Phases of Research/Research Process

Efficient and well-planned activities always see success. Therefore, one need to efficiently plan a
research activity, execute it meticulously, and publish it for outside world.
In a house-building task, the first blueprint needs to be finalized and one has to visualize all
minute details such as position and size of rooms, doors, windows, balconies, and so on.
Estimation of all required material should be finalized along with quality and quantity. Improper
planning and estimates may not able to produce the expected dream house. Similarly, researchers
should follow research process to get optimized research outcomes.
Identification or selection of research domain is a very initial stage in the process of research,
followed by formulating a tentative research problem.
Selection of research guide can be done at initially or at any intermediate stages of research
problem selection. If the problem is well-defined with research objectives initial phases can be
combined and researcher can directly start with literature survey.
Literature survey can be revisited number of times during research process. Researcher can
switch from intermediate state to literature survey and back to the same state.
Broadly, a research process is similar to undertaking a journey. Suppose you want to go out for a
drive. Before you start, you must decide where you want to go and then which route to take. If
you know the route, you do not need to consult a map, but if you do not know the route, then you
need to use one. Your problem is compounded if there is more than one route. You need to decide
which one to take. Similarly, for research journey there are also two important decisions to take.
The first is to decide what you want to find out about or in other words, what research questions
you want to find answers to. Having decided upon your research questions or research problem,
you then need to decide upon your research questions or research problems, you then need to
decide how to go about finding their answers.
Selection of Domain
Selection of domain/area of research is the very first step in the process of research. There are
different purposes behind undertaking particular research. If it is getting the degree, there is a
high possibility to select the domain of the research guide or the guide may suggest selection of
the particular domain. Otherwise, research domain can be selected from area of interest,
identified gap in the literature and individual skill set. If the researcher is working in research
organisation or laboratory the researcher has to work on the domain of organisation’s interest.
The purpose of this research may be to design and develop the new product, to upgrade available
one, to study and analyse the effects of the product specifications in drug industry etc.
Every time, selection of brand new topic / domain for research is not required, in each field there
are some topics that are old but still there is scope for research. Even though there are different
parameters for selection of domain, one should go with an area of his/her interest and current and
future market trends. Researcher’s interest is very important in basic research as outcome may
not be immediately applied for product design or other social or commercial purposes. For
applied research one should look at current and future requirements of market.
Austin O’Malley has well said that, “Well begun is not only half done but often fully cooked.”
Identification of an area of research and defining research problem are most important steps in
the journey of research. One needs to give sufficient time and thought for the problem
formulation. Before deciding domain or selecting problem one need to understand his/her
passion, strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes. Area of research should be of your interest and
it should have potential applications after completing your research.
The motivation/reason behind the selection of research domain is very important. Some of the
reasons for selecting particular research topic are the topic is of your interest, your research
supervisor is expert in that domain and working on some related project, you have identified the
gap in the literature, the topic has very good future prospects. In academic research, your
supervisor may give you the topic or may ask you to select your own. While selecting your own
research problem brainstorm the possible topics, verify the feasibility of a selected topic. Identify
the important related keywords and review the literature with the identified keyword. Revisit the
defined problem and rewrite if required. One should avoid selection of overdone topics unless
you have some unique aspect for it. Also, a topic should not be too general and old. One should
concentrate on current social or technical affairs of interest and keyword of that can also be used
for research.
One invention gives rise to more opportunities for research in a particular domain. First
Aeroplane designed by Wright brothers in 1903 was simple craft and if you look at today’s
aeroplanes, they are totally different. More sophisticated and efficient versions with
modifications right from fuel consumption to the chair design for passenger’s comfort. Over the
period many engineers, researchers, and scientists from industry as well as academia worked on
identified gap or problem faced during use and provided more efficient solutions than the
existing ones. So, the problem can be totally new or it can be identified as a gap in the existing
solution.
Researcher should choose a challenge suitable for his/her skill set. It should not be too high or
too low in comparison with skill set.
Formulating a Research Problem (Tentative) and Identification of Keywords
For an in-depth literature survey researcher has to first define tentative research problem
definition and identify the related keywords for literature search. Before starting with research;
researcher should be equipped with all the tools and domain knowledge required for research.
Research requires ability to go in depth of particular topic.
Discussion of the state-of-the-art with colleague and domain expert is very important and helps a
lot to finalize research problem. Attending workshops, conferences and or short term training
programs is integral part of research work right from conception of problem to completion of
work. Researcher should prepare the research tentative plan of research work.
Research statement should be clearly defined and its objectives should be SMART (Specific,
Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound). Initially, one can start with tentative
problem definition and review the state of the art literature related to topic.
Literature Review
The literature survey is a comprehensive study of technical and authorised content related to
research keywords. It is very important step in the initial phase of research, however, this step is
revisited by researcher number of times during research journey.
Literature survey provide details of research progress of particular domain. It helps the
researcher to understand the approaches, methodologies, algorithms, and datasets used by other
scientists. Also, it is important to identify where the gap is. Where can I contribute to an existing
knowledgebase? It helps the researcher to understand the progress of domain and state of the art
in the domain. Literature survey also helps to avoid duplication of work. One should always
avoid reinventing the wheel; this is important if one of the purposes of the research is to get a
PhD degree. Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the
shoulders of giants.” Researchers should be able to use previously done work as foundation and
propose new idea above that may be supporting or contradicting to previous work.
Open Access journals are one of the good sources of research articles, one can also access
articles from library subscription, some university libraries etc. Good literature sources are
periodicals, conference proceedings, research reports, standards, theses, dissertation reports,
research reports, white papers, patents, reviews, textbooks, handbooks, encyclopaedia etc.
There are different strategies to search literature. One needs to first identify the keywords related
to the problem definition and searching articles using keywords is the more precise way to search
article.
Backward and forward reference search is also popular and beneficial to understand the
background of the research area. One can choose the latest article from the reputed journal
written by good researcher and study all related references of that paper. This is a backward
reference. One can also find the important old article in the domain and find all the papers that
referred the article. This is forward reference search.
Novice researchers can follow below steps for literature survey-
(i) First download 100–120 research papers from published papers of IEEE/ACM/
Wiley/Elsevier/Springer/T and F or some other good SCI Indexed Journals related to
research topic and start reading it. Normally, we do this type of search with the help
of keywords of research problems. Some of the search engines for the literature
survey are Google Scholar, Citeseer, and so on.
(ii) Researchers can initially read only title, abstract and conclusion of each research
paper and decide whether it is related to research topic. If yes, include in list, else skip
it. From this step you will get to know “What has been done in this area and what can
be done in future?” From this understanding one can come up with his/ her research
problem statement.
(iii) Read shortlisted papers in detail and start taking notes of different parameters
considered, methodologies used, conclusions derived, and related mathematics/
theories used. Researchers can finalize research hypothesis after this step and also can
write good survey paper.
Another approach for literature survey is selecting any one best paper related to particular
research problem of your interest. Try to find/download those papers that are cited and
included in the references section. This approach leads to a better literature survey of a
particular research problem.
During the literature survey process, researchers should able to identify the top 10
researchers in his/her domain. He/she should find good universities where people are
working on the same or similar problems. Literature survey is a step that is often visited
during the research journey. Researchers should always look at what other top researchers are
doing in respective area of research.
Researchers should provide main focus on comparing the approaches, Identifying the
weaknesses and strengths in recent research articles in the subject. Each paper’s study can be
 summarized in systematic manner. Literature surveys can be done with respect to following
points:
• What
• How (process schematic)/standard procedure (system block schematics)
• Discussion on major steps involved
• Design criteria and performance measures
• Techniques currently in use
• Comparative analysis (table or any suitable tool to discover and list pros and cons/
strength/weakness/future scope of existing techniques)
• Scope for research/gap in research
Researcher may add some more parameters to be studied about the research paper and can
prepare a format for same to keep record of each paper.
Summarization and representation of literature surveys is an important part in the theses,
presentations and in journal writing. Literature survey can be represented in textual, tabular
or graphical format using different parameters.
Redefining Research Problem, Objectives (Final) and Outcomes/Formulating Hypothesis
Problem definitions should be unambiguous, clear statement that states the major objective of the
research. There should be generally three to six sub objectives defined for research work.
There should be a clear indication of the research work which should not be the recurrence of the
same research. There should also be an outcome which has be initialized while mentioning the
research objective. Objective should be given pointwise (three to six points).
It is important to define outcomes of research work to be carried out, which should show an
impact of the proposed research work.
After domain selection and identifying the problem definition, researchers should formulate a
hypothesis. State-of-the-art literature review on related topic creates a sufficient background for
formulating the hypothesis. Reporting problem with the tentative solution is a hypothesis. The
hypothesis is a tentative solution based on insufficient evidence that can be true or false. For
example, if bacteria are cultured in a warm environment, then the bacteria will grow at a
more rapid pace. The Streptococci bacteria supported the hypothesis, while the E. coli
supported the null hypothesis. “People who do not take balanced diet are obsessed than the
people who take balanced diet.” In the end, researchers either approve or disapprove the null
hypothesis. Generally, it is easier to disapprove the null hypothesis as only one counter example
is sufficient. On the contrary, exhaustive examination of all possible cases is required to prove
the hypothesis.
If the outcome does not support the null hypothesis, we conclude with an alternate hypothesis.
One can define a problem using null hypothesis as “There is no relation between the illness of
children and change in season.” If the result rejects the hypothesis, an alternate hypothesis is
“Illness of children occurs mainly due to change in season.” The null hypothesis is the precise
statement about the parameters. Researchers either approve the hypothesis or disapprove the
hypothesis. If researcher disproves the null hypothesis, all other possibilities are represented by
alternative hypothesis. Null hypothesis does not provide a statistically significant relationship
between variable, whereas, alternate hypothesis provides a statistically significant relationship
between them.
Research Proposal
Researchers should able to convince people for selected topic and objectives through the
research proposal. It is very important document that is reviewed by different committees. In
industry proposal needs to be written for approval of top management, finance and marketing
department. Research proposal is mandatory document to be submitted to the university or
research organisation during the registration for a PhD degree. It can also be written to avail the
funding from different agencies. Every agency generally has its own research proposal format.
Research proposal formats generally include the following sections:
Introduction (Proposed Topic of Research/Rational and Significance of the Study),
Literature Survey (Background of the Proposed Research/Study of Research Work Done in the
Area and Need for More Research),
Motivation, Research Statement, Objectives of the Research Proposed,
Probable Methodologies/Techniques to be Used, Expected Outcome(s) (the kinds of conclusions
expected and their possible value),
Plan of Research Work, References/Bibliography.
• Introduction (250–300 words)/Proposed Topic of Research
In this part, the introduction to the area of interest can be included along with its potential for
research and its application. Introduction also specifies the work to be proposed and it should be
related to the title of the theses in case of the PhD dissertation.
• Literature Review of Research Topic (1,500–2,000 words)
Present status of topic of research from existing literature can be written in this part of proposal.
Literature of our work is been prepared by the scholar after going through the contemporary
literature done in the area of interest after referring the Science Citation Indexed (SCI)
Journals/e-journal, reputed conferences, magazines, MTech and PhD dissertations, reports
published in the institution and company organisations along with patents in domain of research.
In this context there should be a broad summary that should reveal the present status in the area
of work and should highlight the identified research gap.
• Gap in Existing Research
Issues that are unresolved on the research topic should be reported in the project with reference
to the current status. Furthermore, possible utilization of the research outcome can also be
suggested.
• Objective of the Proposed Research
It should be clearly indicating the perception of the research work and should not be a mere
repetition of the topic of research. What is to be achieved as an outcome of the research has to be
visualized while mentioning the objective of the research. Objectives should be given pointwise
(three to six points).
• Outcome
It is important to make clear the impact of the proposed research and the particular aspect of the
problem that is anticipated to produce an original contribution(s) by the candidate.
• Methodology
Methodology should provide the experimental/infrastructural/computing facilities needed to
carry out the research work and it should be described in the logical phases that are used to
investigate the identified research problem. There should be a phase wise description with a brief
explanation under each phase. The methods and approach can also be represented by figures and
flowcharts.
Identifying Variable/Parameters and Research Design
The variable is basic quality or attribute that differs in value under different circumstances. The
researcher should identify all related variables or parameters. Parameters can be identified during
literature survey and it may vary depending on the proposed hypothesis. In hypothesis “Illness of
children occurs mainly due to change in season,” parameters can be age, whether ill, duration of
illness, type of illness, season during illness, weight, height, temperature, and so on. These are
some of the variables for considered hypothesis. One need to define the domain and range of
each variable. Its range can vary with application. Variable can be either dependent or
independent. Independent variables show changes in dependent variables. It may possess either
continuous or discrete values.
To prove or disprove the hypothesis one needs to decide on the design strategy of research. The
researcher needs to shift the paradigm from “what is my research?” to “how am I going to
conduct it?” The research design is a systematic plan designed to obtain a solution to the research
problem. Which data should be tested, which procedure/algorithm/methodology will be applied
is decided in the design phase.
Research design should be carefully planned and checked for feasibility. It is blue print of your
research. Good research design provides maximum outcome with minimum efforts. The
researcher should think about size and type of samples and dataset to be considered, parameters
to be considered. Researcher can revisit the literature review step again to check with state of the
art design methodologies used by other researchers and can come up with methodology suitable
for his/her own research hypothesis.
Data Collection and Representation
Data can be either directly collected afresh known as primary data or already collected and used
data is known as secondary data. Secondary data is already considered by researchers to test the
hypothesis. Most of the times in experimental research data is collected afresh to test the
methodologies, hypothesis or algorithms. If researcher decides to use afresh data, then he has to
decide carefully on method of data collection. Depending on problem definition and research
objectives some parameters needs to be controlled during the data collection.
Consider the research topic “Study of effect of exercise on thyroid patient.” Persons having
hypothyroid or hyperthyroid are of interest and normal individuals are not. Thyroid level,
duration of exercise, type of exercise, age, eating habits, and so on are different parameters that
need to be taken into consideration during research.
Data can be represented in simple text, tables, graphs, audio, video, or images. Researchers
should consider sufficient amount of data with all parameters. An incomplete dataset may not
give a conclusive result.
Collected raw data should be first examined for errors, this is called editing of data. It should be
coded and represented in user friendly format.
Selection of Appropriate Method for Data Collection
Nature, Scope and objective of enquiry constitute the most important factors affecting the choice
of a particular method.
Funding availability decides the method for collection of data and the disposal of the research in
a limited version. So selecting a cheaper method may not be efficient and effective but as to act
within its limitation.
Time availability is also needed to be taken into account for deciding the method of collecting
the data and takes more time when compared with shorter duration methods. Thus affects the
selection of the method for processing the data. Another important thing that should be
considered is the time precision for collection of the data.
The reliability can be tested by finding out the following:
• Who collected the data?
• What were the sources of the data?
• Were they collected by using proper methods?
• At what time were they selected?
• What level of accuracy was desired?
• Was accuracy achieved?
The data that are suitable for one enquiry may not necessarily be found suitable in another
enquiry. In this context, the researchers must carefully scrutinise the definition of various terms
and units of collection used at the time of collecting the data from the primary source originally.
If the researchers find the difference in these, the data will remain unsuitable for the present
enquiry and should not be used.
If the level of accuracy achieved in data is found inadequate for the purpose of the present
enquiry, they will be considered as inadequate and should not be used by the researcher.
Selection of Appropriate Methods for Data Representation
Tabulation is a process that conserves space and reduces explanatory and descriptive statement
and also provides the comparison from one state to another. Tabulation also provides various
statistical computational information, which facilitates the summation of items and detection of
errors and omission.
lmportance of Tabulation
• Each table will give a clear title that does not require an explanation
• Each table will be provided with a separate number that will be easy for referring
Tables can be categorized in a chronological, geographical, and alphabetical order. Table should
be made as logical, clear, accurate, and simple as possible. Most of the research outcomes consist
of data that are of same kind; these types of data are needed to be reduced for the better
understanding of the result. Classification of the data depends on the nature of a fact that is
involved. Classification can be categorised under two sections such as numerical and descriptive.
Descriptive refers to qualitative phenomenon which cannot be measured quantitatively and
depends on the specified attributes. Whenever the data is classified according to the attributes,
researchers should give a clear picture related to the attributes.
The numerical classification refers to the phenomenon which will measure the data quantitatively
using statistics. Data related to the salary, classes of age, and so on, comes under these classes.
Such data are known as statistics of variables and are classified on the basis of class interval.
Graphical representation helps to understand the data easily. All statistical package, offers a wide
range of graphs. In case of qualitative data, the most common graph is bar chart and pie chart.
Testing of Proposed Design on Collected data/Hypothesis Testing
Researcher defines the hypothesis and he/she needs to test that hypothesis to prove or disprove.
Hypothesis testing is expressed as either a null hypothesis or alternative hypothesis. If the
researcher compares two methods P and Q for superiority and if proceed on the assumption that
both methods are equally good, then this assumption is termed as the null hypothesis (H0). If the
researcher thinks that “Method A is superior and the method B is inferior,” then it is termed as
alternative hypothesis (Ha). There are Type I and Type II errors related to the null hypothesis. We
may reject H0 when H0 is true. This is a Type I error. Type I error means rejection of hypothesis
that should have been accepted. Type II error means accepting the hypothesis that should have
been rejected.
Results and Analysis
The result is an important section of the research. If the topic is totally new then one cannot
compare his/her results with existing. Here, the hypothesis should be tested with multiple
approaches and that results can be compared. If already some scientists worked on
methodologies or the topic it is important to compare your results with the existing state of the
art results from the literature. While comparing results one should look at the considered
parameters, dataset, and so on. Results should be represented in the visual format using tables,
figures and or graphs. It should be properly labelled, clear and easy to understand. Carefully
choose the type of graph taken for result representation. The relationship between the data in
tables/graphs should be explained along with observations. Result section may include the
problems faced during collection of data and complete analysis of results.
Research Report Writing
There are different purposes for writing the research report. The research report is a medium to
convey research outcomes, contributions, findings and results to the outside world. It decides the
quality of your research work. Without approval of experts in domain, the research is
incomplete. Publication of research in open, referred international journal is very important
aspect of the research. It can be research papers written for publication through different
agencies like IEEE, Springer, Elsevier, T&F, and so on. Research report can be in the form of the
theses for academic research and it is compulsory and important part of the completion of the
degree. Patents, copyrights, and white papers are also possible outcomes of the research.
Communicating ideas is important aspect of research. People should agree that your work is
creative and novel. For good writing, lot of good reading is recommended to understand how
people communicate their ideas.
Different agencies provide their own formats for writing the report. Format and length of the
report depend on the type agency.
The researcher should first start with an introduction and can continue with literature survey,
methodology, datasets, and results. Then conclusion section can be added and at last abstract of
the paper, report or theses can be written. These are general guidelines suggested for novice
researchers and not hard and fast rule. These may include the following sections:
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Review of Literature
• Problem Definition and Objectives
• Methodology
• Observations and Results
• Discussion
• Summary
• Conclusion
• Publications
• Bibliography/References
• Appendixes
This is a general guideline and every university or organization may have their own format of
theses.
Researchers should be aware of plagiarism issues, copyright issues, procedures, and penalties.
Plagiarism is to literally steal the work of another person, presenting it as original research
without proper citation. There are different agencies including Turnitin, Unkund that verify the
copied content in written document with its source. After completion of writing, a plagiarism
check of the written document by an authorized agency is recommended.
While reporting own work, if the researcher is referring to work by other scientists or
researchers, all of this should be acknowledged and added to the references. References can be
organized in alphabetical or chronological order. Acknowledgments to people, funding agencies,
or other organizations that helped directly or indirectly in the completion of the research work
should be added.
The writer should have good command over the language especially the grammar of the
language in which the work is reported. In science and technology domain research work is
generally reported in the English language.
At glance during research process researcher should monitor following stage-wise details,
• First stage
◦ Where do you start?
◦ Area of interest should be decided
◦ Check out why this area is of interest
◦ Discuss your idea with local R&D staff
• Second stage
◦ From the existing source systematic reviews should be considered carefully
before starting the research
◦ Duplication of research which is not of sufficient quality is itself unethical. So
working/reviewing with existing knowledge is an important step
• Third Stage
◦ Research domain should be determined
◦ Data should be arranged for a specific purpose and statistically analysed
◦ Determine top-down or bottom-up approach or combination
◦ Data should be compared and validate on the work done
◦ Data should provide the information and action performed for comparison of the work
◦ Results should dealt with a means of solving the problem
◦ Research validation should be verified with surveys
◦ Perform research validation using research methods (interviews, surveys, etc.)
◦ Appropriateness of the work should be justified
◦ Cost should be specified
◦ Test Practicality