Conducting Research

1. Conducting Research Nanda Ganesan, Ph.D. Professor of Information Systems California State University, Los Angeles

2. Objective • Selecting a research topic • Conducting research • Writing the research • Defending the research • Final submission of the thesis

3. Before Starting • Write down all the ideas and obtain copies of all the relevant material • Store all the information • Carry a flash drive for the purpose

4. Research Process in General • Read scholarly papers • Discuss ideas with colleagues • Write an initial paper and revise the paper • Implement research ideas • Becoming part of a larger research community • Reference

5. For Starters • If one is new, do a Google search for articles on how to start the research • Some examples: • How to start the research • Instruction to select a research topic • Research guide • Web guide to start searching for research topic

6. Research Topic Orientation • Pure research • Applied research • Must be differentiated from development of applications • Not that all research need not be pure research • Applied research with new ideas are also widely accepted

7. Define the Area of Research • Define the areas of interest • Pure research • Supply Chain Management • Recent areas of hot analytical research • Applied research • Enterprise resource management • Internet security etc. • Must read scholarly journals and technical publications

8. Combining with Areas of Strength • The actual selection must now be determined by the areas of strength of the candidate along with the area of interest • Database design • Network applications • Strengths • Analytical • Applied • Following the in-house research pattern may not be the best choice • Eg: MySQL and php based application development • Venture into other areas as well

9. The Start • Read, read and read more!

10. Initial Identification of Emerging Areas • Internet search • Magazine search • Will provide an indication about emerging areas • Visit the nearest computer book store • or search http://www.amazon.com • Review of trade magazines and trade articles • Review industry websites • http://www.Microsoft.com • Trade publications • Review of academic publications

11. Abstraction • Read Abstracts • Goolge Search is a good starting point • Google scholar search • Key words are everything • Make copies of all the important documents with an abstract stored separately • Shortlist the possible topics

12. More Specific Literature Survey • Scholarly journals • Access associations in the field for more information • Library databases • Thesis topic search • Literature survey articles • Basic reference listings • Eg: Agre’s summary of basic

13. Scholarly Journals • Identify journals in the field • List of journals • Narrow down to target journals • Target journals • Store journal information • Journal of Technology Education

14. Associations in the Field • Distance Education Association • Obtain information about the journals published by the association

15. Identifying Journals in the Field: Library Searches • Library database searches • Eric search • Other search • Example • Expanding on the journal search • Obtain information on additional journals • Example • Loop back to Google search with the new information • Example

16. Expanding and Focusing the Literature Survey • It is that one article that can expand the literature base • Obtain additional names of journals and topics from the references of the most relevant articles • Many a times, it would be one group of authors who will be talking about a particular topic • Do more search based on the author’s name

17. Current Work-in Progress • Keep information on current work in progress that may contain bits of pieces of different papers or chapters • Example • Keep copies of all the references • Example

18. Other Searches • Thesis topic search • Literature survey articles • Basic reference listings • Eg: Agre’s summary of basic

19. Search Alternatives

20. Search Engines • Google • Basic and advanced search • Other search engines

21. Google Search • General search • Advanced search • Advance search operators • Google Scholar search

22. Other Search • Iterate between Google search and the search of other material such as journal search etc.

23. Writing the Thesis

24. Writing the Thesis • Modularize the topic • Start writing under each of the modules • Good starting points are introduction, literature survey, description of the process divided possibly into multiple chapter, presentation of results, discussion, reference to future work and conclusion • Feel free to move from one module to another • At the early stages, the flow of information must be the prime objective • Effort to maintain continuity should not hinder the flow of thoughts while initially writing the thesis

25. Getting Started • Start writing the introduction and the literature survey in skeleton form • Have an outline of the thesis • It must be in modular form

26. General Modular Format • Introduction • Literature survey • Hypotheses and/or experimental background • Experimental or Procedural design • Module 1: Details of experiment and presentations of findings • Module 2: Details of experiment and presentation of findings etc. • Discussion of findings • Conclusion and reference to future work • List of References • Appendix

27. Starting to Write • Modularize the chapters into sub-topics • Start writing under each module as the thoughts flow • Do not focus on continuity or grammar at this time • Include additional sections and/or remove current sections as appropriate

28. Some Writing Techniques • Leave writing when writing block occurs • Before ending a writing session make short notes on the next session to start • Think about the topic the night before the day of writing • Mornings are the best time to write

29. Refining the Thesis • Establish continuity • Do additional literature survey • Continue to improve continuity • Give the thesis to be read by a technical and a non-technical person and make changes accordingly • Leave a gap of time before the final reading and editing of the thesis • Perform final editing and submit the thesis

30. Important Consideration • Always be nice to the supervisor • Thesis research teaches you more than scientific research • It extols the virtue of human relationship, patience etc.

31. A Sample Format • Research Paper

32. Examples of Local Papers • Some examples will be provided that follows the suggested outline, in general • Career advise expert system

33. The End