand side Standardised button for Full Text/library holdings 30

31 Online databases and search engines..cont.. RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING Partnership with Google Scholar View record in Google Scholar with link to Full Text (subscription required) Click on Times Cited number to view the WOS Citing Articles. The user must be within institution IP range 31

32 SciELO RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING SciELO Citation Index 32

33 Online databases and search engines..cont.. SciELO Citation Index SciELO Subject Categories Agricultural Sciences Applied Social Sciences Biological Sciences Engineering Exact and Earth Sciences Health Sciences Human Sciences Linguistics, Letters and Arts Mathematics Physics Social Sciences RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING 33

34 Online databases and search engines..cont.. RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING SciELO on Web of Science Select SciELO from database list 34

35 Online databases and search engines..cont.. RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING Enter query in English, Spanish or Portuguese SciELO search fields Change interface language to Spanish or Portuguese 35

36 Online databases and search engines..cont.. RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING SciELO Summary Results English and native language title displays Refine results by SciELO fields 36

37 Six Steps to Write Literature Review Step One: Define the area you will be studying. Before you begin to search for articles or books, decide beforehand what areas you are going to research. Make sure that you only get articles and books in that area, even if you come across fascinating books in other areas. Step Two: Gather the literature. Conduct a comprehensive bibliographic search of books and articles in your area. Read the abstracts online and download and print those articles that pertain to your area of research. Find books in the library that are relevant and check them out. Step Three: Find relevant citations/selections. Scan the contents of each book and article and look for these five things: 1) Claims, conclusions and findings about the hypothesis you are investigating 2) Definitions of terms 3) Calls for follow-up studies relevant to your project 4) Gaps you notice in the literature 5) Disagreement about the concepts you are investigating 37

38 Six Steps to Write Literature Review Cont When you find any of these five things, type the relevant excerpt directly into a Word document. Make sure to note the name of the author and the page number following the passage. Do this for each article and book that you have in your stack of literature. When you are done, print out the document. Step Four: Code the literature.. Now, sort the material covering similar topics under one code. Figure out what the main themes are and place the notes each into a pile. Make sure that each note goes into a pile. If there are excerpts that you can t figure out where they belong, separate those and go over them again at the end to see if you need new categories. When you finish, place each stack of notes into an envelope labeled with the name of the theme or topic. 38

39 Six Steps to Write Literature Review Cont Step Five: Create your conceptual schema. Go to your computer and type, in large font, the name of each of your coded themes. Print this out, and cut the themes into separate paper. Are there ideas that go together or that are in dialogue with each other? Are there ideas that contradict each other? Write the conceptual schema down before you forget. Step Six: Write it up in you own words the studies related to your field of research. To reduce writing plagiarism as much as possible. Choose any section of your conceptual schema to begin with. Figure out a mini-conceptual schema based on that theme by grouping together those excerpts that say the same thing. Use that mini-conceptual schema to write up your literature review based on the excerpts that you have in front of you. Don t forget to include the citations as you write, so as not to lose track of who said what. Repeat this for each section of your literature review. 39

40 How to write references? Book Journal Online document

41 Format for Citing Books References Author, A. (year). Title of book (edition if not first). City: Publisher. Book by a single author Jhon, C.B. (1992). Management on the world heath crisis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 41

42 Format for Citing Books References Author, A., and Author, B. (year). Title of book (edition if not first). City: Publisher. Book by more than one author Munir, F., and Khan, S. (2007). The Plant Biology (2 nd ed). London: McMunster Publishing. 42

43 Format for Citing Journal References Journal Article Author, A., Author, B. (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number (issue number), page numbers. Neill, S., Desikan, R. and Hancock, J.T. (2003) Nitric oxide signalling in plants. New Phytologist. 159, Lane, B.G. (2002) Oxalate, germins, and higher-plant pathogens. IUBMB Life, 53,

44 Format for Citing Electronic References Referencing Electronic Sources Author, A. (year, month day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. Retrieved from home page web address Nader, C. (2011, June 19). Mental health problems. The Age. Retrieved from

45 Citation of References in Text How to cite the given reference in text of manuscript? RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING Munir F, Naqvi S. M. S, Mahmood T (2013). In vitro and in silico characterization of Solanum lycopersicum wound inducible proteinase inhibitor-ii gene. Turkish Journal of Biology 37: Citation in manuscript literature review or discussion part will be as follows If writing as In this report Munir et al. (2013) found the activity of pine germin-like gene (PcGER1) promoter during cell growth in transgenic tobacco bright yellow 2 cell suspensions. The activity of pine germin-like gene (PcGER1) promoter during cell growth in transgenic tobacco bright yellow 2 cell suspensions was studied (Munir et al. 2013). 45

46 Citation of References in Text When combining the information from different related articles : The homeostasis of PAs in plants correlates with several important physiological functions, including the control of the N:C balance (Mattoo et al. 2006), stress responses (Alcázar et al. 2011), xylem differentiation (Muñiz et al. 2008; Tisi et al. 2011a, b), membrane fluidity, and protein regulation (Baron and Stasolla, 2008; Takahashi and Kakehi, 2010). 46

RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING. Online Resources for Literature. Bibliographic Searching

Online Resources for Literature Bibliographic Searching RESEARCH PLANNING AND REPORT WRITING The Bibliographic Search allows you to search bibliographic entries of reference works that were used to compile