RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

RIGHTS

MODULE-2

Department of computer science and Engineering

www.cambridge.edu.in
 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 background, and one’s perception
of that new knowledge can change from indifference to excitement (or
vice versa), depending on what else one knows.

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 New and Existing Knowledge

The significance can normally be 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.

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 New and Existing Knowledge

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.

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 New and Existing Knowledge

 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.
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.

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 New and Existing Knowledge

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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 New and Existing Knowledge

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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 New and Existing Knowledge

A literature review should be able to summarize as to

 What is already known from the state of the art,
 Detail the key concepts and the main factors or parameters and
 The underlying relationships between those,
 Describe any complementary existing approaches,
 Enumerate the inconsistencies or shortcomings in the published work,
 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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 New and Existing Knowledge

A good literature survey is typically a two-step process as enumerated

below:
• Identify the major topics or subtopics or concepts relevant to the
subject under consideration.
• Place the citation of the relevant source (article/patent/website/data,

help of a ✓, for example).

etc.) in the correct category of the concept/topic/subtopic (with the

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 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.

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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 Analysis and Synthesis of Prior Art

A researcher should analyze the relevant information ascertained

by undertaking the following steps:
 Understanding the hypothesis,
 Understanding the models and the experimental conditions used,
 Making connections,
 Comparing and contrasting the various information, and
 Finding out the strong points and the loopholes.

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 Analysis and Synthesis of Prior Art

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 to easily accept whatever is available in the
literature, one may find it difficult to go beyond it in one’s own work
and may also fail to carefully analyze with a suspicious bent of mind
one’s own results subsequently.
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.

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 Analysis and Synthesis of Prior Art

No matter where one gets the available information, one needs to
critically evaluate each resource that the researcher wishes to cite.
This methodology analyzes available materials to determine
suitability for the intended research.
Relying on refereed articles published in scholarly journals or granted
patents can save the researcher a lot of time.

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 Analysis and Synthesis of Prior Art

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?
 There are other criteria to consider as well, such as currency, objectivity, and
purpose. It is important to ensure that the search question is neither too narrow
nor too broad.

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 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.
Some of the Popular Bibliographic databases are:
 Web of Science
 Google and Google Scholar ID

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 Bibliographic Databases

Web of Science:
 Web of Science 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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 Bibliographic Databases

Web of Science:
 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.

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 Bibliographic Databases

Web of Science:

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 Bibliographic Databases

Web of Science:
 “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.

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 Bibliographic Databases

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:
 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.
 There are limited search functionality and refinement options.

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 Bibliographic Databases

Google and Google Scholar:

Google Scholar limits one’s search to scholarly literature.
Limitations:
 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.
 It is not comprehensive. Some publishers do not make their content
available to Google Scholar.
 There is limited search functionality and refinement options.

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 Bibliographic Databases

Google and Google Scholar:

 There are search operators that can be used to help narrow down the results.
 These help one find more relevant and useful sources of information. Operators can be
combined within searches.
Some of the basic operators:
 OR: Broadens search by capturing synonyms or variant spellings of a concept.
Example: Synchronous OR asynchronous will find results that have either term
present.
 Brackets/Parentheses ( ): Gather OR’d synonyms of a concept together, while
combining them with another concept.
Example: RAM (synchronous OR asynchronous).
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 Bibliographic Databases

Google and Google Scholar:

Some of the basic operators:
 Site: Limits the search to results from a specific domain or website.
This operator is helpful when searching specific websites.
For Example: site: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
 Filetype: Limits the search to results with a specific file extension
like for pdf’s, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and so
on.
For Example: site: http:// ieeexplore.ieee.org, filetype: pdf.

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 Bibliographic Databases

Google and Google Scholar:

Drawbacks:
 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.

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 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.
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.

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 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.
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.

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 Effective Search: The Way Forward

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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 Effective Search: The Way Forward

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.

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 Effective Search: The Way Forward

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 also the
identification of the missing links and the challenges in the open
problems in the area under study.

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 Effective Search: The Way Forward

 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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 Introduction to Technical Reading

It is now imperative for any active researcher to keep oneself stay up
to date with research outcomes in their field of interest.
Finding the right work to read can be difficult.
The literature where knowledge is archived is very fragmented and
there are bits and pieces all over the place.
 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.

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 Introduction to Technical Reading

 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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 Introduction to Technical Reading

 Amount of time to be spent will get ascertained after an initial

skimming through the paper to decide whether it is worth careful
reading.
There will be papers where it is not worth reading all the details in the
first instance.
Start out the skimming process by reading the title and keywords.
One should read the abstract to get an overview of the paper in
minimum time.

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 Introduction to Technical Reading

If the paper has continued to be of interest, 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
Setup/Modeling, 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.

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 Introduction to Technical Reading

As one works through the literature in this way, one should consider
not only the knowledge that is written down but also the reputation of
the people who made that knowledge.
A researcher always need to search for the relevant literature and keep
up to date with it.

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 Conceptualizing Research

The characteristics of a research objective are that it must have new

knowledge at the center, and that it must be accepted by the
community of other researchers and recognized as significant.
Besides being original and significant, a good research problem
should also be solvable or achievable.
The significance and the originality and all the theory that we read and
tools and methods that we need to take on a problem, all of these
normally come from the existing recorded literature and knowledge in
the field.

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 Conceptualizing Research

With a good research objective, conceptualizing the research that meets

all of these requirements is tough.
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.
At the Ph.D. level, one needs to be prepared to become an expert, one
needs to be continually read 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.
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 Conceptualizing Research

During smaller scope the researcher should take help from supervisor
who is expert in the particular field.

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 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.
Appropriate Questions need to be asked.
For example:
• 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?
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 Critical and Creative Reading

Use of judgemental approach and boldness to make judgments is

needed while reading.
Flexibility to discard previous erroneous judgments is also critical.
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.
It is also important to decipher whether some other dataset is more
compelling.

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 Critical and Creative 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.
 Reading creatively is harder, and requires a positive approach in
search.

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 Critical and Creative Reading

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.

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 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.
 Many researchers take notes on the margins of their copies of papers
or even digitally on an article aggregator tool.
On completing a thorough reading, a good technical reading should
end with a summary of the paper in a few sentences describing the
contributions.

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 Taking Notes While Reading

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.

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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.
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.

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 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.
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 Reading a Datasheet

Datasheets are instruction manuals for electronic components, which

details what a component does and how one may use it.
Datasheets enable a researcher 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.

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 Reading a Datasheet

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 speed data is sent and received from
the part.

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 Reading a Datasheet

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.

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 Attributions and Citations

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.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

Citations (references) credit others for their work, while allowing the
readers to trace the source publication.
Citations applies to all forms of written sources in the form of texts,
images, sounds, etc.
Depending on the exact type of material, the researcher need to give
due credit to the creator of the original 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.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

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.
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 author or writer.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

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.
 Citation must contain enough details so that readers can easily find
the referenced material.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

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.
 Citation styles have the same or similar elements, but differ on the
order of elements and layout.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

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.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

Three main functions of Citation:

Verification function
Acknowledgement function
Documentation function

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

Three main functions of Citation:

 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.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

Three main functions of Citation:

 Acknowledgement 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.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

Three main functions of Citation:

Documentation function:
• Citations are also used to document scientific concepts and historical
progress of any particular technology over the years.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

There are certain cases when references do not fulfill the actual goal of citations
and acknowledgments, and thus do not benefit the reader:
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 sorts of citations do not add any value to the reader in terms of properly
understanding the paper. Such actions result in loss of time of the reader or reviewer in
looking for the cited paper that is otherwise not relevant.
• Just as due credit should be given to a paper through citation, inappropriate credit must
be avoided so that the credibility of a research work or of the journal or conference
proceedings where that paper is published is not lost through this sort of carelessness.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

There are certain cases when references do not fulfill the actual goal of
citations and acknowledgments, and thus do not benefit the reader:
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.
• Neglect of citations to prior work whose conclusions or data contradict
the current work is also biased.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

There are certain cases when references do not fulfill the actual goal
of citations and acknowledgments, and thus do not benefit the
reader:
Self-Citations:
• Self-citation of prior papers is natural because the latest paper is often
a part of a larger research project which is ongoing.
• Sometimes, it is also advantageous for the reader 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 in trying to find the full versions of
those papers.
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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

There are certain cases when references do not fulfill the actual goal of
citations and acknowledgments, and thus do not benefit the reader:
Self-Citations:
• However, there can also be negative impact on the journal as well as
individual researchers due to inappropriate and irrelevant self-citations.
• Self-citations in such cases may be either spurious or biased or even both.
• Editors of journals who ignore such types of citations and allow by
negligence or otherwise, to be included in published materials end up
directly or indirectly altering the impact factor of those publications.

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 Citations: Functions and Attributes

There are certain cases when references do not fulfill the actual goal
of citations and acknowledgments, and thus do not benefit the reader:
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 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.
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 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.

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 Impact of Title and Keywords on Citations

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.
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 Impact of Title and Keywords on Citations

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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 Impact of Title and Keywords on Citations

In general, titles containing a question mark, colon, and reference to a

specific geographical region are associated with lower citation rates.
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 the title can increase the chance of finding
and reading the article as well as get more citations.

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 Impact of Title and Keywords on 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.
Keywords are important to ensure that readers are aware about
research articles and their content.

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 Impact of Title and Keywords on Citations

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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 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.

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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

 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.

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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

• 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
• 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.
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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

• 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.

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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

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.

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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

Citing Datasets:
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.

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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

Style 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 that are used by researchers are:
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.

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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

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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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

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.

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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

3. ASME Style(The Association of Mechanical Engineers):

Within the text, references should be cited in numerical order according
to their order of appearance.
The numbered reference citation within text should be enclosed in
brackets.
In the case of two citations, the numbers should be separated by a
comma [1,2].
In the case of more than two references, the numbers should be
separated by a dash [5-7].

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 Knowledge Flow Through Citation

3. ASME Style(The Association of Mechanical Engineers):

References should be listed together at the end of the paper; footnotes
should not be used for this purpose.
References should be arranged in numerical order according to the
sequence of citations within the text.
Each reference should include the last name of each author followed by
initials.

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 Acknowledgments and Citations

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.
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 Acknowledgments and Citations

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.
Acknowledgment can be classified into six different categories like
moral, financial, editorial, institutional or technical, and conceptual
support.

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 Acknowledgments and Citations
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.

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 Acknowledgments and Citations
What should be Acknowledged?
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.

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 Acknowledgments and Citations
What should be Acknowledged?
Authors should acknowledge people who give appropriate
contribution in their research work.
• Persons must be acknowledged by authors, who gave a scientific or
technical guidance, taken 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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 Acknowledgments and Citations
What should be Acknowledged?
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.

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 Acknowledgments and Citations
What should be Acknowledged?
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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 Acknowledgments and Citations
What should be Acknowledged?
Advantages:
• Continual Collaboration
• Boosting Career

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 Acknowledgments and Citations
What should be Acknowledged?
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.

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 Acknowledgments and Citations
What should be Acknowledged?
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.

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 Acknowledgments and Citations
Acknowledgments in Books/Dissertations
A page of acknowledgments is usually included at the beginning of a
thesis/ dissertation immediately following the table of contents.
The acknowledgments are longer than the one or two sentence
statements in journal papers or articles in conference proceedings.
The detailed acknowledgments enable the researcher to thank all those
who have contributed in completion of the research work.
Concern should be given on order.

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 Acknowledgments and Citations
Acknowledgments in Books/Dissertations
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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 Acknowledgments and Citations
Acknowledgments in Books/Dissertations
Sample Acknowledgement:

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 Acknowledgments and Citations
Dedication or Acknowledgements?
Dedication 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.
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.

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Thank you