1. Dissertation Briefing

2. What is research in a nutshell?
A sustained activity for the purpose of finding answers to questions
Is it a worthwhile question (so what?) -- …
A planned, systematic investigation
but to what purpose?
So that the answer is as valid and reliable as possibly
Control for potential sources of error (bias)
Eliminate alternative explanations/answers
Examine the theoretical basis for drawing the conclusion
The answer is generalizable
but to what context
Assumptions and theoretical basis of the study are examined
Builds on previous work
Limitations of the study are examined

3. Different Research Approaches
Quantitative Qualitative
Purpose To explain & predict To describe & explain
To confirm & validate To explore & interpret
To test theory To build theory
Nature Focused Holistic
Known variables Unknown variables
Predetermined methods Emergent methods
Context free Context bound
Detached view Personal view
Data Numeric Textual/image-based Representative (large) Informative (small)
Standard instruments Loosely structured

4. Structure of a Research Report
Abstract
Introduction
Literature review
Research method
Findings
Discussion
Conclusion
References
Appendices

5. Abstract A summary of the report
Usually does not exceed 1 page (double-spaced)
Emphasis placed on objectives of study, methodology, significant findings, and recommendations
Usually written upon completion of the entire report
Informative vs. indicative abstract
Indicative abstract: gives an indication of what information can be found in the paper
Informative abstract: includes a summary of the research results/findings

6. Research proposal Introduction section
Background: Context (local & international), subject area of your study, perspective from which the topic is addressed
Problem statement: what’s the problem and why is it important to study it
Research objectives
The research objectives are
to find out …
The research questions are
What
Why
How
Explain, clarify the research objectives
Specify the scope of the study
Briefly state the data collection method

7. Literature review Overview of lit review
Previous studies and their results
Your critique of previous studies
How your current study fits in the literature

8. What is a literature review?
Summary of previous papers/studies
With a purpose/message
To show the relation between your study & previous studies
To show a gap in the knowledge that your study fills (research contribution)
To extend current knowledge to new situations (replication)
To confirm current knowledge (replication)

9. Other purposes of a literature review
To define and explain important concepts
To give an overview of the topic and provide background information
To identify/synthesize a theory or model that will be used to explain the results of your study
To generate hypotheses to be confirmed or refuted in your study
To carry out a meta-analysis: to analyze the results of several studies to arrive at a more authoritative conclusion
To demonstrate your breadth/depth of knowledge
Etc.

10. Typical problems
Summary of 1 paper after another. No organization of information
No relation to current study
No critique of previous studies, no evaluation of the results of previous studies
Missing important information
Inaccuracy. Misquote or misuse of information. Information taken out of context
Plagiarism
No proper citation
No paraphrase (cut & paste)
Poor language & style

11. Beware of plagiarism 2 levels of intellectual property
Ideas and content
Expression and language
Provide citation for other people’s ideas
In addition, use quotation marks around passages used verbatim (cut and paste)
Avoid cut and paste
Read article & paraphrase from memory
Check the paraphrase for accuracy and that it’s not an exact copy

12. Research method section
How are you going to collect data (data collection) in a way that will address the research questions
How will the research method guard against biases and random errors?
How will the research method allow you to generalize your results beyond the participants of your study?
How does it rule out alternative explanations?

13. Frequently used data collection methods
Questionnaire survey
Operational data (data collected automatically by the system as part of library operations)
Interviews
Focus groups
Observation, ethnography
Experiment
Other research approaches
Historical research
Content analysis
Action research
Case study

14. Findings section Summary of data collected Statistical results
Results that are close to the data
Results based closely on the data
Statistical results
Figures and tables are used to support the main findings of the study
Each figure and table is referred to in the text, with a description of how to interpret it and what the salient information is
Indicate whether the results are expected. Explanations of the results

15. Discussion section Sometimes combined with Findings section
Higher level research conclusions that address the research questions
Makes an argument using statistical results, research methods, results from previous literature, commonsense, etc.
Relates the results of the current study to the literature

16. Conclusion section
Restates the research objectives/research questions, in an informal style
Summarizes the research results, highlighting interesting results
Points out contributions of the study
Relates the research results to previous literature
Points out limitations & weaknesses of the study
Makes recommendations based on the research findings
Suggest future research directions
To address weaknesses in the study
Unanswered questions
Perhaps the study has raised further questions

17. Presentation of Information
Try to keep in mind who the potential audience are (what they already know and what new information they need)
Identify the specific focus that your analysis is aimed at (state the relationship in clear and unambiguous terms)
Indicate the purpose of the section or paragraph at the beginning – why are you presenting this information
State your key messages up front and clearly (strip out the jargon)
Focus on the implications of your analysis for the reader (downplay the methods and technical details)

18. APA Guidelines for Manuscript Preparation
Orderly presentation of ideas. Logical flow. Give the punchline at the beginning
Smoothness of expression. Clear, logical writing
Economy of expression. Concise writing
Avoid abbreviations
Reference to the author:
Use “I” rather then “we”, “the author”, “the experimenter”. Use “we” if there are more than one author

19. APA Guidelines Don’t use “we” to refer to the readers and the author
Bad: We usually classify bird song on the basis of frequency …
Better: Researchers usually classify bird song on the basis of frequency …
Alternatives: people, humans, researchers, psychologists …
Avoid the generic “he” and gender bias
Use gender neutral terms, e.g. person, individual, user
Use plural: they, their
Replace pronoun (his) with article (the)
“he or she” should be used sparingly
Not: he/she, (s)he, she

20. APA Guidelines Use active voice Use past tense Numbers
For numbers below 10, use words
For numbers 10 and above, use figures, except at the beginning of a sentence
Use figures for numbers before a unit of measure (e.g. 3 hr, 3 cm)
Distinguish between different levels of headings, and do it consistently
Capitalization of important words in section headings and journal titles: capitalize words of 4 letters or more

21. Figures Put figure caption below the figure
Refer to the figure no. in the text.
The Siberian Tiger has black stripes (see Figure 1).
The journal instructions to authors may require you to put all the tables and figures at the end of the manuscript
Figure 1. The Siberian Tiger

22. Tables Useful for large amounts of numerical data
Don’t use too many tables (combine small tables into 1 big table)
Put table heading above the table
Refer to the table no. in the text, and point out important information
Use as few lines as possible in tables

23. Tables Table 1. Example of poor table design
Table 2. Example of good table design

24. APA citation style Reference in the text
In the text, use the author-date method to cite references :
In 1994, Lancaster evaluated …
Lancaster (1994) evaluated …
In a recent evaluation (Lancaster, 1994) …
Three studies (Bart, 1985; Frasier & Niles, 1996; Slocum, 1978) …
Past research (Christie & Marsh, 1924; James, 1991a, 1991b) …

25. APA citation style Citation format in the reference list
Journal article
Gay, L.S., & Croft, W.B. (1990). Interpreting nominal compounds for information retrieval. Information Processing & Management, 26(1),
Book
Asher, R.E. (Ed.). (1994). The encyclopedia of language and linguistics (2nd ed.). Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Chapter in a book
Fillmore, C.J. (1968). The case for case. In E. Bach & R.T. Harms (Eds.), Universals in linguistic theory (pp. 1-88). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

26. APA citation style Citation format in the reference list
Paper in a conference
Mauldin, M.L. (1991). Retrieval performance in FERRET: A conceptual information retrieval system. In Proceedings of the 14th Annual International ACM/SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (pp ). New York: ACM Press.
World Wide Web document
Langston, L. (1996). Scholarly communication and electronic publication: Implications for research, advancement and promotion. Retrieved August 31, 2002, from
Dissertation
Chan, Y.H.J. (2002) A survey of Singapore family literacy. Unpublished master’s thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.