RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

MODULE 2
Literature Review and Technical Reading, New and Existing Knowledge, Analysis and
Synthesis of Prior Art Bibliographic Databases, Web of Science, Google and Google Scholar,
Effective Search: The Way Forward Introduction to Technical Reading Conceptualizing
Research, Critical and Creative Reading, Taking Notes While Reading, Reading Mathematics
and Algorithms, Reading a Datasheet. Attributions and Citations: Giving Credit Wherever
Due, Citations: Functions and Attributes, Impact of Title and Keywords on Citations,
Knowledge Flow through Citation, Citing Datasets, Styles for Citations, Acknowledgments
and Attributions, What Should Be Acknowledged, Acknowledgments in, Books
Dissertations, Dedication or Acknowledgments.

Literature Review and Technical Reading

The primary goal of literature review is to know the use of content/ideas/approaches in the
literature to correctly identify the problem that is vaguely known beforehand, to advocate a
specific approach adapted to understanding the problem, and to access the choice of methods
used. It also helps the researcher understand clearly that the research to be undertaken would
contribute something new and innovative. The quality of such review can be determined
by evaluating if it includes appropriate breadth and depth of the area under study, clarity,
rigor, consistency, effective analysis.

New and Existing Knowledge

 New knowledge in research can only be interpreted within the context of what is already
known, and cannot exist without the foundation of existing knowledge.
 We are going to look at how that foundation of knowledge needs to be constructed so that our
new knowledge is supported by it.
 The new knowledge can have vastly different interpretations depending on what the
researcher’s background, and one’s perception of that new knowledge can change from
indifference to excitement (or vice versa), depending on what else one knows.
 The significance can normally be argued from the point of view that there is indeed an
existing problem and that it is known by looking at what already exists in the field. The
existing knowledge is needed to make the case that there is a problem and that it is important.

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 1

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

 One can infer that the knowledge that is sought to be produced does not yet exist by
describing what other knowledge already exists and by pointing out that this part is missing
so that what we have is original.
 To do this, one again needs the existing knowledge: the context, the significance, the
originality, and the tools.
 Often, but not always, the textbooks contain the older established knowledge and the research
papers the newer work. Reading the textbooks on one’s topic provide the established
knowledge and the background to be able to read the newer work usually recorded in the
research papers.
 This is not at all the case with a research paper where the goal is normally to present a small
piece of new knowledge, and that new knowledge will not have stood the test of time in the
same way as the knowledge in a textbook would have.
 The review process must explain how a research item builds on another one. This is because
useful research should elucidate how and why certain technical development took place, so
that it is easy for the reader to comprehend why the present talk is being undertaken, and a
good literature survey would provide a convincing under to that question.
 An effective review of literature ensures a firm foundation for advancing knowledge,
facilitates theoretical growth, eliminates as areas that might be of interest, and opens new
avenues of possible work. An efficient literature review is centred around concepts and not
authors
 A good literature survey is typically a two-step process as enumerated below:
(i) Identify the major topics or subtopics or concepts relevant to the subject under consideration
(ii) Place the citation of the relevant source (article/patent/website/data, etc.) in the correct
category of the concept/topic/subtopic (with the help of a , for example).
 A comprehensive literature survey should methodically analyze and synthesize quality
archived work, provide a firm foundation to a topic of interest and the choice of suitable
research methodologies, and demonstrate that the proposed work would make a novel
contribution to the overall field of research.

Analysis and Synthesis of Prior Art

After collecting the sources, usually articles, intended to be used in the literature review, the
researcher is ready to break down each article and identify the useful content in it, and then

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 2

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

synthesize the collection of articles (integrate them and identify the conclusions that can be
made from the articles as a group).
A literature survey grid of N topics and M sources is shown below to help crystallize the
information in different categories. A researcher should analyse the relevant information
ascertained in Table by undertaking the following steps:
(i) Understanding the hypothesis,
(ii) Understanding the models and the experimental conditions used,
(iii) Making connections,
(iv) Comparing and contrasting the various information, and
(v) Finding out the strong points and the loopholes. It is always good to be suspicious of the
claims made in the sources that have been thoroughly reviewed, especially in the case of tall
claims. If one is amenable

Source 1 Source 2 … Source M

Topic 1 
Topic 2 

Topic N 
Table: The literaturesurvey grid

 The goal of literature survey is to bring out something new to work on through the
identification of unsolved issues, determine the problems in the existing models or
experimental designs, and present a novel idea and recommendations.

Here are a few criteria that could help the researcher in the evaluation of the
information under study:

 Authority: What are the author’s credentials and affiliation? Who publishes the information?
• Accuracy: Based on what one already knows about the topic or from reading other sources,
does the information seem credible? Does the author cite other sources in a reference list or
bibliography, to support the information presented?
• Scope: Is the source at an appropriate comprehension or research level?

Bibliographic Databases
ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 3
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

―Bibliographic databases‖ refer to ―abstracting and indexing services‖ useful for collecting
citation-related information and possibly abstracts of research articles from scholarly
literature and making them available through search.
A researcher should be able to quickly identify the databases that are of use in the idea or
problem that one wishes to explore. In this section, we present some details about a few of
the popular bibliographic databases most sought after by engineering researchers, but do not
attempt to provide exhaustive details.

A) Web of Science:

 Web of Science (formerly known as ISI or Thomson Reuters) includes multiple

databases, as well as specialized tools.
 It is a good search tool for scholarly materials requiring institutional license and allows
the researcher to search in a particular topic of interest, which can be made by selection in
fields that are available in drop down menu such as title, topic, author, address, etc. The
tool also allows sorting by number of citations (highest to lowest), publication date.
 Put quotes around phrases, add more keywords, or use the ―Refine Results‖ panel on the
left to narrow down the search by keyword, phrases in quotation marks, type of material
such as peer-reviewed journal articles, date, language, and more.
 Expanding the search results is possible by looking for alternate word endings, breaking
the search concepts down, thinking of alternate search terms (including scientific names if
applicable) and connecting them with OR, and using the database’s features for finding
additional references.
 ―Cited reference search‖ option enables a researcher to trace articles which have cited a
formerly published paper. Using this element, it is possible to find how a familiar idea has
been applied, improved, or extended subsequently.
 When clicked on any of the search results, this website provides the title of the paper,
authors, the type of journal, volume, issue number and year of publication, abstract,
keywords, etc., so that the researcher has enough information to decide if it is worthwhile
to acquire the full version of the paper.
 Based on the researcher’s need the search result can be broadened or narrowed down
using the built-in fields provided in this website.

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 4

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

B) Google and Google Scholar

 Google is a great place to start one’s search when one is starting out on a topic. It can be
helpful in finding freely available information, such as reports from governments,
organizations, companies, and so on.
 There are limitations: (i) it’s a ―black box‖ of information. It searches everything on the
Internet, with no quality control—one does not know where results are coming from.
(ii) There are limited search functionality and refinement options.
 What about Google Scholar? Google Scholar limits one’s search to scholarly literature.
However, there are limitations:
1. Some of the results are not actually scholarly. An article may look scholarly at first glance,
but is not a good source upon further inspection.
2. It is not comprehensive. Some publishers do not make their content available to Google
Scholar.
3. There is a limited search functionality and refinement option.
 Here are some basic ones that one can use
(i) OR—Broadens search by capturing synonyms or variant spellings of a concept. Example:
Synchronous OR asynchronous will find results that have either term present.
(ii) Brackets/Parentheses ( )—Gather OR’d synonyms of a concept together, while combining
them with another concept. Example: RAM (synchronous OR asynchronous).
(iii) Quotation marks ― ‖—Narrow the search by finding words together as a phrase, instead
of separately. Example: RAM (synchronous OR asynchronous) ―Texas Instruments‖.
(iv) Site—limits the search to results from a specific domain or website. This operator is
helpful when searching specific websites such as the BC government, which is Example:
RAM (synchronous OR asynchronous) ―Texas Instruments‖ site:
(v)Filetype—limits the search to results with a specific file extension one could look for
pdf’s, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spread sheets, and so on. Example: RAM
(synchronous OR asynchronous) ―Texas Instruments‖ filetype: pdf
 It can be hard to sift through all the results in Google or Google Scholar, especially if the
intent is to find scholarly resources from a specific subject area. To find the best resources on
a topic, one should search in academic databases, in addition to Google.
 Databases provide access to journal articles and conference proceedings, as well as other
scholarly resources. One gets more relevant and focused results, because they have better
quality control and search functionality.

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 5

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

 One should choose a database based on subject area, date coverage, and publication type.
Interfaces vary between databases, but the search techniques remain essentially the same.

Effective Search: The Way Forward

 A scholarly publication is one wherein the published outcome is authored by researchers in a
specific field of skill. Such work cites all source contents used and is generally peer reviewed
for accuracy and validity before publication. Essentially, the audience for such works is
fellow experts and students in the field. The content is typically more complex and advanced
than those found in general magazines.
 While most of the engineering researchers need to refer articles that appear in scholarly
journals, books or other peer-reviewed sources, there is also a substantially useful content in
more popular publications.
 These are informal in approach and aim to reach a large number of readers including both the
experts in the field and also amateurs, but the content focuses on news and trends in the field.
Research outcomes are not typically first disseminated here but are usually meant for general
reading.
 A researcher must consider what type of information is needed, and where it could be found.
Not all information is available online. Some information is only available in print.
 The information may not be available, or studies on a topic of interest to the researcher have
not occurred. In such a case, the researcher should look for similar studies that would be
applicable to the specific topic; look for broad information (general process, technology,
etc.), as well as information that addresses the specific context of the researcher’s report.
 Searching is an iterative process:
• Experiment with different keywords and operators;
• Evaluate and assess results, use filters;
• Modify the search as needed; and
• When relevant articles are found, look at their citations and references
 After the search is complete, the researcher needs to engage in critical and thorough reading,
making observation of the salient points in those sources, and summarize the findings. A
detailed comparison and contrast of the findings is also required to be done.
 This entire process may be needed to be done multiple times. The conclusion of the entire
process of literature survey includes a summary of the relevant and important work done, and

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 6

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

also the identification of the missing links and the challenges in the open problems in the area
under study.
 It is mandatory for a Ph.D. scholar to write a synopsis of the topic and submit it to the
doctoral committee for approval. During this stage, the scholar needs to undertake an
extensive literature survey connected with the problem. For this purpose, the archived
journals and published or unpublished bibliographies are the first place to check out. One
source leads to another.

Introduction to Technical Reading

 While reading an engineering research paper, the goal is to understand the technical
contributions that the authors are making.
 Given the abundance of journal articles, it is useful to adopt a quick, purposeful, and
useful way of reading these manuscripts. It is not the same as reading a newspaper. It may
require rereading the paper multiple times and one might expect to spend many hours
reading the paper. A simple, efficient, and logical approach is described in this section for
identifying articles and reading them suitably for effective research.
 Start out the skimming process by reading the title and keywords (these are anyways,
probably what caught the initial attention in the first place). If on reading these, it does
not sufficiently seem to be interesting; it is better to stop reading and look for something
else to read.
 One should then read the abstract to get an overview of the paper in minimum time.
Again, if it does not seem sufficiently important to the field of study, one should stop
reading further. If the abstract is of interest, one should skip most of the paper and go
straight to the conclusions to find if the paper is relevant to the intended purpose, and if
so, then one should read the figures, tables, and the captions therein, because these would
not take much time but would provide a broad enough idea as to what was done in the
paper.
 If the paper has continued to be of interest so far, then one is now ready to delve into the
Introduction section to know the background information about the work and also to
ascertain why the authors did that particular study and in what ways the paper furthers the
state of the art.
 The next sections to read are the Results and Discussion sections which is really the heart
of the paper. One should really read further sections like the Experimental

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 7

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

Setup/Modelling, etc. only if one is really interested and wishes to understand exactly
what was done to better understand the meaning of the data and its interpretation.
 A researcher will always need to be searching for the relevant literature and keeping up to
date with it. If one is busy with a small project, the advisor might just give a single
important paper to read. But with a larger one, you will be searching for one’s own
literature to read.

Conceptualizing Research

 Coming up with a good research objective, conceptualizing the research that meets all of
these requirements is a tough thing to do. It means that one must already be aware of what is
in the literature.
 That is, by the time one actually has a good research objective, one is probably already an
expert at the edge of knowledge else it is difficult to say with confidence that one has a good
research objective.
 If one is doing research at the Ph.D. level or higher, then conceptualizing the research is
probably something that one needs to do oneself. This is a very tough step because one needs
to know all that literature in the field.
 So, when working at the Ph.D. level, one needs to be prepared to become that expert, one
needs to be continually reading the literature so as to bring together the three parts: (i)
significant problem, (ii) the knowledge that will address it, and (iii) a possible way to make
that new knowledge. How these three aspects would come together will be different for every
person doing research and it will be different in every field, but the only way to be that expert
is by immersing oneself in the literature and knowing about what already exists in the field.
 An established researcher in any field should be able to immediately point to the landmark
literature that one should read first. Otherwise one would need to spend a lot of time reading
the literature to discover.
 As engineers, we like to build things, and that’s good, but the objective of research is to make
knowledge. If one’s research is about building something, one ought to take a step back and
ask if new knowledge is being formulated. Even if what one is building is new and has never
been built before, if it is something that any experienced and competent engineer could have
come up with, one runs the risk of one’s work being labelled obvious and rejected as
research.

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 8

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

Critical and Creative Reading

Reading a research paper is a critical process. The reader should not be under the assumption
that reported results or arguments are correct. Rather, being suspicious and asking appropriate
questions is in fact a good thing. Have the authors attempted to solve the right problem? Are
there simpler solutions that have not been considered? What are the limitations (both stated
and ignored) of the solution and are there any missing links? Are the assumptions that were
made reasonable? Is there a logical flow to the paper or is there a flaw in the reasoning?
These need to be ascertained apart from the relevance and the importance of the work, by
careful reading. Critical reading is relatively easy. It is relatively easier to critically read to
find the mistakes than to read it so as to find the good ideas in the paper. Anyone who has
been a regular reviewer of journal articles would agree to such a statement.
Creatively is harder, and requires a positive approach in search. In creative reading, the idea
is to actively look for other applications, interesting generalizations, or extended work which
the authors might have missed? Are there plausible modifications that may throw up
important practical challenges? One might be able to decipher properly if one would like to
start researching an extended part of this work, and what should be the immediate next aspect
to focus upon.

Taking Notes While Reading

 A researcher reads to write and writes well only if the reading skills are good. The bridge
between reading and actually writing a paper is the act of taking notes during and shortly
after the process of reading.
 There is a well-known saying that the faintest writing is better than the best memory, and it
applies to researchers who need to read and build on that knowledge to write building on the
notes taken.
 Many researchers take notes on the margins of their copies of papers or even digitally on an
article aggregator tool. In each research paper, there are a lot of things that one might like to
highlight for later use such as definitions, explanations, and concepts.
 If there are questions of criticisms, these need to be written down so as to avoid being
forgotten later on. Such efforts pay significantly when one has to go back and reread the same
content after a long time.
 A thorough reading should bring out whether there are new ideas in the paper, or if existing
ideas were implemented through experiments or in a new application, or if different existing

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 9

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

ideas were brought together under a novel framework. Obviously, the type of contribution a
paper is actually making can be determined better by having read other papers in the area.

Reading Mathematics and Algorithms

 Mathematics is often the foundation of new advances, for evolution and development of
engineering research and practice. An engineering researcher generally cannot avoid
mathematical derivations or proofs as part of research work. In fact, these are the heart of any
technical paper.
By meticulous reading of the proofs or algorithms, after having identified the relevance of
the paper, one can develop sound understanding about the problem that the authors have
attempted to solve.
 Nonetheless, one might skim a technical section if it seems like an explanation of something
already known, or if it is too advanced for the research at the present moment and needs
additional reading to be understandable, or if it seems to specialized and unlikely to be
needed in the course of the research program in which case one can get back to it later on.
 Implementation of an intricate algorithm in programming languages such as C, C++
or Java is prone to errors. And even if the researcher is confident about the paper in
hand, and thinks that the algorithm will work, there is a fair chance that it will not
work at all. So one may wish to code it quickly to check if it actually works.

Reading a Datasheet
 Researchers in different fields of engineering will need to read certain types of documents.
For example, mechanical and civil engineers would need to read drawings related to
mechanical parts and buildings. Researchers in the field of electronics need to read
datasheets. On occasions, researchers in other fields may also need to incorporate a certain
electronic part in which case careful reading of the datasheet is imperative. The same
principles like initial skimming of the datasheet are required to ascertain whether further
careful reading is needed.
 Datasheets are instruction manuals for electronic components, which (hopefully) details what
a component does and how one may use it. Datasheets enable a researcher (or a working
professional) to design a circuit or debug any given circuit with that component. The first
page of the datasheet usually summarizes a part’s function and features, basic specifications,
and usually provides a functional block diagram with the internal functions of the part.

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 10

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

 A pin out provides the physical location of a part’s pins, with special mark for pin 1 so that
the part can be correctly plugged into the circuit. Some parts also provide graphs showing
performance versus various criteria (supply voltage, temperature, etc.), and safe region for
reliable operation which should be carefully read and noted by the researcher.
 One should be also in the lookout for truth tables which describe what sort of inputs provide
what types of outputs, and also timing diagrams which lay out how and at what speed data is
sent and received from the part. Datasheets usually end with accurate dimensions of the
packages a part is available in. This is useful for printed circuit board (PCB) layout.
 When working with a new part, or when deciding which part to use in the research work, it is
recommended to carefully read that part’s datasheet to come up with a bit of shortcut that
may potentially save many hours later on.
 As already stated, an engineering researcher will have documents to read which are specific
to the branch of engineering in which one is researching in. However, the objective of the
authors herein has been to use datasheets as an example to state the need to pay attention to
the art of reading such documents.

Attributions and Citations: Giving Credit Wherever Due

Academic writing, by definition, must follow certain rules and conventions. Among the most
important of these are the rules and conventions about citing, referencing, attributing, and
acknowledging the works of others. That means giving proper credit wherever due. Citing is
the practice of quoting from, referring to other authors’ works and ideas in the text of our
work in such a way that the context is clear to the reader. Referencing is the listing of the full
publication details of a published work that is cited so as to give background information to
the readers.
Acknowledgment in research publications indicates contributions to scientific work.
However, acknowledgment, attributions, and citations differ in the manner of their
application. Acknowledgment is arguably more personal, singular, and simply an expression
of appreciations and contribution. In this chapter, we address these issues in detail apart from
the legal challenges when attributions and citations are not adequately done.

Citations: Functions and Attributes

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 11

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

 Citations (references) credit others for their work, while allowing the readers to trace the
source publication if needed. Any portion of someone else’s work or ideas in papers, patents,
or presentations must be used in any new document only by clearly citing the source.
 The growth of knowledge in any field of study, especially in technological fields, is primarily
incremental and a researcher invariably and naturally builds upon prior information. There
are well-established means of preventing and spreading knowledge through publication of
patents, papers (conference paper and the peer-reviewed journal paper), or articles, and also
through textbooks and classrooms. While it is true that a research needs to leverage the prior
art in the area of research interest so as to make further development, at the same time it is
important to ensure that credit for that existing knowledge is suitably acknowledged.
 When a bibliography of previously published patents or papers is placed in the new works of
a researcher, a connection is established between the new and previous work.
 Citations help the readers to verify the quality and importance of the new work and
justification of the findings.
 It is a way to tell readers that certain material in the researcher’s present work has come from
another source and as an ethical responsibility; appropriate credit has been given to the
original Materials that can be cited include journal papers, conference proceeding, books,
theses, newspaper articles, websites, or other online resources and personal communication.
Preferably, citations should be given at the end of a sentence or the end of a paragraph as can
be seen even in this particular paragraph. Citation must contain enough details so that readers
can easily find the referenced material author or writer.
 A researcher needs to cite each source twice: (i) in-text citation, in the text of the article
exactly where the source is quoted or paraphrased, and (ii) a second time in the references,
typically at the end of the chapter or a book or at the end of a research article
 The citation elements differ and so what is to be recorded can differ from one source to
another. It is also important to mention the date the source was published and sometimes also
the particular date it was accessed by the researcher if it is related to web content.
 LaTeX, a document preparation system often used by engineering researchers to
automatically format documents that comply with standard formatting needs, is very effective
to track and update citations.
There are three main functions of citation:
(i) Verification function: Authors have a scope for finding intentional or unintentional
distortion of research or misleading statements. Citation offers the readers

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 12

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

a chance to ascertain if the original source is justified or not, and if that assertion is properly
described in the present work .
ii) Acknowledgment function: Researchers primarily receive credit for their work through
citations. Citations play crucial role in promotion of individual researchers and their
continued employment. Many reputed organizations and institutes provide research funding
based on the reputations of the researchers. Citations help all researchers to enhance their
reputation and provide detailed background of the research work.
ii) Documentation function: Citations are also used to document scientific concepts and
historical progress of any particular technology over the years
 Authors demonstrate their comprehension skills by identifying, estimating, and incorporating
other’s research work and then create and express their own ideas precisely while
acknowledging ownership of ideas through citation.
 Authors should cite sources to indicate significance of the work to the reader. Relevant
citations help authors develop an easily understandable argument and prevent the need to
navigate through work irrelevant to the reader’s interest areas.

Impact of Title and Keywords on Citations

The citation rate of any research paper depends on various factors including significance and
availability of the journal, publication types, research area, and importance of the published
research work. Other factors like length of the title, type of the title, and selected keywords
also impact the citation count.
Title is the most important attribute of any research paper. It is the main indication of the
research area or subject and is used by researcher as a source of information during literature
survey.
Title plays important role in marketing and makes research papers traceable. A good title is
informative, represents a paper effectively to readers, and gains their attention.
There are three different aspects which provide a particular behaviour to the title: (i) types of
the title, (ii) length of the title, and (iii) presence of specific markers
In general, titles containing a question mark, colon, and reference to a specific geographical
region are associated with lower citation rates, also result-describing titles usually get
citations than method-describing titles. Additionally, review articles and original articles
usually receive more citations than short communication articles. At least two keywords in

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 13

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

the title can increase the chance of finding and reading the article as well as get more
citations.
Keywords represent essential information as well as main content of the article, which are
relevant to the area of research. Search engines, journal, digital libraries, and indexing
services use keywords for categorization of the research topic and to direct the work to the
relevant audience.
If maximum number of allowable keywords is used, then the chance of the article being
found increases and so does the probability of citation count of the article. Usage of new
keywords should be minimal as such keywords may not be well known to the research
community and so may lead to low visibility of the article.

Knowledge Flow through Citation

Knowledge flows through verbal communications, books, documents, video, audio, and
images, which plays a powerful role in research community in promoting the formulation of
new knowledge.
In engineering research, knowledge flow is primarily in the form of books, thesis, articles,
patents, and reports. Citing a source is important for transmission of knowledge from
previous work to an innovation.
Production of knowledge can be related to the citation network. Knowledge flow happens
between co-authors during research collaboration, among other researchers through their
paper citation network, and also between institutions, departments, research fields or topics,
and elements of research

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 14

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

Fig2.1.Citation-based knowledge flow

Figure 2.1 shows the relationship between citations, knowledge flow, and elements such as
researchers, papers, jour- nal publications or conferences, and institutions. If paper A is cited
by paper B, then knowledge flows through citation networks across institutions.
Figure shows a relationship between co-authorship and different types of citations. Three
articles (X, Y, and Z) and five references (X1, X2, X3, Y1, and Y2) of article X and Y,
respectively, are considered. A, B, and C are authors of article X, and D, E, F, G, and also A
are authors of article Y. Article Z has two authors H and E. References X1, X2, X3, Y1, and
Y2 have authors (A, P), (H, R), (D), (Q, B, F), and (R), respectively.
Based on co-authorship citation network, references X1 and Y1 are considered self-citation,
reference X3 is a level-1 co-author citation because author of article Y is direct collaborator of
author A, reference X2 is a level-1 co-author network because author A is collaborator of E
who collaborated with H. We conclude that papers which frequently cite collaborators will also
often cite collaborators of collaborators. Collaborations certainly impact citation counts.

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 15

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

Co-authorship network

Citing Datasets

The nature of engineering research has evolved rapidly and now relies heavily on
data to justify claims and provide experimental evidences and so data citations must fetch
proper credit to the creator of the dataset as citations of other objects like research articles.
Ascertaining the ownership of data can be a complicated issue especially with large datasets,
and issues of funding can also make it a difficult matter.
A researcher should obtain necessary permission for using data from a particular source.
Citations related to datasets should include enough information so that a reader could find the
same dataset again in the future, even if the link provided no longer works. It is proper to
include a mixture of general and specific information to enable a reader to be certain that the
search result is the same dataset that was sought.

Examples:

Historical Data, Sotavento (Wind Farm), Corunna, Spain (July 2016): [Accessed:
4 Oct, 2016] Retrieved from http://www.sotaventogalicia.com/en/real-time-data/historical

Deb, D (2016). [Personnel survey]. Unpublished raw data.

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 16

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

Styles for Citations

Citation styles differ primarily in the order, and syntax of information about references,
depending on difference in priorities attributed to concision, readability, dates, authors, and
publications. Some of the most common styles for citation (as well as other aspects of
technical writing) used by engineers are as follows:
1. ASCE style (American Society of Civil Engineers)2 (a) Reference list: This part is to be
placed in the bibliography or references at the end of the article or report. A template with

Template for books:

Author Surname, Author Initial. (Year Published). Title. Publisher, City,Pages Used.

Example:

Wearstler, K., and Bogart, J. (2004). Modern glamour. Regan Books, NY.

Template for websites:

Author Credentials / Company Name (Year Published). ‘Title’. http://WebsiteURL (Oct. 10, 2013).

Example:

Blade cleaning services (2015): http://www.bladecleaning.com/problematica(29 Oct, 2016).

example for the same is given below:

Template for journal publications:

Author Surname, Author Initial. (Year Published). ‘Title’. Publication Title,Volume number(Issue number), Pages Used.

Example:
Johnston, L. (2014). “How an Inconvenient Truth Expanded The Climate Change Dialogue abd Reignited An Ethical
Purpose in The United States”.1–160.

b) In-text citation for journals or books: The following part is to be placed right after the
reference to the source of the citation assignment
Template
(Author Surname/Website URL Year Published)

Examples:
i. Citation is a very important part of technical writing. (Deb 2016)
ii. Engineers create devices to monitor mountains so that nearby inhab- itants can be warned of impending eruptions.
(Teachengineering.org 2014)

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 17

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

2. IEEE style (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)3 IEEE style is standard for all
IEEE journals and magazines, and is frequently used for papers and articles in the fields of
electrical engineering and computer science. The IEEE style requires endnotes and that
references be cited numerically in the text
Those submitting to an IEEE publication should see guidelines for the specific journal or
magazine and may also refer to the complete IEEE editorial style manual. Some examples of
IEEE styles of citations for different types of sources are enumerated below
Chapter in an edited book
[1] A. Rezi and M. Allam, “Techniques in array processing by means of transformations,” in Control and Dynamic Systems, Vol. 69,
Multidimensional Systems, C. T. Leondes, Ed. San Diego: Academic Press, 1995, pp. 133–180

3. ASME style (The Association of Mechanical Engineers)4

Acknowledgments and Attributions

 Acknowledgment section is a place to provide a brief appreciation of the contribution of
someone or an organization or funding body to the present work. If no particular guideline is
available for the intended publication, then it can be introduced at the end of the text or as a
footnote.
 Acknowledgment is a common practice to recognize persons or agencies for being responsible
in some form or other for completion of a publishable research outcome.
 Acknowledgment displays a relationship among people, agencies, institutions, and research.
In some case, certain individuals may help in the research work but may not deserve to be
included as authors. As a sign of gratitude, such contributions should be acknowledged
 . Classification of acknowledgment into six different categories like moral, financial, editorial,
institutional or technical, and conceptual support

 Acknowledgments and attributions are also very important in the publications of journal or
conference papers
 Whenever possible, author shall give name of persons who may be responsible, even if
nominally, for designs, inventions, writings, or other accomplishments. Given the importance
of work published, authorship is also important. The reward triangle theory shows a
relationship between citations, acknowledgment, and authorship.
 In engineering research, acknowledgments are meant for participating techni-cians, students,
funding agency, grant number, institution, or anyone who provide scientific inputs, shared
unpublished results, provided equipment, or participated in discussions.

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 18

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

A).What should Be Acknowledged?

. Author should acknowledge quotation, ideas, facts, paraphrasing, funding organization, oral
discussion or support, laboratory, and computer work.
(i) Quotation: In technical writing such as in the field of engineering, quotes are used very
rarely. Quotations are of two types:
(a) Direct quotations are used when author use actual words or sentences in the same order as
the original one. Author should use quotation marks for the words or sentences with proper
acknowledgment.
(b) Indirect quotation summarizes or paraphrases the actual quote. In such cases, it is
important to acknowledge with proper name and date.
(ii) Authors should acknowledge people who give appropriate contribution in their research
work. Non-research work contributions are not generally acknowledged in a scientific paper
but it may be in a thesis. Persons must be acknowledged by authors, who gave a scientific or
technical guidance, take part in some discussions, or shared information to author. Authors
should acknowledge assistants, students, or technicians, who helped experimentally and
theoretically during the research work
(iii) If the researcher received grant from a funding agency and if those funds were used in
the work reported in the publication, then such support should always be acknowledged by
providing full details of the funding program and grant number in the acknowledgment
section. The authors should also gratefully acknowledge use of the services and facilities of
any center or organization with which they are not formally affiliated to
An example of acknowledgment of grant received is as follows:
Acknowledgments: This research work was funded in part by the Extra Mural Research
Funding 2014–17 (Individual Centric) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST),
Govt. of India
(iv)Acknowledging that results have been presented elsewhere: If the results were presented
as an abstract in a journal, then there should be a suitable citation. If the results were
presented as part of scientific meeting, symposium, or other gathering, then some relevant
information should be provided. At the very least, the name of the gathering and year should
be cited. Other helpful items include the location of the gathering (city and state or country)
and the full date of the occasion.
By acknowledging all help received in one’s research work, the author(s) demonstrate
integrity as a researcher, which in turn encourages continued collaboration from those who
ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 19
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

helped out in different ways.

One may also appropriately bolster one’s colleagues’ careers, as being credited in an
acknowledgment section is emerging as one of many ways a researcher’s professional impact
is evaluated.
Acknowledgment is no longer simply a means of expressing gratitude. Funding agencies
these days often require that their grant be acknowledged and explicitly state the exact
information to be provided if the research work leads to a publication.

B).Acknowledgments in Books/Dissertations
A page of acknowledgments is usually included at the beginning of a thesis/ dissertation
immediately following the table of contents.
These acknowledgments are longer than the one or two sentence statements in journal papers
or articles in conference proceedings.
These detailed acknowledgments enable the researcher to thank all those who have
contributed in completion of the research work. Careful thought needs to be given concerning
those whose inputs are to be acknowledged and in what order.
Generally, one should express appreciation in a concise manner and avoid emotive language.
The following are often acknowledged in these types of acknowledgments: main supervisor,
second supervisor, peers in the lab, other academic staff in the department, technical or
support staff in the department, colleagues from other departments, other institutions, or
organizations, former students, family, and friends
Sample Acknowledgement in Thesis: I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor Prof.
Gang Tao for the useful comments, remarks and encouragement throughout this thesis work.
Furthermore, I wish to express my thanks to Prof. Jacob Hammer for introducing me to the topic and
for the support along the way. Also, I like to thank my peers in the Adaptive Control Lab such as Yu
Liu and Shanshan Li, who have shared their precious time during many lively technical discussions. I
would like to thank my family members who have supported me throughout this journey in many
different ways

Dedication or Acknowledgments?

Dedication is almost never used in a journal paper, an article in a conference proceedings, or

a patent, and it is used exclusively in larger documents like books, thesis, or dissertations

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 20

 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 21RMI56

While acknowledgments are reserved for those who helped out with the book in some way or
another (editing, moral support, etc), a dedication is to whomever the author would like it to
be dedicated to, whether it is the author’s mother, the best friend, the pet dog, or Almighty
God. And yes, it is possible to dedicate something to someone while also mentioning them in
the acknowledgments.
For example, one may dedicate a book to one’s spouse, but acknowledge them for being the
moral support and putting up with when one got very stressed
The acknowledgments in technical books can be sometimes as brief as the ones in journal
articles. The acknowledgment section of a technical report may be a paragraph that is longer
than a journal paper but shorter than dissertations. Generally, the length of the
acknowledgment may have some correlation with the length of the document.

ROOPESH A R, Ass.prof, CS&E,RIT,Hassan Page 21