Writing Quality

Research Papers

Dr. Pawan Singh Dr. Baseem Khan

FIRST EDITION 2019 Copyright © BPB Publications, INDIA ISBN: 978-93-88176-90-3 All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication can be stored in a retrieval system or reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers LIMITS OF LIABILITY AND DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY The Author and Publisher of this book have tried their best to ensure that the programmes, procedures and functions described in the book are correct. However, the author and the publishers make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, with regard to these programmes or the documentation contained in the book. The author and publisher shall not be liable in any event of any damages, incidental or consequential, in connection with, or arising out of the furnishing, performance or use of these programmes, procedures and functions. Product name mentioned DUHXVHGIRULGHQWL¿FDWLRQSXUSRVHVRQO\DQGPD\EHWUDGHPDUNVRIWKHLUUHVSHFWLYH companies. All trademarks referred to in the book are acknowledged as properties of their respective owners. Distributors: BPB PUBLICATIONS 20, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj New Delhi-110002 Ph: 23254990/23254991

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Published by Manish Jain for BPB Publications, 20, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110002

Preface Preface to the First Edition Chapter 1 presented the way by which the title of the research manuscript can be selected, because it is one of the most important pieces of information in a manuscript. Various important points discussed by the authors are very much helpful in the selection of manuscript title. Chapter 2 focused on the introduction section of the research manuscript. Introduction section is the platform of any manuscript that presents the background of the manuscript‘s area. Key topics and points related to the introduction section are presented in this chapter. Chapter 3 presents the way by which a comprehensive and comparative literature review can be written. As literature review section is the base of any manuscript’s research, it should be written in chronological form to present a complete overview about the research from starting year to present. It should be comprehensive in nature and, a comparative analysis related to the pros and cons of the selected techniques is presented in this section. Chapter 4 focused on the heart of the manuscript, i.e. the methodology section of the manuscript. Methodology section should be well written to present the tools and techniques used for the research to the audience. Therefore, this book keenly focused on this section so that an adequate, clear and more presentable methodology section can be managed. Chapter 5 presented the important points for writing the one of the most important section of the manuscript i.e. result and analysis section. After writing the clear and presentable methodology section, it is the responsibility of result and discussion section to validate the developed methodology by clear presentation and critical result analysis. This section should validate the hypothesis adopted in the methodology section. Therefore, this chapter presents the key points which will be very helpful for writing a presentable and critically analysed result and discussion section. Chapter 6 presented the key points related to write a more informative and quantitative conclusion section. This section includes all the important observations or the results presented in the methodology and result section.

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Writing Quality Research Papers

Chapter 7 discussed the vital section of the research manuscript i.e. abstract that comes after the title but normally written after the completion of the manuscript. Therefore, in this book also, it is presented at the last of the book. This chapter presented all the critical points and information, which should be incorporated in the abstract section to make it more informative and concise, as in many journals there is a limitation of words for writing the abstract. Chapter 8 described the ways by which authors can avoid plagiarism in their manuscripts. This chapter discussed the ways by which authors can refer the research of other researcher in a proper way without making any plagiarism. Chapter 9 summarized the entire important factors by which an author can escape from the rejection of the manuscript. This chapter is very much helpful for authors to make their manuscript in such a way that it can easily analyse and review by the reviews and editors so that the chances of acceptance will increase.

Foreword I am delighted to write this foreword, since I believe intensely in the research as a main pillar of education, especially in a developing country. 7KHVRFLHW\HGXFDWLRQDODQGUHVHDUFKFRPPXQLW\FRXOGEHEHQH¿WHGIURP the technological enhancements through recent quality research paper. Presenting and publishing a quality research papers in a high grade journal needs a lot of attentions and precautions. I have observed Dr Singh and Dr Khan discussing number of times the complicated process of formatting the research papers with the students within the country and abroad. We have discussed many times that there is extremely a high requirement of a good text to guide students and researchers in the context of research paper formatting and technical writing. This requirement motivated the authors to write a quality text. I believe that students and research scholars at every level and stage of their career can enrich and strengthen their research paper formatting and technical writing by learning the methodologies (provided in this book) to write different sections in research papers, sentence formation, grammar and appropriate words. Different sections of the research paper such as title of paper, abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, result and discussion, concluding remarks as well as how to avoid plagiarism are discussed in individual chapters. This book is very impressive as it possess number of merits: it is simple language, step by step explanation on writing different sections; it helps in improving grammar of sentences DQGHQKDQFHVWKHVLJQL¿FDQFHE\JXLGLQJWRXVHDSSURSULDWHZRUGV It is my hope and expectation that this book will provide an effective understanding of in-depth concept of research paper writing experience and a referenced resource for all students and research scholars belonging to all departments. I hope that this book will become a primer for educators, researchers, scholars, professional developers and students helping them across the country to learn, teach, and practice the art of quality research paper writing. Prof. (Dr.) R. A. Khan, Deans of School of Information Science And Technology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University ( A Central University ) Vidya Vihar, Raebareli Road, Lucknow – 226025

Acknowledgement The world is an astonishing place, thanks to those people who want to develop and lead others. The people who share the gift of their moments to mentor prospect leaders make it even superior. Thanks to every individual who strives to grow and help others grow. Writing a book is harder than we thought and more rewarding than we could have ever imagined. None of this would have been possible without the blessings of parents and divine support. It is an honour to be a part of Amity Universe Family. We are grateful to Dr. Aseem Chauhan, Chairman, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow Campus for providing us such a huge platform and for continuous motivation as well as support. :H ZRXOG OLNH WR WKDQN WR 3URI'U 6XQLO'KDQHVKZDU 2I¿FLDWLQJ 3UR Vice Chancellor & Director, QAE, and Prof. (Dr.) Suneela Dhaneshwar, Director Amity Institute of Pharmacy & Deputy Dean of Research, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow Campus, India for their continuous motivation and support for doing innovative things. We would like to thank to our source of motivation and inspiration Prof. (Dr.) Rajesh Tiwari, Dean of Academics, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow Campus. His hard and continuous way of working has been a motivation for us to work even in odd circumstances. We would like to pay our sincere gratitude to our mentor and source of inspiration Wg. Cdr. (Dr.) Anil Kumar Tiwari (Retd), Assistant Pro Vice Chancellor & Director, Amity School of Engineering and Technology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow Campus, India. We are eternally grateful to our adviser and source of encouragement and motivation Prof. (Dr.) R. A. Khan, Dean of School of Information Science And Technology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University ( A Central University ), Lucknow, India. We would like to thank to Prof. (Dr.) Deepak Arora, Head of Department (Computer Science and Engineering) for his continuous support and guidance. We are seriously thankful to Prof. (Dr.) O. P. Singh, Prof. (Dr.) S. W. Rizwi and Prof. (Dr.) N. Dhanda for having long discussions.

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Writing Quality Research Papers

We are highly grateful to Dr. Piyush Tripathi, Dr. Alok Agrawal, Dr. Nimish Gupta, Dr. Mala Trivedi, Dr. G. R. Mishra, Dr. Sachin Kumar, Dr. K. K. Singh, Dr D. Pandey, Dr. Rajnish Kumar, Dr. B. Hazela, Dr. P. Khanna, Dr. D. Agrawal, Dr. V. Dubey, Dr. Ambrish Pandey, Mr. Puneet Sharma, Mr. Vineet Singh, Mrs. Shikha Singh, Mrs. Anuradha Misra, Mrs. Garima Srivastava for their support. We would like to appreciate the staff of Amity School of Engineering and Technology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow Campus for their continuous support. We would like to thank the staff of Electrical & Computer Engineering Department as well as School of Informatics, Institute of Technology, Hawassa University, Ethiopia for their continuous support, cooperation and guidance. We would love to appreciate the queries raised by our students in India, Ethiopia and abroad, as their continuous and bold queries, forced us to write a simple and balanced literature on how to write a research paper, which can be accepted in the high-quality journals. We also thank our families for providing a lot of peaceful time to write this book and encourage us. We would like to thank Mr. Manish Jain and his editorial team for giving us an opportunity to write for BPB Publications. We have read the legendary books such as ‘Let Us C’ authored by Yashavant Kanetkar and published by BPB Publications. We hope our collaboration on writing and publishing books will be fruitful for the reading community. Finally, we want to thanks everyone who has directly or indirectly contributed to complete this authentic piece of work. Dr. Pawan Singh & Dr. Baseem Khan

Contents Preface iii Foreword v Acknowledgement vii 1. Selecting a Title 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8

Importance of Title Usual Comments of Referees for Vague Titles Select an Appropriate Title of a Manuscript Generating a Title of your Manuscript Characteristics of the Titles Words to Include in Titles Role of Spell Checker Summary

2. Write an Introduction 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4

Importance of Introduction Usual Comments of Referees on Unbalanced Introduction Structure of Introduction Writing Skills for Introduction 2.4.1 Tenses 2.4.2 Passive Voice 2.4.3 Connecting Sentences 2.4.4 Signalling Words 2.4.5 Vocabulary used in Introduction 2.5 Summary

3. Literature Review 3.1 Importance of Literature Review 3.2 Usual Comments of Referees on Unbalanced Literature Review 3.3 Structure of Literature Review 3.4 Referring to the other Author’s Work 3.5 Use of tenses in literature review

1 1 2 2 2 4 5 10 10 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 27 27 27 27 27 27

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Writing Quality Research Papers

3.6 Limitations of earlier work 3.7 Reducing redundancy 3.8 Summary 4. Methodology

 

4.1 Importance of Methodology Section 4.2 Usual Complaints of Referees Regarding Methodology Part 4.3 Structure of the Methodology Section 4.4 Beginning the Methodology Section 4.5 Tense Required 4.6 Multiple Actions in a Single Sentence 4.7 Methodology unlike a Series of Lists 4.8 Use of Bullets 4.9 Reduce the Word Count 4.10 Use of Chronological Order 4.11 Grammar for Representing Aims and Selections 4.12 Allow, Enable and Permit based Grammar   ,QGLFDWLQJWKH6LJQL¿FDQFHVRI&KRLFHVDQG$FWLRQV   8VHRI'H¿QLWHDQG,QGH¿QLWH$UWLFOHV 4.15 Number’s Writing 4.16 Avoiding ambiguity 4.17 Key Points in Methodology Section 4.18 Summary 5. Results and Discussion 5.1 Result 5.1.1 Key Skills Required to Write Result Section 5.1.2 Complaints of Reviewers Regarding Result Section 5.1.3 Structure of the Result Section 5.1.4 Beginning of the Result Section 5.1.5 Structure of the Rest of the Result Section 5.1.6 Reporting of Negative Results 5.1.7 Tense Requirement 5.1.8 Style Requirement 5.1.9 Ways to show the importance of Findings to Readers

27 27 27 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35   35 35 35 35 47 47 47 47 47 47 47 47 47 47 47



 

Contents

xi

  &RPPHQWVRQWDEOHVDQG¿JXUHV 5.1.11 Difference between Reporting and Interpreting 5.1.12 Summary for Results Section

 47 47

5.2 Discussion 5.2.1 5.2.2

Key Skills Required for Writing the Discussion Complaints of Reviewers Regarding Discussion Section 5.2.3 Structure of Discussion Section 5.2.4 Starting the Discussion Section 5.2.5 Necessity of Comparison of Proposed Work with Published Literature 5.2.6 Way to Conclude the Discussion Section that also has Conclusion 5.2.7 Way to Conclude the Discussion Section that doesn’t has Conclusion 5.2.8 Writing Style Requirement: Active or Passive 5.2.9 Use of Seems and Appears to Admit the Shortcomings of Research 5.2.10 Way to Present the Shortcomings of other Researches in the Literature 5.2.11 Way to Present the Limitations of Own Research 5.2.12 Summary of Discussion Section 6. Concluding Remarks 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8

Need of Conclusion Usual Comments of Referees on Unbalanced Conclusion Structure of Conclusion Increasing the Impact of Conclusion Conclusion Vs Abstract Ending the Conclusion Use of Tenses in Conclusion Summary

7. Abstract 7.1 Importance of Abstract 7.2 Usual Comments of Referees on Unbalanced Abstract

47 47 47 47 47 47 47 47 48 48 48 48 48 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 65 73 73 73

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Writing Quality Research Papers

7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8

Structure of Abstract Avoidable Things in Abstract Update your Abstract Tenses used in Abstract Vocabulary Suggested for Abstract Summary

8. Avoid Plagiarism 

   8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7

,GHQWL¿FDWLRQRI3ODJLDULVP Using Generic Phrases Way to Quote from Other Papers Quoting from Another Paper by Paraphrasing Correct Way of Paraphrasing with Examples Available Resources for Checking Plagiarism Summary

9. Escape from Rejection 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Features of Good Quality Research Manuscript 9.2.1 Novelty 9.2.2 Technical Soundness 9.2.3 Presentation 9.3 Reasons for rejection 9.4 Next Step after Manuscript Rejection 9.5 Effective Ways for Research Writing

73 73 73 73 73 73 85  85 85 85 85 85 85 91 91 91 91 91 91 91 91 91

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Selecting a Title Structure 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8

Importance of title Usual Comments of Referees on Vague Titles Select an Appropriate Title of a Manuscript Generating a Title of your Manuscript Characteristics of the Titles Words to include in Titles Role of Spell Checker Summary

Objectives After studying this chapter, you should be able to: ∑ 8QGHUVWDQGWKHVLJQL¿FDQFHRIWKHDSSURSULDWHQHVVRIWKHWLWOHIRUWKH manuscript ∑ Know the concern of referees on the title selection ∑ 6HOHFWWKHEHVWWLWOHUHÀHFWLQJWKHFRQFHUQRIWKHZRUNLQWKHSDSHU ∑ Use the suitable words to increase the effectiveness of the title The name is having a great impact on life. Similarly, the title of the research paper creates a great impact on the selection of the paper to study by the readers. The authors have to be precise while choosing the title of their ZRUN0RUHSUHIHUHQFHLVJLYHQWRWKHPRUHDWWUDFWLYHDQGVLJQL¿FDQWWLWOH of work.

1.1 Importance of Title 7LWOHRIDSDSHULVWKH¿UVWDQGPRVWLPSRUWDQWSLHFHRILQIRUPDWLRQDVDQ\ surfer on the internet may study number of titles prior to he/she selects an

2

Writing Quality Research Papers

abstract to study. It is the title which attracts the reader to select your paper to study and cite your paper in her/his manuscript. Every single word/ phrase in your title creates an impact; therefore, selecting an appropriate title is a vital act.

1.2 Usual Comments of Referees for Vague Titles ∑ The title of a manuscript is too generic; rather, it should express the content of the manuscript in nutshell. ∑ As of now, it is just a sequence of some keywords (non-contiguous DQG LQVLJQL¿FDQW  $IWHU UHDGLQJ WKH DEVWUDFW DQG LQWURGXFWLRQ , understood the related meaning. ∑ The study/work explained in the paper is of sound science but the title is misleading. ∑ The words selected in the title may be improved.

1.3 Select an Appropriate Title of a Manuscript ∑ The title should instantly give an idea to the referee regarding the study/work performed by the author in the manuscript. ∑ ,W FDQ EH HDVLO\ LGHQWL¿HG E\ WKH VHDUFK HQJLQHV XVLQJ WKH UHODWHG words/keywords. ∑ ,WDWWUDFWVWKHVSHFL¿FW\SHRIUHDGHU7KHUHDGHUVZKRDUHVHDUFKLQJ the content alike your manuscript. ∑ The title may not mislead the reader and gives frustration. ∑ The title should be short and descriptive. ∑ 7KHWLWOHVKRXOGQRWEHWRRVSHFL¿FJHQHULFRUYDJXH

1.4 Generating a Title of your Manuscript While generating a title one has to ask the following question to himself: ∑ :KDWDUHWKHNH\ZRUGVWKDWUHÀHFWDQGKLJKOLJKWWKH¿QGLQJVRIP\ research/study? ∑ What are the unique features (novel, dissimilar, and appealing) of my ¿QGLQJV" ∑ Which part of my work is more attractive? ∑ What is the main focus of my study?

Selecting a Title

3

∑ What are the motivating terms associated to my work? ([FHSWDUWLFOHDQGSXQFWXDWLRQDOORWKHUZRUGVVKRXOGEHVLJQL¿FDQW ∑ There are some words which reduce the effectiveness of the title and they are considered as redundant words, such as evaluation, assessment, investigation, analysis, testing, and inquiry. In Example: 1.1 A conceptual study is redundant and can be removed. ∑ The existence of few words in the title makes the title less effective, generic and/or less conclusive, such as study, investigation and outcome. In Example: 1.2 An investigation on is reducing the effectiveness and delaying the main concept. ∑ )HZZRUGVKDYHWKHHIIHFWWKDWWKH\PDNHWKHWLWOHZRUNOHVVGH¿QLWLYH such as few, some, a little and partially. The Example: 1.3 can be updated to improve the description of topic. ∑ If the title is designed to be in two parts then few words may increase the attraction, such as investigating, study and comparative analysis, as shown in Example: 1.4, the effectiveness of such title may also be increased by eliminating such words. Example 1.1 Vague: A conceptual study on searching techniques used in ontology based search engines. Better Search engine techniques based on ontology. Example 1.2 Vague: An investigation on optimizing the web mining technique using heuristic approach. Better: Optimizing heuristic approach based web mining technique. Example 1.3 Vague: Some determinants of speed scaling of processors. Better: Speed scaling determinants of processors. Example 1.4 Vague: Knowledge Management: A study of text mining approach Better: Knowledge Management: A text mining approach