Research methods

1. MUHOYI H
Research Method
GGH400

2. Structuring a Scientific Paper
1. Graphs, tables, maps (your data)
2. Results
3. Methods
4. Discussion
5. Conclusion
6. Introduction
7. Abstract
8. Title

3. In general the structure of a paper is
organised in sections
Section Length Readers
Title < 16 words 1,000
Abstract 250 words 100
Introduction 1-2 pages 100
Methods 3 pages 3
Results, Discussion 1-2 pages 10
Conclusion 1 page 2

4. The first step
Before writing a research paper one needs
to ask what is the idea that the paper is
intended to communicate

5. Therefore, an idea should be
infectious, e.g.,
A new way of looking at objects, ‘model’
New way of manipulating objects (i.e.,
technique)
New information – update our knowledge
base

6. Second step
Identify the relevant community which may
find the idea useful
Experts working in the area
Current and future researchers
Decision-makers, policy makers

7. Third step
Understand the information needs of
that target community

8. The Fourth Step
Is to Write, Revise, Submit for Publish

9. Ideally your paper should just have one clear
sharp idea
So if you have lots of ideas, write lots of
papers

10. To write effectively, tell a story
Here is a problem
It’s an interesting problem
It is an unsolved problem
I wish to know how to solve the problem (hook)
Introduction

11. Explain how your new idea solves
the problem
Here is my idea
Methods:
Details

12. Show how useful your idea is
My idea works
Here is how my idea compares to other people’s approaches
Results &
Discussion

13. In the Introduction
Describe the problem briefly
Nail or state your contributions
Make certain the reader is in no doubt what the
idea is.
e.g., the main idea of this paper is…
Properties of
your solution

14. Use examples to introduce the
problem and your idea
Consider this program, which has an interesting
bug, …
We will show an automatic technique for identifying
and removing such bugs

15. Make your contributions explicit
We have built a GUI toolkit in, …and used it to….
The result is half the length of a Java …
Or the innovative features of our model are …

16. Avoid putting related work in the
introduction
Rather new stuff should come first
READER
IDEA

17. The role of body of the paper is to:
provide evidence to support claims
made in the introduction

18. Discussion: Move 1
State the study’s major findings that provide the
answer to the question stated in the introduction
Explain the meaning and importance of your
findings
Consider potential explanations of the findings
Give results
meaning

19. Discussion: Move 2
Compare and contrast your findings with those of
other published results
Explain any discrepancies and unexpected results
State the limitations, strengths of your study
Provide
research context

20. Dealing with related work
But do not downplay the work of others
Be generous to the competition
e.g., we improve on their earlier work in the following
ways
Our work differs from …

21. Discussion: Move 3
Close the paper
Indicating the importance of the work by stating
applications, implications, …

22. Listen to your readers
Get your paper read by as many friendly guinea pigs as is
possible
Ask them to show you where they are getting lost or get
unmotivated
Suppose I explain it to your this way

23. Getting expert help
When you think you are done, send the draft to
the competition.
You could write “can you help me to ensure
that I describe your work fairly”