Advice For Students Starting

IPQ (9980)
Introduction
• The IPQ project may seem extremely challenging and high-demanding
when you are starting the project. It is challenging and requires
students to complete huge amounts of research on the topic they
choose to work on.

• Thee 5,000 word count will give you the feeling that you will never be
able to reach the word count even if you keep write for your whole
life. However, when you actually choose a specific topic and really
start to dive in into the research, one day you will probably feel that
5,000 words may be not enough.
Before you Start – How To Prepare
• A good piece of advice for students who are planning to do the IPQ is
to have a specific area of interest. I believe the most important part of
this whole project is choosing the topic. If the topic you choose is
closely related to your major in university, it will be even better.
• Since you will need to research and work on this topic for the whole
school-year, choosing a topic that you are really interested in is also
very important.
• Students can start to read some books or start researching before
starting IPQ. This will definitely help you in later process of
completing IPQ.
Research Skills & Strategies
Research skills and strategies will be covered again in class by your
supervisor. To introduce some common research skills, these are the
followings.
1. Check your sources
- Reliability, Validity, Accuracy, Suitability
2. Ask good questions
- Especially when using online sources, asking good questions will lead to the correct
and useful information
3. Use different tools
- Internet, books, magazines, articles
- Using more variety of tools can provide students more diverse information.
Time Management

Time management is one of the most challenging skill IPQ require.

Students needs to have the ability to focus on school studies while
working on IPQ.
Advice on time management
- Make plans before working on a part of the project.
- Regularly check if you are on date with the research log
- Do research regularly when you have free time
- Ask for help from your supervisor
Checking & Submitting
• Checking and submitting your work is one of the most important
aspect of this IPQ project.
• Before submitting your draft or work to your supervisor, you need to
make sure you have done your best because then the corrections
supervisor makes can benefit you more.
• At the end before the final deadline, you will need to go over your
whole project and make sure every thing is in the correct order and in
the correct format.
• Students should manage their time and try to contribute more times
for checking before submission.
 Advice for Choosing a Topic

At the beginning of your project-

Topic selection is the beginning of the whole research, which

determines the value, trend and development space of the whole
research. Before we start to write a paper, we must choose a suitable
topic for ourselves.

You can ask yourself questions that may help you make a decision.
- Does the project have a clear objective?
- Do you know what technology will be used?
- Are you interested in this project?
- Can you explain why this project can attract others?

TIPS:
Although it's good to choose a project that you are interested in, it's also
bad to have a strong interest in the topic. Because research to prove what
you are passionate about can lead to validation biases, so you will only
focus on the results that support your existing views.

Try to avoid choosing a topic that is not popular. If you are really interested,
you can spend a long time searching for information about this topic, but I
think the result should not be very good.

If you choose a meaningless topic, no matter how much energy you spend
and how well you write it, its value and harvest are very small. It's
important to choose the topic you like, but you should do what is possible.

GOOD LUCK.
 TOP TIPS TO USE
ACADEMIC SEARCH
ENGINES

Forewords
During the process of this project you will definitely need to use some academic
sources. The more academic sources you use, the stronger your arguments would
sound (and they make you look professional, too). If you have never look at academic
sources before, then you probably have no idea of where and how to find them.
Therefore, this piece of advice will provide you all you need to be a master in academic
search engines. All of the information below is based on my personal experiences, which
I struggled for a long time to discover. Here I will present all I know to you.

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Common Academic Search Engines
Note I said “academic search engines” instead of “search engines”. This means that
these are not equivalent to simply “baidu.com" or something similar that you normally
use in your daily life. Here I am referring to Baidu Scholar, Google Scholar, etc., that are
specifically used to find academic sources (for example, journals, books, conference
papers). These work differently from the normal search engines. Among these, I
personally recommend Google Scholar, as it is probably the most commonly-accepted
academic search engine in the world, and most of its contents appear to be reliable. The
only disadvantage of it is probably the requirement of a VPN. In the following texts I will
introduce you how to use Google Scholar specifically, but if you don’t have a VPN, then
other engines like Baidu Scholar are also good engines to use, and they work in a similar
way.

Using Google Scholar Effectively

The main page of Google Scholar, retrieved from https://scholar.google.com. Note that, at this time, the
COVID-19 is a popular topic, so it is being recommended below the search box. Also, the phrase “stand on the
shoulders of giants” is used to describe how we can learn and benefit from other extraordinary scholars.

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This search box is different from how you would normally use it in daily life. Here are the
main differences:

1. You should enter a statement instead of a question (for example, enter the definition
of COVID-19 instead of what does COVID-19 means?)

2. You should always try to use formal language in the search box, as all the academic
sources are written formally (for example, use joyful instead of happy)

3. Unlike in normal search engines, although there will be millions of search results,
most of them would be irrelevant to your research

Also, there are some techniques that you can use to improve the accuracy of the results:

1. If you enter a keyword, then the results will also contain the synonyms of this
keyword (for example, when you enter smart, there will be also results for intelligent,
clever, wise)

2. If you want the exact keyword to appear, then you need to use quotation marks (“”)
to highlight you keyword (when you want to see the keyword smart only, you need to
enter “smart”)

3. If you don’t want to see something in the results, then you may use a dash (-) and a
pair of quotations marks (for example, when you don’t want to see the keyword
stupid, then you can enter -“stupid”)

Then, after you type something in the search box, it would be looked like this:

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You can further reduce the number of results by looking at the most
recent sources only (this appears on the left hand side of the webpage).

Now, you need to be aware that not everything on this page is accessible, as many of
the sources require to pay. It is highly recommended that you don’t pay for these (some
of these will cost you hundreds of RMB). According to my own experiences, there are
many alternatives you can do.

1. For those sources that have a [PDF] button on the right

hand side, they are usually free to be accessed.

2. If there is no such button, then try to click All…versions, and

there may be a free version to use.

3. If there is indeed no free versions, then enter the site and check the abstract of the
source. An abstract is a 100-word summary of the content, and there may be good
information for you to use, even without looking at the body sections.

4. After reading the abstract, if you find this source really relevant to you and you want
to read more of it, then ask Ms Leanne as she has a university account that is able to
look at most academic sources free-of-charge.

Now here it comes the best part of Google Scholar. After you have used something from
the sources, then you obviously would have to make a reference of it. In Google Scholar,
this is very easy. All you have to do is to click the ‘cite’ button, or the symbol of
quotation marks.

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And this is what you will see.

Now you just need to copy and paste one of these into your Bibliography. However, if
you decide which format you will use, then you need to use that format for all of the
following time. Among these, the APA format is what I chose, and it is the most
commonly used worldwide.

Conclusion
Hopefully you find this information useful that it will help you in your journey of research.
As I said earlier, this piece of advice only looks at Google Scholar, and I am aware that
Google Scholar is somethings very unfriendly to Chinese users it requires a VPN. In fact,
even if you do have a VPN, it may still block your access, and you will see this page:

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If this occurs then you will have to use Baidu Scholar or others instead. Recently, it
appears that the Baidu Scholar is working on improving its quality and many of the
contents are much more accurate and reliable, and it may be used as an alternative. But
just be aware that the citation function of Baidu Scholar is not being very precise.

In the very end, best luck in your research and I sincerely hope that you can gain much
from this project.

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 Time Management

l Remember each deadline and manage your time effectively. Procrastination

is the worst disease in the world! (拖延症害死人J)

l Before you start to write any section of your research, especially the
discussion part, please spend time to plan your overall structure!

l Make your logic clear and know the general content of each paragraph
(very important!), do not just write down whatever pop in your mind.
Otherwise, you may find that your logic is disordered and there is no way to
continue to write the next section. Then you would need to spend more time
(bedtime/playtime) to rewrite your whole section (Horrible!!!).

l Research log should be written at least once a week!

l Note down the websites you used in the process of writing, in case you spend
a lot of time to find it in the future when you need to write Bibliography.

l Make sure you ask Miss Leanne for help when you are stuck. Don’t be afraid
to ask, she’s on your side!

l Staying up late is normal, staying up all night is also possible, remember to

buy anti hair loss shampoo. (熬夜是肯定的，通宵也是可能的，记得买防脱
洗发水好吧)

Good Luck~ Good Luck~ Good Luck~ Good Luck~

 MY ADVICE - Lucy. S
Research

© When you are doing the research, make SIAre that you
have checked the reliability and credibility oF the source!!!

© Do little research every day, don't leave everything until

tN last Minute, you will cry!!!

© IF it is possible, try to download a VPN, there are much

more sources on aoogle and YouTube.

© Do not rely on news websites, it is often biased

© Everything you have researched need to be put in to your

Research Log no Matter whether it is useFul or not.
How to prevent? Issues I’ve
1. Make sure you note down and are
experienced
Time Management
clear all the deadlines and the
general plan for the year. Time flies faster than you think?
Everyday do a little?
2. Make your own deadline at least 3 How to use time wisely?
Few people actually managed but we all
days before the class deadline.
promised ourselves in the beginning.
3. Have a weekly progress plan just in
I always have time?
case you skipped one day without
doing work. There is always extra work in the last
minute. An extra issue might pop up and
4. Up date the research log every week,
you have to spend hours to understand it.
or at least every two weeks!
Solve a problem later?
TIPS: You will feel reluctant to do it in a later
stage and finally just forget about it and use
• Always submit earlier than others, so
another instead.
supervisor can give you back faster
than others.

• Always proofread your work before

submit. Supervisor can concentrate
to give you the best suggestion on
your project content.

• Submit more times than others, or

you will end up not have enough time
reaching the best possible mark if
you have limited number of
feedbacks and chances to correct
them.
[IPQ Research
Advice: Reliable VS
Unreliable Sources]
What is a reliable
source?
A reliable source is one that provides a thorough,
well-reasoned theory, argument, discussion, etc. based on
strong evidence.

The importance of Reliable Sources

IPQ is an academic research project, this require to use a vast
of facts and evidence. To gain those information, the most
efficient way is to search online (papers from experts, official
organizations). However, not everything that is posted on the
Internet is based on facts. It is for that reason that I include
some of the methods to identify the reliability of sources.

Feature of Reliable sources include:

Author’s name Organization’s name
Clear Title
Date of publication
No spelling mistakes
References
Academic language

What is an Unreliable Source?

Just because something is written on the Internet does not
necessarily make it true or correct. Anyone can make a
website and a lot of the information held on these websites is
never checked or verified.

Types of Sources You May use

Papers that were published by experts
Peer-viewed articles
Articles that published in website of official organization
Papers published by Universities

Type of Sources You May Not use

Blogs (may contain bias, it may be outdated)
Wikis (can be edit by everyone, may contain bias, it may be
outdated)
Social media website (may contain bias, it may be outdated)

Three top tips

1. Finish
every section on time, otherwise may slow the
whole process down
2. Tryto write something every day, you don’t want to
finish 2000 words in one night.
3. Record all the websites you read, this is very
important for later stages of writing.
“Try not to smash your innocent computer, smash
yourself, GOOD LUCK.”
 IPQ
Secondary Research
-Summarize, discuss, evaluate other researcher’s work.

How to
-More reading, evaluating, criticizing, and rephrasing.
-More evaluating in Discussion.
Which Method? Primary Research
Decide your topic -Do a research by yourself.
-More planning, data organizing, comparing.
-Still need some secondary research.
Decide your research question You can change -More explaining in Discussion.
your research
question

Primary Research
OPF
But not your topic

Why When How What

Introduction -First hand -Start planning -Maybe carryout a If using survey, think
You might make focus and fresh it during similar research as about:
Introduction Literature Review during the process, so you data. Literature previous researchers -paper survey or
might need to go back to -Suit your Review. did. See if you can online?
Literature Review Primary Research introduction again. requirements. -Complete it obtain the same -anonymous or real
OR -Your have after conclusion. name?
Discussion Discussion more control Discussion, so -Design your own -Which target
Continuous process：
Research Log over it— so you can avoid research, how is it group?
Conclusion Conclusion you can avoid limitations that related to your -How to present the
Bibliography
limitations. others made. research question? result?
Reflection Reflection

Q: Do I need a VPN? Q: Any other suggestions for primary research?

A: Yes., if your topic is related to politics/religion. Otherwise you don’t.

Q
A: If you are plaining to do a survey, make sure you have at least 150 respondents,
I recommend xueshu.baidu.com(百度学术), where VPN is not required otherwise you may not obtain any trend in your result. You can reject outliers if your data
and most paper is free. is seriously influenced by them.

&
A website for making online survey: https://app.surveyplanet.com/.
Q: Academic papers are difficult to understand, is there any shortcut?
A: You can understand most part of the paper by reading the
Q: What is most challenging during the whole research process?
introduction, result, and conclusion. However, if you are planning to do

A
A: Linking your research back to the research question, and organizing the data of primary
a research (primary research) similar with the paper, you need to read
research. Finding and understanding sources are not as tough as you think.
more to understand how it works.