Resources

I have compiled a list of resources that post-graduate research scholars may find useful. These were written between 2008 to 2011. Some of these may be outdated. I did not find time to edit them carefully. While most suggestions would be still valid, I cannot vouch for every suggestion here. Please use your own judgment.
(Update, 17 Feb 2023: Link to Prof. Keogh’s site updated)

Conducting Good Quality Research

Conducting good quality research is a time-consuming activity requiring patience, perseverance, dedication and critical thinking. The immediate aim of receiving a graduate degree is to secure a suitable job, be it in industry, research labs or in academics. However, the larger goal is to understand and be involved with the scientific way of thinking, to develop ability to formulate and solve problems and acquire technical communication (written and oral) skills.

Dr. Richard Hamming’s advice on doing research is a must read for young and experienced researchers alike.

Most importantly, always think of the Big Picture. Its often too easy to get lost in the details while pursuing a PhD. One should always step back and ask oneself “why is this work relevant and why do we care about this issue?”

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a big deal and it is inexcusable.

Plagiarism means using someone else’s idea and passing them as your own. In other words, it implies stealing: either copying from others or using their ideas without giving due credit to the source. There are tools such as Turnitin, which can be used to check for plagiarism. Researchers need to be vigilant when making their “rough notes” in order to avoid plagiarized content inadvertently entering their scholarly work.

I have also posted some more information about plagiarism and how to stop plagiarism.

General Tips on Doing Research

Dr. Scott Keogh of Australian National University has an excellent collection of resources for graduate students, post-docs and researchers. If you are starting your career as a graduate student or a researcher, you will get lots of valuable suggestions on Scott’s site. I have distilled some of this information and provided it in the links below.

Reading Literature

One of the most important requirements of a good researcher is that they should be well-versed with the current literature in their and related fields of interest. Literature survey is very important, yet often neglected activity. Some tips about literature survey:

  • Its quite common to see literature survey done at the start of a project and towards the end, while writing papers or reports. This is a poor practice. Reading literature is a continuous activity, which has to be done throughout the course of one’s research activity.
  • Some relevant databases for our research are: Web of Science, Elsevier Science Direct, SciFinder Scholar and IEEE Explore.
  • Literature search starts (and not ends) with searching databases.
  • Read paper critically. Think about the gaps in the papers, how this work relates to our own research, what are the common themes, what elements of their work can we incorporated in our work and so on.
  • Keep an eye on interesting papers in other fields. Are any of their tools or methodologies applicable or be adapted for our research?

Research Tips and Technical Communication