RESEARCH METHODOLOGY &

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

(21RMI56)

MODULE-2
LITERATURE REVIEW AND TECHNICAL
READING
ATTRIBUTIONS AND CITATIONS
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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 adopted 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.
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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 back- ground, 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.
 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.
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Textbook Versus Research Paper -
 Very often, reading a textbook is not too difficult for it is written as a teaching
instrument, and the author of the textbook normally starts from the basics and take the
reader, through everything that one needs to be able to understand that topic.
 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 research paper is written for other researchers out on the edge of knowledge and it
assumes that the reader already knows a lot in that field.
 A researcher may find oneself continually going back to other sources to try and
interpret what is going on in a particular research paper.
 It can be difficult to find the right work to read, but the objective with all this reading
and learning is to be able to get the knowledge that one needs to build the foundation.
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 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 centered around concepts and
not authors.
 A good literature survey is the first expectation of a supervisor from the research
student, and when done well can create a good impression that the state of art in the
chosen field is well understood.
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Simple rules for writing an effective literature review -
(i) A good literature review must not draw hasty conclusions.
(ii) Must look into the individual references to determine the underlying
causes/assumptions/mechanisms in each of them so as to synthesize the available
information in a much more meaningful way.
(iii) Should be able to summarize as to what is already known from the state of the art.
(iv) Detail the key concepts and the main factors or parameters and the underlying
relationships between those.
(v) Describe any complementary existing approaches, enumerate the inconsistencies or
shortcomings in the published work.
(vi) Identify the reported results that are inconclusive or contradictory, and provide a
compulsive reason to do further work in the field.
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 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 C, for example).
 Once the author comes across something important ( core Principal or description), he
must mark it or put an asterisk symbol.
 After having marked, he must write about the highlighted part without copying it. This
enables the concept fit into his paper.
 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.
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1. 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 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.
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A researcher should analyze the relevant information ascertained in the grid 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.

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.
 No matter where one gets the available information, one needs to critically evaluate
each resource that the researcher wishes to cite.
 . Relying on refereed articles published in scholarly journals or granted patents can save
the researcher a lot of time.
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 A few criteria for the evaluation of the information under study:
(i) Authority: What are the author’s credentials and affiliation? Who publishes the
information?
(ii) 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?
(iii) Scope: Is the source at an appropriate comprehension or research level?
(iv) There are other criteria to consider as well, such as currency, objectivity, and purpose.
(v) It is important to ensure that the search question is neither too narrow nor too broad.
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1. 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. The databases that are of
use in the idea or problem that one wishes to explore must be identified quickly.
2. 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.
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 “Cited reference search” option enables a researcher to trace articles which have cited a
formerly published paper.
 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.
 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.
 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.
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1. 2. 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.
 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.
Google Scholar limits one’s search to scholarly literature. However, there are
limitations:
(i) 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.
(ii) It is not comprehensive. Some publishers do not make their content available to Google
Scholar.
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Some of the basic search operators to narrow down results –
(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: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
(v) Filetype—limits the search to results with a specific file extension one could look for pdf’s,
PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and so on. Example: RAM (synchronous OR
asynchronous) “Texas Instruments” site: http:// ieeexplore.ieee.org, filetype: pdf.
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
 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.
 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.
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4. Effective Search: The Way Forward
A researcher should use all search tools for comprehensive search. No one place or one
source exists that will provide all the information one needs; one will likely need to look in
all the places that would be described in this chapter and in others not mentioned.
 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.
 It can take time for scholarly and peer-reviewed information to be published. One might
not be able to find scholarly information about something currently being reported in the
news.
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.
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 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
(i) The researcher needs to engage in critical and thorough reading.
(ii) Making observation of the salient points in those sources.
(iii) Summarize the findings.
(iv) A detailed comparison and contrast of the findings is also required to be done.
(v) This entire process may be needed to be done multiple times.
(vi) The end result of literature survey is summary of important work done, research gap .
(vii) Literature survey is continuous and cyclic process.
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 It is very important to not lose sight of the purpose of an extensive search or literature
survey, for it is possible to spend a very significant amount of one’s time doing so and
actually falsely think that one is working hard.
 Nothing will come of it unless one is an active reader and spends sufficient time to
develop one’s own ideas build on what one has read.
 It is not as if literature survey ends and then research begins, for new literature keeps
appearing, and as one’s understanding of the problem grows, one finds new connections
and related/evolving problems which may need more search.
 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.
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4. Introduction to Technical Reading :
The number of papers relevant to a particular researcher is very few, compared to the
actual number of research papers available from peer-reviewed technical sources.
It is also important to know where to read from; relying on refereed journals and books
published by reputed publishers is always better than relying on easily available random
articles off the web.
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.
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 SKIMMING PROCESS
 Read the title and keywords (these are any- ways, 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.
 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, 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.
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 The next sections to read are the Results and Discussion sections which is really the heart
of the paper.
 The further sections like the Experimental Setup/Modeling, etc., must be read 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.
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5. CONCEPTUALIZING RESEARCH :
Conceptualizing the research that meets all the 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.
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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.
If the research project is smaller, then conceptualizing the research is possibly too tough to
do,
(iv) One does not have the time that it takes to become that expert at the edge of knowledge.
(v) Help of the supervisor who may already be an expert and an active researcher in that
field is required, and may advise on what a good research objective might be.
(vi) An established researcher in any field should be able to immediately point to the
landmark literature that one should read first.
(vii) Otherwise one would need to spend a lot of time reading the literature to discover.
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Critical and Creative Reading :
Reading a research paper is a critical process.
(i) The reader should not be under the assumption that reported results or arguments are
correct.
(ii) The reader must be suspicious and asking appropriate questions like - 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?
(iii) The reader must have judgmental approach and discard previous erroneous data.
(iv) The reader must 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. If not ignore the data.
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Critical reading is relatively easy as –
(i) 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.
(ii) Anyone who has been a regular reviewer of journal articles would agree to such a
statement.
Creatively is harder as –
(iii) It requires a positive approach in search.
(iv) The idea is to actively look for other applications, interesting generalizations, or
extended work which the authors might have missed?
(v) Are there plausible modifications that may throw up important practical challenges?
(vi) 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.
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7. Taking Notes While Reading :
The bridge between reading and actually writing a paper is the act of taking notes during
and shortly after the process of reading.
 “The faintest writing is better than the best memory” - 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.
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• 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
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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.
Therefore, one should avoid skimming them. 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.
 Implementation of an intricate algorithm in program- ming 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.
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7. Reading a Datasheet
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 pinout 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
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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.
 Datasheets are example to state the need to pay attention to the art of reading such
documents.
Technical published papers or books are not the only contents that a researcher has to
master reading!
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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.
 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.
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Citations: Functions and Attributes
 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 and all
forms of written sources in the form of texts, images, sounds, etc. must be used in any
new document only by clearly citing the source.
 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. As
per relevance to context, the researcher provides due credit through the use of a citation.
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 Citations help the readers to verify the quality and importance of the new work
and justification of the findings.
 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.
 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.
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 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.
 LaTeX has a steep learning curve and will be repeatedly used in this book to address different
issues pertaining to technical writing which is intimately linked with research for engineers.
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 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.
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There are certain cases when references do not fulfill the actual goal of citations and
acknowledgments, and thus do not benefit the reader.
(1) Spurious citations: In certain cases, when citation is not required or an
appropriate one is not found, if the author nevertheless goes ahead with including one
anyways, it would be considered as a spurious citation. These don't add any value,
result in loss of time of reader and reviewer.
(2) Biased citations: When authors cite the work of their friends or colleagues despite
there being no significant connection between the two works, or when they do not cite
work of genuine significance because they do not wish to give credit in the form of
citation to certain individuals, then such actions can be classified as biased citations.
(3) Self citations: There is nothing wrong in citing one’s prior work if the citation is
really relevant. Self-citation of prior papers is natural because the latest paper is often a
part of a larger research project which is ongoing.
It is helpful because citations of all the related works of the same author are given in
one paper and this may reduce the effort of the reader.
It also has negative impact on the journal as well as individual researchers due to
inappropriate and irrelevant self-citations.
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o (4) Coercive citations: Despite shortcomings, impact factors remain a primary
method of quantification of research. One side effect is that it creates an
incentive for editors to indulge in coercion(compulsion or pressure) to add
citations to the editor’s journal.
Even if not explicitly stated, the implied message is that the author could either
add citations or risk rejection. Such demands consequently diminish the reputation
of the journal.
Impact of Title and Keywords on Citations :
 The citation rate of any research paper depends on various factors including
signifi- cance 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.
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 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.
Some titles are informative but do not capture attention of readers, some titles are
attractive but not informative or related to the readers’ research area .
The download count and citation of a research paper might be influenced by title.
There are three different aspects which provide a particular behavior to the title: (i) types
of the title, (ii) length of the title, and (iii) presence of specific markers .
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Various studies regarding importance of Title -
(1) Stremersch et al. analyzed title characteristics of the papers published during 1990–2002 in
the area of research and studied relationship between title characteristics and citation, which
concluded that title length positively affects the number of citations.
(2) Sagi and Yechiam found that highly amusing titles have fewer citations and pleasant titles
have no significant relation with citations.
(3) Jacques and Sebire analyzed different papers’ titles and their citations hit for 25 most-cited
and 25 least-cited research and review papers of a particular genre of journals, found highly
cited articles having more than twice as many words in the title (Length) compared with
lower cited papers.
(4) Jamali and Nikzad analyzed several open access papers and found that articles with
question-type titles are downloaded more but poorly cited compared to the descriptive or
declarative titles.
(5) As per Habibzadeh and Yadollahie , longer titles are strongly associated with higher citation
rates. Longer titles mainly include the study methodology and/or results in more detail, and
so attracts more attention and citations
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 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 less citations than method-describing titles.
Additionally, review articles and original articles usually receive more citations than
short communication articles.
At least two keywords in the title can increase the chance of finding and reading the
article as well as get more citations.
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 KEYWORDS -
 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.
Keywords are important to ensure that readers are aware about research articles and their
content.
If maximum number of allowable keywords are 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.
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2. 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.
 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.
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Fig 1. Citation-based knowledge flow

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 Fig 1. shows the relationship between citations, knowledge flow, and elements
such as researchers, papers, journal publications or conferences, and institutions. 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.
 Sooryamoorthy examined the citation impact of the South African publications among
different collaboration types, discipline and sectors, and observed that co-authored
publications had more citations than single author paper and there was a positive co-
relation between number of authors and the number of citations.
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Fig 2. Co-authorship network

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
Fig 2. 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.
The conclusion is that papers which frequently cite collaborators will also often cite
collaborators of collaborators. Collaborations certainly impact citation counts.
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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.
 Data citations should have provisions to give credit and legal attribution to all contributors, enable
identification and access, while recognizing that a specific style may not apply to all data.
 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.
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Styles for Citations – Citation styles differ primarily in the order, and syntax of information about refer-
ences, 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) 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 example for the same is given below:
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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:
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2. IEEE style (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 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.

3. ASME style (The Association of Mechanical Engineers)

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3. 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 .
 Acknowledgments and attributions are also very important in the publications of journal or
conference papers. Giving proper credit wherever it is due is very important and even if the
contribution is minor, it should not be neglected.
 In engineering research, acknowledgments are meant for participating technicians, students, funding
agency, grant number, institution, or anyone who provide scientific inputs, shared unpublished
results, provided equipment, or participated in discussions.
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What Should Be Acknowledged?
Every author should know that what should/should not 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.
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(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:

(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.
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
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 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.
The grantee is responsible for assuring that an acknowledgment of support is made in any publication
(including websites) of any direct or indirect outcomes from the funded project. The format of required
information is often explicitly stated in the terms and conditions of grants provided.
Acknowledgments are also appropriate in technical presentations.
 Failure to acknowledge funding may result in the discontinuation of current funding and/or ineligibility to
receive future funding for a certain number of years or indefinitely.
 Unless the information can be considered “common knowledge,”proper attribution of an idea, algorithm,
computational methodology, or experimental design is required even if a journal operates with double-
blind review.
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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
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Dedication or Acknowledgments?
 Dedication is almost never used in a journal paper, an article in conference proceedings,
or a patent, and it is used exclusively in larger documents like books, thesis, or
dissertations.
 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 gets 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.
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

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