Writing a Research Paper

The presentation gives information about how to start writing a research paper, sections in research paper, tools, indexing etc

1. WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER Venkata Padmavati

2. What a research paper means A  research paper  is an  essay   or article in which you explain your findings after exploring your topic in depth. In a  research paper , you include information from sources such as books,  journal or conference articles , interviews, and Internet sites. You also use your own ideas, knowledge, and opinions .

3. Why to write research paper To put new knowledge in a public forum to announce it to others and so that others can use it. It improves your Reading Skills from Multiple Sources It Creates A Research Mind Set It Can Promote Curiosity Plagiarism and Intellectual Property Rights Matter It improves writing skills More points for higher studies like MS, MTech etc

4. How to Start

5. Researching Your Topic Focus your research on a narrow topic . Search for credible sources online and at a library Extensive literature survey- recent journal issues and recent conferences on the topic. Come up with a   topic

6. Drafting Your Essay Create an outline  to map out your paper’s structure. Present research already done in the topic and argument in the  introduction .  Build your argument in the body paragraphs Summarize your argument in the  conclusion

7. Revising Your Paper Ensure your paper is well-organized and includes  transitions . Cut out unnecessary words and sentences. Use simple present, past and future tense as per context. Proofread  for spelling, grammatical, and formatting errors . Ask a friend, relative, or teacher to read your work before you submit it.

8. Structure of a research paper

9. Sections of a Research Paper Title of the paper Authors Information A bstract Keywords Introduction Methodology section- can have two or more subsections Findings/results Conclusion References

10. Title of the Research Paper The  title  summarizes the main idea or ideas of your  study . So keep the title brief and clear. Use active  verbs  instead of complex noun-based phrases, and avoid unnecessary details. Moreover, a good title for a research paper is typically around 10 to 12 words long. An effective title should: Convey the  main topics  of the study Highlight the  importance  of the research Be  concise Attract  readers Covid19 Vaccination of Children: A Randomized Trial Effect of Covid19 Vaccination on Infection Rates in Rural Communities: A Randomized Trial

11. Author Information First Author (mostly Corresponding Author) There can be three to four authors Mentors name as the last authors Author Name, Institute name and email-ids of all authors need to be mentioned. Doesn’t require your designation, mobile number etc.

12. Abstract An abstract is like a movie trailer. People will only consider reading the rest of the manuscript if they find your abstract interesting. Write the abstract after you have finished writing your whole paper. Pick out key statements from your introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections to frame your abstract with a logical flow. Edit your abstract carefully to make it cohesive and meet the word count requirements of the journal . It should be less than 250 words and should be in one paragraph. No citations unless it is very much required.

13. The Abstract A  summary  of the content of the journal manuscript A time-saving  shortcut  for busy researchers A  guide  to the most important parts of your manuscript’s written content Your Abstract should answer these questions about your manuscript: What was done? Why did you do it? What did you find? Why are these findings useful and important? TIP: Journals often set a maximum word count for Abstracts, often 250 words, and no citations. This is to ensure that the full Abstract appears in indexing services.

14. Keywords Keywords  are a tool to help indexers and search engines find relevant papers. However, to be effective, Keywords must be chosen carefully. They should: Represent  the content of your manuscript Be  specific  to your field or sub-field

15. Introduction The Introduction should provide readers with the background information needed to understand your study, and the reasons why you conducted your experiments. Every field is different, but you should aim to cite references that are not more than 10 years old if possible. Although be sure to cite the first discovery or mention in the literature even if it older than 10 years.

16. Introduction A good introduction should answer the following questions: What is the problem to be solved? Are there any existing solutions? (Literature Survey) Which is the best? What is its main limitation? What do you hope to achieve?

17. Literature Review The purpose of the literature review is to describe past important research and how it specifically relates to the research thesis. It should include all relevant findings from credible sources, such as academic books and peer-reviewed journal articles. You will want  to: Try to show connections and any disparities between the literature. Identify new ways to interpret prior research. Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.

18. Methodology  It can have three or more sections The methods section of a research paper provides the information by which a study's validity is judged. Therefore, it requires a clear and precise description of how the work was done, and why specific methods were chosen. If proposing new method, what is the requirement and comparison with existing methods

19. Methodology The methods section should describe what was done to answer the research question, describe how it was done, justify the design, and explain how the results were analyzed. Scientific writing is direct and orderly. Therefore, the methods section structure should: describe the data used in the study, explain how the data were prepared for the study, describe the research protocol, Explain algorithms made what calculations were performed, and state which statistical tests were done to analyze the data.

20. Tables and Figures Tables are used to present quantitative data or statistical results of analyses. Examples of quantitative data are population, age, frequency, etc. Figures  on the other hand come in different forms. These could be graphs, images. Figures and tables should be clearly visible Ensure that all the tables you have included are referred to in your text.  Do not include explicit instructions in your text for the readers to refer to the tables. It's best to make a brief reference, for example, “More than half of the Canadian population has not consumed hot sauce in the first half of 2010 (Table 1).“ Avoid instructions such as "See Table 2" and "Refer to Figure 6" Pay particular attention to your target journal’s style: is it Figure 1, Fig. 1, or figure 1? Is the word set in italics or bold or normal? Is it followed by a colon, a full stop, or just space? And does the caption end in a full stop?

21. Conclusion Paraphrase it or summarize the key points of your paper . You may emphasize the significance of your findings as well. A good idea is to provide some recommendations based on the results of your investigation or suggest some directions for further research.

22. Reference List No paper is complete without a  reference list , documenting all the sources that you used for your research. This should be laid out according to  APA or other specified format, allowing any interested researcher to follow up on the research.

23. APA: American Psychological Association Style Mischel , W. and Baker, N. (1975). Cognitive transformations of reward objects through instructions.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31 , 254-261. Author, I. N. (Year). Title of the article.  Title of the Journal or Periodical, volume number (issue number), page numbers. How to refer in the paper Mischel and Baker (2005) outlines clear difference……….

24. IEEE Referencing Style  People find hearing aids inconvenient, and some accept that losing hearing capability is a part of aging, known as presbycusis [6], [7]. References: [6] G. Gates and J. Mills, " Presbycusis ," Lancet, vol. 366, no. 9491, pp. 1111–1120, 2005. [7] J. Cohen-Mansfield and J. Taylor, "Hearing aid use in nursing homes. Part 2: Barriers to effective utilization of hearing aids," J. Amer. Med. Dir. Assoc., vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 289–296, 2004.

25. Tools for Research P aper Preparation Manuscript preparation- MSWord, Open Office writer, Latex etc Grammar checkers   . https://www.grammarly.com/ Referencing Tools- Zotero , Mendeley , EndNote Plagiarism checkers- While  Turnitin  is available to Universities,  Scribbr  is available to students .  Many free online tools are available.   https://www.paperrater.com/plagiarism_checker

26. Indexing of a Journal Indexing: Indexation of a journal is considered a reflection of its quality. Indexed journals are considered to be of higher scientific quality as compared to non-indexed journals. https://www.springer.com/journal/10994 UGC Care indexing https://ugccare.unipune.ac.in/apps1/home/index SCOPUS Indexed https://www.scopus.com/sources.uri?zone=TopNavBar&origin=searchbasic Science Citation indexing (SCI) https://mjl.clarivate.com/search-results

27. Top Publishers Publishers Elsevier, Springer, Emerald , Taylor and Francis, Science Direct, IEEE Transactions ,

28. Thank you. Submit papers for BITCON 2020