Research Methodology

Fall 2023

Dr. Husnain Mansoor Ali

Today's Lecture
• References
• Plagiarism
• Quoting
• Evidence and Support
• Hypothesis
Lecture References
Ullrich Hustadt
Department of Computer Science
University of Liverpool

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
S. Rajasekar, P. Philominathan and V.
Chinnathambi
References
Why do we cite the work of others?
1 To acknowledge the work of other writers and
researchers
2 To demonstrate the body of knowledge on
which our own work is based
3 To enable the reader to trace our sources easily
and lead her/him on to further information
We do NOT cite to indicate that we have copied
text from another source! That’s plagiarism!
Plagiarism
According to the definition, plagiarism is:
“Verbatim copying, near-verbatim copying, or
purposely paraphrasing portions of another
author's paper or unpublished report without citing
the exact reference.
Copying elements of another author's paper, such as
equations or illustrations that are not common
knowledge, or copying or purposely paraphrasing
sentences without citing the source.
Verbatim copying portions of another author's paper
or from reports by citing but not clearly
differentiating what text has been copied (e.g. not
applying quotation marks correctly) and /or not
citing the source correctly”
Plagiarism
"The unacknowledged use of computer programs,
mathematical / computer models / algorithms,
computer software in all forms, macros,
spreadsheets, web pages, databases, mathematical
deviations and calculations, designs / models /
displays of any sort, diagrams, graphs, tables,
drawings, works of art of any sort, fine art pieces
or artifacts, digital images, computer-aided design
drawings, GIS files, photographs, maps, music /
composition of any sort, posters, presentations and
tracing."
"Self-plagiarism, that is, the verbatim or near-
verbatim re-use of significant portions of one's own
copyrighted work without citing the original
source."
Plagiarism
In the academic world, plagiarism by students is a
very serious academic offense which can result in
punishments such as a failing grade on the
particular assignment (typically at the high school
level), or a failing grade for the course (typically at
the college or university level). For cases of
repeated plagiarism, or for cases where a student
has committed a severe type of plagiarism (e.g.
copying an entire article and submitting it as his /
her own work), a student may be suspended or
expelled, and any academic degrees or awards may
be revoked. For professors and researchers,
who are required to act as role models for their
students, plagiarism is a very serious offence, and
is punishable by sanctions ranging from suspension
to termination, along with the loss of credibility and
integrity.
Penalties for Plagiarism
(i) In the case of thesis the responsibility of
plagiarism will be of the student and not of the
supervisor or members of the Supervisory
Committee.
(ii) The offender may be expelled/ rusticated
from the University and from joining any
institution of Higher Education in Pakistan for a
period as deemed appropriate by the
"Plagiarism Standing Committee”. A notice
may be circulated among all academic
institutions and research organization to this
effect.
(iii) The offender may be relegated to a lower
class.
Penalties for Plagiarism
(iv) The offender may be given a failure grade in
the subject.
(v) The offender may be fined an amount as
deemed appropriate.
(vi) The offender may be given a written warning
if the offence is minor and is committed for the
first time.
(vii) The degree of a student may be withdrawn if
AT ANY TIME it is proven that he or she has
presented Plagiarized work in his / her MS,
MPhil or PhD dissertation if the extent of
plagiarism comes under the category of major
penalty as conveyed in Para 11(a-1).
Penalties for Plagiarism
(viii) The notification of the plagiarism by the
author(s) may be published in the print media
or may be publicized on different websites at
the discretion of the Vice Chancellor / Rector /
Head of the Organization.
(ix) HEC or the University / Organization may
debar the offender from sponsorship of
research funding, travel grant, scholarship,
fellowship or any other funded program for a
period as deemed appropriate by the
"Plagiarism Standing Committee".
(x) Any other penalty deemed fit by the
“Plagiarism Standing Committee”.
Declaration by Authors
Co-Authors/Declarations
1. Provided that a co-author has listed a paper in
his/her resume and applied for a benefit
forthwith, any co-author is deemed to be
equally responsible for any plagiarism
committed in a published paper presented to
or published in a journal or presented at a
conference.
2. All Journals in Pakistan must require ALL
authors to sign a declaration that the material
presented in the creative work is not
plagiarized
What constitutes a good
source?
1 Precise location
Sufficient information must be given for a third person to be
able to locate your source
2 Longevity of source
(Journals → Proceedings → Technical Reports → Web sources)
3 Accessibility of source
Completely free → Free subscription → Paid
Avoid ‘private communication’
4 Reputation / Quality of source
5 ‘Originality’
Original paper → secondary paper / translation
6 ‘Language’
If possible, a source should be in the language you write in
7 Readability of source
Well written → badly written
Vocabulary
Citing / Referencing
Formally recognizing, within your text, the sources from which
you have obtained information
Citation / Quotation
A passage or words quoted within your text, supported with a
reference to its source
Reference
A detailed description of a source from which you have
obtained information
List of references
List of all sources which are cited in the body of your work
Bibliography
List of all sources which have been consulted in preparation of
your work
Citing: Rules of thumb
If you discuss a paper in detail or note some particular
contribution it makes, it must be cited
Claims, statements of fact, discussions of previous work
should be supported by references, if not supported by
your current work
But: Do not cite to support common knowledge;
do not end every sentence with a reference
References to your own previous work is allowed if it is
relevant to your current work
But: Gratuitous self-reference is counterproductive
Attribute work correctly, in particular, when relying on
secondary sources
Bad: According to Dawson (1981), stable graphs have been shown to
be closed
Good: According to Kelly (1959; as quoted by Dawson, 1981), stable
graphs are closed
References
References need to include the following
information, with the order and format
depending on the chosen style:
• Author(s) or editor(s) responsible for
writing/editing the work cited
• Title and subtitle of the work
• Where the work can be obtained or found
• Year the work was created, presented, and/or
published
What information is required about where the
work can be obtained depends on its type
References: Types of work
Book
• Author(s) or editor(s)
• Title and subtitle
• Edition, if not the first, for example 2nd ed.
• Series and individual volume number (if any)
• Publisher (Place of publication)
• Year of publication
Examples:
A. A. Fraenkel, Y. Bar-Hillel, and A. Levy. Foundations of Set
Theory, 2nd revised edition. Studies in Logic and The
Foundations of Mathematics 67. North-Holland, Amsterdam,
1973.
A. Robinson and A. Voronkov, editors. Handbook of Automated
Reasoning. Elsevier, 2001.
References: Types of work
Chapter/section of a book
• Author(s) of the chapter/section
• Title and subtitle of the chapter/section
• Author/editor of collected work
• Title and subtitle of collected work
• Chapter/section referred to
• Page numbers of chapter/section referred to
• Publisher (Place of publication)
• Year of publication
Example:
W. Bibel and E. Eder. Methods and calculi for deduction. In
C. J. Hogger, D. M. Gabbay and J. A. Robinson, editors,
Handbook of Logic in Artificial Intelligence and Logic
Programming, Volume 1, chapter 3, pages 67–182.
Oxford University Press, 1993.
References: Types of work
Conference proceedings
• Editor(s) of proceedings
• Name and number of conference
• Location of conference (if appropriate)
• Time of conference
• Title of published work; if different from the name of the
conference
• Series and individual volume number (if any)
• Publisher
• Place of publication
• Year of publication
Example:
D. A. Basin and M. Rusinowitch, editors. Automated Reasoning -
Second International Joint Conference, IJCAR 2004, Cork,
Ireland, July 4–8, 2004, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in
Computer Science 3097. Springer, 2004.
References: Types of work
Conference paper
• Author(s) of the paper
• Title and subtitle of the paper
• All information on the conference proceedings plus
• Page numbers of the paper
Example:
Volker Weispfenning. Solving Constraints by Elimination
Methods. In D. A. Basin and M. Rusinowitch, editors.
Automated Reasoning – Second International Joint
Conference, IJCAR 2004, Cork, Ireland, July 4–8, 2004,
Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3097,
p. 336–341. Springer, 2004.
References: Types of work
Journal article
• Author(s) of the article
• Title and subtitle of the article
• Title of the journal
• Volume and part number
• Page numbers of article
• Date, month or season of the year, if appropriate
• Year of publication
Note: Information on publisher is typically not required
Examples:
R. MacGregor. Inside the LOOM description classifier. SIGART
Bulletin, 2(3):88–92, 1991.
A. Seager. Energy subsidy plan for home runs out of cash. The
Guardian, 21 October 2006, p. 6.
References: Types of work
Thesis and dissertation
• Author of the work
• Title and subtitle of the work
• Type of work
• Awarding institution including its address
• Year, possibly month, of publication
Examples:
G. Rosu. Hidden Logic. PhD thesis, Department of
Computer Science and Engineering, University of
California, San Diego, CA, USA, August 2000.
R. A. van der Goot. Strategies for modal resolution.
Master’s thesis, Faculty of Technical Mathematics and
Informatics, Delft University of Technology, The
Netherlands, 1994.
References: Types of work
Web pages
• Author(s) of the web page(s)
• Title and subtitle
• URL
• Date of last modification, if available
• Date of access
Examples:
The PHP Group. PHP: Hypertext preprocessor.
http://www.php.net/. 22 October 2006.
The International DOI Foundation. The Digital Object
Identifier System. http://www.doi.org/. 25 July 2006
(accessed 22 October 2006)
Styles: Ordinal number
Sources listed in the bibliography are sorted according to
some ordering, typically based on the authors’ names,
and numbered consecutively
References in the text are given as (lists of) numbers
cross-referencing the bibliography, enclosed in square
brackets
Example:
Key techniques for utilizing temporal logic specifications
have been investigated, including verification via proof
[3] and verification via model-checking [1,2].
Bibliography
1. E. Clarke, O. Grumberg, and D. A. Peled. Model
Checking. MIT Press, 2000.
2. K. L. McMillan. Symbolic Model Checking. Kluwer, 1993.
3. M. Vardi and P. Wolper. Reasoning about infinite
computations. Inform. and Computat., 115:1–37, 1994.
Styles: Author-date
Sources in the reference list are arranged
alphabetically by the authors’ names;
where there is more than one work by the same
authors, they are arranged by year of
publication, starting with the earliest.
Example:
Bibliography
P. Wolper (1996a). Where is the Algorithmic
Support? ACM Comput. Surv. 28(4): 58.
P. Wolper (1996b). The Meaning of “Formal”.
ACM Comput. Surv. 28(4): 127.
Styles: Author-date
reference is given by the authors’ names and the date
enclosed in parentheses unless the authors’ names are
part of the sentence
Example of quoting:
The following is an extract from (Wolper 1996a):
Consider, for instance, the issue of compositionality in
proof systems for concurrency.

Example of citing:
While Wolper (1996a) does not argue that compositionality
in proof systems for concurrency is undesirable, he
claims that achieving it without algorithmic support is
mostly useless.
Styles: Abbreviation
Mix of ordinal number style and author-date style
Sources in the bibliography are presented like in
ordinal number style, but instead of numbering
them, each source is given a unique identifier
based on authors’ names and year of publication,
with additional letters to disambiguate duplicate
abbreviations
Example:
Bibliography
[CGP00] E. Clarke, O. Grumberg, and D. A. Peled. Model
Checking. MIT Press, 2000.
[Wol96a] P. Wolper. Where is the Algorithmic Support? ACM
Comput. Surv. 28(4):58, 1996.
[Wol96b] P. Wolper. The Meaning of “Formal”. ACM Comput.
Surv. 28(4):127, 1996.
Styles: Abbreviation
References in the text are given as (lists of) abbreviations
cross-referencing the bibliography, again enclosed in
square brackets
Examples:
Key techniques for utilizing temporal logic specifications
have been investigated, including verification via proof
[VW94] and verification via model-checking
[CGP00,McM93].
Recent work [Wol96a, Wol96b] stresses the importance of
algorithmic support for formal methods.
Wolper in [Wol96a,Wol96b] stresses the importance of
algorithmic support for formal methods.
Organizing references
There are myriads of styles for references and
bibliographies
You should maintain information on your sources
in a ‘neutral’ format
Ideally, you should use a tool which
• supports such a ‘neutral’ format
• allows to add, delete, modify references
• allows to search for references
• interacts with your word processor/text editor
• generates a list of references in any desired
format
Quoting
Example taken from a student’s text:
Such dangers are catered for by ensuring the closure of the
function set. Koza [1992] states that:
The closure property requires that each of the functions in the
function set be able to accept, as its arguments, any value and
data type that may possibly be assumed by any terminal set. That
is, each function in the function set should be well defined and
closed for any combination of arguments that it may encounter.
Without closure, many individuals could have their fitness
drastically lowered as a result of minor syntactic errors.
Direct quotation from Koza [1992]; clearly
indicated as such;
restricted to (less than) one paragraph;
source stated
Quoting
Examples taken from a student’s text:
Bickle [1996] states that “[t]he superior method
to obtain compact and accurate solutions is the
method of adaptive parsimony pressure [. . . ]”.

Quotation clearly indicated by quotation

marks; alterations indicated in square
brackets; source stated.
Quoting
Examples taken from a student’s text:
More recently, in 1999, Tim Berners-Lee [3], father of the
World Wide Web (WWW) speaking of the WWW stated
that he saw it as
“an information space through which people can
communicate; but communicate in a special way:
communicate by sharing their knowledge in a pool. The
idea was not that it should be a big browsing medium. The
idea was that everybody would be putting their ideas in as
well as taking them out.”
A Wiki is in Ward Cunningham’s [43] original description:
“The simplest online database that could possibly work.”
Direct quotation indicated by quotation marks and
indentation; source stated.
Quoting
• Avoid excessive quotation.
• Quotation is only appropriate
• where you want to comment on the
statements made by someone else
• where the quote is of some historical
significance
• In all other cases, use your own
words
Evidence and Support
Example taken from a student’s text:
Intelligent agents, autonomous or semi-
autonomous systems that take decisions and
perform tasks in complex, dynamically
changing environments, revolutionized the field
of AI.
This is stating an opinion not a generally known
and accepted fact
As such it needs support which it currently lacks
Support could be provided by some statistical
evidence or by a reference
Evidence and Support
Example taken from a student’s text:
To deal with information in the web environment what is
needed is a logic that supports modes of reasoning
which are approximate rather than exact.
Again, this is stating an opinion not a generally
known and accepted fact
Support could be provided by an argument or by
a reference
A reference could point to a scientific paper where this
opinion is stated and argued for
An argument could be an example illustrating the
advantage of approximate over exact reasoning
Evidence and Support
Better formulation:
It has been argued by Oberschlau [1] that to deal with
information in the web environment what is needed is a
logic that supports modes of reasoning which are
approximate rather than exact.
or
According to Oberschlau [1], to deal with information in the
web environment what is needed is a logic that supports
modes of reasoning which are approximate rather than
exact.
Evidence and Support
Example taken from a student’s text:
Therefore, once our system is enhanced with our common
knowledge about things we know, [it] could be seen as
an intelligent entity. A brilliant example is the Cyc
knowledge base.

The phrase ‘brilliant example’ is ambiguous:

‘Cyc is a system incorporating common knowledge and it is
a good example of such a system’
versus
‘Cyc is a brilliant system incorporating common knowledge’
Both readings require support, in particular, the second
version
Evidence and Support
• As Lenat (1995) has noted in an earlier paper, Cyc is a
brilliant system.
• Lenat (1995) demonstrates that Cyc is a brilliant system.
• Cyc is a brilliant system (Lenat 1995).
In the sentences above, the author agrees with Lenat (1995)

• Lenat (1995) alleges that Cyc is a brilliant system.

• Lenat (1995) claims that Cyc is a brilliant system.
In the sentences above, the author disagrees with Lenat (1995)

• Lenat (1995) states that Cyc is a brilliant system.

In the sentence above, the author is neutral with regard to the
truth of the statement ‘Cyc is a brilliant system’
Evidence and Support
Example taken from a student’s text:
The most popular ways to compress data are the Huffman
coding and Shannon-Fano coding.
It is unclear on what basis compression methods
are judged to be ‘popular’
• number of compressed files
• number of users of compression software
• number of developers of compression software
In each case, statistical evidence seems to be
required, e.g.
In 2004, 60% of all compressed files were compressed
using the Huffman coding or Shannon-Fano coding [3].
where [3] is reference to the source of these
statistics.
Hypothesis
Have you ever made a guess or a prediction?

Have you ever predicted who was going to win

the Cricket World cup?

Have you ever predicted who was going to win

the Pakistan-Srilanka Match?

If you answered yes than you have made a

hypothesis.
Hypothesis
A hypothesis is basically a guess or prediction
based on what you think might happen or what
you may think will be true.
It can then be either proved or disproved my
observation or collecting data.
E.g. 1
I believe it will rain tomorrow.
You can test this hypothesis by simple observation..
E.g. 2
I believe there are more boys than girls in the
university
You would have to collect data and then count how
many boys there were to girls.
Definition
Hypothesis
..is a hunch, assumption, suspicion, assertion or an
idea about a phenomena, relationship, or situation, the
reality of truth of which one do not know
a researcher calls these assumptions, assertions,
statements, or hunches hypotheses and they become the
basis of an inquiry.
In most cases, the hypothesis will be based upon
either previous studies or the researcher’s own or someone
else’s observations
Hypothesis is a conjectural statement of relationship
between two or more variable (Kerlinger, Fried N,
Foundations of Behabioural Research , 3rd edition, New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1986)
Definition
A hypothesis is written in such a way that it can
be proven or disproven by valid and reliable
data – in order to obtain these data that we
perform our study (Grinnell, Richard, Jr. Social
Work Research and Evaluation, 3rd edition,
Itasca, Illinois, F.E. Peacock Publishers, 988)

A hypothesis may be defined as a tentative theory

or supposition set up and adopted provisionally
as a basis of explaining certain facts or
relationships and as a guide in the further
investigation of other facts or relationships
(Crisp, Richard D, Marketing Research, New
York: McGraw Hill Book Co., 1957 )
Characteristics
Hypotheses has the following
characteristics:
• a tentative proposition
• unknown validity
• specifies relation between two or more
variables
Functions
Bringing clarity to the research problem
Serves the following functions
• provides a study with focus
• signifies what specific aspects of a research
problem is to investigate
• what data to be collected and what not to be
collected
• enhancement of objectivity of the study
• formulate the theory
• enable to conclude with what is true or what is
false
Characteristics
Simple, specific, and contextually clear
Capable of verification
Related to the existing body of knowledge
Operationalisable
Typologies
Three types
• working hypothesis
• Null hypothesis
• Alternate hypothesis

Working hypothesis
The working or trail hypothesis is provisionally
adopted to explain the relationship between
some observed facts for guiding a researcher in
the investigation of a problem.
A Statement constitutes a trail or working
hypothesis (which) is to be tested and
conformed, modifies or even abandoned as the
investigation proceeds.
Typologies
Null hypothesis

A null hypothesis is formulated against the

working hypothesis; opposes the statement of
the working hypothesis
It is contrary to the positive statement made in
the working hypothesis; formulated to disprove
the contrary of a working hypothesis
When a researcher rejects a null hypothesis,
he/she actually proves a working hypothesis
Typologies
Alternate hypothesis
An alternate hypothesis is formulated when a
researcher totally rejects null hypothesis

He/she develops such a hypothesis with

adequate reasons
Example

• Working hypothesis: Population influences the

number of bank branches in a town

• Null hypothesis : Population do not have any

influence on the number of bank branches in a
town.

• Alternate hypothesis: Population has significant

effect on the number of bank branches in a town.
A researcher formulates this hypothesis only after
rejecting the null hypothesis.
Criteria of a good hypothesis
• A hypothesis should have conceptual
clarity and a theoretical orientation.
• Further, it should be testable.
• It should be stated in a suitable way so
that it can be tested by investigation.

It is important to state the hypothesis of a

research problem in a research report.