See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/350008028

Research Methodology and Scientific Writing

Book · March 2021

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64865-7

CITATIONS READS
3 6,919

1 author:

C George Thomas
Kerala Agricultural University
99 PUBLICATIONS 317 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

soil and water conservation View project

Agroforestry in Kerala View project

All content following this page was uploaded by C George Thomas on 12 March 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

The second edition of “Research Methodology and Scientific Writing” originally published by Ane
Books, New Delhi in 2020, has been released recently as an International edition by Springer Nature.
The book is available as e-book and in hard cover copy. The book presents a guide for research
methodology and scientific writing covering various elements such as finding research problems,
writing research proposals, obtaining funds for research, selecting research designs, searching the
literature and review, collection of data and analysis, preparation of thesis, writing research papers for
journals, citation and listing of references, preparation of visual materials, oral and poster presentation
in conferences, and ethical issues in research . Besides introducing library and its various features in
a lucid style, the latest on the use of information technology in retrieving and managing information
through various means are also discussed in this book. The book is useful for students, young
researchers, and professionals.

You can have a preview by visiting the site: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030648640

You can also visit google books:

https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Research_Methodology_and_Scientific_Writ/XVX6zQEACAAJ
?hl=en
Research Methodology and Scientific Writing
C. George Thomas

Research Methodology
and Scientific Writing
Second Edition
C. George Thomas
Kerala Agricultural University
Thrissur, Kerala, India

ISBN 978-3-030-64864-0 ISBN 978-3-030-64865-7 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64865-7

Jointly published with ANE Books India

The print edition is not for sale in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan)
and Africa. Customers from South Asia and Africa can please order the print book from: ANE Books
India Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN of the Co-Publisher’s edition: 978-9-388-26448-8

© The Author(s) 2015, 2021

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse
of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publishers, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publishers remain neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface to the Second Edition

I am very happy that the first edition of the book Research Methodology and Scientific
Writing was a hit among both researchers and research students. The first edition was
published in 2015, by ANE Books, and a revised edition became a necessity within
this short period because of the accumulation of huge quantum of new information
in the subjects covered since 2015. Before attempting the revision, I have taken into
consideration responses from the publishers, colleagues, and students.
This thoroughly revised and expanded edition is with several new features. The
book comprises of 24 chapters, and each chapter is further divided into sections of
specific units. Considering the demand of the readers, four new chapters have been
added. A chapter exclusively on ‘units and numbers’ has been added considering
the necessity of adopting only SI units in scientific measurements. I expect that a
good number of students who are currently pursuing higher studies may join as
lecturers or assistant professors. A chapter on ‘Guidelines for Successful Lecturing’
has been added for those who would choose a teaching career. A chapter has been
set apart for ‘Note making, Note-taking, and Assignments’, which can boost the
learning outcomes of students. The chapter ‘Plagiarism: Prevention and Cure’ has
been added to warn researchers the perils of plagiarism and to take corrective steps.
Other chapters have been restructured with addition of new materials. By splitting
the chapter on ‘Approaches to Research’, an additional chapter ‘Major Research
Methods’ has been added with more inputs on the section, participatory learning and
action. The chapter ‘Information sources’ has been split into two, ‘Publications and
the Library’ and ‘Academic Databases’. The chapter on ‘Academic Databases; has
been rewritten by deleting some non-functional databases and adding several useful
ones with the latest trends and weblinks. Similarly, the chapter on ‘Scientific Writing:
Improve Your Writing Skills’ has been split into three with additional information.
The chapter on ‘Preparation of Thesis and Research Papers’ has been split into two,
devoting a chapter entirely for thesis writing. The chapter on ‘References: How to
Cite and List Correctly’ has been restructured by adding new trends in referencing
with several new examples.

v
vi Preface to the Second Edition

The revised edition has the same goals as the previous edition. With the restruc-
tured and additional contents, I am sure you will find the book more informative and
useful.

Thrissur, India C. George Thomas

Preface to the First Edition

Thesis or dissertation is a mandatory requirement for the award of postgraduate

degrees in most disciplines of science and technology. Because successful completion
of research work within the stipulated time is necessary for the award of degrees,
pressure on students as well as research guides would be very high. However, majority
of students enrolling for a research degree have little knowledge or experience of
research and may not be clear about the exact topic they wish to investigate. As
research guides are often occupied with other work, they may not have enough time to
instruct their wards on various aspects of practical research. Often, the students have
to learn every step by themselves. Having recognized this issue, many universities in
India have introduced compulsory coursework on ‘research methodology’ for their
postgraduate students.
Recently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has recommended compul-
sory course works of one semester for Ph.D. and specified that one course must be
on ‘research methodology’. Similarly, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research
(ICAR) has suggested certain common compulsory courses for postgraduate educa-
tion in agriculture and related disciplines in the country, which include ‘Technical
Writing and Communication Skills’ and ‘Library and Information Services’.
In Kerala Agricultural University, a compulsory course on research methodology
with a common syllabus has been in existence for a long time, and I have been asso-
ciating with it for the last 16 years. My search for reference books to teach this course
revealed certain interesting facts. Most of the books on ‘research methodology’ avail-
able in the library are written for social sciences! Probably, the major reason is the
peculiar research methods, especially of the qualitative type, social scientists follow.
Although there is no dearth of books on experimental design and statistics, books
on how to plan, write, and speak on research are miserably low. This compelling
situation prompted me to write a book covering all the practical aspects of research.
The book, Research Methodology and Scientific Writing, is primarily meant as
a handbook for beginners in research—research students as well as young scien-
tists. It can also be used as a textbook wherever a course on ‘research method-
ology’ or ‘scientific writing and presentation’ (or on similar subjects) is offered. The
book deals mostly with interdisciplinary fields such as finding research problems,
writing research proposals, obtaining funds for research, selecting research designs,
vii
viii Preface to the First Edition

searching literature and review, collection of data and analysis, preparation of thesis,
writing research papers for journals, citation and listing of references, preparation
of visual material, oral and poster presentation in conferences, and ethical issues in
research. Besides introducing library and its various features in a lucid style, the latest
on the use of information technology in retrieving and managing information through
various means have also been provided. Another major highlight is the inclusion of
tips to improve writing skills of research students. A brief introduction to historical
and philosophical aspects of research including methods and tools of science has
also been given.
The driving force behind this book is the numerous postgraduate students I
have taught during the last several years. I acknowledge the help and coopera-
tion from several of my colleagues and friends. I remember with gratitude Dr.
E. Ahmed, Professor of Agricultural Extension (presently, Director, Centre for E-
Learning), who asked me to join the research methodology team at the College
of Horticulture, Vellanikkara. I am thankful to Dr. Meera V. Menon, Associate
Professor, and my colleague in the Department of Agronomy for going through the
manuscript and offering several useful suggestions. My thanks are also due to Dr.
C. T. Abraham, Professor and Head, Department of Agronomy, for his encourage-
ment. I also acknowledge with thanks the permission given by the Kerala Agricultural
University to print and publish the book.
I appreciate the cooperation and sincere efforts of Mr. Sunil Saxena, Mr. Jai Raj
Kapoor, and their team at Ane Books, New Delhi, for bringing out the book in time.
I earnestly request the readers to feel free to bring to my attention discrepancies
and omissions, if any, and suggestions for improvement.

Thrissur, India C. George Thomas

Contents

1 Research: The Search for Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Acquiring Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Science and Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 What is Research? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 Qualities of a Researcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5 History of Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.6 Induction and Deduction in Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.7 Hypothesis, Theory, Law, Fact, and Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.8 The Scientific Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.9 Research Methodology and Research Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.10 The Research Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.11 Academic Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2 Philosophy of Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.1 Philosophy and Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2 Epistemology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3 Empiricism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.4 Rationalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.5 Skepticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.6 Falsifiability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.7 The Principle of Parsimony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.8 Pseudoscience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.9 Reductionism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.10 Paradigm and Paradigm Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.11 Post-modernism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3 Approaches to Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.1 Intuition in Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.2 Unconventional Ways to Intuition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.3 Variables in Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

ix
x Contents

3.4 Formal Approaches to Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4 Major Research Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.1 Natural Observation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.2 Historical Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.3 Ethnographic Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.4 Cross-Sectional Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.5 Longitudinal Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.6 Cohort Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.7 Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.8 Correlational Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.9 Model Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.10 Action Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.11 Participatory Learning and Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.12 PLA Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.13 Some Special Research Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5 Experimental Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.1 Cause and Effect Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.2 Hypothesis in Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.3 Validity of Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.4 Principles of Experimentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.5 ‘Control’ in Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.6 Classification of Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.7 Experimental Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
5.8 Field Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.9 Field Experiments in Agriculture: Some Practical
Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.10 Randomized Controlled Trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5.11 Paired Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.12 Quasi-experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.13 Ex Post Facto Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.14 Requirements of a Good Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
6 Collection and Analysis of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.1 Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.2 Scales of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
6.3 Collection of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.4 Observation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.5 Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.6 Possible Errors in Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
6.7 Analysis of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.8 Descriptive Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Contents xi

6.9 Inferential Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

6.10 Some Common Statistical Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6.11 Popular Statistical Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.12 Monitoring Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
7 Planning and Writing a Research Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
7.1 Research Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
7.2 Finding a Research Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
7.3 Analysis of Research Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7.4 Planning a Proposal: Some General Considerations . . . . . . . . . . 176
7.5 Proposal Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7.6 Presentation and Evaluation of Proposals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.7 Students’ Outline of Research Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
7.8 Major Funding Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Annexure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
8 Publications and the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
8.1 Role of Libraries in Information Retrieval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
8.2 Laws of Library Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
8.3 Classification and Arrangement of Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
8.4 Tools for Identifying Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
8.5 Types of Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
8.6 Grey Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
8.7 Microfiche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
8.8 Digital Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
9 Academic Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
9.1 Bibliographic Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
9.2 General Search Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
9.3 Metasearch Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
9.4 Academic Search Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
9.5 Citation Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
9.6 Citation Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
9.7 Online Searching Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
9.8 Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International
(CABI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
9.9 The Indian Academy of Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
9.10 National Institute of Science Communication
and Information Resources (NISCAIR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
9.11 ICAR Initiatives for Knowledge Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
xii Contents

10 The Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

10.1 Importance of the Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
10.2 Planning a Literature Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
10.3 Locating Relevant Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
10.4 Managing Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
10.5 Reliability of a Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
10.6 Writing a Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
11 Preparation of Research Papers and Other Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
11.1 The IMRAD Structure for Research Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
11.2 Research Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
11.3 Selecting a Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
11.4 The Structure of a Research Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
11.5 Other Considerations in the Preparation of Research
Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
11.6 Review and Peer Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
11.7 Review Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
11.8 Conference Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
11.9 Electronic Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
11.10 Short Notes and Other Forms of Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
11.11 Copyediting and Proofreading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
12 The Structure of a Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
12.1 Thesis or Dissertation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
12.2 Parts of a Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
12.3 Preliminary Pages of a Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
12.4 The Subject Proper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
12.5 The Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
12.6 Formatting Requirements of a Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
12.7 Paper and Text Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
12.8 Thesis Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
13 Tables and Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
13.1 Making of a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
13.2 Arrangement of Data in Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
13.3 Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
13.4 Bar Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
13.5 Pie Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
13.6 The Line Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
13.7 Line Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
13.8 Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Contents xiii

14 Reasoning in Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

14.1 Some Logical Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
14.2 Evidences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
14.3 Inductive and Deductive Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
14.4 Fallacious Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
14.5 Formal and Informal Fallacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
14.6 Common Fallacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
15 References: How to Cite and List Correctly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
15.1 Importance of Referencing in Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
15.2 Citation and Listing Systems of References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
15.3 Common Documentation Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
15.4 CSE Style: The Name-Year System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
15.5 Citation of Sources in the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
15.6 Examples of in-Text References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
15.7 Listing References in the “References” Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
15.8 Examples of Writing References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
15.9 Websites and Other Online Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
15.10 Reference Management Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Annexure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
16 Improve Your Writing Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
16.1 Use Plain English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
16.2 Use Paragraphs Properly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
16.3 Avoid Gender Specific or Discriminatory Language . . . . . . . . . . 404
16.4 Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
16.5 Verbs: Care with Tenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
16.6 The Active or Passive Voice Dilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
16.7 Be Definite About the Use of the ‘Articles’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
16.8 Prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
16.9 Relative Pronouns: Use the Most Appropriate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
16.10 Transitional Words and Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
17 Use Appropriate Words and Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
17.1 Economy in Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
17.2 Singular and Plural Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
17.3 Commonly Confused Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
17.4 Avoid Using More Words Instead of a Single Word . . . . . . . . . . 444
17.5 Avoid Unnecessary Qualification of Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
17.6 Remove Unnecessary Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
17.7 Avoid Clichés . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
xiv Contents

18 Punctuation Marks and Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

18.1 Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
18.2 Comma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
18.3 Semicolon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
18.4 Colon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
18.5 Quotation Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
18.6 Apostrophe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
18.7 Brackets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
18.8 Parentheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
18.9 Dashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
18.10 Hyphens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
18.11 Virgule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
18.12 Italics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
18.13 Capitals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
18.14 Abbreviation, Initialism, and Acronym . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Annexure: Abbreviations Commonly Used in Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
19 Units and Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
19.1 Units and Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
19.2 A Brief History of the Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
19.3 The SI System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
19.4 SI Unit Rules and Style Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
19.5 Non SI Units Accepted for Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
19.6 Care with Numerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
19.7 Roman and Arabic Numerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
20 Conference Presentations and Posters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
20.1 Scientific Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
20.2 General Features of a Scientific Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
20.3 Planning and Delivering a Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
20.4 Preparing Good Presentation Slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
20.5 Poster Presentation in Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
20.6 Students’ Seminar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
20.7 Group and Panel Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
21 Guidelines for Successful Lecturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
21.1 Qualities of a Good Lecturer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
21.2 Planning for Lecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
21.3 The Process of Lecturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
21.4 Use Visual Aids Effectively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
21.5 Sustain the Interest of Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
21.6 Improve Motivation of Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
21.7 Build Rapport with the Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Contents xv

21.8 Plan and Prepare for Group Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

21.9 Conduct of Examinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
22 Note Taking, Note Making, and Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
22.1 The Issue of Forgetting and Recall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544
22.2 Note Taking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
22.3 Note Taking Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
22.4 Listening and Note Taking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
22.5 Note Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
22.6 Note Making from Text Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
22.7 Assignments as a Part of Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
22.8 Essay Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
22.9 Writing Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568
23 Ethics and Related Issues in Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
23.1 Nuremberg Code and After . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
23.2 Some Concepts in Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
23.3 Intellectual Property Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
23.4 Fraud and Misconduct in Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
23.5 Unscientific Practices in Thesis Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
23.6 Ethics in Science Practicals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
23.7 Whistle Blowing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
23.8 Scientific Values: Needed a Code of Conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
24 Plagiarism: Prevention and Cure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
24.1 What is Plagiarism? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
24.2 Acknowledge Sources Appropriately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
24.3 Paraphrasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
24.4 Direct and Indirect Quotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
24.5 Summarizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
24.6 Evaluation of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
24.7 Plagiarism Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
 About the Author

Dr. C. George Thomas is Retired Professor and Head in the Department of

Agronomy, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur. He held the post of Associate
Dean, College of Horticulture as well. He has more than 36 years of experience in
teaching, research, and guiding students. Dr. Thomas obtained M.Sc. (Ag.) from
Kerala Agricultural University and Ph.D. from Indian Agricultural Research Insti-
tute, New Delhi. A renowned science writer, Dr. Thomas has authored 16 books,
90 research papers, and over 250 other articles. He is a recipient of the Karshaka
Bharathi award of Govt. of Kerala for his contributions towards farm journalism.

xvii

View publication stats