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Guidelines in Developing a Research

Statement of Purpose

A statement of purpose is a declarative sentence which summarizes the specific topic and goals of a document. It is typically included in the introduction to give the reader an accurate, concrete understanding what the document will cover and what he/she can gain from reading it.

To be effective, a statement of purpose should be:

  • Specific and precise - not general, broad or obscure
  • Concise - one or two sentences
  • Clear - not vague, ambiguous or confusing
  • Goal-oriented - stated in terms of desired outcomes

Such student will be registered as a library member who has the borrowing rights. Members have access to core text books, reference books, general reading materials, CDs, DVDs and etc.

Students who have library membership are allowed to borrow one book for a period of 7 days. Books on high demand will be issued for overnight use during the demanding period. Books issued for the weekend may also vary depending on the demand during that period.

The Research Process in 8 Steps

Step I: Formulating a research problem

  • Reviewing the literature
  • Formulating a research problem
  • Identifying variables
  • Constructing hypotheses

Step II: Conceptualizing a research design

Selecting a research design

A research design or a study design is the most important aspect of the research endeavor. It encompasses the plan and the procedures that will enable you to achieve your goal. A research design makes you directional and helps you to avoid any wrong path. It defines the study type, hypothesis, objectives, research methodology and data collection as well as analysis techniques. It is an overall strategy of the research process. In research, you should know the different types of research designs and their suitability for different types of researches. Selection of a research design can only be made after careful thought and understanding of the different design types. A research study design can be selected according to four different perspectives; Qualitative versus quantitative, basic versus applied, empirical versus non-empirical or causal versus comparative.

Step III: Constructing an instrument for data collection

Selecting a method of data collection

Step IV: Selecting a sample

  • Selecting the right sampling type
  • Sampling

Step V: Writing a research proposal

  • Writing a research proposal

The basic purposes of all research proposals are to convince the reader that: (a) the research project has clear objectives; (b) the research project is worth doing (it is significant / important in some sense and will make an original contribution to knowledge / understanding in the field) (c) the proposed methods are suitable and feasible; (d) there is a well-considered plan for achieving the research objectives in the available timeframe

Important factors to know before writing a research proposal

What is your research proposal used for and why is it important?

It is used to establish whether there is expertise to support your proposed area of research

It forms part of the assessment of your application

The research proposal you submit as part of your application is just the starting point, as your ideas evolve your proposed research is likely to change

How long a research proposal should be?

It should be 2,000–3,500 words (4-7 pages) long.

What to be included in a research proposal?

Your proposal should include the following:

1. TITLE

Your title should give a clear indication of your proposed research approach or key question

2. BACKGROUND AND REASONING

You should include:

The background and issues of your proposed research

Identify your discipline

A short synthesized literature review highlighting the issues and solutions established

A summary of key debates and developments in the field

3. RESEARCH QUESTION(S)

You should formulate these clearly, giving an explanation as to what problems and issues are to be explored and why they are worth exploring.

Research Objectives to be formulated indicating as to how the said problems and issues are to be addressed

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

You should provide an outline of:

The theoretical resources to be drawn on

The research approach (theoretical framework)

The research methods appropriate for the proposed research possibly mapped to each of the research objectives identified

A discussion of advantages as well as limits of particular approaches and methods

5. PLAN OF WORK & TIME SCHEDULE

You should include an outline of the various stages and corresponding time lines for developing and implementing the research, including writing up your thesis.

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

You should include:

A list of references to key articles and texts discussed within your research proposal

A selection of sources appropriate to the proposed research

Step VI: Collecting data

  • Data collection

Step VII: Processing data

  • Editing data
  • Coding data
  • Analysing data
  • Displaying data

Step VIII: Writing a research report/research paper or thesis

  • Writing research report
  • Referencing

Referencing styles

Endnote

EndNote is a reference management and bibliography-creation program. It permits you to gather, organize and store references, and make designed citations and reference records in Microsoft Word. Before you begin using the EndNote program you need to know which referencing style your faculty uses and become familiar with that style. While EndNote will display references in your selected referencing style (e.g. IEEE, Harvard, APA, Chicago, Vancouver etc.) you need to be able to correct any mistakes or inconsistencies in your references. EndNote is not able to recognize incorrect or missing data required for your style. For more information about referencing please see below:

SLIIT recommended referencing styles

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition.

Under the regulations for examinations, at SLIIT plagiarism is a disciplinary offence.

Turnitin Plagiarism detecting Tool use at SLIIT

Turnitin is the leading academic plagiarism detector, utilized by teachers and students to avoid plagiarism and ensure academic integrity. Turnitin provides instructors with the tools to engage students in the writing process, provide personalized feedback, and assess student progress over time. Please contact your teacher in charge or the project supervisor to evaluate your research report before submitting

Guidelines for Thesis Preparation and Submission

Indexed Journals

What is Journal Ranking?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_ranking

  • The Science Citation Index (SCI)

    • The Science Citation Index (SCI) is a citation index originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and created by Eugene Garfield. It was officially launched in 1964. It is now owned by Clarivate Analytics (previously the Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters).The larger version (Science Citation Index Expanded) covers more than 8,500 notable and significant journals, across 150 disciplines, from 1900 to the present. These are alternatively described as the world's leading journals of science and technology, because of a rigorous selection process.

    https://www.scijournal.org

  • The SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR)

    • The SCImago Journal & Country Rank is a publicly available portal that includes the journals and country scientific indicators developed from the information contained in the Scopus® database (Elsevier B.V.). These indicators can be used to assess and analyze scientific domains. Journals can be compared or analysed separately. Country rankings may also be compared or analysed separately. Journals can be grouped by subject area (27 major thematic areas), subject category (313 specific subject categories) or by country. Citation data is drawn from over 34,100 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers and country performance metrics from 239 countries worldwide. The SJCR allows you also to embed significative journal metrics into your web as a clickable image widget

    This platform takes its name from the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator (PDF), developed by SCImago from the widely known algorithm Google PageRank™. This indicator shows the visibility of the journals contained in the Scopus® database from 1996.

    SCImago is a research group from the Consejo Superior de Investigations Scientifics (CSIC), University of Granada, Extremadura, Carlos III (Madrid) and Alcalá de Henares, dedicated to information analysis, representation and retrieval by means of visualization techniques. SCImagio Journal Rank (SJR) List

Conference Ranks

The conference ranking has been created as part of the excellence in research.

www.conferenceranks.com

Australia (ERA) ranking was created by Australian computing research and educational association of Australasia

www.guide2research.com

Guide2Research has just released the list of ranking of top scientists for the year 2018 in the areana of Computer Science and Electronics. The first can be viewed online by using the above URl

https://innovate.ieee.org/ieee-journals-continue-to-excel-in-citation-rankings/

IEEE Journals are ranked highly across a number of JCR metrics. Details of IEEE journal ranking appear in above URL Researchers also search for

  • Impact factor of ieee conference
  • Impact factor for science journals
  • ACM impact factor
  • Impact factor of springer
  • Journals in computer science pdf
  • Progress in quantum electronics impact factor

Patent

Copyright law

What is copyright?

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, Copyright (or author’s right) is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings. https://www.wipo.int/copyright/en/

Intellectual Property (IP) related free databases

Research Publications

Research Publication List

Predatory Journals

What is a predatory journal?

A predatory journal is a publication that actively asks researchers for manuscripts. They have no peer review system and no true editorial board and are often found to publish mediocre or even worthless papers. They also ask for huge publication charges.

https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-identify-a-predatory-journal

https://beallslist.net

Predatory Journals and Publishers are causing lot of concerns among the research community around the world. You may get an idea of the names of Predatory Journals by using above link. A researcher also can pay attention to these journals when you decide to send your valuable articles for publication.

Source: Research Methodology : A step by step Guide for Beginners by Ranjith Kumar

Open Access Journals

What is an Open Access Journal?

An open access journal is a type of academic or scholarly publication that makes its articles freely available to the public online. This means that anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, or link to the full texts of these articles without any financial, legal, or technical barriers. Open access journals often follow a model where authors or institutions pay publication fees to cover the costs of peer review, editing, and publishing, allowing the content to be freely accessible to readers.

Also, Open access journals promote widespread dissemination of research findings, increased visibility and impact for authors, and greater accessibility to knowledge for researchers, students, policymakers, and the public.

Open Access Journals for Paper Publishing

Journal selector websites

Elsevier Research Guide

Academic Accountability

Editing & Proofreading

Before submitting any research, project work students must edit and proofread their work. Editing focuses on improving the content and structure of your assignment, proofreading is a final check for errors and formatting issues.

You should edit and revise your writing and then you will ensure the submission of your best draft. Allow enough time to read over and edit your assignment several times. Editing your own work generally works best if you put it aside for a while and return to it with a fresh perspective. We recommend leaving it overnight, but some space will always be beneficial.

Editing Tips – Just check your grammar

Few online tools available for editing basic grammar, spellings etc. are listed below.

  1. Grammarly Online
  2. ProWritingAid
  3. Typely
  4. Paperrater

Also, students can use Microsoft Word in-built spelling and grammar checking function.

Proofreading Tips

SLIIT library is directing you to a professional proofreader with the help of the ELTU. This will function as follows,

  1. Use the following check list to check whether your documents are ready to be proofread. You should tick off all checkboxes before obtaining a proofreading facility. Download the check list
  2. Then the library will arrange an English help desk session with the ELTU resource person.
  3. The ELTU resource person will point out the areas that need editing.
  4. You are ready to meet the proofreader. Contact the library information desk (011 754 3181) or library.m@sliit.lk or visit us for more information.
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