INTRODUCTION TO

RESEARCH
 What is Research Paper
• It is an expanded essay that presents your own interpretation or evaluation or argument
• Writing a research paper requires you to demonstrate a strong knowledge of your topic,
engage with a variety of sources, and make an original contribution to the debate
• Major parts:
• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Literature review. May include background part and may be separated
• Main body
• Conclusion and future work
• Reference list
RESEARCH PAPER MAIN
COMPONENTS

TITLE
 Title
• Choosing title for your research is crucial
• It will encourage readers to read your paper or try to reach it. Moreover, it is
important for your paper retrieval
• Tips:
• Create brief but informative name
• Make it clear avoiding insignificant words
• Think which key words to include in your title
• Use one that expresses the content of the research
RESEARCH PAPER MAIN
COMPONENTS

ABSTRACT
 Abstract
• An abstract summarizes the major aspect of the entire paper in one paragraph with
a meaningful sequence
• Usually around 200 to 300 words depending on the journal or conference
requirements
• It is where you grab the reader attention or loose it
• Although it is the first part of the paper after the title it is last part to write in the
paper
• It’s also worth remembering that search engines and bibliographic databases use
abstracts, as well as the title, to identify key terms for indexing your published
paper. So what you include in your abstract and in your title are crucial for helping
other researchers find your paper or article
 Abstract Content

An abstract should include:

• Background
• Problem
• Method for solution
• Results
• Conclusion
 Abstract Content

• Background: smallest part of the abstract. It only gives an

introduction about the topic under investigation. Take care
lengthy background will affect the method and result part

• Problem: also called motivation. You explain here why you

conducted this research or what you intend to solve. It is also can
be derived from the research gap of the literature review section
 Abstract Content
• Method: This section should contain enough details to make the reader understands
what was done in the research and how it was done. Methods section throw a light on
the algorithm, processes and data sets used for the research

• Result: Contains the findings of the research. Accuracy of the algorithm, results of
applied model, ….

• Conclusion: is the researcher final say about the research or the message the
researcher want to convey to the reader helping them decide to read on. It reflects the
importance of the work conducted
 Dos and Don’ts of Writing Abstract
Dos Don’ts
• Use keywords that people may enter in • Don't include too much jargon or
search engine acronyms
• Put the previous content but in a logical • Don’t jump from one point to point
sequence
with no clear flow
• Focus on the research and the work
• Don’t include new information that
done and its relevance to your target
is not mentioned in the paper.
• Include enough information for a reader
to make an independent determination • Avoid going into too much detail
of whether they want to read your paper about statistical methods, routine
in further detail tests done in most investigations.
• Write in present or past tense Avoid citation or discussion of
previous work
• Avoid writing in the future tense
 Poorly Written Abstract

This paper presents and assesses a framework

for an engineering capstone design program. • It is not recommended to write in the first person
We explain how student preparation, project (we, I)
selection, and instructor mentorship are the
three key elements that must be addressed • The abstract is written in the same way as we write
before the capstone experience is ready for the
the paper or thesis organization part
students. Next, we describe a way to
administer and execute the capstone design • No findings or results showed
experience including design workshops and
lead engineers. We describe the importance in • It can be written in this way for example: “A statistical
assessing the capstone design experience and analysis was performed on answers to survey questions
report recent assessment results of our
posed to students enrolled in a capstone design course at
framework. We comment specifically on what
students thought were the most important Georgia Tech. The analysis showed that students thought
aspects of their experience in engineering the most important aspects of their experience in
capstone design and provide quantitative engineering capstone design were quality of the instructor
insight into what parts of the framework are
and quantity of student/instructor interaction time”
most important.
Abstract Example
RESEARCH PAPER MAIN
COMPONENTS

INTRODUCTION
 Introduction
• It is the initial part of a research containing definitions, notions, abbreviations and any
important information required to understand the work in the paper.

• It introduces the reader to the work, its importance and how the problem will be solved

• You start citation from this part

• It presents the background to your study, introduces your topic and aims, and gives an
overview of the paper

• Includes
 Background of the research and importance

 Research gap or problem

 Proposed solution

 Organization of the paper

RESEARCH PAPER MAIN
COMPONENTS

CONCLUSION
 Conclusion and Future Work

• It is used to give summary of the research content, purpose and results

• Remember it is not meant to discuss findings or results

• It shouldn’t include new information not stated in the research

• Give insight of future research directions or how this work can be extended. It is like
something you didn’t cover in your work and will be extended in coming research

• Avoid beginning your conclusion with “in conclusion” or “in summary”

• Don’t include emotions either positive or negative about the research

• Don’t apologize. Never express concerns about results of your research. Like “I
don’t know for sure”, “I am not expert enough to decide”
 Conclusion Main Content

Conclusion main items are:

• Restate your topic of research: One or two statement to talk
about the main topic and its importance
• Restate your research: Rewrite your research area and its
importance
• Summarize main points: Remind the reader of what you have
done and how without repeating details
• Summarize research findings: in a brief way write the findings
of the research
RESEARCH PAPER MAIN
COMPONENTS

BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE

REVIEW
 Background and Literature Review

• Background part introduces readers to the topics discussed in the paper like security, data
mining, big data, ……

• Literature review and also called related work is a comprehensive overview of all the
knowledge available on a specific topic till date

• Literature review is one of the pillars on which your research idea stands since it provides
context, relevance, and background to the research problem you are exploring.

• It is better to use most relevant papers and recent ones

• You discuss each paper, extract methodology used, problem of this paper and its contribution

• Good practice to end this part with summary table of all the discussed papers
REFERENCES AND
CITATIONS
 Citation & References

• References:
• At the end section of the paper you put the references you used in your research

• Referring to these references within your paper is done through citation

• Citations:
• Citation is a reference to the source of information used in your research

• Any information you include in your research if it belongs to others you should
refer to their work either it is research paper or book
• You direct users to more resources or further reading in specific topic through
citation
• Citations may be used to reinforce your arguments
 Citation & References Styles

• American Phycological Association (APA):

• Sorted in alphabetical order based on the name of the main author

• Structure: Name of the authors, published date, title of the paper,

publication place, number of pages
• Example: Al-Azawei, A., & Badii, A. (2014). State of the art of learning styles-based adaptive
educational hypermedia systems (LS-BAEHSs). International Journal of Computer Science and
Information Technology, 6(3), 1-19
• How to cite it:
Researchers confirm that LES can be used with any learning situation, like
classroom teaching or e- learning (Wurzinger, Chang & Guetl, 2009).
 Citation & References Styles

• IEEE:
• Sorted in numeric order based on its first appearance in the paper

• Structure: number indicting the order of the paper, Name of the

authors, title of the paper in quotation, publication place(italic),
number of pages, published date
• Example: [4] J. U. Duncombe, "Infrared navigation - Part I: An assessment of
feasability," IEEE Trans. Electron. Devices, vol. ED-11, pp. 34-39, Jan. 1959.
• How to cite it:
Researchers confirm that LES can be used with any learning situation, like
classroom teaching or e- learning [4].
RESEARCH PAPER MAIN
COMPONENTS

KEYWORDS
 Keywords

• Why do we need keywords?

 It helps other researcher to find your paper if they are interested
in the same research area. Search engines use keywords beside
title to index your paper and hence appear during search
 Wrong choice of keywords make your paper lost. It won’t appear
if the other researchers search for your research topic
 Keywords

• How you choose paper keywords?

 Focus on the main topic of your research

Don’t include keywords that are already in title. Keywords assist title in
indexing your paper. Duplicate words used in keywords and title will not help.
 Example if title is: “Detecting denial of service attack in IOT using data mining
techniques”. So keywords may be: computer security (or cyber attack), Naïve Bayes in
classification, Kali linux (tool used for penetration testing)

Follow the journal guidelines if any, especially in the number of keywords

 May use phrases and single word

SURVEY PAPER
 Survey papers

• A researcher begins his research journey with conducting a survey in the field of
research. This work may be documented in a survey paper

• Survey papers may serve as the entry point to specific research area. Instead of reading
10 papers, researcher may read 3 survey papers

• A survey paper should:

• Pick 10-20 papers on specific topic
• The papers selected should be a mix of papers including the base paper in the selected
domain to the most recently published paper.
• Give critical assessment of the work that has been done.
• Try to compare work done in papers included in the survey paper or create a new taxonomy