Hotel, Restaurant, & Institutional Management (HRIM)

Proposal
March 16, 2016
Julia Butchen
Jamie Carfora
Jay Dattani
Dayton Geddes-Key
Zach Hochstetter
Marissa Serge

Table of Contents
Letter of Transmittal ..... Page 2
Executive Summary ... Page 3

Project Objective ... Page 3

Project Scope ............ Page 3
Benefits of Proposed System........ Page 4
Deliverables ...... Page 5
Week One
Gantt Chart ........ Page 5
Week Two
Industry Research ....... Page 6
Requirements Definition ........ Page 6
Use Case and Activity Diagrams.............. Page 9
Week Three
Work Breakdown Structure ........ Page 10
Week Four
First Stage Design Documents ....... Page 12
Homepage not logged in .......... Page 12
Homepage logged in .... Page 13
User Login Page ........ Page 13
New User Registration ......... Page 14
User Profile ...... Page 15
Appendix A .......... Page 16
Appendix B .......... Page 17

MARGA Research Portal

Letter of Transmittal
March 16, 2015

Hello Srikanth,
We have created a written document containing all of the work we have done up to this
point. Enclosed in our proposal, you will find all of the deliverables that we have created as well
as all of the steps that were necessary to complete these deliverables. We have organized our
work based on the order in which they were completed. The sequence in which we completed
these deliverables is important because this is the order that the CIS team that develops the
system should follow in order to ensure all of the details and instructions of the requirements
of the system are met.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to work on this project with you. We believe
that with your guidance, our team will be able to provide the system that you are looking to
build. We have worked diligently in order to develop a very detailed proposal that will allow
MARGA to be made into a highly functional portal.
Sincerely,
The HRIM Team
Julia Butchen
Jamie Carfora
Jay Dattani
Dayton Geddes-Key
Zach Hochstetter
Marissa Serge

Executive Summary
The HRIM department has asked us to set up the requirements for a system that will be
implemented by the CIS department. Our system will allow an alternative way for scholars to
get their research published into academic journals. The as-is system has many flaws and
potential opportunities for improvement. The MARGA Research Portal, our solution to this
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problem, will be unlike any other existing system. Through a highly credible reviewing process,
it will ensure that the best articles become published and recognized.
Our research thus far is seen through our created deliverables. The deliverables
included are the building blocks for the platform that will be developed by the Computer
Science team this upcoming fall. They serve as a status update, to keep you and your team
informed on what processes and data are required for the system to be successful and run
according to our clients wants and needs.
In our next phase of the system research and development, we will be creating more
design documents, with clear instructions on what each page requirements are and how each
page will function. We will also be including a data flow diagram, so you can see how the
system will operate in the backend.

Project Objective
The MARGA Academic Portal is a research portal that will revolutionize the way
academic scholars publish manuscripts. It will allow scholars to have their manuscripts
reviewed and published in a much more efficient manner than ever before. The portal will
provide academics with a platform to submit their work to be reviewed by credible reviewers,
all of whom have been approved by the system. It will promote learning by allowing users to
interact and browse through a database full of scholarly work. The goal is for this portal to
become an egalitarian community for all to ultimately participate in.

Project Scope
The mission of the HRIM team is to determine all requirements for the requested
system and create all deliverables so that the team that develops the system has clear
instructions of the visual design of the system, the functionality of the system, and the purpose
of the system.

Benefits of Proposed System

The main benefit of this system is that it will be a place for global scholars in all areas of
expertise to come together, interact, and view each other's work. All articles waiting to be
published will be available for users to read and review, without revealing the authors.
Currently, there is no system like the academic research portal we are working to build.
Another benefit of this system is that it will help to prevent collusion, which can be a big
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problem in the research community. Our system will have checks to ensure the same people
are not always reviewing each others articles. Oftentimes, researchers have to review other
articles as a part of their job, but through our research we found that they usually do not want
to do this. Another major benefit of our system is that it will alert users when an article has
been posted matching their expertise and interests, as well as reward users for giving helpful
reviews. This will make users more likely to want to review other users articles. Finally, the
system is going to rate papers based on the quality of their reviews, ensuring that only the best
papers get published.

Deliverables
Week One
Gantt Chart: MARGA Portal Development Scheduling Plan
This is our scheduled project plan, which we have been following to be sure that all of
our required deliverables were completed in a timely and efficient manner.

Week Two
Industry: Academic Research
The current process for getting academic research articles published has a lot of room
for improvement. It starts with the author submitting an article they have written to an
academic journal. From there, the editor then sends it to be reviewed by an expert of their
choosing. This leaves a lot of room for potential collusion. In addition, it is often difficult to
choose who specifically will review each manuscript. Each review needs to be analyzed to
ensure its credibility. This means the review process is often arduous and takes a lot of time.
While the current system is not necessarily broken, there are many ways to improve it and
make the process flow more efficiently.
The MARGA Academic Portal is our proposed solution to the problems mentioned
above. It is a research portal that will allow academic scholars to have their manuscripts

reviewed and published in a much more efficient manner. It will be a portal unlike any of the
other academic portals that currently exist, such as GoogleScholar, ScholarOne, or the
University of Delawares database, Academic OneFile. It will provide academics with a platform
to submit their work to be reviewed by credible reviewers, who have been approved by the
system. The goal is for this portal to become an egalitarian community for all to ultimately
participate in.
This portal will prove to be extremely helpful in the world of research. It will allow
articles to be categorized based on keywords as well as by the expertise level of the author who
wrote it. This is important because research is used every day for so many different reasons,
ranging from medical breakthroughs, to creating new fields of study.
Requirements Definition:
We created an intensive list of requirements that the system needs, which was further
broken down into categories including, Login and Sign-Up Requirements, User as a Scholar
Requirements, User as a Reviewer Requirements, and Article Requirements. These are the four
main entities of the system, and each have a specific set of rules that our client would like them
to be able to do. Here are our requirements, broken down into functional and nonfunctional
requirements:
Login/Sign-Up Requirements
Functional (process & data):

System must display login interface

System must allow for new users (i.e. sign up)

System must ask for required information (i.e. username, email address, name, etc.)

System must verify uniqueness of username

System must verify password meets desired criteria (specifics TBD)

System must generate a pop-up asking user to verify that all information is correct

System must generate a report of the new user request to be sent to faculty member to
be approved or denied

System must generate an email alert informing requested user they are denied access (If NOT
approved)

System must generate a new user profile (If approved)

System must be able to locate all articles written by user (i.e. through Google Scholar)

System must determine area of expertise of user

System must be able to store profile information for later use

System must allow for existing users to log in

System must be able to send a new temporary password to the user if they forget their
password (via email)

System must allow for users to change their password

System must be able to verify the combination of the username and password

System must grant approved users access to the portal

Non-Functional (performance & usage):

System must be able to secure users private credentials and information

System should be able to store all generated user information

User: Scholar Requirements

Functional (process & data):

User must be able to login to system generated profile

User must be able to create username

User must be able to create password

User must be able to upload research manuscripts

User must be able to choose area in which to submit their article

User must be able to rate reviews based on helpfulness and constructive criticism

User must be able to rate comments based on helpfulness and constructive criticism

Non-Functional (performance & usage):

System must be able to read uploaded APA style manuscripts

System must be able to parse key terms to formulate expertise level of manuscripts

System must be able to parse key terms to formulate expertise level of author

System must notify reviewers when an article in their area of expertise is posted

System must convert approved manuscripts into Articles of Consideration

User: Reviewer Requirements

Functional (process & data):

User must be able to login to system generated profile

User must be able to create username

User must be able to create password

User must be able to upload resume

User must be able to view Activity Report (history of all manuscripts reviewed)

Non-Functional (performance & usage):

System must require approved Reviewer Login before submitting review

System must require approved Reviewer Login before submitting comment

System must keep all reviews anonymous

System can allow comments to be viewed publicly

System must allow Activity Report to be downloadable

System must have incentives for helpful reviews

System must allow for different level badges for highly rated reviewers

System must allow for different level badges for reviewers with n number of articles
reviewed

System must allow for different level badges for reviewers who have been reviewing
for x amount of time

Article Requirements
Functional (process & data):

System must be able to categorize manuscripts into areas based on keywords

System must be able to categorize manuscripts based on expertise level

System must be able to pair manuscripts and reviewers based on a correlation of expertise and
keywords

System must be able to recognize when an Article of Consideration can convert to an Article of
Recognition

System must be able to recognize Merit Scores of Articles of Recognition

System must be able to recognize when an Article of Recognition can be listed as an Article of
Merit

System must generate a Quality Score for articles

Score will be more weighted when correlation between area of expertise of article and
are of expertise of reviewer is high

Non-Functional (performance & usage):

System must have checks for collusion

System must be able to read APA style

System must be able to count number of reviews and comments on a manuscript

Use Case and Activity Diagrams:

Using our requirements definition from above, we created use case diagrams and
activity diagrams that follow these instructions.

Week Three
Work Breakdown Structure:
Our Work Breakdown Structure was used to help us decide what was needed to ensure
all of our information was accurate and detailed. This also helped us to ensure nothing
important was left out. Here is our Work Breakdown Structure:
Level 1: What major, intermediate, or final products/deliverables must be produced to achieve
the projects objectives?
Development Schedule
Requirements Definition
Design Documents
Status Update Proposal
Final Proposal
Level 2: Component Deliverables
Development Schedule

Gantt chart
Project charter
Requirements definition
Interview with Sri
Research on industry
Design Documents
Research current websites
Interview with CIS
Flowcharts of model
Status Update Proposal
Meeting with Sri
Executive Summary
Updated Design Document
Final Proposal
Prepare presentation
Rehearse presentation
Follow-up if needed

Level 3: Subdivide Components

Development Schedule
Gantt chart
Determine tasks needed to be completed
Determine the amount of time required to complete each task
Prioritize the tasks
Project charter
Determine the teams goals
Determine the scope of the project
Document the role that each individual group member will have
Requirements definition
Interview with Sri
Determine the questions we want to ask
Create a script for the interview
Take notes during the interview
Summarize his information
Research on industry
Research the current system
Analyze the flaws of the current system
Design Documents
Research current websites
Create layout template using existing sites as a guideline
Interview with CIS
Confirm Mockups are within CIS project scope
Take into consideration any suggestions or advice they may have
Flowcharts of model
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 Status Update Proposal

Meeting with Sri
Prepare for the meeting
Present Sri with the appropriate deliverables
Executive Summary
Clarify the project objective and be sure it remains within the project
scope
Updated Design Document
Confirm that current designs are what the client wants
Make necessary changes
Final Proposal
Prepare presentation
Use Powerpoint to create presentation
Rehearse presentation
Meet several times and do trial runs of the presentation
Follow-up if needed

Week Four
First Stage Design Documents:
Our design documents are the first stage templates of what the main pages should look
like. Using these templates, an actual website portal will be able to be developed.

Homepage not logged in

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Homepage logged in

12

User Login Page

13

New User Registration

User Profile Page

14

Appendix A: Original Project Assignment

Who is the company (client) sponsoring this project?

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Srikanth Beldona, Associate Professor in HRIM @ the University of Delaware

Name of the Project: MARGA: A Democratic Research Portal

The Problem: In the traditional model of peer-reviewed publishing in academic journals, editors play the
role of qualified intermediaries. This means that they manage the review process of submitted
manuscripts by engaging in a double or triple-blind review process which comprises distributing copies
to experts chosen based on peer recognition and asking for feedback. With the advent of Internet
enabled platforms, journals reported staggering growths in manuscript submissions, which also resulted
in larger pools of reviewers. While this expanded the scope of operations, significant errors resulted
because manuscripts are now matched with volunteering reviewers automatically and often arbitrarily.
The process is inefficient and ineffective because it does a poor job of correlating a manuscripts focus
with relevant reviewer expertise. Often, many reviewers that do not have the required expertise to
evaluate manuscripts still do so because it improves their academic credentials and helps them engage
more with scholar community. This has resulted in a significant problem with the review process
because editors are trying to manage increasingly vast numbers of submissions without vetting
reviewers and reviews for quality and credibility. Add to this, same opaque system ensures that reviews
are not accountable.
The Opportunity - A Disruptor in Academic Research Publishing
a. Develop an academic publishing portal that uses an anonymous review process by connecting
submitted manuscripts with scholars whose academic expertise is relevant using keywords extracted
from their publications.
b. Enhance the credibility of the review process using a crowdsourced system that is both accountable
and advanced. For example, in addition to observed scores of reviews, also use quality metrics that
recognize reviewer expertise levels etc.
c. Enable a system where anonymous reviews are rated for helpfulness and constructive
contributions. In other words, rate the reviewers and them accountable.
d. Provide an opportunity for readers to add comments too, which are not detailed reviews, but just
observations.
e. Develop an academic research eco-system that preserves the anonymity of peer reviewing and yet
operates in a democratic manner that truly rewards merit.

Primary contact information:

Srikanth Beldona
Email: beldona@udel.edu
Phone: 302-602-0480

Appendix B: Powerpoint Presentation Slides

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