“Converting

Undergraduate Projects
into
Research Papers”
This document is dedicated to the Pakistani Youth.

The hardworking, energetic and dynamic undergraduates and fresh graduates of various fields (especially

Natural Sciences, IT and Engineering) can utilize the knowledge presented herein to prepare their higher

studies applications.

Good Luck,
What are Research Papers?

Research papers are the reports prepared by researchers around the globe mentioning their research
findings. Those reports are reviewed/checked by other researchers and later published in international
journals so that all the other researchers/students can read their findings and learn new scientific
discoveries.

Important Aspects of Final year Project:

Regarding Undergraduate projects/Final Year Project (FYP) several points are essentially important to
note:

1. FYP is the only opportunity for the undergraduate students to have some research experience.
Selecting a good FYP can expose fundamental research experience which can be considered as
“Undergraduate Research Experience” in resumes. It can increase the impact of the
resume/CV for any future higher studies applications.

2. On the same front, FYP is also a great opportunity to spend some time with industry prior to the
graduation. This can be achieved by selecting a project associated with any industrial firm
(company).

3. Thus, a combination of the above two point is also possible i.e. students select a FYP which is
associated with an industry and try to develop a research question in that project. The students
can further work on that research question and transform it into a research activity. (We all
understand that there are a lot of hurdles for undergraduates to do any research in Pakistan at
undergraduate level; thus a small research question with decent efforts to find the answer is
sufficient).

4. Another possibility is to select a project related to computer simulations. This idea has a negative
as well as a positive aspect. The negative point is that the students throughout the year shall be
limited to their computer softwares (and they won’t be involved in industry etc). But the positive
aspect of this idea is that by using computer simulations students can really generate new results.
Therefore, projects based on Computer simulations can generate very interesting results which
can be later transform into research publications.
 Types of Research Papers

The following table describes all of the four types of papers and discusses the advantages and
disadvantages of each:

Type of Brief Description Advantages Disadvantages

Papers

Review Paper It is a survey of any particular field. No need of expensive You have to
You are supposed to read many papers machines, read a lot of
and then summarize the main papers,
conclusions of all those papers. That No need of computer
summary will become your Review simulations,
Paper.

Experimental You conduct some experiments and Publishing experimental Experimenting

/Analytical generate data by those experiments. paper is easier than facilities are
Papers Than you write a paper based on the review paper, required.
experimental results.
Learning is more
practical

Theoretical You can prepare your paper based on a No need of expensive Extremely
Calculations/ new theory/calculations/derivations of machines/facilities challenging
Proposed any unsolved academic topic
Theories

Computer You can use softwares e.g. No need of expensive Your project
Simulations/ MatLAB/Fluent&Gambit to develop machines (Only computer may not be
simulation results. Those results can softwares are required). related to
Programing become your paper. industry.
 Steps to transform FYP into Research Paper:
Step 1 - Selection of a project:

FYP project should be selected carefully. Taking advices from seniors can be very useful. Ideally:

 FYP should be related to industry.

 During that industrial project, students should try to include “research” portion. (See the step 2 for
further details).
 Or Students should work on Computer Simulations. Students should develop new results which are
possible through Computer Simulations without any expensive machinery involved.

Step 2 – Literature Review

Literature Review is extremely important for FYPs. Literature Review means to study those papers
which are related to their FYP and already been published by other researchers.

Since undergraduate students do not have any prior research experience – literature review can help
them to plan and execute their research activities. For example: students may choose one research
paper and try to follow their strategy. This can easily lead the students to publish their own research
paper.

Step 3 – Find out a research question in your FYP

Once you have selected a FYP and also have read some papers; now you will have an idea of ‘how
to conduct research?’.

Now your task is to find a problem (i.e. research question) in your FYP. And try to propose a
solution of that problem. It is also possible that to an old problem which other researchers (engineers
in the field) have developed a solution; you can propose a newer solution or an optimization in that
solution. Later you can transform that solution as your research paper.
 Step 4 – Data Development

Once you have proposed a solution. Now is the time to “prove your solution!” You can utilize either
of the following ways to generate data:

1. You can conduct some experiments in university laboratories. (E.g. measure the density of oil at
different temperatures).

2. You can do some experiments in the industry. (E.g. Study the relation between the vibrations and
temperature of bearings causing failure and bearing rapture). Be careful! company cannot spend
thousands of rupees only on your project.. so be diplomatic and economic.

3. You can do computer simulations using softwares like MatLAB, Fluent & Gambit, etc. Those who
have selected FYP based on computer simulations have great opportunity to develop new data. As
computer softwares are easily available in universities and also not too expensive.

Step 5 – Graphical Representation

Extremely important step – once you have developed data now you have to present those results in
impressive manner by using Graphs, tables, Pie charts, or bar charts etc. (Take examples from
literature review). In other words : “Advertise your results”

Step 6 – Analysis of Data & Co-relating it with available literature

Only “Advertising your results” does not fulfill the requirement to publish your results as a research
paper. You need to explain your results with the available theories in books as well as in the
published paper (i.e. literature review). You should also compare your results with the other
researchers’ work and try to say “why your results are better !” (Even if you don’t compare it with
literature too much, just a small indication is sufficient.

Step 7 – Writing your results and submitting to journals or conference

You started with (1) highlighting a problem.. then (2) you proposed a solution… later (3) you
developed data… followed by (4) graphical representation and (5) explanation of your results.. now
you are ready to (6) write your paper. Once you have written the paper, you should submit it either to
any conference or journal.
 Writing the Research Paper
In this section, we will discuss the steps and details of writing the manuscript of your research paper. It is
understood that by the time you start writing the paper around 80% of your project should already be done
(and the main results of your project should be 100% complete). A general rule to remember and always
follow that each Research article must answer these simple 5 questions:

1. What was done?

2. Why was it done?
3. How was it done?
4. What did you find?
5. What is the significance of the findings?

If you understand your research work and then put your understanding into words by answering above
mentioned questions, then you should be successful in writing a good research paper. The following chart
illustrates all of the components a research paper generally has:

In the following section, we discuss each of the components of the Research Paper in details.
1. Title

Title is extremely important as it grasps the attention of readers. Good title should be:

 Concise, specific and informative.

 Good title should contain fewest possible words that adequately describe contents of
paper.
 Contains the keywords that reflect the contents of the paper.
 Waste words should not be used → e.g., ‘studies on’, ‘investigations on’, ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’ etc.

Example of a good and inadequate title:

Study of corrosion behavior of medium carbon steel with Chromium addition in acidic
environments. (Bad Title)

The same title was revised:

Electrochemical behavior of Chromium added medium carbon steel in acidic

environment. (Good Title)

2. Abstract
Very important part of the paper! Many readers will just read the abstract and make
conclusion how good or bad a paper is. A good abstract should contain following in very
precise manner:

 Purpose of the paper

 Methodology used in the paper
 Key findings of your research
 Major conclusions

* For example, refer to the paper attached at the end of document.

3. Keywords*
Keywords are used to reflect the essential information about the paper.
 Avoid the use of words with broad meaning.
 Try to use abbreviations that are used in your field. For e.g. in field of medical we can
use DNA, RBC and WBC etc.

* If required by journal

4. Main Text
Main text should follow IMRaD pattern.

I = Introduction
M = Methodology/experimental setup
R = Results, what are the findings?
a = and
D = Discussion, what do these findings mean?

4.1 Introduction:
An introduction should follow inverted triangle pattern. One should start his introduction
with a broad sentence and briefing the background of his research area. After discussing the
background the problem statement should be defined. This should be followed by describing
the work of other researchers on that specific problem statement. Finally, in the last
paragraph you should share your idea.

REMEMBER
 Not to make this section a history lesson.
 Don’t provide any kind of result in this section.
 Introduction of the topic

Problem associated
with your research

Work of past
researchers

Your idea

4.2 Methodology/Experimental procedure

In this section, provide all the details of equipment’s and techniques used during your
research. Provide figure where necessary. Graphical explanations attract the
readers/reviewers.

Remember
 Don’t provide any results in this section.

4.3 Results and discussions

This section is heart of the paper. In this section, give the details of what have you found.
Discuss your results by means of graphs, tables and images.

“A figure is worth a thousand worth”

 Be concise.
 Pre-select your results. Identify important results before writing
 Keep in mind: The fool collects facts, the wise man selects them (John W. Powell)
 Avoid repetition.
  Discuss your results with the help of graphs, images and tables you provide in the text.
 Always compare your findings with past researchers.
 Your results must correlate with the discussion you provide.

4.4 Conclusion
This section should comprise of major findings. Remember you have already discussed the
results. So, no need to discuss again. Just simply provide findings and what you conclude
with these results.

5. Acknowledgement
Provide all the funding sources here. (If any)

6. References
Provide all the references in this section according to the journal format. Take care of
following point.
 Never cite any paper without reading it.
 Cite the papers which are relevant to your field only.
 Avoid the citations of textbooks. Try to cite research papers of your field.

For your convenience a sample research paper is attached. All the necessary points are
explained in the light of that paper. Refer to the paper for better understanding.
 SAMPLE PAPER
(YOU CAN TAKE ANY OTHER PAPER FOR LEARNING AND PRACTICING.
TRY TO HIGHLIGHT SIMILAR PORTIONS IN ANY ARBITRARY PAPER)

Describe the PURPOSE

OF PAPER

METHODOLOGY
used in the paper

KEY FINDINGS
of your research

MAJOR
CONCLUSION

PROBLEM
STATEMENT

BRIEF INTRODUCTION of
your research topic
 LITERATURE
REVIEW: work
of past
researchers.

YOUR IDEA

If you notice the sequence of introduction, it follows

INVERTED TRIANGLE PATTERN. The author
started with a BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF THE
TOPIC followed by PROBLEM STATEMENT.
Further he discussed the WORK OF PAST
RESEARCHERS and finally provides HIS IDEA.
COMPARISON
of our findings
with literature
(past
researchers)
COMPARISON
of our findings
with literature
(past
researchers)