What is research?
• Asking a question that nobody has asked before;
Your research have to be new, and you do not need
to duplicate already existing finding ; Do not do a
research which doesn’t give a reasonably justifiable
question
• Doing the necessary work to find the answer: Data
collection should be well articulated
• Communicating the knowledge you have acquired to
a larger audience
• Research is an ongoing, collaborative process with no
finish line in sight.
• What to do while planning for a research
– WRITE A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
– A high quality proposal is key for the success of
your research.
– The proposal should have
– research idea,
– the relevant literature and the major issues,
– methodology is sound.
Research paper/thesis should
include
• Title of Project:
• It should be concise and descriptive.
• Abstract:
– It is a brief summary of approximately 300 words or
less.
– It should include the research question,
– the rationale for the study,
– the hypothesis (if any),
– the method and the main research question
• Introduction:
– provide the necessary background or context for
your research problem.
– show previous work done concerning a research
topic or question in your field (Compare and
contrast different authors' views on an issue)
– Criticize aspects of methodology (evaluate
promising research methods)
– what is new in your research (you avoid
unnecessary duplication)
In summary, the introduction should cover
the following
1. State the research problem,
2. Present the rationale of your proposed study
and clearly indicate why it is worth doing.
3. Briefly describe the major issues and sub-
problems to be addressed by your research.
4. Identify the key independent and dependent
variables of your experiment.
5. State your hypothesis or theory
6. Set the delimitation or boundaries of your
proposed research in order to provide a clear
focus.
Methods:
• The Method demonstrates your plan to tackle
your research problem. It will provide your
work plan and describe the activities
necessary for the completion of your project.
• What kind of design do you choose? What
kind of sampling procedure do you use?
Methods:
• The Method demonstrates your plan to tackle
your research problem. It will provide your
work plan and describe the activities
necessary for the completion of your project.
• What kind of design do you choose? What
kind of sampling procedure do you use?
Discussion:
• It is important to convince your reader of the potential impact
of your proposed research.
• You need to communicate a sense of enthusiasm and
confidence without exaggerating the merits of your proposal.
• proposed research, which may be justified by time and
financial constraints as well as by the early developmental
stage of your research area.
What to plan for data collection
1. Which data to collect
2. How to collect the data
3. Who will collect the data
4. When to collect the data
Data collection
• Regardless of your research type and design,
your data collection should be designed on
random bases. If your sampling is not
random, it may not represent the population
you are aiming to study.
• Data Analysis
• The most recent and globally well accepted
statistical tool of the 21 century is R
• You can do some descriptive statistics using
excel.
GIS application in your research
• GIS is one of the key software to be used in
developing your proposal and your
paper/thesis
