2 - Purpose and Products of Research

Chapter No.
Purpose and
Products of
Research
Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655
Topics
 Understanding Research
 Possible products and outcomes of research
 Finding and choosing research topics
 Evaluating the purpose and products of research

What is Research?
 A way of finding things out

 Finding out how to do things better
 Finding out why we do things the way we do
 Gaining an understanding of how things work or
happen

What is Research? (Contd)
 Challenging our assumptions

 Research is an Original Contribution to Knowledge.
 You must show two things
 Identification of an unanswered question
 The Answer !

Some Web Definitions of
Research
 Careful hunting for facts or truth about a subject,
inquiry, or investigation
 Active, diligent and systematic process of inquiry in
order to discover, interpret or revise facts, events,
behaviours, or theories, or to make practical
applications with the help of such facts, laws or
theories

Research (Contd)
 Systematic investigation, including research
development, testing and evaluation, designed to
develop or contribute to generalisable knowledge

Research (Contd)
 Diligent and thorough inquiry and investigation into a
subject
 This includes using ALL appropriate print and electronic
sources, asking the reference librarians for help, and
making use of bibliographies given by other authors

Research (Contd)
 The collection of information about a particular
subject
 Information already collected for general needs, such
as census data Readily available in published form

Purpose of Research
 Investigates ideas and uncovers useful knowledge

 Is personally rewarding and socially beneficial
 Good research reflects a sincere desire to determine
what is overall true, based on all available
information

Characteristics of Research
1) Originates with a question or a problem

2) Requires a clear articulation of a goal
3) Follows a specific plan of procedure

Characteristics of
Research (Contd)
4) Usually divides the principal problem into more
manageable sub-problems
5) Is guided by the specific research problem,
question, or hypothesis
6) Accepts certain critical assumptions. These
assumptions are underlying theories or ideas about
how the world works

Characteristics of
Research (Contd)
7) Requires the collection and interpretation of data
in attempting to resolve the problem that initiated
the research
8) Research is, by its nature, cyclical or spiral

What Research is not…..
 Not mere information gathering
 Not mere transportation of facts

from one location to another
 Not merely rummaging for

information
 Not a catchword used to get

attention
Every Research Study is
Unique…
 So it is impossible to develop a set of rules that
ensure a successful research program
 There’s no such thing as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in
formulating a research plan or in getting a ‘good’
research question
 There are some useful guidelines, however

Research should be…
 A disciplined approach to inquiry

 A tool for testing, as well as generating, theories
 A method to confirm our hunches
 A systematic way of defining and answering research
questions
 A blueprint for subjecting work to proper
examination

IS and Computing Research
 Potential breakthroughs Through IS &

CS Research:
 Computers that can speak, listen,
and understand human language, are
much easier to use, and accurately
translate between languages in real-
time
 ‘Intelligent agents’ that can roam the
Internet, retrieving and summarising
required information in a vast ocean
of data
(Contd)
 Wide range of scientific and technological discoveries
made possible by simulations running on
supercomputers, accessible to researchers all over
the world
 Networks that can grow to connect not only tens of
millions of computers, but hundreds of billions of
devices

(Contd)
 New ways of developing complex
software that is more reliable and
easy to maintain, and can be
depended on to run the phone
system, the electric power grid,
financial markets, and other core
elements of our infrastructure
 Computers that are thousands of
times faster than today’s
supercomputers, and are based on
fundamentally different technology,
such as biological or quantum
computing
Emerging CS Concerns
 Empirical assessment of systems :

 Necessity to go beyond designing
 Find out what happens when products are implemented
in the real world
 Reason for failures of technical products
 Effect of methods in the real world

(Contd)
 Effectiveness of systems like:
 information hiding
 Design patterns
 UML (Unified Modelling Language)
 Agile development methods such as eXtreme Programming
(XP)
 Several computer science theories not tested.

(Contd)
 Following are all thought to improve programmer
productivity, program quality, or both:
 Functional programming
 Object-oriented programming
 Formal methods
 Surprisingly these important claims have ever been
tested systematically

(Contd)
Need for:
 Evidence that validates ideas about
appropriate technical products and
methods
 Evidence that links the theory to
practice
 evidence-based computing:
 Empirical assessment and evaluation of
computer products and development
processes

Research in CS / IT
 CS concentrates on technical development:

 So CS researchers would mostly use design and
creation activities:
 Such research requires:
 Finding or generating data
 Analysing it and
 Drawing conclusions

Research in CS / IT (Contd)
Example:
Is it possible to develop a computer based product to do
X?’
 Qs that arise:
 What is X?
 Why is it important to have a computer system to do X?

 Answers involve:,
 gather data about the product required
 generate your own data on how and why you designed
and implemented the product
 test the computer-based product
 obtain user or viewer feedback
 draw conclusions about effectiveness of product X

Some approaches to CS / IT Research:

 Implementation driven research
 Building better systems
 Developing a general framework for systems
 Mathematical proof techniques
 Uses formal proofs to reason validity of a hypothesis
 Empiricism
 Follows a clearly laid out sequence of steps:
hypothesis; methods; results and conclusion
 Observational studies
 Analyses the utility of a system in its eventual
context of use

PRODUCTS OF RESEARCH
PRODUCTS OF RESEARCH
Tangible Products
Intangible Products
•Technology
•Improved Hardware
•Improved Software
Publications
•Journal Articles
•Dissertation or thesis
•Conference Papers Consultation Training
•Specialised Technical Reports
•Reports to Sponsors and Donors
•Extension Pamphlets
•Audio Visuals

Possible Products and
Outcomes of Research
 IS and CS is a synthetic field
 Creating something new is only part of the problem
 The creation must also be shown to be ‘better’
 Standard publication is one indicator of academic
achievement

 Conference publication is both rigorous and
prestigious
 Dissemination of artifacts also transmit ideas
 Research in computer science and engineering is
generally:
 theory
 Experimentation
 Synthetic

 Theoretical Research:
 Tend to conduct research that resembles mathematics
 Phenomena are abstract
 Intellectual contribution is usually expressed in the form
of theorems with proofs
 Conference publication is a traditional academic
mechanism for evaluation

 Experimental Research:
 Involves creating computational artifacts
and assessing them
 Ideas are embodied in the artifact, which
could be a chip, circuit, computer,
network, software, robot, etc.
 Computational artifacts embody the idea
or concept as well as being a means to
measure or observe it
 Testing and measuring the performance
of the artifacts, evaluating their
effectiveness at solving the target
problem is a good means of evaluation
 Synthetic Research:
 must establish that the new creation is
‘better’
 ‘Better’ can mean many things:
 including "solves a problem in less time,"
 "solves a larger class of problems,"
 "is more efficient of resources,"
 "is more expressive by some criterion,"
 "is more visually appealing in the case of
graphics,"
 "presents a totally new capability," etc.

 Key point about this type of research
is that the ‘better’ property is not
simply an observation
 The research will postulate that a
new idea —a mechanism, process,
algorithm, representation, protocol,
data structure, methodology,
language, optimization or
simplification, model, etc. —will lead
to a ‘better’ result
 Making the connection between the idea and the
improvement is as important as quantifying how much
the improvement is
 The contribution is the idea, and is generally a
component of a larger computational system

Stages in Research
 Defining the research problem

 Designing the research
 Data collection
 Data analysis
 Writing a research report

Finding a Research Problem
A Research Problem To Investigate:

 Current events
 Suggestions from past dissertations
 Suggestions from research by authorities
in your field
 Theories and concepts without research
(in your field)
 Different approaches to testing
important results that have already
been found
Characteristics of ‘Good’
Research Problems
 Extends, enhances, or examines
theory
 Publishable (in academic, refereed
journals)
 Feasible (‘do-able’ given time &
resource constraints)
 Has a personal interest (something
you personally are interested in)
 Of interest to others Contribution to
the State of Knowledge
Choosing a Research Topic
 Choosing a research topic is the most

difficult part of doing research
 Ask the following questions:
 Am I interested in this topic?
Is the subject too broad? or too
narrow?
Are there anyone working on a
similar topic before?
Does the Library/Internet have
sufficient resources to support my
research?
Choosing a Research Topic
(Contd)
Choose a topic that:
 interests you
 is appropriate and fulfills the requirements for your
assignment
 is not so narrow that information is difficult to find
 is not so broad that it is difficult to cover

Pure & Applied Research
Pure Research
• Consequences are conceptual
• Defines what you want to know
Applied Research
 Consequences are tangible
 Defines what you want to do.

How to do Research
 Doing research is hard work!

 Hard to stay motivated in a vacuum
 Contact with others (supervisor & other students)
important
 Hardest areas are finding topic & writing up
 Usual stumbling blocks - Design/Evaluation
 A Plan - with fail-safes - is vital.

Research Design
 A plan or protocol for a particular piece of research

 Used to structure the research
 Glue holding elements together

Misconduct in Research
 Fabrication of data and claiming results where none

have been obtained;
 Falsification of data including changing of records;

(Contd)
 Plagiarism, including the direct copying of textual
material, the use of other people's data without
acknowledgement, and the use of ideas from other
people without adequate attribution;

(Contd)
 Misleading ascription of authorship
including the listing of authors
without their permission,
attributing work to others who
have not in fact contributed to the
research, and the lack of
appropriate acknowledgement of
work primarily produced by a
research student or assistant;

(Contd)
 Any practice that seriously deviates from those
commonly accepted within the research community;
 Intentional infringement of published Codes of
Conduct.

Evaluation of Research
 Evaluation of Product developed

 Evaluation of Report

Evaluation of Research Work
 Minimum items:
 Problem
 question
 Hypothesis
 goal
 importance of the Research
 Related work:
 Research & Practice (With References)

Work (Contd)
 Central notions with clear definitions
 Research approach or methodology
 Potential outcomes
 Contribution

Work (Contd)
 Does the proposal show the researcher’s:
 strengths
 experiences
 knowledge
 interests?
 Is there any personal touch?
 Is there imagination?

Work (Contd)
 Is the problem stated clearly?
 What is the form of the problem? (Why? What? How?
Where?)
 What is the motivation for the research?
 Why is the research important?
 To whom is the research important?

Checklist for Evaluation of
Research
Is there enough high quality earlier research on the
area?

Research (Contd)
 Is there enough high quality earlier research on the
area?
 Do the researcher show knowledge about the
practical work on the area of research?
 What are the limitations in the earlier research and
earlier solutions?
 Are the central notions defined clearly?

Research (Contd)
 If the research approach is constructive, what is the
researcher going to construct?
 Has the researcher stated it clearly?
 Why is the construction needed?
 How should the usefulness of the construction be
evaluated?

Research (Contd)
 Is the chosen methodology feasible?
 Does the researcher have the resources, facilities,
and tools needed?
 Can the data be collected?
 How does the work contribute the body of
knowledge?
 Is the work useful?
 To whom is the work useful?

Criteria for Evaluation of IS
Research
 Functionality:
 software engineering issues such as reliability,
robustness and efficiency
 the particular technical novelties of a system
 Efficacy:
 does the system do what is intended/needed?

Research (Contd)
 Usability:
 is the system easy to use for its intended user
population?
 Standards:
 does the system fulfil the pertinent requirements of
various standards-making bodies?

Research (Contd)
 Effect on the organisation:
 does the system make the organisation
more profitable? a nicer place to work?
more bureaucratic? How does the
organisational structure & culture
change due to the system's
implementation?
 Effect on the wider society:
 does the implementation of the system
affect society outside the organisation?
 Are these changes positive or negative?

EVALUATING A RESEARCH
REPORT
Evaluation of:
 The Title
 Introduction:
 The Problem
 Review of Related Literature
 Methodology
 Procedures Used
 Results
 Data Analysis
 Summary and Conclusions
REPORT (Contd)
 The Title
 Is it clear and concise?
 Does it promise no more than the study can provide?

REPORT (Contd)
INTRODUCTION
 The Problem:
 It is clearly stated?
 Is it properly defined?
 Is its significance recognized?
 Are specific questions raised; hypotheses clearly stated?
 Are assumptions and limitations stated?
 Are important terms defined?

REPORT (Contd)
INTRODUCTION
(Contd)
 Review of Related Literature
 Is it adequately covered?
 Are important findings noted?
 Is it well organized?
 Is an effective summary provided?

REPORT (Contd)
METHODOLOGY
 Procedures Used
 Is the research design described in detail?
 Is it adequate?
 Are the samples described?
 Are relevant variables recognized?
 Are appropriate controls provided?
 Are data-gathering instruments appropriate?
 Are validity and reliability established?
 Is the statistical treatment appropriate?
REPORT (Contd)
RESULTS
 Data Analysis
 Is appropriate use made of tables and figures?
 Is the textual discussion clear and concise?
 Is the analysis of data relationships logical and
perceptive?
 Is the statistical analysis accurately interpreted?

REPORT (Contd)
Summary and Conclusions
 Is the problem restated?
 Are the procedures and findings concisely presented?
 Is the analysis objective?
 Are the findings and conclusions justified by the data
presented and analyzed?

2 - Purpose and Products of Research

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

2 - Purpose and Products of Research

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter No.

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 A way of finding things out

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 Challenging our assumptions

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 Investigates ideas and uncovers useful knowledge

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

1) Originates with a question or a problem

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 Not mere information gathering

 Not mere transportation of facts

 Not merely rummaging for

 Not a catchword used to get

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 A disciplined approach to inquiry

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 Potential breakthroughs Through IS &

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 Empirical assessment of systems :

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 CS concentrates on technical development:

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Some approaches to CS / IT Research:

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 Defining the research problem

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

A Research Problem To Investigate:

 Choosing a research topic is the most

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 Doing research is hard work!

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 A plan or protocol for a particular piece of research

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 Fabrication of data and claiming results where none

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

 Evaluation of Product developed

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655

Dr.Sunil Khilari , 9850979655