Institute of Business Management

College of Business Management

DIRECTED STUDY/SUPERVISED RESEARCH PROJECT

COURSE OUTLINE (Sep-2020)

Course Code: MPM-610, MS/MPhil/PhD Program

Supervisor: Dr. Sayed Fayaz Ahmad

1. Introduction:
The course “Directed Study” is primarily designed as pre-requisite course of
MS/MPhil and PhD students who join from the background of some or no
research background. After developing the foundation of research in class in
the form of Qualitative, Quantitative, and Econometrics courses, students are
provided an opportunity to apply their learning and write a quality research
papers under the *supervision of a Supervisor and get them ready for further
research.

IoBM believes in learning and make MS/MPhil and PhD students to write good
research proposal, research papers and get them ready to peruse for writing
Thesis and Dissertations as well. The aim of this course is also to make MS/PhD
students apply the learning of research in real life and conduct the research.

It is expected that students will be punctual and have active participation in the
course by meeting the supervisor regularly and showing his/her weekly progress
regularly.

Active participation will require extensive reading of current literature.

Students should bring relevant research material from the reputed research
journals and notes they have made on the research. While coming for a meeting,
student/s should be prepared to critically evaluate the readings s/he has gone
through. Students will have to find research material on their own from the
digital library or ** other sources of internet.

2. Contact Hours:
All the students shall meet the supervisor on weekly basis on the assigned date
and time. At least twenty four contact hours are necessary. Since it is not a
taught course the duration may not necessarily be three hours but it could be

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less or more depending on the progress made by the students and discussion
topic.

The supervisor and the student shall maintain the proper record of the
attendance and the progress made on weekly basis. In case of more than four
absences student name shall be dropped from the course. If the student
disappears for a meeting or not contacting for weekly meetings, his/her marks
will be deducted. Student can contact through an email about showing the
progress report for the survey etc.

3. Work plan and items to discuss in the meeting:

1. Area of study to discuss
2. Reviewing the Preliminary Literature (approx. 50 reputed and relevant
papers) and submit their crux.
3. Identifications of Variables and Developing Conception /Theoretical
Frame work, Research Questions and/or Hypothesis
4. Finalization of Research Methodology (based on research Opinion):
sampling design and data collection tools etc.,
5. Research Proposal/Synopsis to submit
6. Critically Reviewing further Literature and Finding Research Gaps
7. Data Collection
8. Data Analysis
9. Writing of a Research report/paper
10. Submission of draft of a report/paper
11. Feedback on the paper submitted and revision if any suggested
12. Submission of a ***final Report/paper.
13. Submission of proof for a paper submission/publication

4. Submission
a. Tentative topic/area of research
b. Crux of Preliminary literature review
c. Research Proposal Submission including time line of work.
d. Development of tool/s if any for the data collection (if not developed
yet)
e. Draft report complete in all aspects before final submission.
f. Final Research Report.
a. Long Report (APA format)
b. Short Report (paper format)

The students will submit their final directed research study by the thirteenth
week of the semester or on the mutually agreed date. Student/s will be asked

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to present it in front of MS/PhD students/committee and/or externals
examiner (if any) by the 15th week or other appropriate date. The students will
submit the following by the thirteenth week.

 One hard copy in spiral binding of long report for 10,000 words (around
30 pages except reference and appendices).
 One hard copy of short report/paper format (stapled) of about 5000
words (around 15 pages except references and appendices).
 Short and long report/papers to be sent through an email as well to the
supervisor.
 The short report, long report, and all other empirical studies related to
the research and data set in SPSS/e-view/qualitative research format if
any.
 Acceptance letter for paper publication or at least a proof of paper
submitted for publication with the name of the supervisor and the
students only.

5. Outcome
The students under the guidance of a selected supervisor will develop a
research proposal. This will lead to a research paper which for all practical
purpose will be a shorter version of MS/MPhil thesis. Ideally, it is a dress
rehearsal for their thesis/dissertation as already said. So the students should
select those research topics for their directed study which they could extend
in their MS/MPhil and PhD research, by incorporating more variables and other
advance requirements like theoretical framework etc., of a MS/PhD thesis
which they might not have incorporated at this stage.

Following are three main learning outcomes of Directed Study:

 Students at the end of the course will be able to know new trends of the
domain of his/her areas of research, and research gaps.
 Students through discussion and extensive reading of literature will be
able to find the possibilities of implications of these concepts in Pakistani
business environment. (Industry driven research).
 Students are supposed to get their work published preferably in any
reputed journal like impact factor, IS Indexed, Scopus or HEC
recognized research journal not lesser than a Y category. In case if the
paper is published/presented in a reputed conference with in the given
time with the mutual consent of the supervisor, supervisor has the
right to get it published anywhere after it’s polishing if any required.

6. Assessment

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 The assessment of the directed studies research will be as follows:
 If the students do not submit the short and long reports with
other requirements as discussed earlier, s/he will get “F” by
default. No extension shall be granted to the students.
 If the paper is accepted in any Impact Factor Journal, IS Index/X
category Journal, Y category Journal, student is entitled for 20
extra marks. For this student needs to submit a proof of
acceptance well in time on the deadline given/before the close of
semester so that marks can be uploaded on time.
 Similarity index for all the directed studies shall be less than 20%.
Similarity level from one source should not exceed 5%. Turnitin
report page will be attached in the long and short report/paper at
the end of the report as an Appendix.
 Preferably, 50% of the references shall not be older than last five
years
 References should be from the reputed journals preferably impact
factor or IS indexed Journals
 Marks on the Deliverables mentioned in the table on a separate
sheet.

7. Deliverables and Marks

Week 1 -2 Area of Study and tentative topic to discuss
Week – 3 Preliminary Literature Review Submission (at least 25-30)
(Marks 05)

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 Week – 5 Submission of Final Research Proposal on time;
which should consist of:
a. Introduction and Background study
b. Problem statement
c. Lit Review and Conceptual/T.F Framework, supporting
each relationships of the conceptual/T.F framework
d. Research Questions and/or Hypothesis supported by
a theory
e. Objectives of Research
f. Gaps/contribution with proper citation.
g. Research Methodology with the samples and the Scale
and measures etc., (based on research onion).
h. Survey tool if any like a Questionnaire developed/
adopted
i. References. (Marks 15)
Week 6 -7 Survey
Week 8–9 Data Analyses
Week 10 – 11 Writing Report
Week - 12 Submission of Draft Report/paper to the supervisor on time
Long Report and Short Report (with corrected English and Turnitin)
(short in the format of a paper where submitted )
Week – 13 Submission of the long and short reports along with other
requirements as mentioned above (Marks 30)
Week – 14 Pitching or the acceptance of Research paper for publication
in a Journal of repute will be treated as a plus point.
(Marks 10)
Week - 15 Presentation of Report (review by the committee)
(Marks 40)

Footnotes/Notes:
* The supervisor and external (if any) for the directed studies shall be at least MS/MPhil
in the related domain/area of interest .
** Internet sources/search engines/networks and publishers and data base like : Sci-hub, Google
Scholar, data base and Publishers (Elsevier, sage, Emerald, Wiley, Taylor and Frances, Springer,
JSTOR etc.) Research gate, SSRN (social science research network), academia.edu etc.
*** Note: student should make sure that from the Directed study work, a Report/paper is
submitted after the Turnitin check which should be less than 19%. And also make sure that the
Language is correctly written or get an assistance of any language expert if required.

The details about the research proposal and the research reports are mentioned
below:

Proposal Guidelines
Directed Research Study (DRS)
MPhil/Pre- PhD/PhD
College of Business Management (CBM)

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Please note that starting from Fall 2019, the breakup of 100 Marks for Directed Research Study (DRS) has
been revised as follows:
Preliminary Literature Review ------------------ 05 Marks
Proposal (to be evaluated by the Committee) ………… ………..  15 Marks
Final Report Presentation (to be evaluated by the Committee) ……………………………. 40 Marks
If the report/paper is accepted and acknowledged by the reputed Journal…… 10 Marks
Course Supervisor…………………………………….. …………………………………………………….  30 Marks
Total: …………………………….. …………………………………………………………….  100 Marks

Format of the Research Proposal

Students are supposed to submit the Directed Research Study proposal as per the following format:
1.       Title Page (as Sample is provided by the OGS)
         
2.       Table of Contents
In Multi-level list format (1, 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.2.1, etc.)

3.       Introduction (500 - 1500 words)

Must contain introduction of research selected, purpose/objective/scope, research problem
statement, research questions/hypothesis and limitations, delimitations etc. 

4.       Literature Review (1500 – 200 words)

Must contain initial literature review to elaborate the topic and showing the gap in the research
including APA in-text referencing, not less than at least 20 ref of last 5 years from the reputed
sources as per APA format  

5.       Research Methodology (1000-200 words based on research onion)

Must contain detailed research methodology by elaborating the research design, sampling
design, analytical technique (will vary from one research type to other) etc. 
 
6.       References
Minimum 20 references (not later than last 05 years and excluding research books) as per APA
format.

 7.       Appendices (Optional)
Any important thing that researcher would like to furnish. (Will be excluded from the words
count) 

Font size and line spacing:

Font: Times new Roman, Size 12, 1.5-line spacing, justified both sides, Page numbers - bottom
center, No header and footer, hard copy (spiral bounded-black) and soft copy (word doc to be
submitted through email).  Minimum word count of entire proposal will be 2000 words).
 
 Similarity index: Proposal will be checked and similarity should be less than 20%, and from the same
source not less than 5 %

 Proposal and Report Submission due date: Students required to submit their proposals between
09:00 am to 12:00 pm., on Saturday/Sunday by the 5th and 14th session.
 
Note: No marks will be revealed till the final grade is assigned.

Directed Study Report Format and Guidelines

MPhil/Pre- PhD/PhD
College of Business Management (CBM)

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All students are advised to submit their Directed Research Study (DRS) proposal and the Reports in
the required format.

A. General:
a. Long and Short Reports of DRS in hard Copy (personally) and soft copy (through
email).
b. Both long and short reports must be printed in black spiral bounded.
c. The citation and writing format must be in APA Style.
d. Font size should be 12 Times New Roman, with 1.5 inches’ line spacing.
e. Margins (Left = 1.25, Right = Top = Bottom = 1 inch). Page numbers – center
bottom.
f. Heading style is preferred from Word 2003 Style (Home > Change Style > Style Set
> Word 2003)
g. Diagrams/Graphs /tables must be drawn in word format – not copied in the form of
an image from E-views or SPSS.

B. Long report requirements: (around 10,000 words excluding references, appendices and
prefatory pages):
Page no.
i. Title page (as per OGS format) i.
ii. Declaration (as per OGS format) – signed by student ii. iii.
Certificate of Approval (as per OGS format) – signed by supervisor iii. iv.
Acknowledgement iv.
v. Abstract v.
vi. Table of Contents vi. vii. List of
tables vii.
viii. List of Figures viii.

1.Introduction (3000 – 4000 words)

This includes:
1.1 Background Study,
1.2 Objectives of Study,
1.3 Scope of the study,
1.4 Importance of Research
2. Literature Review (4000 – 5000 words)
3. Research Methodology (2000- 3000 words)
4. Data Analysis and Findings (3000 – 4000 words)
5. Discussions (if applicable) (1000 – 3000 words)
6. Conclusions, Recommendations and area for further research (1000 – 2000 words)
7. References (APA style) – should start from a new page with heading as
‘References’,
8. Appendices – should start from new page.
9. Similarity Index check from Turnitin – first page only

C. Short Report requirements (approximately 6000 – 8000 words)

a. Short report must be written in a particular research paper format where to be
published.
b. Many sections of long report are supposed to be re-written (shortened/condensed)
c. No title page – Title should be as research paper heading.
d. Names of authors (student as first and supervisor as second author) under the title.
e. Affiliation of authors as foot note.
f. Abstract (250 – 300 words) – Italic, indented 0.5 inches from both sides
g. Keywords under abstract (3 to 5 only)
h. Article in continuation (as section headings) with numbers 1, 1.1, 1.2, …
i. References in continuation at the end of article
j. Appendix, if essentially required.

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The End.