Datasheets

• 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.
• 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.

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.

• 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.
• 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.

• Normally, one finds this knowledge by reading and surveying the literature in the field that was
established long ago and also about the more recent knowledge which is in fact always changing.

• With this foundation in place, the new knowledge that one will make will be much more difficult to
challenge than without that strong foundation in place which is ensured with lots of references to
the literature.

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.

• Use of judgmental approach and boldness to make judgments is needed while reading.

• Flexibility to discard previous erroneous judgments is also critical.

• Additionally, it is important to ascertain whether the data presented in the paper is right data to
substantiate the argument that was made in the paper and whether the data was gathered and
interpreted in a correct manner.

• 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.

• Reading 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.

CITATIONS: FUNCTIONS

• 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.

• This applies to all forms of written sources in the form of texts, images, sounds, etc. and failure to
do may be considered plagiarism

• 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.

• As per relevance to context, the researcher provides due credit through the use of a citation.

(i) Verification function:

Authors have a scope for finding intentional or unintentional distortion of research or misleading
statements. Citation offers the readers 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.

(iii) Documentation function:

Citations are also used to document scientific concepts and historical progress of any particular
technology over the years

KNOWLEDGE FLOW THROUGH CITATION(Co authorship)

• 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

• 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

• If paper A is cited by paper B, then knowledge flows through citation networks across institutions.

• The complex interdisciplinary nature of research encourages scholars to cooperate with each other
to grab more advantages through collaboration, thereby improving quality of the research

• The below 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
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASES

• ―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.

• Performing simultaneous searches through such large databases may allow researchers to overtly
rely on any one database and be limited by the intrinsic shortcoming of any one of them for quality
research.

• A researcher should be able to quickly identify the databases that are of use in the idea or problem
that one wishes to explore. 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.

• ―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.

• A structured search like this that enables narrowing and refining what one is looking for is effective
to ensure that the results throw up relevant sources and time spent in studying those is likely to be
well utilized.

• Based on the researcher‘s need the search result can be broadened or narrowed down using the
built-in fields provided in this website.

• 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.

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.

• On completing a thorough reading, a good technical reading should end with a summary of the
paper in a few sentences describing the contributions.

• But to elucidate the technical merit, the paper needs to be looked at from comparative perspective
with respect to existing works in that specific area.

• 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 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.