Research methodology

1. Ph.D.
RESEARCH SUPERVISOR
Dr. P L Ramteke
Conducts online session of Ph.D. Course Work
on ‘Research Methodology’ संशोधन कार्यप्रणाली :
Topic: Research Problem Formulation & Methods
(Date: 24/June/2020) Time:12 Noon
H.V.P.M’s College of Engineering & Technology,
Amravati (Maharashtra) PIN- 444605
(Affiliated to Sant Gadge Baba University, Amravati)

2. 1. Literature Review
2. Sources of Literature
3. Various Referencing Procedures
4. Maintain Literature Data Using Endnote2
5. Identifying the Research areas from the Literature
Review and research database
6. Problem Formulation
7. Identifying variables to Study
TOPIC: Research Problem Formulation & Methods
Contents:

3. 8. Determining Scope, objectives, limitations and or
assumption of the identified Research Problem
9. Justify basic for assumption
10. Formulate time plan for achieving targeted
Problem Solution
11. Important Steps in Research Methods: Observation &
Facts, Law & Theories, Development of Models
12. Developing a Research Plan: Exploration, Description,
Diagnosis and Experimentation
Contents (Contd..) :

4.  What is Research?(Careful Investigation to find new theory that is not in exist)
 Why Research? (find solution, New finding, Universal solution, fulfill need )
 How do Research? (Use Scientific Process)
 Types of Research?
(i. Descriptive Vs. Analytical, ii. Applied Vs. Fundamental
iii. Quantitative Vs. Qualitative, iv. Conceptual Vs. Empirical)
Research Objectives? The objective of each research is
the discovery of new facts, new relationship and new
laws and It must be SMART
(Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant & Time-bound)
Recap- (ससंहावलोकन, पुनरावलोकन):
In Last Session we studied about:

5. What is Research Method? (Tools availability)
 What is Research Methodology? Research Methodology is
scientific and systematic process to solve the research problem
Recap (Contd..) - (ससंहावलोकन, पुनरावलोकन):
In Last Session we had already studied about:
Research Method Research Methodology
1. Research Methods are the
instruments which we can used
for research
2. What is to be used?
1. Systematic approach is systematic
way to solve research problem
2. Broader scope than research method
3. How to do? Various steps adopted..

6. Recap (Contd..)- (ससंहावलोकन, पुनरावलोकन):
 Research Problem Formulation
1.Generating Research Ideas !
2. Examine Strength and Interest
3. Searching the Literature
4. Exploring Personal Preferences
5. Looking at Limitations
6. Integrating Ideas
7. Defining Research Objectives
8. Formulate the Research Problem
 Hypothesis: (Assumptions).
They provide the focal point for research and base for
research design, data collection and analysis techniques
 Research Process
(Steps: Wish to do research- Formulating and clarifying research problem-
Review the Literature- Hypothesis Formulation- Design Research- Looking at
ethical and access issues- Data Collection- Data Analysis- Generalization (Drawing
Inference)- Report writing and Presentation)

7. Research Problem Formulation
 It is the 1st step of Research Process
 Problem Formulation refers to the process of clarifying the research topic.
(While Formulating the research problem, refining the research ideas by
continuous investigation the process of problem formulation.
Objectives of Problem Formulation
1. Clarity of research topic
2. Base for choosing most appropriate research
strategies, data collection and analysis techniques
3. Turn the idea! Into research questions and objectives
4. Express the problem context/statement

8. Step1.Generating Research Ideas!
Step2. Examine Strength and Interest
Step3. Searching the Literature
Step4. Exploring Personal Preferences
Step5. Looking at Limitations
Step6. Integrating Ideas
Step7. Defining Research Objectives
Step8. Formulate the Research Problem
Research Problem Formulation (Steps)

9. Step1.Generating Research Idea!
The first step in problem formulation, there is a range of
techniques that can be used to find and select the topic
that one would like to research. More frequently used
techniques for generating ideas are rational thinking and
creative thinking.
One can use combination of both techniques for
generating good ideas. Rational thinking is the ability
to think out of the box, to think critically, to produce “good
quality of thoughts” in certain situations to arrive at
a rational decision.
Research Problem Formulation (Steps Contd..)

10. Step2: Examine Strength and Interests
It is very important for the research that research topic
must select as per strengths and interests of the research.
A project in the field of researcher’s strength and interest.
Step3: Searching the Literature
Literature search is a systematic and well-organized
search from the already published data to identify breadth
of good quality references on a specific topic.
Research Problem Formulation (Steps Contd..)

11. Step4: Exploring Personal Preferences
Next step is to match the idea with personal preferences of research. To
do this it is suggested that:
Select six projects that you like for each of these six projects note down your first
thoughts in response three questions (if responses for different projects are the
same this does not matter)
What is good about the project?
Why is the project good?
What appeals to you about the project?
Select three projects that you do not like for each of these three projects note
down the first thought in response to three questions
What do you dislike about the project?
What is bad about the project
Why is project bad?
Research Problem Formulation (Steps Contd..)

12. Step5: Looking at Limitations
For problem formulation, researcher should also look at limitations like
financial limit, time limit etc.
Step6: Integrating Ideas
The ability to write a together argument rests upon ability to link
arguments together Example It is argued that leadership is integral to
effective teamwork
Step7: Defining Research Objectives
Last step in problem formulation is defining research objectives which
lead to selection of research strategies and data collection and analysis in
same direction
Step8: RESEARCH FIELD, AREA OF INTEREST, TOPIC AND PROBLEM
Research Problem Formulation (Steps Contd..)

13. What is the purpose of Literature Review?
The purpose of a literature review is to:
Provide foundation of knowledge on topic. Identify areas of prior
scholarship to prevent duplication and give credit to other
researchers. Identify inconstancies: gaps in research, conflicts in
previous studies, open questions left from other research.
Why Literature Review is important?
The literature review is important because: • It describes how the
proposed research is related to prior research in statistics. It shows
the originality and relevance of your research problem.
A literature review discusses published information in a particular
subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area
within a certain time period [2].

14. Content 1: Literature Review
What is a literature review?
A literature review is a comprehensive summary of previous
research on a topic. The literature review surveys scholarly articles,
books, and other sources relevant to a particular area of research.
[2].
Why Literature Review important?
The literature review is important because: • It describes how the
proposed research is related to prior research in statistics.
It shows the originality and relevance of research problem. It
justifies proposed methodology. The purpose of a literature review is
to gain an understanding of the existing research and debates
relevant to a particular topic or area of study, and to present that
knowledge in the form of a written report. Conducting a literature
review helps to build knowledge.

15. The focus of a literature review, however, is to summarize and
synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new
contributions.
literature reviews in your area of interest or in the discipline and
read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to
look for in your own research or ways to organize your final review.
A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources,
but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both
summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important
information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or
a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new
interpretation of old material or combine new with old
interpretations. [1].

16. Content 2: Sources of Literature Review
What are the sources of Literature Review?
Generally, the sources of related literature and studies are
located in the following places: Libraries, either government,
school, or private libraries. Government and private offices. The
National Library. The library of the Department of Education,
Culture and Sports. Books & book chapters Articles in journals
& newspapers Conference proceedings Web pages
Databases Software • Images, audio & video
This includes peer-reviewed articles, books, dissertations and
conference papers. When reviewing the literature, be sure to include
major works as well as studies that respond to major works.
Original documents such as diaries, speeches, manuscripts,
letters, interviews, records, eyewitness accounts, autobiographies.
Empirical scholarly works such as research articles, clinical reports,
case studies, dissertations.

17. Content 3: Various Referencing Procedures
Different kinds of reference styles. Depending on the way in which they
record sources, scholarly reference styles can be divided into three main
categories: documentary notes styles, parenthetical (or author-date) styles,
and numbered styles. Within each category there are several,
slightly different reference styles
What is mean by Referencing? It means acknowledging your source: in the
body of your work (in-text referencing or citation ) AND. linking your citations
to your list of works cited (also reference list or bibliography). See the
glossary for the full explanation of these terms and the referencing style
guides for stylistic information.
Reference example. Reference is defined as a mention of a situation.
An example of reference is the mention of a person's religion to another. ...
An example of reference is a professor who will write a letter recommending
a student for an internship. Reference means someone or something which
is a source of information about a subject.

18. What is Referencing in Research?
Referencing can be described as giving credit, with citation, to the
source of information used in one's work. Research is a buildup on
what other people have previously done thus referencing helps to
relate your own work to previous work.
How do reference in research paper?
To cite a paper APA style, start with the author's last name and first
initial, and the year of publication. Then, list the title of the paper,
where you found it, and the date that you accessed it. In a paper,
use a parenthetical reference with the last name of the author and
the publication year.
Why is referencing important in Research?
Referencing allows you to acknowledge the contribution of other
writers and researchers in your work. Any university assignments
that draw on the ideas, words or research of other writers must
contain citations. Referencing is a way to provide evidence to
support the assertions and claims in your own assignments

19. Endnote is a multiplatform software tool that helps you
manage the process of writing and preparing research
papers.
EndNote is a commercial reference management software
package, used to manage bibliographies and references
when writing essays and articles.
Example. Superscript numbers are used in both the
document and the footnote to help reader match the text to
the supplemental information at the bottom. Example of a
footnote. Example of an endnote
Content 4: Maintain Literature Data Using Endnote

20. Introduction to Endnote
EN’s GUI • Create a new library • Graphical User Interface
Collect • Endnote’s built-in online search • Export / import after an
external database search • Import metadata from PDFs • Manually
adding & altering
Find & attach full text PDFs.
Organise • Building groups • Checking & Updating references • Finding
duplicates • Searching references (incl. PDFs & annotations) • Backing
up your library. Cite • Bibliographic output styles • Cite-while-you-write
(MS Word)
Share & Sync • Without EN Online Account • Share references via E-
mail • Share travel library via Word plugin • Share library as a
compressed library or via servers
Concluding Info, Help & Useful Links • Endnote can do more • Is
Endnote the right thing for me • User Guides & Tutorials • Support,
Forum, FAQ, Blogs, Community

21. Content 5: Identifying the Research Areas from the Literature
how to identify research areas from literature review?
Use organizational tools such as charts or Venn diagrams to map out
the research you find from scholarly articles. These methods may be helpful to
organize what information you have found and what is shared among
the literature, as well as to identify what areas may be missing in the research.
how to identify research gap based on literature review?
Identify your key motivating issue/question.
•Identify key terms associated with this issue.
•Review the literature, searching for these key terms and identifying relevant
publications.
•Review the literature cited by the key publications which you located in the
above step.

22. Content 6: Problem Formulation (Refer Slides No. 8 to 12)
Content 7: Identifying Variables to Study
Identifying Dependent and Independent Variables. it's important that you learn
the difference because framing a study using these variables is a common
approach to organizing the elements of a social sciences research study in order to
discover relevant and meaningful results. Specifically, it is important for these two
reasons:
A variable in research simply refers to a person, place, thing, or phenomenon that
you are trying to measure in some way. The best way to understand the difference
between a dependent and independent variable is that the meaning of each is
implied by what the words tell us about the variable you are using.
How do you identify variable? A variable is a characteristic or feature that varies,
or changes within a study. The opposite of variable is constant: something that
doesn't change. In math, the symbols "x" , "y" or "b" represent variables in an
equation, while "pi" is a constant..
What are 3 types of variables? A variable is any factor, trait, or condition that
can exist in differing amounts or types. An experiment usually has three kinds
of variables: independent, dependent, and controlled

23. Content 8: Determining Scope, objectives, limitations and or
assumption of the identified Research Problem
Scope व्याप्ती, in this context, refers to the range of topics, theory and knowledge
that must be explored in order to offer a relevant, pertinent and focused
response to your question. If the scope of your question is too narrow, you will
have difficulty writing 4,000 words.
What are the scope of identify research problem?
What are the objectives research problem?
Research Problem objectives:
• Investigate the subject
• Collect the data regarding a problem
• Conduct logical and objective study
• Conduct systematic inquiry of the subject
• For carefully recording, reporting and presenting the facts

24. What are the limitations of identified research problem?
Issues with sample and selection.
Insufficient sample size for statistical measurement.
Lack of previous research studies on the topic.
Limited access to data.
Time constraints.
Conflicts arising from cultural bias and other personal issues
Example of Limitation.
When you are only allowed to walk to the end of the block, this is
an example of a limitation. When there are certain things you
are not good at doing, these are examples of limitations. When
a law has specific things that a person cannot do, the law is
an example of a limitation..

25. Content 9: Justify basic for assumption
Hypothesis would mean a theory which is not. fully reasoned. They are linked
and related to theory in more elaborate nature as compared to assumption.
It's an assumption (definition: unstated premise) that is necessary for
the argument. ... Necessary Assumption questions present you with
an argument (premises + conclusion) where in order for the
conclusion to be valid, there is a necessary (critical) assumption not
stated in the argument
What is a necessary assumption?
A simple hypothesis is a prediction of the relationship between two
variables: the independent variable and the dependent variable.
What is simple hypothesis?

26. Content 10: Formulate time plan for achieving targeted
Problem Solution
The Seven Steps of Action Planning
Define the Problem(s)
Collect and Analyze the Data
Clarify and Prioritize the Problem(s)
Write a Goal Statement for Each Solution
Implement Solutions: The Action Plan
Monitor and Evaluate
Restart with a New Problem, or Refine the Old Problem

27. Content 11: Important Steps in Research Methods:
Observation & Facts, Law & Theories, Development of
Models
Law & Theories:
A hypothesis is a limited explanation of a phenomenon; a
scientific theory is an in-depth explanation of the observed
phenomenon. A law is a statement about an observed
phenomenon.
Development of Models:
Model development is an iterative process, in which
many models are derived, tested and built upon until a model fitting
the desired criteria is built. Subsequent modelling work may need
to begin the search at the same place as the
original model building began, rather than where it finished.

28. Research Process
Explain the steps in research process with the help of flow chart.
Wish to do Research
Formulating & Clarifying Research
Problem
Review of Literature
Review Theories
Review previous projects
Hypothesis formulation
Design Research
Looking at ethical and access
issues
Data Collection
 Sampling
 Secondary Data
 Observation
 Semi structured in-depth interview

29. Step1: Wish to do research: Research project starts when somebody feels
the need of solutions to problems.
•Hence first step of research process is wished to do research.
Step2: Formulating and clarifying research problem
Once it is clear about the problem, choose choose the most appropriate
research strategy and data collection and analysis techniques.
Step3: Review the Literature
For this purpose, the abstracting and indexing journals and published or
unpublished bibliographies are the first place to go to. Academic journals,
conference proceedings, government reports, books etc must be tapped
depending on the nature of the problem
Step4: Hypothesis Formulation
research hypothesis are developed is particularly important since they
provide the focal point for research. Hypothesis provides base for research
design and data collection and analysis techniques
Steps in Research Process

30. Step5: Design Research: For this a design has to be drawn. Through
this design of research it is able to test the veracity (truth) of the
hypothesis on the basis of the resulting data. Design means adopting
the type of technique of research which is most appropriate for the
research and study of the problem
Step6: Looking at ethical and access issues
organizations and to individuals. Potential ethical issues
are important in relation to each stage of the research
process and different data collection methods.
Step7: Data Collection
it becomes necessary to collect data that are appropriate.
There are several ways of collecting the appropriate data.
Some of those are: (a) Sampling (b)Observation (c)
Personal Interview (d) Questionnaire etc.

31. Step8: Data Analysis
Data analysis techniques can be broadly categories under two groups as:
Quantitative technique and Qualitative technique
Step9: Generalization
The next step in the scientific research is generalization or drawing of
inference. It classified into two groups:
Logical methods and
Statistical Methods
Step10: Report writing and Presentation
It is the final stage of research process involves the reporting and
presentation of the findings of the study.

32. Observation Method:
This method is probably the oldest method used by man in scientific
investigation. His 1st knowledge of the universe around him begins with
observation. The little child, when he opens his eyes in this world finds
himself surrounded by strange and unknown things. His curiosity inspired
and he begins to observe them. Gradually he is able to understand their
significance and use. So the process goes on.
As the scientific attitude developed in research simple observation was
made more perfect. Attempts were made to devise ways and means to
make observation more precise, unbiased, pointed and infallible.
Kind of Observations:
The observation may be participant or non-participant. When the observer
participates with the activities of the group under study it is known as
participant observation. Thus a observer makes himself a part of the group
under study.

33. •NON-PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
When the observer does not actually participate in the activities of the
group, but simply observes them from a distance it is known as a non-
participant observation. We cannot imagine a kind of relationship in which a
person is always present but never participates.
NON-CONTROLLED OBSERVATION
Observation may be controlled or uncontrolled, when the observation is made
in the natural surroundings, and the activities are performed in their usual
course without being influenced or guided by any external force it is known
as non-controlled observation.
CONTROLLED OBSERVATION
Such controlled observation afford greater precision and objectivity and can be
repeatedly observed under identical conditions. The main purpose of a controlled
observation is, thus to check any bias due to faulty perception inaccurate data
and influence of outside factors on the particular incident.

34. Content 12: Developing a Research Plan: Exploration,
Description, Diagnosis and Experimentation
A research design is a framework that has been created
to find answers to research questions.

35. Wish to do Research
Formulate & Clarify the
Research Problem
Critically review
the Literature
Choose the research approach and strategy
Submit the research project report & give presentation
Plan for data collection & collect the data using one or more methods as of:
Sampling Secondary data Observation Semi structured
and in-depth
interviews
Questionnaire
s
Write the research project report & prepare and
address ethical issues
Research Design Plan:

36. •Experiment
Empirical data can also be collected by carrying out an
experiment. An experiment is a controlled simulation in which
one or more of the research variables is manipulated using a set
of interconnected processes in order to confirm the research
hypotheses.
An experiment is a useful method of measuring causality;
that is cause and effect between dependent and
independent variables in a research environment

37. Data Collection Methods
• 1. Observation
• 2. Questionnaire
• 3. Interview
• 4. Survey
 Tabulation and Analysis Data
 Interpretation of Data
 Result

38. 1. https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/literature-reviews/
2.https://www.google.com/search?q=literature+review&rlz=1C1RUCY_enIN832IN832
&oq=literature&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l7.6949j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
3. http://ncu.libguides.com/researchprocess/literaturegap
4. http://ncu.libguides.com/researchprocess/researchtopic
References