This primer on the Research Paper Writing briefs the researchers on the complete writing process of a research paper.

1. Dr. Rahul Pandya, Ph.D. (IIT-Delhi)
Research
Paper
Writing...!
https://youtu.be/D2-mb01UYTU

2. YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/R
esearchRushi
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/research_
rushi/
Facebook:
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Rushi-107802915083366/?ti=as

3. Research Paper Writing...!
▪ Identify the research problem
▪ Literature review – write a review paper
▪ Planning and executing the research
▪ Writing process
▪ Identify the scope of the paper
▪ Journal/conference selection
▪ The first draft of the research paper
▪ Title, authors, affiliations, and orders
▪ Abstract, Introduction, Literature review
▪ Contribution - proposed model / methodology
▪ Results and analytical discussions
▪ Conclusion and future scope
▪ References and acknowledgment
▪ Characteristics of a dull paper
▪ Revise the first draft
▪ Submit to a Journal / Conference
▪ Major/Minor revision and responses to the reviewers
▪ Rejection
Outline
https://publicdomainvectors.org/en/free-clipart/Man-holding-a-poster-vector-drawing/7527.html
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4. Is it worth writing a research paper?
▪ Is the problem novel?
▪ Can you think of something that solves the fundamental problem and
identify an unoccupied slot for publishing?
▪ Are there too many papers already published on the same problem?
▪ What are the missing points and shortcomings of the published work?
▪ Can you work on overcoming the limitations and propose an
enhanced solution?
▪ Don’t start unless you have answers to the above questions
▪ Rethink, plan before you start the research work
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=237978&picture=woman-holding-questions
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5. Identifying a research problem
▪ Originality and Novelty: work must be
original rather than incremental
▪ Longevity
▪ Long-lasting impact
▪ Start early and beat the completion
▪ Too Late…..?
▪ Find a less clouded problem with high
potential
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/thinking-out-of-the-box-2958103/
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6. Research – Problem Statement
▪ Problem statement – should be a
focused statement about a principle
research problem. Be as specific as
possible
▪ Objectives:
▪ Clear goals or outcomes that you
want to accomplish
▪ Ideally, 3 – 5 objectives should be
defined around a single problem
statement
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/thinking-out-of-the-box-2958103/
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7. Identifying a Potential Research Problem Statement
▪ Have I answered the main question?
▪ Does my research problem statement pass the “So what?” test?
▪ Does my research problem statement pass the “How and Why?”
test?
▪ What would be the impact of my research?
▪ What would be the size of my research?
▪ Does it address the principle problem and solve it for too many
people?
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=237978&picture=woman-holding-questions
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8. Planning

9. Planning
▪ The planning phase is a crucial stage for performing research and publishing
high-quality research papers
▪ It involves deep thinking about the research problem, execution of your research
objectives, accomplishing the final goals, and shaping the structure of your paper
▪ Identify a topic or problem statement that matches the scope of your assignment
▪ How much time is allocated? Plan an appropriate period to spend on research,
writing, and revision
▪ Explore and study the relevant sources
▪ Understanding the expectations
▪ Discuss with your supervisor, understand
his/her expectations
▪ Take a close look at the instructions
your research supervisor or a guide
has given you. What is being asked of
you?
https://pixabay.com/photos/planning-organized-word-planner-5570360/
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10. Planning
▪ Identify the target journals/conferences
where you want to publish
▪ Understand the expected level of research
quality and complexity standard for
those publishers
▪ Perform the research activities
matching the expected quality
standards
▪ Self questioners:
▪ When is your deadline?
▪ What is the goal of the assignment?
▪ What topics can you write about?
https://pixabay.com/photos/planning-organized-word-planner-5570360/
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11. Literature review

12. Literature review
Chapter 8: Writing the Literature Review – Literature Reviews for Education and Nursing Graduate Students (rebus.community)
▪ Skimming the papers
▪ Abstracts, headings, and subheadings
▪ Do not read the entire paper in the first go
▪ First, filter the target papers, and read a few relevant
papers thoroughly
▪ Read introduce and conclusion
▪ Charts and statistical tables
▪ Read the references
▪ Skim body, read relevant
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13. Implementation
▪ Explore the literature around your research problem
▪ Journal and conference papers
▪ Books
▪ Other reliable sources
▪ Identify unexplored area
▪ Identify the gaps and highlight how we are going to contribute to cover those
gaps
▪ What new developments might require updated research?
▪ Take important notes and questions
▪ Collect a broader picture and narrow down the
focus to a specific segment
▪ Digesting earlier research, which will help us to
formulate your arguments in the paper
▪ During the research, retain notes of the source
details and cite them in suitable places in your paper
https://www.universal-rights.org/blog/governmental-human-rights-focal-points-governments-and-national-administrations-as-drivers-of-human-rights-implementation/attachment/implementation/
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14. Research Paper - Writing Phases

15. Research Paper - Writing Phases
Research Paper
Writing
Research Paper
Writing Phase
Latex
Overleaf
Standard
Journal or
Conferece
foramt
Organize tex file
and generate pdf
Validation and
Proof reading
Enhance
English
Plagiarism<10%
Structuring the
research paper
Title
Affiliations
Abstract
Main body
Introduction
Literature
Survey
Contributions
Methodology
Result
Discussion
Conclusion
Future scope
References

16. Characteristics of a research paper
▪ A research paper is a piece of writing that attempts to present the focused
solutions to the specific research problem
▪ Center of a research paper — problem statement
▪ In-depth study of a research question or a problem statement
▪ Original and Innovative — Contributes something novel
▪ In support of the problem statement, a variety of sources are analyzed and
cited
▪ In-depth writing, which requires detailed planning and sizable research
contribution

17. Identify the scope of the paper

18. Focused approach
▪ Scope - stay around your problem statement
▪ Specific methodologies and solutions to
address the problem statement
▪ Avoid fitting too much into one paper
▪ Divide the content into the multiple papers
▪ When writing, maintain the expected quality
standard, size, level of complexity
https://www.maxpixel.net/Zoom-Magnify-Find-Research-Focus-Magnifying-Glass-5288878
▪ Enhanced English and usage of advanced vocabulary
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19. Journal / Conference selection

20. Journal / Conference selection
▪ Identify the target journal or conference
▪ Study the scope of the journal or conference, which must be fitting with your
research work
▪ Look at the published papers in that journal and conference
▪ Maintain a similar expected quality standard during your research and reflect the
same when writing a research paper
▪ Think as reviewers think……!
▪ Go for a peer review with your senior researchers, mentors, and supervisors
▪ Consequences of incorrect decision: Loss of time and failure to publish

21. Dr. Rahul Pandya
Journal Finder
IEEE?
Elsevier -
Springer?
Tailor and Francis?
Wiley?
Open Access/Unpaid?
https://youtu.be/3ccf2vQzhYU

22. Dr. Rahul Pandya
Journal Index
Finder
Find journal indexing –
SCI? eSCI? Scopus?
Web of Science
https://mjl.clarivate.com/home

23. https://youtu.be/3naunb0Qgec

24. Outlining the structure of your paper

25. Outlining the structure of your paper
▪ Organize your thoughts
▪ Before you commence writing the research paper, create a clear outline of
your paper
▪ Understand the information flow and ensure nothing is forgotten
▪ An outline is a list of what you plan to include in each section or subsection
in your article
▪ A structured outline enables you to organize your ideas and fit them in an
organized fashion in your paper without forgetting anything

26. Writing

27. Writing
https://pixabay.com/photos/creative-writing-editing-library-108545/
▪ Now you are ready to start wiring your
research paper
▪ Many researchers prefer to start with the main
body first and abstract, introduction, a
conclusion later once they have written about
their argument
▪ Also, consider word count and page limit for a
given journal
▪ How much do you want to cover in a single paper?
▪ Do not put everything in just one paper; you can publish in multiple articles
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28. First draft of your research paper
▪ Transform ideas into discussions
▪ At this point, you’re turning your preliminary ideas into arguments. They may not be perfectly
formulated on the first attempt
▪ Maintain forward momentum—write now, perfect later
▪ Don’t get too hung up on any difficulties you encounter. You can end up losing momentum;
you’ll have time to perfect your work later
▪ Express yourself clearly
▪ Try to write clearly and concisely. This is something you can improve later, but it’s also
important that things be clear to you when you come back to them
▪ Be flexible
▪ Don’t be afraid to make adjustments to your planned arguments or structure as you write.
The point of your outline is to help you shape your paper, but it doesn’t have to be set in stone
▪ Cite your sources
▪ When you quote or paraphrase sources, you will have to cite them. You may want to perfect your
citations later, but it’s worth getting the basics down now—at least the author name, year of
publication, and the page number. Final formatting can be done later
▪ Online citation generators enable you to produce citations automatically

29. Read, Read, and Read…!
▪ Read Read and write selectively!
▪ Get the habit of reading soft copies instead
of hard copies of the papers
▪ You can highlight through PDF editor
▪ You can do a search using Control+F
▪ You can access the papers anywhere
through your drive
▪ Carrying the hard copies of the 100 papers
is not feasible
▪ Go digital
▪ Take notes as you read: Develop a system of
highlighting and underlining, marking,
and/or paraphrasing which is most relevant
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/student-boy-reading-book-studying-5730767/
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/read-reading-literacy-education-652384/
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30. Sources of Help
▪ Professors
▪ Other scholars
▪ Social media research groups
▪ Q&A portal online where you can post
your queries
▪ Software and Hardware support
systems to resolve your questions and
find out quickly what can be done and
what can not be done
▪ Writing Tutors
▪ Content Tutors
▪ Models Research Papers
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/help-information-problem-solution-1013700/
▪ Motivational sources: get the habit of reading the profile of other researchers
▪ Subscribe to the google scholar’s alert for the relevant researchers
▪ Research gate follow the relevant researchers and their updates
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31. Title - Less is More
▪ Title must reflect your work
▪ Concise and impactful
▪ Precise Length (6 to 12 words)
▪ E.g.
▪ Machine Learning Oriented Dynamic Cost Factors-Based Routing in
Communication Networks
▪ Recent progress in surface Plasmon resonance Based sensors: A
Comprehensive Review
Alpha Stock Images - http://alphastockimages.com/
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32. Authors, their Affiliations and Orders
▪ Author and Co-Authors
▪ Affiliations
▪ IEEE membership information
▪ Formatting as per the publisher
▪ IEEE
▪ Elsevier
▪ Wily
▪ Hindwi

33. Abstract
▪ Crisp and impactful
▪ Complete projection of your research
▪ Brief of your contributions
▪ Methods
▪ Algorithms
▪ Final result, finding, outcome can be discussed in terms of numbers in short
▪ E.g. The proposed methodology/algorithm inferred 12% improvement over
the existing methods
▪ Concussive comments in short

34. Introduction
▪ Brief introduction about the existing research trend
▪ What are the opportunities, limitations and challenges
▪ Detailed literature survey about what other researchers have contributed in the recent
years (focus more on last 3-5 years)
▪ Highlight the identified gaps and explain why your research contribution is important
▪ Convince the readers that your paper represents a novel and essential research
contribution
▪ Give a quick summary of the structure or organization of the rest of the paper, what is
there in each section that you can summarize in short
License: Creative Commons 3 - CC BY-SA 3.0, Attribution Link: Pix4free.org - link to - https://pix4free.org/, Original Author: Nick Youngson - link to - http://www.nyphotographic.com/
Original Image: https://www.thebluediamondgallery.com/finger01/i/introduction.html
▪ What is your article about?
▪ Introduce the research problem, accompanying with key
terms and ideas
▪ Why is your work important?
▪ Explain to the readers what novel insights you are offering
▪ How will you make your arguments?
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35. Research Paper – Main body
▪ Have several sections and subsections, each covering a specific
idea, connecting to your problem statement
▪ Make sure that the information is presented in a logical order
maintaining a continuous flow
▪ Includes all your pieces of evidence and arguments to support your
research problem

36. Research Paper – Main body
▪ System model with a comprehensive block diagram
▪ Methodologies
▪ Algorithms
▪ Mathematical models and theorems with proofs
▪ Experimental setups, block diagrams and pictures
▪ Detailed explanation about your work
▪ Flowcharts, pseudocodes, figures, and tables etc.

37. Structure of Sections and Sub-sections
▪ Follow the structured outline
▪ Keep your writing focused on the research problem statement
▪ Write impactful headings for sections and subsections
▪ A heading must concisely introduce the primary content
▪ An impactful topic heading enables the readers to recognize the
direction promptly
▪ Establish effective transitions within and between sections,
subsections, and paragraphs
▪ You may use words, such as “because,” “Moreover,” “however,”
“furthermore,” “firstly,” “secondly,” etc., to indicate the connection
between different sentences, paragraphs, sections, and subsections
▪ The more you write, the more you explore

38. Results and Discussion - Figures, Tables, Pi-charts
https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-qlnph
▪ Figures, Tables, Experimental Setup’s
diagrams, Simulation windows
snapshots, Graphs, Bar-charts
▪ Analytical explanations of your results
▪ Results must be discussed in terms of
numbers along with a general trend of the
graphs
▪ Comparative statements
▪ Conclusive points of your outcomes
▪ Present tabular results
▪ Strengths/limitations of your study
▪ Implications of findings
▪ Other findings of your study
▪ High-quality resolution of figures
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39. Abbreviations - Laugh out Loud (LOL)
▪ Abbreviations are defined for the frequently or repeatedly used term in the paper
▪ It helps to save the word count
▪ If you are using terms frequently, such as Mobile Routing (MR), which can be defined as MR and
reused everywhere in the text. Make sure that no undefined abbreviations are used
▪ Double-check that all the abbreviations are defined first when they come first in the text, and
later abbreviations are used in the subsequent text
▪ This has to be done separately for the Abstract and Introduction onwards through the paper
▪ This means if let us say Mobile Routing (MR) comes in the abstract and you want to reuse that
term “MR,” you will have to define that first in the abstract, and you can reuse it in the abstract
▪ Similarly, if it comes first in the introduction, again you will have to redefine Mobile Routing
(MR), and later in the subsequent text, you can reuse the abbreviation “MR”
▪ Perform one separate round of proofreading only dedicated to the abbreviation cross
verification
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=354233&picture=lol-black-stamp-text-on-blue
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40. Conclusion
▪ Brief of your research contributions
▪ Impactful and collusive points
▪ Comparative strength of your work with others
▪ Discuss in terms of numbers of final outcome
▪ Limitations
▪ Future research scope

41. Acknowledgment
▪ Write an acknowledgment about the funding agency
▪ Any software company has furnished you an evaluation version of
the software tool
▪ Any person if they helped for any support
▪ If the involvement is sizable in that case, you may include as a author

42. References and Citations
▪ Cross-check all the Figure numbers and their referrals to the text. The numbers referred to in
the text and Figure must be matched
▪ Do the same for all the table numbers
▪ Cross-check all the references, that the cited one and the listed one both are exactly the
same
▪ Follow the standard referencing format for the references (as recommended by a publisher)
▪ E.g.
▪ Journal paper:
▪ R. J. Pandya, V. Chandra, and D. Chadha, “Simultaneous Optimization of Power Economy
and Impairment Awareness by Traffic Grooming, Mixed Regeneration, and All-Optical
Wavelength Conversion with an Experimental Demonstration,” IEEE Journal of Lightwave
Technology, vol. 32, no. 24, pp. 4166-4177, Dec. 2014.
▪ Conference paper:
▪ R. J. Pandya, V. Chandra, and D. Chadha, “Survivability with Impairment Awareness and
Power Cost in Optical Networks,” Proc. International Conference on Fiber Optics and
Photonics, New Delhi, pp. 1-2, Dec. 2018.

43. Dr. Rahul Pandya
IEEE reference
formatting
https://youtu.be/H8Fm4SBnAb8
Where to find
references
in IEEE format?
IEEE digital Lib.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/home.jsp

44. Plagiarism and Similarity Index
▪ Bring the plagiarism or similarity index below 10%
▪ Turn it in (Plagiarism checkers)
▪ Copyright infringements on images
▪ Request a publisher to issue a written license or pay for images reuse charge if they
are already published
▪ Draw your own images, read existing content and rewrite in your own words, cite
the referred one
▪ Consequences of plagiarised content:
▪ Negative image
▪ Paper may get rejected in the sanity check round (will not enter a review process)
▪ If it is found repeatedly, a publisher may impose a penalty or ban authors from
uploading the papers
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ME_109_Thief.png
Nina Paley, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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45. Revision before Submission

46. Revision before Submission
▪ Once the first draft is completed, revise it multiple times
▪ Before you share your manuscript with your supervisor or guide, make sure that at least two times
you have revised it on your own
▪ During each revision, aim to improve the writing quality by 10-15%
▪ The revision process is crucial to arrange your paper in good shape before the final submission
▪ Does it line up with your research problem statement?
▪ Is there anything forgotten or missing?
▪ Is the first draft written clearly? If not, what can we do to improve the clarity?
▪ Are there any confusing or ambiguous paragraphs? Look for explanations that could be clearer or require
more evidence or proof
▪ Is it too lengthy, too much into a single paper?
▪ Can we cut down something and save it for later?
▪ Is it too short and does not meet the expected quality and complexity standards? You may have to do
additional work to improve your work's quality, Size, and complexity. It must not look Dull....!
▪ Take a careful look at your first draft and find areas for improvement. Be mentally prepared to do whatever
it takes to improve
▪ Are you restructuring the initial outline? Even if you followed your original outline, it may be that you now
realize a different structure would work better. Be flexible and restructure the outline if it adds value
▪ Cut down all the redundant or irrelevant segments. Avoid repetitions....!

47. Revision before Submission
▪ Prioritize the most significant changes first
▪ Once the first draft is evaluated, we can start executing transformations
▪ Start with the most significant changes to content and composition; these may have a knock-on
effect on the rest of the items
▪ Redrafting might involve:
▪ Reorder information
▪ Reformulating your arguments to make them clearer or more substantial
▪ Presenting information in a different order
▪ Cut
▪ Add
▪ Be flexible, do what's suitable for the paper. Don't feel you have to make too many changes; it
will take a lot of time and effort to overcome all psychological barriers or pushbacks if you want
to publish with high-quality journals or conferences
▪ Don't hesitate to restore something back if the new version doesn't work

48. Editing, Proofreading and Peer reviewing
▪ Fix typos and spelling errors
▪ Missing words
▪ Confused word choices
▪ Punctuation errors
▪ Missing or excess spaces
▪ Capitalization, formatting, referencing
▪ Have we used all the terms which we defined, consistently throughout the
paper?
▪ All the numbers mentioned in the abstract and conclusion must match
numbers in the text, figures, and tables
▪ All the citations must be matched with exact numbering with the reference
list
▪ References are properly formatted
▪ Check the document formatting, syntax, and grammar

49. Editing, Proofreading and Peer reviewing
▪ During the editing phase, look at the text closely, resolve grammatical issues, and ensure
clarity
▪ Go through each sentence (sentence-by-sentence), resolve the grammar issues
▪ Raise the standard of your English using multiple writing tools such as Grammarly
▪ Use the advanced word to describe your work
▪ Combine small or primitive sentences into complex ones
▪ Cut down the long sentences into the medium ones
▪ Clarify technical ambiguities
▪ Request your colleagues, supervisor to review and comment on your paper before
submitting to the journal or conference
▪ “English is not my Native Language” is not a valid argument for a reviewer who cannot
comprehend
▪ Reviewers do not wish to review papers that are not readable
▪ Poorly written articles often result in rejection

50. Characteristics of a dull paper
▪ Lack of Focus
▪ Lack of originality
▪ Incremental work – lacks novelty
▪ Too short articles without matching the expected size
▪ Very lengthy article
▪ Lack of reasoning
▪ Lack of sufficient literature survey
▪ Lack of strong outcomes
▪ Lack of impactful presentation of the scientific data through Figures, tables, block diagrams,
pseudo-codes, drawings, mathematical diagrams, experimental diagrams, etc.
▪ Lack of sufficient numbers in the discussions
▪ Lack of analytical explanations, discussing general trend without suppling the numbers, not
providing the comparative study with the existing work and proving how is your work is
better compared with others?
▪ Use of undefined abbreviations
▪ The referral numbers of the Figures and tables are not matching with the text (use Latex to
avoid)
▪ Cited reference numbers in the text are not matching with the reference list (use Latex to avoid)

51. Revision and Responses to the Reviewers
▪ The reviewers are always right; when revising, try to address in line with the
reviewers' expectations
▪ Do not respond so quickly; understand the reviewers and try to revise the
work as much as possible, satisfying all the comment
▪ Too many rebuttals may lead to the rejection of the paper after the submission
of the revision

52. Rejection?
▪ If your paper is rejected, do not lose heart….! It is a part of the publication process
▪ Mostly first attempt at the paper results in rejection for most of the researchers
▪ Carefully analyse the reviewers' comments and the reason for the rejection
▪ Revise your paper addressing reviewers' comments that will enhance the paper
quality
▪ Also, take a careful and proactive look at your own to check if anything is missing,
enhance the paper quality by adding new items to strengthen your manuscript
▪ Upload to the new journal
▪ If reviewers have not given any comments, try it in the other journal
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/rejected-stamp-denied-rejection-5250678/
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53. Good Luck…!
https://pixabay.com/photos/board-school-task-hand-write-2470557/
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54. YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/R
esearchRushi
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/research_
rushi/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Research-
Rushi-107802915083366/?ti=as

55. Dr. Rahul Pandya, Ph.D. (IIT-Delhi)
Research
Paper
Writing...!