Preface

What is research? What are the ways to formulate a research problem? Is my work progressing? How will I present my results? These are the major questions, which any researcher face during his early phases of work. This is where research methodology comes into play. A research method is a systematic plan to conduct a research. In this book, all major research scope and dimensions are considered, which will help the researcher to have a self-evaluation on the kind of work he/she is being carried out. Starting from the basic concepts and methods, this book focusses on each possible way of research steps – beginning from problem identification to report generation. This book has 12 chapters and is organized into three parts – first section deals with introduction to research followed by methods and tools used and the final section details on how a report can be generated and presented.

The first chapter deals with the basic definition on research, how it can be carried out and most commonly used research definitions. The historic aspects, various applications and areas where it can be applied are also discussed. How can a good research topic evolve by reading literature? The advantages of literature survey, primary and secondary references, how a new problem is created from reading related topics are included in Chapter 2. Even if we have a research problem, the most important issue faced by a researcher is lack of data. The methods by which data can be collected, how these data are processed, after processing how these are represented – all these information are included in Chapter 3. Starting from the basic concepts, almost all possible data collection methods and tools are included in Chapter 3. Data representation, numerical data distributions and other scaling methods are detailed in Chapter 4.

The second part of the book starts by explaining various data analysis methods. The importance of interpreting the data collected is a vital part of research. Only a well-analyzed data can produce valid results. Data analysis and the various analytic tools are mentioned in Chapter 5. The lack of proper research design can be a sole reason for undesired research solutions. Various methodologies that need to be considered during design stage, the system architecture and methods to handle agile data are detailed in Chapter 6. Hypothesis formulation is the major step while working on a research program. The various hypothesis testing methods and validation methods are explained with examples in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 deals with various test procedures, which include both parametric and non-parametric methods. Relevance of social research and models of science and business are emphasized more on Chapters 9 and 10.

The final portion on document generation and presentation has been explained in Chapters 11 and 12. Chapter 11 mentions the various methods by which the results are presented. Presentation modes, styles and how to interact with the right audience are all mentioned in Chapter 11. Chapter 12 gives a brief description on the document generation tool – LaTeX. This is a professional documentation tool, which helped to make documents in a well-formatted manner by less human intervention. Almost all features of the tool is explained in Chapter 12.

Various example-oriented problems and case studies are discussed and it will be useful for master’s degree level students as well as researchers. Our primary aim is to cover the out-to-out process that happens in a typical research. From an engineering perspective, there is no single book that will elaborately specify all methodologies and procedures behind this. We have also included some possible research problem hints, which could be used wisely by researchers.

The broad coverage of the book supports various undergraduate and specialized masters’ courses. More than 100 university syllabi were reviewed for selecting the chapter titles and text contents. The book covers case studies for most of the scenarios and is well compiled that no specific prerequisite is necessary for learning this course content.

This book is helpful for engineering researchers as well as students from other fields like business and social science.

In this text, we have made commitments to the readers regarding the various methods and procedures used in research. Many of the students and researchers expecting an engineering perspective of research will never feel a setback after going through this book. We are confident that we will be able to fulfill the requirements of the readers who select this book and hope the contents will make you more closer to the practical research.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Current books in the Indian Market dealing with the subject of research are primarily intended for those involved in social research. While the basic aspects remain the same, research in the field of science and engineering is much different from the science subjects. This book offers a standardized approach for research aspirants working in the various areas. At the same time, all the major topics in social research have also been detailed thoroughly which makes this book a very good frame of study for researchers in diverse fields. This book charts new and evolving terrain of social research by covering qualitative, quantitative and mixed approach. The chapters have extensive number of case studies that help researchers to understand practical implications of the research and includes plenty of diagrammatic representations for easy understanding of various theories and procedures. The book describes historical and current directions in research by debating crucial subjects. Each phase of research is explained in detail so that even beginners can also effectively utilize this book. It is written in a highly interactive manner, which makes for an interesting read. We have tried to incorporate as many new ideas and concepts as possible in this book so that new possibilities in research can be explored. The different methods of testing are depicted meticulously, with exclusive detailing of problem solving using each of these methods. Templates of technical report, business report and research reports are also included in the book. The document generation tool LaTeX and its various options are explained fully with sample codes and outputs. This provides the reader with a hands-on experience. Numerous exercises, case studies and worked out examples make this book unique when compared to other books of its genre.

SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE BOOK

The following points are the key features of this book:

1. This text is organized from an introduction to research, followed by literature review to data collection and selecting the appropriate research design. Testing procedures, representations of results are also mentioned in the same flow in which an original research is carried out. In most of the scenarios, we have chosen real-time common problems for better understanding.
2. Throughout the book, we have presented solution-oriented research problems to emphasize the importance on practical knowledge that is gained through systematic problem solving.
3. This book offers a standardized approach for research aspirants working in the various engineering fields.
4. Most of the sections are supports with highlighted examples and illustrations. Most of the case studies used in this book are real-time problems, which could be expanded to a research problem in future.

We have tried to incorporate as many new ideas and concepts as possible in this book so that new possibilities in research can be explored.

S. S. Vinod Chandra
S. Anand Hareendran