08. Notes_Preparing Manuscript
08. Notes_Preparing Manuscript
Analyzing Information
We all know that, if something has been printed does not necessarily mean that it is true. In
particular, most problem-solving efforts or investigations could have been somewhat better
performed, and most reports on such researches could have been somewhat better written.
When anybody reads such reports, they should read critically. That is, you should constantly
bear in mind the possibility of mistakes in the investigation, and failure to express with
absolute clarity the totality of what was done and what has, supposedly, been learned. You
should ask yourself questions along the lines of: "Does this step in the investigation seem
appropriate or reasonable?", "Does this conclusion really follow from the data presented?",
To be somewhat more specific, we can say that research reports can be evaluated on the basis
of two questions: How well was the research done? and, How well has it been reported? The
first question is the more important one; but even the best research will have been done in
vain if it is not reported well enough for other people to be able to understand it, use it, and
build on it. This reading discusses these two questions.
Interpreting information
Attempt to put the information in perspective, e.g., compare results to what you expected,
promised results; management or program staff; any common standards for your products or
services; original goals (especially if you're conducting a program evaluation); indications or
measures of accomplishing outcomes or results (especially if you're conducting an outcomes
or performance evaluation); description of the program's experiences, strengths, weaknesses,
etc. (especially if you're conducting a process evaluation).
• Consider recommendations to help employees improve the program, products or
services; conclusions about program operations or meeting goals, etc.
• Record conclusions and recommendations in a report, and associate interpretations to
justify your conclusions or recommendations.
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Was there a well defined and understandable purpose? In a report, the purpose should be
stated explicitly; ideally, it should be expressed in the form of a testable hypothesis.
Were the data that were used truly pertinent to the purpose? Were they the best data that could
have been used for the purpose?
Were the data gathered properly? For example, if sampling was involved, were the data
obtained by an adequately random method? If observations of people were part of the data-
gathering process, were the observations as unobtrusive as possible?
Were the data suitably studied and analyzed? For example, if the analysis was statistical in
nature, were suitable statistical procedures chosen and were they properly applied to the data?
Did the investigator overlook analytic procedures that could have been applied?
Were the reported results based strictly on the outcome of the study or analysis of the data?
Or are there findings that seem unsupported by the analysis?
Does the investigator's interpretation of the results make sense? Does the interpretation
appear to reflect in a reasonable way both the strict results and the overall situation or
problem?
You will simply have to think hard and carefully about the foregoing questions as you review
the research report.
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Reporting Results
The level and scope of content depends on to whom the report is intended, e.g., to funders /
bankers, employees, clients, customers, the public, etc.
• Be sure beneficiaries have a chance to carefully review and discuss the report.
Translate recommendations to action plans, including who is going to do what about
the research results and by when.
• Funders will likely require a report that includes an executive summary (this is a
summary of conclusions and recommendations, not a listing of what sections of
information are in the report -- that's a table of contents); description of the
organization and the program, product, service, etc., under evaluation; explanation of
the research goals, methods, and analysis procedures; listing of conclusions and
recommendations; and any relevant attachments, e.g., inclusion of research
questionnaires, interview guides, etc. The funder may want the report to be delivered
as a presentation, accompanied by an overview of the report. Or, the funder may want
to review the report alone.
Be sure to record the research plans and activities in a research plan which can be
referenced when a similar research effort is needed in the future.
• There are detailed guidelines given by the publisher for preparing a manuscript to be
published. Students need to download “instructions for author” pages from journal's
website and prepare their final research report according to format specified for that
journal.
Assessment:
Sources: http://mjl.clarivate.com
Your manuscript complete in all respect will be treated as your final term paper and will be
evaluated/ marked as per guidelines provided above.
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First step in preparing a manuscript for publication is to select a research journal closely
related to area or topic of research, and the manuscript will be prepared according to the style
given in the “Instructions for Author(s)” section or weblink of that journal.
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Silvae Genetica
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Ensure your research plan is documented so that you can regularly and efficiently carry out
your research activities. In your plan, record enough information so that someone outside of
the organization can understand what you're researching and how. For example, consider the
following format:
First Page:
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Page 2
INTRODUCTION
In the introduction to a research report, the author should prepare the reader for what the
latter is going to find in the report.
The introduction to a research report is the "what I'm going to tell" portion of the report.
Background about Organization and Product/Service/ Program that is being researched. In
the background part of the introduction, the author should explain what led up to the
problem-solving effort or investigation being reported in the article (or technical report or
book). Organization Description/ History, Product/ Service/ Program Description (that is
being researched)
Problem Statement (in the case of nonprofits, description of the community need that is
being met by the product/ service/ program).
Outline of the problem and its context:
In the outline of the problem and its context part, the author should succinctly explain the
problem itself. The explanation should include a description of as much of the setting of the
problem as will help the reader to understand the problem; e.g., the author might explain that
the problem came to light in the public-services department of an academic library of a stated
size serving a college of a stated size and nature.
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PURPOSE
Purpose of the Report (what type of research was conducted, what decisions are being aided
by the findings of the research, who is making the decision, etc.).
The purpose section of a research report should clearly state the goal and the objectives of the
investigation. In addition to any informal discussions of the goal that the author may think
helpful, there should be a carefully worded explicit statement of each major objective.
Hypothesis or hypotheses; One of the best ways of providing such statements is to express
each major objective in the form of a testable hypothesis. While the absence of a testable
hypothesis does not necessarily mean that the author failed to really understand what he or
she was doing, the presence of such a hypothesis should encourage the reader to expect to
find that the investigation was carried out well.
At the very minimum, the report should contain a statement along the lines of: "The purpose
of this investigation was. . .", or "This project was intended to establish that. . .", or "What we
attempted to do was. . .", etc. If the report contains no such statement, the reader is entitled to
infer that the author never had a clear purpose in mind, either during the investigation or in
writing about it.
Definitions; In addition to an explicit statement about the hypothesis or hypotheses that were
tested, there should be explicit definitions of all terms that were coined for use in the report
and/or are used in the report in an unusual way and/or are used in the report in a specific,
restricted sense.
Assumptions; Similarly, there should be statements of the assumptions made in the
investigation; i.e., there should be explicit discussions of those aspects of the problem, and
the situation in which it arose, (a) that were not under the control of the investigator, thus
forcing the investigator to accept them as they were, and (b) that have, in the investigator's
judgment, a reasonable likelihood of having an effect on the problem, and hence on the
investigation--an effect that cannot be known exactly.
Overall Goal(s) of Product/ Service/ Program
Outcomes (or client/ customer impacts) and Performance
Measures (that can be indicators toward the outcomes)
Activities/ Technologies of the Product/Service/ Program (general description of how the
product/ service/ program is developed and delivered).
Staffing (description of the number of personnel and roles in the organization that are
relevant to developing and delivering the product/ service/ program)
Overall Evaluation Goals (eg, what questions are being answered by the research)
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Limitations of the evaluation (eg, cautions about findings/ conclusions and how to use the
findings/ conclusions, etc.)
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Generally, the Discussion section does not need to include any numbers. No statistics need to
be repeated from the results, nor does the discussion need to refer to table numbers. Instead,
simply explain the results in language that is easy for a non-researcher to understand.
Also try to integrate the findings into the results of other research studies.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Next, give recommendations based on the results of the study. What practical steps can
educators take to implement the key findings of the research study? Remember, these
recommendations must be supported by the statistical findings from the data analysis.
After the recommendations have been written, reread each recommendation. Consider which
statistical result from the results section supports that recommendation. If there is no
statistical result to support the recommendation, then it must be canceled.
• Recommendations (regarding the decisions that must be made about the product/
service/ program).
• Data tabulation and tabular format, etc.
• Testimonials, comments made by users of the product/ service/ program
• Case studies of users of the product/ service/ program
• Any related literature
Limitations
All studies have limitations in terms of the sample, measurement or manipulation of key
variables, and procedure for data collection.
How could the research be conducted with a different research design?
How may the participants and sampling techniques not be representative of the target
population?
How might the target population be limited?
How were the instruments inadequate?
Were there any problems with the treatment?
What problems resulted from the study's procedures?
What other unexpected problems arose in the data collection?
Every single research study ever conducted in the history of this world was limited by money,
resources, and time. These factors are external to the study and should not be mentioned.
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details about which the reader has just been reading, and can thus help the reader see the
forest instead of merely the trees.
Acknowledgements of assistance are almost always appropriate in a report on a problem-
solving effort or investigation, and the summary section is a conventional place for an author
to express his or her thanks for help received.
APPENDIX OR APPENDICES
In writing expository prose, an author can serve the cause of clarity of communication well
by keeping the main flow of the exposition as simple and direct as possible. One good way in
which an author can simplify the main flow of his or her writing is to put into an appendix (or
appendices) the highly detailed discussions of subordinate portions of what he or she wants to
say. The author should summarize briefly, in the main expository flow, what has been
appended and should refer the reader from the main flow to the appendix as appropriate; e.g.,
with statements along the lines of: "The observations made are presented in full in Appendix
A"; or "Appendix B contains the questions asked in the questionnaire sent to catalogers"; or
"The full database structure will be found in Appendix C."
The appendix is not used as much in journal articles as it might (and, in my opinion, should)
be. This may be partly due to authors' fears that editors would often be tempted to excise
appendices in order to reduce easily the length of articles as published. In technical reports
and memoranda, however, such editorial concerns are unlikely, and when you write in these
forms you should certainly take advantage of the appendix as a good expository device.
Benefits and limitations of peer review in ensuring the quality of research publications.
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References:
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