Please see the cover page and contents of my forthcoming book on " A Guide to Academic Research" being published by Sanguine Technical Publishers Bangalore. The book will be available in a few weeks from now from the publishers..

1. A Guide to
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
Dr. K.P. Mohandas
K.P.Mohandas
About the Author
Dr. K P Mohandas is an Engineering teacher researcher for
the last four decades. Professor of Electrical Engineering
by profession, he had a long innings with National Institute
of Technology Calicut (formerly Calicut Regional Engineer-
ing College) from where he has superannuated and
currently is the Dean Academic in M E S College of
Engineering, Kuttippuram, Kerala. He is also the Research
Advisor for Technical Education Quality Improvement
Programme(TEQUIP) at Government College of Engineering
Sreekrishnapuram, Palakkad.
Graduated from Kerala University in 1968 with first class distinction and first
rank, he has secured his Masters from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Madras (1973) and Doctor of Philosophy in Systems Engineering from I I T
Delhi (1983).His area of specialization is Control and Systems theory. He had
also been Visiting Professor at Data Storage Institute, Singapore, Cukurova
University, Adana, Turkey and European University of Lefke, North Cyprus. In
NITC, he was Head of The Department, Dean Post Graduate Studies and
Research, International Liaison Officer and Coordinator Academic Quality
Management Initiatives. He was instrumental in introducing an academic audit
in NITC, probably the first time in an institute like this.. He has guided four PhDs
and more than 30 Master’s theses.. He is the author of a book on Modern
Control Engineering (Sanguine-Pearson) and Co-editor of Proceedings of
National Systems Conference 1998 (Allied Publishers), and two text books in
Malayalam published by State Institute of Languages, Kerala. He is a Senior
Member of IEEE, Fellow of Institution of Engineers India and Life Member of
Systems Society of India.
A Guide to
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
AGuidetoACADEMICRESEARCH
SANGUINE9 789383 506132 >
ISBN 978 9383 50613-2
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2. Table of Contents
Chapter - 1 Basics of doing Research 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.1.1. What is research? 1
1.1.2. Why do research? 2
1.2. Academic and Industrial Research 3
1.3. Academic Research – Essential steps 4
1.3.1 Types of Research 4
1.3.2. Choice of an area of research 4
1.3.3. Converging on a problem: the search 5
1.4. How to start on a Research career? 6
1.4.1 .Choice of guides. 6
1.4.2. Tools and facilities required. 7
1.4.3. Course requirements 7
1.4.4 Review of progress- regular affair. 8
1.4.5 Comprehensives Examination-
a hurdle to cross 8
1.4.6. Proposal defense 9
1.5. Actual Research 9
1.5.1. Communication of results. 10
1.5.2 Ethics in research 10
1.6 Thesis submission 12
1.7 PhD Defense and Viva Voce examination 13
Technical Page

3. iv A Guide to Academic Research Table of Contents v
Chapter - 2 Literature Survey using Internet 15
2.1. Introduction 15
2.2. Literature survey from Library 16
2.2.1. Books 16
2.2.2. Journals and back volumes 16
2.2.3. Types of Journals 17
2.2.4. Collection and storage 19
2.3. From Internet 20
2.3.1 Some common search engines 21
2.3.2 Meta search Engines 24
2.4 Content curation tools 26
2.4.1 Bookmarking services 27
2.4.2 New tools 27
2.4.3 Pearltrees (http://www.pearltrees.com/) 28
2.4.4. Scoopit (www.scoop.it) 29
2.4.5. Mind map (http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Mind_map) 29
2.5. Coping with on line applications 30
2.5.1 Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/) 31
2.5.2 Web store 32
2.5.3 Google Reader 33
2.6 Some skills for literature survey 32
2.7. Preparation of survey papers 33
2.8 Open educational resources 36
2.9. On line learning resources 37
2.9.1. OpenStudy 39
2.9.2. Udemy 39
2.9.3 MOOC (Massively Open Online Courses) 40
2.10. Keeping yourself up-to-date 43
2.11. References 46
Chapter - 3 Tips on Technical writing 47
3.1. Introduction 47
3.2. Creative writing and Technical writing 47
3.2.1 Technical Writing 47
3.2.2 Research papers 48
3.3. What to write? 50
3.3.1. Literature Survey 50
3.3.3. General layout of the paper 51
3.3.4. Organization of a review paper 51
3.3.5 Language and Grammar 52
3.3.6 Tables, Figures and Graphs. 53
3.3.7. Abbreviations or short forms and symbols 54
3.3.8. References 54
3.4. Problems faced by non-native English speakers. 55
References 57
Chapter - 4 Seminar Presentations 59
4.1. Introduction 59
4.2 Different types of presentations 59
4.3 How to present things? 60
4.4 Preparing for a seminar 61
4.5 How many slides? 61
4.6 Good quality slides 62
4.7 Some common mistakes to be avoided 63
4.8 Preparation for presentation 64
4.9. Interpersonal communication tips 65
4.10 Always remember 66
4.11 Starting and ending 66
4.12. Checking the equipments. 67
4.13. References 67

4. vi A Guide to Academic Research Table of Contents vii
Chapter - 5 Quality of Research 69
5.1 Introduction 69
5.2 Invention or discovery? 69
5.3 Patents on products or processes 70
5.4 Publications 71
5.4.1. Reputation of the journals and
citation index. 72
5.4.2 Why not Conference Papers? 73
5.5 Research without patents or publications 74
5.6 Peer review of research work 75
5.7 Open seminars colloquiums and
review by friends 75
Chapter - 6 Other Problems for Researchers 77
Other Problems for Researchers 77
6.1. Problems created by self. 77
6.1.1 Perfectionism. 78
6.1.2 Procrastination, the habit of
postponing things. 78
6.1.3 Isolation or loneliness 79
6.2. Problems from supervisor 80
6.2.1 Remember ‘supervisors are not superhuman’. 81
6.2.2 If a supervisor is not helpful, where can a
student find support? 82
6.2.3. Emotional support 82
6.2.4 Honest discussion helps 83
6.2.5 Complementing, not replacing. 84
6.3. Securing money for research is hard for everyone84
6.3.1 Getting funding is harder for women? 84
6.4. Competing for high stakes 85
6.5. Accessibility to important research literature. 86
6.6. Cost of publication 88
6.7. References. 90
CHAPTER - 7 Summing Up 91
APPENDIX – I Format for a Ph.D. Thesis 93
APPENDIX – II 203