Guidelines for

Research Project - I (DECAP797)

of MCA and M.Sc. – Information Technology Programme

of LPU Distance Education Mode

Course Code DECAP797 Course Title RESEARCH PROJECT – I

WEIGHTAGES
CA ETE (Practical)
30 70

1
 Table of Contents

S.No. Particulars Page No.

1 General Guidelines 3-4
1.1 Course Outcomes 3
1.2 Description 3
1.3 Duration 3
1.4 Stages of the Project Work 3-4
1.5End Term Evaluation 4

2 Guidelines for Research Project Report – I Submission 5-7

2.1 Sequence of Introductory Pages of the Report 5
2.2 Formatting of the Report 5
2.3 Chapter Outline for Final Report Preparation 5-6
2.4 Guidelines for Writing References 6-7
2.5 Table of Contents 7

3 Evaluation Parameters for Research Project - I 8

3.1 Course weightages 8
3.2 Evaluation parameters for Continuous Assessment (CA) based 8
on Project Summary
3.3 Evaluation parameters for End Term Practical Viva 8

4 Award of Grades for Research Project - I 9

4.1 Award of passing grades 9
4.2 Award of ‘E’ grade 9

Annexures 10-12
Annexure-I: Summary of Research Project - I 10
Annexure-II: Cover Page 11
Annexure-III: Declaration by the Student 12

2
 1. General Guidelines
1.1 Course Outcomes:
CO1: identify and describe a significant issue relevant to the discipline.
CO2: acquire the knowledge of a comprehensive literature review related to the issue.
CO3: prepare and collect relevant up-to-date information about the issue, either directly or from
published studies or publicly available data.
CO4: define the problem statement and research project title.
1.2 Description:
A research project involves activities that closely relates to research work in the related field. Upon
completion, student will be able to apply the discipline knowledge and capabilities acquired during the
comprehensive research review. A research project may incorporate work-integrated learning
placements, literature review, data collection and analysis, other immersive learning experiences such
as study tools, research methodologies and simulations etc.
In this case, research project is divided in two parts i.e. Research Project – I (DECAP797) and Research
Project – II (DECAP798). In Research Project – I (DECAP797), the students should include
introduction of the project, review of literature, problem formulation and title of the project, objectives
of the project.
In Research Project – II (DECAP798), the students should continue after title and objectives of the
project and include implementation of the research project, results, discussion, conclusions and future
scope of the research project.
The students can select the research project from the broad category listed below:
• Database projects
• Network projects
• Web based projects
• Android based projects
• Middleware projects
• System Programming based projects
• Artificial Intelligence / Expert System-based projects
• Embedded software
• Simulators
• Research Based projects
1.3 Duration
The details regarding various activities to be completed by a student are mentioned in the section 1.4.
The students are required to finalize the topic, objectives, methodology and start working on the
project. Therefore, the work plan must be designed keeping in view the timelines for the completion of
project work.
1.4 Stages of the Project Work
a) Selection and finalization of Research Project Topic by Student: The first step in carrying out
the project will be to pick / select a subject area of your interest. This will be followed by
finalizing a research topic on which your research project will be based. Careful selection of
3
 research project topic is an utmost important step. The students should survey the literature in the
proposed area of research project to find the area of interest and finalize the topic. The student
needs to finalize the following:
• Area of specialization
• Topic of the project
• Timelines / Methodology
b) Award of CA marks: After finalizing the research project topic, the students can start working on
their research project. Each student must submit their Research Project Summary as per Annexure - I
along with the project report to LPU e-Connect. The Research Project Summary must clearly
define the work done by the student. The assigned faculty member will assess the progress of the
student and will award the CA marks on the basis of the criteria mentioned in section 3.2. The
assigned faculty member shall evaluate the Research Project Summary submitted by the student and
get it scrutinized after receipt of the report.
c) Submission of Project Report: Once the students have completed their project work, they need to
submit the final project report to be eligible for End Term evaluation.
The formatting and suggestive outline of the report is mentioned in detail in chapter-3. The students
need to submit report of research project – I as per specified guidelines.
The following key points must be kept in mind related to Research Project – I report
submission.
1. While working on the Research Project – I report submission, the students are advised to use
online as well as offline resources. The students can use the online resources available in e-Library
Tab on their LMS.
2. An e-copy of the report shall be uploaded by the student(s) on the LMS interface in a secured PDF
format on LMS.
Important Note:
Each student must ensure that he / she has signed annexure - III. The report uploaded on LMS must
contain the scanned copy of these annexures, otherwise the report shall not be considered for
evaluation.
1.5 End Term Evaluation
After completion of the research project - I, the eligible students (who have submitted the research
project – I report online on LMS) are required to appear in the end term viva wherein the student shall
be evaluated by examiners as per schedule communicated by Division of Examination. The evaluation
parameters for End Term Viva evaluation are given in section 3.3. The marks awarded by examiners
will be considered as final ETP viva marks of a student.
Important points:
The project work should be the original work done by the student(s). In case, students present the
work of someone else as their own or copies large portion from academic or other sources without
properly referencing them, even if unintentionally, it will be considered as an academic misconduct.
There will be zero tolerance for academic misconduct or plagiarism. All the matters related to
plagiarism will be dealt as per the University policy on academic misconduct.
4
 2. Guidelines for Research Project– I Report Submission

Following points should be kept in mind while preparation of the report of the research project - I:

• The Project report should be submitted online on the appropriate e-Connect interface.

• The title page should have information as mentioned in (Annexure-II)

• The report should be categorized in Chapters as per section 2.3.
2.1 Sequence of Introductory Pages of the Report
1) Cover Page {as per Annexure-II}
2) Declaration by the Student {as per Annexure-III}
3) Acknowledgement (if any)
4) List of Tables (If any)
5) List of Figures / Charts (If any)
6) List of Schemes (If any)
7) List of Symbols (If any)
8) List of Abbreviations (If any)
2.2 Formatting of the Report
2.2.1 The report should be prepared on A4 letter size.
2.2.2 The font type should be Times New Roman. The font size should be 14 for headings and 12 for
normal text.
2.2.3 All the headings should be in bold and all the other matter should be normal.
2.2.4 The text should be justified throughout the report except for headings, figures, tables, schemes
etc.
2.2.5 The line spacing should be fixed at 1.5 for the entire report.
2.2.6 The page numbers should be mentioned at bottom middle position.
2.2.7 The top, bottom and right margins should be 1” each and the left margins should be set at 2.5”.
2.2.8 The chapters should be numbered as Chapter-1, Chapter-2 etc. whereas figures, charts, tables
etc. should be numbered as 1.1, 2.1 etc. For example, figure 1.1 corresponds to first figure in
chapter-1.
2.2.9 The report should be minimum of 20 pages and maximum of 30 pages.
2.3 Chapter Outline for Report Preparation
The report should be divided into minimum of 4 chapters. The number of chapters can be increased to
maximum of 7 depending upon the requirement and nature of the work undertaken by the students.
The suggestive guidelines for each chapter are as follows:
Chapter-1: Chapter-1 should be titled as “Introduction”. It should include the aim, importance,
applicability, scope, relevance etc. of the proposed work. The students should
• Introduce the topic
• Give background and context
• Outline your problem statement and research question(s)

5
Some important questions to guide your introduction include:
• Who has an interest in the topic (e.g. scientists, practitioners, policymakers)
• How much is already known about the problem?
• What is missing from current knowledge?
• What new insights will your research contribute?
• Why is this research worth doing?
Chapter-2: Chapter-2 should be entitled as “Review of Literature”. The chapter should discuss the
extensive literature related to project. This should contain the authoritative as well as latest references
in the field of proposed work. The gaps in existing work should be clearly defined in this chapter which
has led to the need of the proposed work. The references should be authoritative and literature should
be organised in such a way that references are cited in chronological order starting from oldest and
proceeding to the latest reference till date. The students should
• Compare and contrast: what are the main theories, methods, debates and controversies?
• Be critical: what are the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches?
• Show how your research fits in: how will you build on, synthesize the work of others?
Chapter-3: Chapter-3 should be entitled as “Problem Formulation and Research Title”.
• The problem formulation gives a summarized indication of what the researcher has identified and
shortlisted after comprehensive literature review.
• Based on the problem statement, research title for which the project proposal has to be written
needs to be framed.
Chapter-4: Chapter 4 should be titled as “Aims and Objectives”.
• The research purpose (or goal or aim) gives a broad indication of what the researcher wishes to
achieve in the research.
• The hypothesis to be tested can be the aim of the study.
• The objectives related to parameters or tools used to achieve the aim are generally categorized as
primary and secondary objectives.
Annexures: Annexure-I, Annexure-II and Annexure-III should be submitted along with the project
report.
2.4 Guidelines for Writing References
• The references should be written after publication details.
• References must be typed as Superscripted in text.
• Multiple references must be comma (,) separated.
• While writing the reference for a paper in journal, following order should be followed
a) Initial and surname of the authors
b) Title of the paper in inverted commas
c) Name of the Journal in italics (Standard abbreviation can be used)
c) Volume number in bold
d) First page-last page
e) Year of publication
For example- J. Luo, C. W. Chen, K. J. Parker, and T. S. Huang, “Artifact reduction in low bit rate
DCT based image compression” IEEE Trans. Image Processing, vol. 5, pp. 1363–1368, Sept. 1999.
6
• While writing the reference of a book chapter, following order should be followed
a) Initial and surname of the authors
b) Title of the book
c) Edition of the book in round brackets
d) Name of publisher
e) Year of book in bold
f) First page-last page
For example- M. Kitamura, R. Noyori in Ruthenium in Organic Synthesis (Ed.: S.-I. Murahashi),
Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2004, pp. 3–52.
• While writing the reference for website, following order should be followed
a) URL of the website
b) Dated: DD/MM/YYYY
For Example- https://www.hopkinsguides.com/hopkins/view/Johns_Hopkins_Diabetes_Guide
/547042/all/DPP_IV_Inhibitors; Dated: 16/07/2019
2.5 Table of Contents

S. No. Title Page

1 Declaration by Student

2 Acknowledgement

3 Abstract

4 List of Tables

5 List of Figures/ Charts

6 List of Schemes/Algorithms

7 List of Symbols

8 List of Abbreviations

9 Chapter-1 Introduction

10 Chapter-2 Review of Literature

11 Chapter-3 Problem Formulation and Research Title

12 Chapter-4 Aims and Objectives

13 Annexures

14 References

7
 3. Evaluation Parameters for Research Project - I

The project evaluation process is very crucial for the success of the project. Project evaluation is
concerned with performance tracking along with the life of a project and demands special attention. At
the heart of this process lies a system of criteria one has to take into account when performing the
evaluation. This chapter emphasizes on the course weightages and CA / ETP parameters on which the
student performance shall be evaluated.

3.1Course weightages

Component Weightage
Continuous Assessment (CA) on the basis of Project 30%
Summary
End Term evaluation by examiners 70%

Total 100%

3.2 Evaluation Parameters for Continuous Assessment (CA) based on Summary of

Research Project - I
Maximum
S. No. Parameter
Marks

1. Title of the Project 10

2. Objectives of the Project 20

3.3 Evaluation Parameters for End Term Practical Viva

Parameter Marks
Appropriateness of the problem 20
Review of Literature 30
Presentation 10
Query Handling 20
Report Writing 20
Total 100

8
 4. Award of Grades for Research Project - I

4.1 Award of passing grades

The student shall be awarded pass grade (O, A+, A, B, C, D) on the basis of satisfying the following
criteria:
a) Submission of report of Research Project – I in online mode on LPU e-Connect.

b) Score 30% marks in ETP along with 40% marks overall in all components when combined
together (CA and ETP).
4.2 Award of ‘E’ Grade
If the student failed to satisfy the criteria given in section 4.1, he / she will be awarded E grade. In case
a student is awarded E grade, the student is required to re-register for the course in the next term. The
student is required to repeat the Project work and rewrite the report.

9
 Annexure - I
Summary of Research Project - I

Registration No: Name of student:

Title of the Research Project - I:

Objectives of the Research Project - I:

1.
2.
3.
4.
Expected Results of the Research Project - I:

Expected outcomes of the Research Project - I:

Expected Learnings from the Research Project - I:

Any Challenges/issues faced during the Research Project - I:

Signature of the Student:

10
 Annexure - II
Cover Page

(ADD TOPIC HERE ---- ADD TOPIC HERE)

(In Times New Roman font˂font size16˃Bold)

A Research Project – I Report

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
Award of the degree of
(in Times New Roman, ˂font size14˃)

“Name of the Program”

Fontsize16

By
Student Name
(˂in Times New Roman font size 14˃ bold)
(Enter Registration Number Here)
(in Times New Roman, ˂font size 12˃ bold)

Centre for Distance and Online Education

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
PHAGWARA, PUNJAB
Year
(In Times New Roman ˂fontsize16> bold)
11
 Annexure - III

Declaration by the Student

To whom-so-ever it may concern

I, Name of the student, Registration Number of the student, hereby declare that the work
done by me on “Topic of the project”, is a record of original work for the partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the award of the degree, Programme name.

Name of the Student (Registration Number)

Signature of the student

Dated:

12