SUBMITTED TO:

SIR RAI SHAHBAZ

SUBMITTED BY:

ZEESHAN YOUNAS CH

ROLL NO:

1005

ASSIGNMENT TOPIC:

BASIC VS APPLIED RESEARCH

LITERATURE REVIEW AND ETHICAL ISSUES

SECTION:

DOMS

UNIVERSITY OF OKARA
What is Basic Research?

Basic research is also known as fundamental or pure research since it is mainly

concerned with the improvement of scientific knowledge.  The purpose of basic
research is simply to gather more information to further understand existing
phenomena specially in the field of natural sciences. Its focus is on supporting as well
as challenging assumptions which aim to explain various phenomena. Pure research
looks at the “big picture” in the sense that it looks for overall factors and related
postulates. Hence, fundamental research is purely theoretical as it delves into basic
laws and principles.

Though the engendered ideas may not be directly applied to current situations, such
conclusions from basic research are highly fundamental in enhancing future applied
studies. For instance, previous studies on mathematical theories have been utilized in
programming and other information technology processes.

For example,

basic science investigations probe for answers to questions such as:

• How did the universe begin?

• What are protons, neutrons, and electrons composed of?

• How do slime molds reproduce?

• What is the specific genetic code of the fruit fly?

What is Applied Research?

The purpose of applied research is to know more about a certain real-world problem
and take steps to solve it. It focuses on the application of natural science principles on
practical difficulties as well as enhancing innovations. Such studies are often
associated with the fields of business, economics, health, and politics. For instance, a
company may hire an applied researcher to look into the best way of hiring applicants
and placing employees in connection with the organization’s various positions.
Many applied researchers utilize the naturalistic observation method to verify existing
social difficulties and then conduct experiments to ascertain solutions. However, data
gathering challenges such as ethics and validity issues may arise specially when
testing procedures may pose harm for humans and animals. Thus, restrictions are
applied in employing the respective study procedures.

For example, applied researchers may investigate ways to:

• improve agricultural crop production

• treat or cure a specific disease

• improve the energy efficiency of homes, offices, or modes of transportation

Certain differences stand out when comparing basic research vs applied

research. They include the following:

 Basic research tries to expand existing scientific knowledge

while applied research is a scientific study that helps in solving
problems in real life.
 Basic research is theoretical while applied research is more
practical in its approach.
 Basic research is more applicable than applied research
solutions because basic research is universally applicable while
applied research is only applicable to specific problems that
necessitate it.
 Basic research is primarily concerned with the development of
scientific predictions and knowledge while applied research
focuses on developing techniques and technology using basic
science.
 Basic research aims to add knowledge to what is already in
existence while applied research tries to find solutions to
specific problems.

The answer to which is more important is neither. Without basic research, applied
research would not be possible, because the fundamental physical understandings are
discovered through the basic research. The basic research is not usually directly
applicable to real-world projects, but the applied research is able to use the
understanding gained from the basic research to solve real problems.

The hallmarks of scientific research.

Hallmarks of scientific research refers to the main characteristics that scientific
research have.
1. Purposiveness
2. Testiability
3. Objectivity
4. Parsimony
5. Generazibility
6. Rigor
7. Confidence and Precision
To explain all these characteristics, we are going to consider a concrete example of a
manager who is in need of investigating how to increase the commitment of
employees to the organization. We shall use this example to explain the application of
the eight hallmarks of science considering it to be scientific.
Purposiveness:
the scientific research should have a purpose as to why it is conducted.in our case of
example of research we have chosen, the manager is seeking to increase the
employee's commitment. This research has a purpose of increasing the productivity of
the organization and to increase its employee's performance hence it is purposive.
For example,
Focusing on employee's commitment to the organization, an increase in the
commitment will translate into less turnover, less absenteeism and probably increase
in performance levels.
Testability:
Manager can decide just to take few employees of the organization who are selected
randomly, and talk to them.  After taking to them, the manger comes up with a
hypothesis on how commitment of employees can be increased. This makes testability
to be key I scientific research.
An example of testability
 includes choosing a variable (or multiple variables) capable
of quantification or assessment to permit testing. The researcher must consider
whether the measurement of some element means considering the time, money, or
technology necessary to conduct the experiment
Objectivity:
A good scientific research has objectives.Objectivity refers to a reality external to the
mind, as relating to external objects.Objective research findings are thus ones that
any other researcher performing the observation, or the same researcher using
different methods, would also arrive at.
An example: is the example given the manager has objectives of increasing
employees' commitments.
For example:
If an employee complains of sexual harassment from another employee,
the company would use objective methods to verify this complaint. Recognizing your
biases and separating facts from feelings is essential to objectivity in investigations,
according to Hone Consulting.
Parsimony:
Parsimony can be well introduced by good problem understanding and factors which
are important and can influence it. This is shown well by the example given above.
Example 1: A man of considerable parsimony, Claude was known for lying about his
age in order to receive senior discounts.
Example 2: Rather than spending the money to take his car to the garage, Claude
indulged his inner sense of parsimony and attempted the repairs himself. Things did
not go well.
Generalizability:
These refers to the applicability scope of the findings of a research in a one setting of
organization. If the applicability is wide the generalizability is a measure of how
useful the results of a study are for a broader group of people or situations. ... If the
results can only be applied to a very narrow population or in a very specific situation,
the results have poor generalizability.n the research will be more useful.
Example: 
If a researcher’s findings that participation in decision making enhances
organizational commitment are found to be true in a variety of manufacturing,
industrial and service organizations, and not merely in the particular organization
studied by the researcher, then the Generalizability of the findings to other
organizational settings in enhanced
Rigor:
Rigor connotes scrupulousness, carefulness and the exactitude in investigation of a
research.
If for example
Example: A manager asks only from 10-12 employees how to increase the level of
commitment. And on the basis of their responses the manager reaches to conclusions
on how commitment can be increased?
Confidence and precision:A
The research should be precise and have confidence. Precision may refer to the
closeness of the findings to the reality. It also refers to the exactitude or degree of
accuracy based on the samples given. On the hand confidence refers to the how our
estimation is probable to be correct.
Example: 
If a supervisor estimated the number of production days lost during the
year due to absenteeism at between 30 and 40, as against the actual of 35.  The
precision of estimation more favorably than if he has indicated that the loss of
production days was somewhere between 20 and 50.

Q:How a researcher can approach literature review,and what are the ethical
issues while conducting literature review?
Question 1a

 When doing a literature review, first, you have to choose a topic and define the
research question.
 Secondly, you have to decide on the required scope of the review.
 Third, you have to select a database to use in doing the searches.
 Fourth, you need to search to find the literature to complete the review.
 Lastly, you have to review the literature.
Question 1b

 One of the ethical issues when doing a literature review is choosing the type of
materials, the background documents, and the literature carefully.
 Another ethical consideration when doing the literature review is on the search
strategies.
 the third ethical issue is bias.
 The last ethical consideration when writing a review of literature is the need to
cite other people's work correctly without plagiarism.

Literature Review
A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources
on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also
called synthesis).
Sources of Literature Sources of literature can be divided into three :
 Primary sources
 Secondary sources
 Tertiary source
The different categories of literature sources represents the flow of information from
original source.
Primary sources
Primary literature sources are the first occurrence of a
piece of work. It includes:

 Reports
Reports include market research reports, government reports etc
 Conference proceedings
Conference proceedings referred to any symposia are often
published as unique titles with in journals, or as books. most conference will have a
very specific theme.
 Theses
Theses are the research papers contains details of research done in a particular
topic. It is a good source of detailed information & further reference.
2.Secondary sources
Secondary sources such as books & journals are subsequent publication
of primary literature. These publications are aimed at wider audience. it includes:

 Journals
Journals are also known as periodicals, magazines are published on a
regular basis.eg.journal of management studies, people management etc.
 Books
Books are written for specific audiences.the material in books are presented in
a more ordered and accessible manner than in journals.
 News papers
News papers are good source of topical events, developments with in
the business &government as well as recent statistical information.
2.Searching for literature
Tertiary sources also called as “search tools” are
designed either to help to locate primary & secondary literature or to introduce a topic
 They include indexes & abstracts as well as encyclopedias & bibliographies.
e.g:subject catalogue of libraries List of books and publishers bulletins.
 Electronic journals. Your library is probably subscribed to journals that are
published or made available online.
Discover which journals are provided online by your library.
 Full-text databases. Full-text databases provide the full text of the article. Find
out which full-text databases are provided by your library.
Bibliographic databases. Bibliographic databases display only the bibliographic
citations; that is, the name of the author, the title of the article (or book), source of
publication, year, volume, and page numbers. These contain the same information as
can be found in the Bibliographic Index books in libraries, which are periodically
updated, and include articles published in periodicals, newspapers, books, and so on.
Some useful indexes are provided in the appendix to this chapter.
 Abstract databases. Abstract databases also provide an abstract or summary of
articles. They do not provide the full text of an article or manuscript.
ETHICAL ISSUES WHILE CONDUCTING LITERATURE REVIEW
 One of the ethical issues when doing a literature review is choosing the type
of materials, the background documents, and the literature carefully. You
 have to make well-informed choices of literature for a good reason when drafting
the review of the literature. For example, when you are searching online for
sources, you have to understand the limitations and the scope of the electronic
tools being used. There are various sites where you can view the literature from
all over the world such as google scholar. You do not need to search for
everything but you need to have a clear rationale for the search being made.
 Another ethical consideration when doing the literature review is on the
search strategies. The search strategies such as terms used when searching and
the dates of the searches have to be recorded so that the readers can assess the
effectiveness of the approach used.
 Another ethical issue is bias. There are many search strategies when drafting the
review of the literature and a researcher can easily be biased on one approach.
Therefore, it is important to read many pieces of literature with many opinions
and views that are not similar to those you agree with.
 Another ethical consideration when writing a review of literature is the need
to cite other people's work correctly without plagiarism. If you intend to
publish the document, it should be plagiarism-free to make the chances of it being
accepted to be high. Using the approach shows you respect the work published by
the authors