MODULE-2

Literature Review and Technical Reading

23/01/2025 Dept. of ECE, AtMECE , Mysuru 8
“A lit review should
provide a conceptual
framework.” –
• The primary goal of literature review is to know the use of
content/ideas/approaches in the literature to correctly identify the problem that is
vaguely known beforehand, to advocate a specific approach adopted to
understanding the problem, and to access the choice of methods used.

• It also helps the researcher understand clearly that the research to be undertaken
would contribute something new and innovative. The quality of such review can
be determined by evaluating if it includes appropriate breadth and depth of
the area under study, clarity, rigor, consistency, effective analysis.
23/01/2025 Dept. of ECE, AtMECE , Mysuru 12
2.1 New and Existing
Knowledge
• New knowledge in research can only be interpreted within the context of what is
already known, and cannot exist without the foundation of existing knowledge.

• The existing knowledge is needed to make the case that there is a problem and that
it is important.

• Where does this existing knowledge come from? Normally, one finds this
knowledge by reading and surveying the literature in the field that was
established long ago and also about the more recent knowledge which is in fact
always changing.
• Often, but not always, the textbooks contain the older established
knowledge and the research papers the newer work. Reading the
textbooks on one’s topic provide the established knowledge and the
background to be able to read the newer work usually recorded in the
research papers.

• Researcher may find oneself continually going back to other sources to

try and interpret what is going on in a particular research paper. It can
be difficult to find the right work to read, but the objective with all this
reading and learning is to be able to get the knowledge that one needs
to build the foundation.
• The review process must explain how a research item builds on another one.
This is because useful research should elucidate how and why certain
technical development took place, so that it is easy for the reader to
comprehend why the present talk is being undertaken, and a good literature
survey would provide a convincing under to that question.

• An effective review of literature ensures a firm foundation for advancing

knowledge, facilitates theoretical growth, eliminates as areas that might be
of interest, and opens new avenues of possible work. An efficient literature
review is centered around concepts and not authors.
• Generally, a good literature survey is the first expectation of a supervisor from
the research student, and when done well can create a good impression that the
state of art in the chosen field is well understood.

• A good literature review would not draw hasty conclusions and look into the
individual references to determine the underlying causes/assumptions/mechanisms
in each of them so as to synthesize the available information in a much more
meaningful way.
• A literature review should be able to summarize as to what is already
known from the state of the art, detail the key concepts and the main
factors or parameters and the underlying relationships between those,
describe any complementary existing approaches, enumerate the
inconsistencies or shortcomings in the published work, identify the
reported results that are inconclusive or contradictory, and provide a
compulsive reason to do further work in the field.
A good literature survey is typically a two-step process as enumerated below:
(i)Identify the major topics or subtopics or concepts relevant to the subject under
consideration.
(ii)Place the citation of the relevant source(article/patent/website/data, etc.) in the
correct category of the concept/topic/subtopic.

It could be that as one is reading and comes across something that one considers to
be very important for one’s work, a core principle or a description of something that
just sounds really good, and one is excited to have found it. Naturally, one highlights
that section or underlines it, or put an asterisk in the margin, so that one could come
back to it later. Effectively, one is saying that it is important and hence the marking
so as not to forget it.
Then one should write about the highlighted part without copying
it. As one writes about why one thinks that part is important and what it
contains, one is automatically changing it and making it fit into one’s
foundation in the way that makes sense.

There are shaping and crafting of that piece of knowledge to fit where
one needs it to be. To build the knowledge foundation, one needs to be
reading and learning continually. But that is not enough, one also needs
to be writing about what one has read.
A comprehensive literature survey should methodically analyze and
synthesize quality archived work, provide a firm foundation to a topic of
interest and the choice of suitable research methodologies, and
demonstrate that the proposed work would make a novel contribution to
the overall field of research.
2.2 Analysis and Synthesis of
Prior Art
A literature survey grid of N topics and M sources is shown below to
help crystallize the information in different categories.
A researcher should analyze the relevant information ascertained in Table 2.1
by undertaking the following steps:

(i) Understanding the hypothesis,

(ii) Understanding the models and the experimental conditions used,
(iii) Making connections,
(iv) Comparing and contrasting the various information, and
(v) Finding out the strong points and the loopholes.
“The best lit reviews tell a good story.” – Regina Winters
• A lit review provides context and background for your work.

• It’s an essay, a synthesis of information relevant to your work.

Table 2.1 The literature survey grid

• The goal of literature survey is to bring out something new to work on through
the
identification of unsolved issues, determine the problems in the existing models
or experimental designs, and present a novel idea and recommendations.

Here are a few criteria that could help the researcher in the evaluation of the information
under study:
•Authority: What are the author’s credentials and affiliation? Who publishes
the information?
• Accuracy: Based on what one already knows about the topic or from reading
other
sources, does the information seem credible? Does the author cite other sources in
a reference list or bibliography, to support the information presented?
• Scope: Is the source at an appropriate comprehension or research level?
There are other criteria to consider as well, such as currency, objectivity, and purpose. It is
important to ensure that the search question is neither too narrow nor too broad.
 2.3 Bibliographic Databases
• “Bibliographic databases” refer to “abstracting and indexing services” useful for collecting
citation-related information and possibly abstracts of research articles from scholarly
literature and making them available through search.

• A researcher should be able to quickly identify the databases that are of use in the idea or
problem that one wishes to explore.
• Web of Science
Web of Science (formerly known as ISI or Thomson Reuters) includes multiple databases, as
well as specialized tools. It is a good search tool for scholarly materials requiring institutional
license and allows the researcher to search in a particular topic of interest, which can be
made by selection in fields that are available in drop down menu such as title, topic, author,
address, etc. The tool also allows sorting by number of citations (highest to lowest),
publication date.
• A structured search like this that enables narrowing and refining what one is
looking for is effective to ensure that the results throw up relevant sources and
time spent in studying those is likely to bewell utilized. Based on the researcher’s
need the search result can be broadened or narrowed down using the built-in fields
provided in this website. When clicked on any of the search results, this website
provides the title of the paper, authors, the type of journal, volume, issue number
and year of publication, abstract, keywords, etc., so that the researcher has enough
information to decide if it is worthwhile to acquire the full version of the paper.
Google and Google Scholar
• Google is a great place to start one’s search when one is starting out on a topic. It
can be helpful in finding freely available information, such as reports from
governments, organizations, companies, and so on. However, there are limitations:

• (i) It’s a “black box” of information. It searches everything on the Internet, with no
quality control—one does not know where results are coming from.
• (ii) There are limited search functionality and refinement options.
Google Scholar limitations:
1.Some of the results are not actually scholarly. An article may look
scholarly at first glance, but is not a good source upon further
inspection.
2.It is not comprehensive. Some publishers do not make their content
available to Google Scholar.
3. There is limited search functionality and refinement options.
4.Effective Search: The Way Forward
Searching is an iterative process:
• Experiment with different keywords
and operators;
• Evaluate and assess results, use filters;
• Modify the search as needed; and
• When relevant articles are found, look
at their citations and references.

Literature survey is a continuous and cyclical process that may involve the
researcher going back and forth till the end of the research project.
• It is very important to not lose sight of the purpose of an extensive
search or literature survey, for it is possible to spend a very
significant amount of one’s time doing so and actually falsely think
that one is working hard.
• It is mandatory for a Ph.D. scholar to write a synopsis of the topic
and submit it to the doctoral committee for approval. During this
stage, the scholar needs to undertake an extensive literature survey
connected with the problem. For this purpose, the archived journals
and published or unpublished bibliographies are the first place to
check out. One source leads to another.
2.5 Introduction to Technical Reading
• Finding the right work to read can be difficult. The literature where knowledge is archived is very fragmented
and there are bits and pieces all over the place. Very rarely will one find everything that one wants close
together in one place.
• However, it is obvious that the number of papers relevant to a particular researcher is very few, compared to
the actual number of research papers available from peer-reviewed technical sources.

• Given the abundance of journal articles, it is useful to adopt a quick, purposeful, and useful way of reading
these manuscripts. It is not the same as reading a newspaper. It may require rereading the paper multiple times
and one might expect to spend many hours reading the paper.

• There will also be papers where it is notworth reading all the details in the first instance. It is quite possible
that the details are of limited value, or simply one does not feel competent to understand the information yet.
• Start out the skimming process by reading the title and keywords (these are any- ways, probably what caught
the initial attention in the first place). If on reading these, it does not sufficiently seem to be interesting; it is
better to stop reading and look forsomething else to read. One should then read the abstract to get an overview
of the paper in minimum time. Again, if it does not seem sufficiently important to the field of study, one
should stop reading further. If the abstract is of interest, one should skip most of the paper and go straight to
the conclusions to find if the paper is relevant to the intended purpose, and if so, then one should read the
figures, tables, and the captions therein, because these would not take much time but would provide a broad
enough idea as to what was done in the paper.

• If the paper has continued to be of interest so far, then one is now ready to delve into the Introduction section
to know the background information about the work and also to ascertain why the authors did that particular
study and in what ways the paper furthers the state of the art. The next sections to read are the Results and
Discussion sections which is really the heart of the paper. One should really read further sections like the
Experimental Setup/Modeling, etc., only if one is really interested and wishes to understand exactly what was
done to better understand the meaning of the data and its interpretation.
2.6 Conceptualizing
Research
• The characteristics of a research objective are that it must have new knowledge at the center, and
that it must be accepted by the community of other researchers and recognized as significant. But
how do we actually conceptualize the research? Besides being original and significant, a good
research problem should also be solvable or achievable.

• This requirement already asks us to think about the method and the tools that could be used to
obtain that new knowledge. Now, the significance and the originality and all the theory that we
read and tools and methods that we need to take on a problem, all of these normally come from
the existing recorded literature and knowledge in the field.
However, if one is working on a research project that is of a smaller scope
than a Ph.D., let us say a master’s thesis, then conceptualizing the research is
possibly too tough to do, and one does not have the time that it takes to
become that expert at the edge of knowledge.

In this case, the researcher needs the help of someone else, typically the
supervisor who may already be an expert and an active researcher in that
field, and may advise on what a good research objective might be. An
established researcher in any field should be able to immediately point to the
landmark literature that one should read first. Otherwise one would need to
spend a lot of time reading the literature to discover.
As engineers, we like to build things, and that’s good, but the objective of
research is to make knowledge. If one’s research is about building
something, one ought to take a step back and ask if new knowledge is being
formulated.
2.7 Critical and Creative
Reading
• Reading a research paper is a critical process. The reader should not be under
the assumption that reported results or arguments are correct. Rather, being
suspicious and asking appropriate questions is in fact a good thing. Have the
authors attempted to solve the right problem? Are there simpler solutions that have
not been considered?

• What are the limitations (both stated and ignored) of the solution and are there any
missing links? Are the assumptions that were made reasonable? Is there a logical
flow to the paper or is there a flaw in the reasoning? These need to be ascertained
apart from the relevance and the importance of the work, by careful reading.
• Additionally, it is important to ascertain whether the data presented in the paper is right data
to substantiate the argument that was made in the paper and whether the data was gathered
and interpreted in a correct manner. It is also important to decipher whether some other
dataset would have been more compelling.

• Critical reading is relatively easy. It is relatively easier to critically read to find the mistakes
than to read it so as to find the good ideas in the paper. Anyone who has been a regular
reviewer of journal articles would agree to such a statement.

• Reading creatively is harder, and requires a positive approach in search. In creative

reading, the idea is to actively look for other applications, interesting generalizations, or
extended work which the authors might have missed? Are there plausible modifications that
may throw up important practical challenges? One might be able to decipher properly if one
would like to start researching an extended part of this work, and what should be the
immediate next aspect to focus upon.
2.8 Taking Notes While
Reading
•A researcher reads to write and writes well only if the reading skills are good. The
bridge between reading and actually writing a paper is the act of taking notes
during and shortly after the process of reading. There is a well-known saying that
the faintest writing is better than the best memory, and it applies to researchers
who need to read and build on that knowledge to write building on the notes
taken.

• Many researchers take notes on the margins of their copies of papers or even
digitally on an article aggregator tool. In each research paper, there are a lot of
things that one might like to highlight for later use such as definitions,
explanations, and concepts. If there are questions of criticisms, these need to be
written down so as to avoid being forgotten later on. Such efforts pay significantly
when one has to go back and reread the same content after a long time.
• A Good technical reading should end with a summary of the paper in a few
sentences describing the contributions. But to elucidate the technical merit, the
paper needs to be looked at from comparative perspective with respect to existing
works in that specific area. A thorough reading should bring out whether there are
new ideas in the paper, or if existing ideas were implemented through experiments
or in a new application, or if different existing ideas were brought together under a
novel framework.
2.9 Reading Mathematics and Algorithms

• Mathematics is often the foundation of new advances, for evolution

and development of engineering research and practice. An engineering
researcher generally cannot avoid mathematical derivations or proofs
as part of research work. In fact, these are the heart of any technical
paper. Therefore, one should avoid skimming them. By meticulous
reading of the proofs or algorithms, after having identified the
relevance of the paper, one can develop sound understanding about the
problem that the authors have attempted to solve.
• Nonetheless, one might skim a technical section if it seems like an explanation
of something already known, or if it is too advanced for the research at the present
moment and needs additional reading to be understandable, or if it seems to
specialized and unlikely to be needed in the course of the research program in
which case one can get back to it later on. Implementation of an intricate
algorithm in programming languages such as C, C++ or Java is prone to errors.
And even if the researcher is confident about the paper in hand, and thinks that the
algorithm will work, there is a fair chance that it will not work at all. So one may
wish to code it quickly to check if it actually works.
2.10 Reading a
Datasheet
• Researchers in different fields of engineering will need to read certain
types of documents. For example, mechanical and civil engineers
would need to read drawings related to mechanical parts and
buildings. Researchers in the field of electronics need to read
datasheets. On occasions, researchers in other fields may also need to
incorporate a certain electronic part in which case careful reading of
the datasheet is imperative.
• Datasheets are instruction manuals for electronic components, which (hopefully) details what a component
does and how one may use it. Datasheets enable a researcher (or a working professional) to design a circuit
or debug any given circuit with that component. The first page of the datasheet usually summarizes a part’s
function and features, basic specifications, and usually provides a functional block diagram with the internal
functions of the part.

• A pinout provides the physical location of a part’s pins, with special mark for pin 1 so that the part can be
correctly plugged into the circuit. Some parts also provide graphs showing performance versus various criteria
(supply voltage, temperature, etc.), and safe region for reliable operation which should be carefully read and
noted by the researcher. One should be also in the lookout for truth tables which describe what sort of inputs
provide what types of outputs, and also timing diagrams which lay out how and at what speed data is sent and
received from the part. Datasheets usually end with accurate dimensions of the packages a part is available in.
This is useful for printed circuit board (PCB) layout.

• However,the objective of the authors herein has been to use datasheets as an example to state the need to pay
attention to the art of reading such documents. Technical published papers or books are not the only contents
that a researcher has to master reading!
1. Write a short note on Literature Review?
2. Explain Existing knowledge and New Knowledge?
3. List and explain the criteria that could help the researcher in the evaluation of information under
study?
4. Write a short note on Bibliographic Database?
5. Explain various search operators in Web of Science while doing effective research?
6. Explain Technical reading with respect to engineering research?
Attributions and Citations: Giving Credit
Wherever Due
• https://fastercapital.com/content/Citation--Unlocking-the-Secrets-of-
Proper-Attribution.html
• we highlight the importance of expanding attributions and
acknowledgments to roles and responsibilities beyond primary
authors of journal articles or principal investigators of grant
proposal documents. This would be applicable especially to scientific
research projects that involved diverse skill sets and expertise.

• Attribute Vs Citation - Both are acknowledging that someone else

contributed content that you are using in your material.
• Academic writing, by definition, must follow certain rules and
conventions.
• Among the most important of these are the rules and conventions
about citing, referencing, attributing, and acknowledging the works of
others. That means giving proper credit wherever due. Citing is the
practice of quoting from, referring to other authors’ works and
ideas in the text of our work in such a way that the context is clear
to the reader. Referencing is the listing of the full publication
details of a published work that is cited so as to give background
information to the readers.
Acknowledgment in research publications indicates contributions to
scientific work. However, acknowledgment, attributions, and citations
differ in the manner of their application. Acknowledgment is arguably
more personal, singular, and simply an expression of appreciations and
contribution.
3.1 Citations: Functions and
Attributes
•Citations (references) credit others for their work, while allowing the
readers to trace the source publication if needed. Any portion of
someone else’s work or ideas in papers, patents, or presentations must
be used in any new document only by clearly citing the source. This
applies to all forms of written sources in the form of texts, images,
sounds, etc. and failure to do may be considered plagiarism.

• The researcher may need to give due credit to the creator of the
original source.
• The growth of knowledge in any field of study, especially
technological
in fields, is primarily incremental and a researcher
invariably and naturally builds upon prior information. There are well-
established means of preventing and spreading knowledge through
publication of patents, papers (conference paper and the peer-reviewed
journal paper), or articles, and also through textbooks and classrooms.

• While it is true that a research needs to leverage the prior art in the
area of research interest so as to make further development, at
the same time it is important to ensure that credit for that existing
knowledge is suitably acknowledged.
• The researcher provides due credit through the use of a citation. Citations
help the readers to verify the quality and importance of the new work and
justification of the findings.
• It is a way to tell readers that certain material in the researcher’s
present
work has come from another source and as an ethical
responsibility,
appropriate credit has been given to the original author or writer. Materials
that can be cited include journal papers, conference proceeding,
books,
theses, newspaper articles, websites, or other online resources and personal
communication.
• Preferably, citations should be given at the end of a sentence or the end of a
paragraph as can be seen even in this particular paragraph.
• Citation must contain enough details so that readers can easily find
the referenced material [1].
• A researcher needs to cite each source twice:
(i)in-text citation, in the text of the article exactly where the source is
quoted or paraphrased, and
(ii)a second time in the references, typically at the end of the chapter or
a book or at the end of a research article.

• It is also important to mention the date the source was published and
sometimes also the particular date it was accessed by the researcher if
it is related to web content.
• LaTeX, a document preparation
system often used by engineering
researchers to automatically
format documents that comply
with standard formatting needs, is
very effective to track and update
citations. LaTeX has a steep
learning curve and will be
repeatedly used in this book to
address different issues pertaining
to technical writing which is
intimately linked with research for
engineers.
• There are three main functions of citation:
(i) Verification function: Authors have a scope for finding intentional or
unintentional distortion of research or misleading statements. Citation
offers the readers a chance to ascertain if the original source is justified
or not, and if that assertion is properly described in the present work [2].
(ii)Acknowledgment function: Researchers primarily receive credit
for their work through citations. Citations play crucial role in promotion
of individual researchers and their continued employment. Many
reputed organizations and institutes provide research funding based on
the reputations of the researchers. Citations help all researchers to
enhance their reputation and provide detailed background of the
research work.
(iii)Documentation function: Citations are also used to document
scientific concepts and historical progress of any particular technology
over the years [3].
There are certain cases when references do not fulfill the actual goal of citations and
acknowledgments,
and thus do not benefit the reader.
• Spurious citations: In certain cases, when citation is not required or
appropriate one is not an
found, if the author nevertheless goes ahead with including
one anyways, it would be considered as a spurious citation.

• Biased citations: When authors cite the work of their friends or colleagues despite
there being no significant connection between the two works, or when they do not
cite work of genuine significance because they do not wish to give credit in the
form of citation to certain individuals, then such actions can be classified as biased
citations. Neglect of citations to prior work whose conclusions or data contradict
the current work is also biased.
• Self-citations: There is nothing wrong in citing one’s prior work if the citation is really relevant.
Self-citation of prior papers is natural because the latest paper is often a part of a larger research
project which is ongoing. Sometimes, it is also advantageous for the reader because citations of all
the related works of the same author are given in one paper and this may reduce the effort of the
reader in trying to find the full versions of those papers. However, it is helpful and ethical only
if all the papers are really relevant to the present work.

• Coercive citations: Despite shortcomings, impact factors remain a primary method

quantification of research.
of One side effect is that it creates an incentive for editors to indulge in
coercion to add citations to the editor’s journal. Even if not explicitly stated, the implied message is
that the author could either add citations or risk rejection. Such demands consequently diminish
the reputation of the journal.
3.2 Impact of Title and Keywords on Citations

• The citation rate of any research paper depends on various factors including
significance and availability of the journal, publication types, research area, and
importance of the published research work. Other factors like length of the title,
type of the title, and selected keywords also impact the citation count.

• Title is the most important attribute of any research paper. It is the main
indication of the research area or subject and is used by researcher as a source of
information during literature survey. Title plays important role in marketing and
makes research papers traceable. A good title is informative, represents a paper
effectively to readers, and gains their attention. Some titles are informative but do
not capture attention of readers, some titles are attractive but not informative or
related to the readers’ research area
• There are three different aspects which provide a particular behavior to the title:
(i) types of the title
(ii) length of the title and
(iii) presence of specific markers.

• Articles with question-type titles are downloaded more but poorly cited compared to the
descriptive or declarative titles. Declarative titles are downloaded and cited less than
descriptive titles but difference is not much.

• As per analysis of Habibzadeh and longer titles are strongly associated with higher
citation rates. Longer titles mainly include the study methodology and/or results in more
detail, and so attracts more attention and citations.
• Titles containing a question mark, colon, and reference to a specific geographical
region are associated with lower citation rates, also result-describing titles usually
get citations than method-describing titles.

• Additionally, review articles and original articles usually receive more citations
than short communication articles.

• At least two keywords in the title can increase the chance of finding and reading
the article as well as get more citations.
• Keywords represent essential information as well as main content of the
article, which are relevant to the area of research. Search engines, journal,
digital libraries, and indexing services use keywords for categorization of
the research topic and to direct the work to the relevant audience.

• Keywords are important to ensure that readers are aware about research
articles and their content. If maximum number of allowable keywords are
used, then the chance of the article being found increases and so does the
probability of citation count of the article. Usage of new keywords should
be minimal as such keywords may not be well known to the research
community and so may lead to low visibility of the article.
3.3 Knowledge Flow Through
Citation
• Knowledge flows through verbal communications, books, documents, video, audio, and images,
which plays a powerful role in research community in promoting the formulation of new
knowledge.

• In engineering research, knowledge flow is primarily in the form of books, thesis, articles, patents,
and reports. Citing a source is important for transmission of knowledge from previous work to an
innovation.

• Production of knowledge can be related to the citation network.

• Knowledge flow happens between co-authors during research collaboration, among other
researchers through their paper citation network, and also between institutions, departments,
research fields or topics, and elements of research
Fig. 3.1 Citation-based knowledge flow
• Figure 3.1 shows the relationship between citations, knowledge flow, and elements such as
researchers, papers, journal publications or conferences, and institutions. If paper A is cited by
paper B, then knowledge flows through citation networks across institutions.

• The complex interdisciplinary nature of research encourages scholars to cooperate with each other
to grab more advantages through collaboration, thereby improving quality of the research.

• Sooryamoorthy examined the citation impact of the South African publications among different
collaboration types, discipline and sectors, and observed that co-authored publications had more
citations than single author paper and there was a positive co-relation between number of authors
and the number of citations.
Fig. 3.2 Co-authorship network
• Figure 3.2 shows a relationship between co-authorship and different types of citations. Three
articles (X, Y, and Z) and five references (X1, X2, X3, Y1, and Y2) of article X and Y, respectively,
are considered. A, B, and C are authors of article X, and D, E, F, G, and also A are authors of
article Y. Article Z has two authors H and E. References X1, X2, X3, Y1, and Y2 have authors (A,
P), (H, R), (D), (Q, B, F), and (R), respectively.

• Based on co-authorship citation network, references X1 and Y1 are considered self-citation,

reference X3 is a level-1 co-author citation because author of article Y is direct collaborator of
author A, reference X2 is a level-1 co-author network because author A is collaborator of E who
collaborated with H. We conclude that papers which frequently cite collaborators will also often
cite collaborators of collaborators.Collaborations certainly impact citation counts.
3.3.1 Citing Datasets
3.4 Acknowledgments and
Attributions
• Acknowledgment section is a place to provide a brief appreciation of the contribution of someone
or an organization or funding body to the present work. If no particular guideline is available for
the intended publication, then it can be introduced at the end of the text or as a footnote.

• Acknowledgment is a common practice to recognize persons or agencies for being responsible in

some form or other for completion of a publishable research outcome. Acknowledgment displays a
relationship among people, agencies, institutions, and research.

• In some case, certain individuals may help in the research work but may not deserve to be included
as authors. As a sign of gratitude, such contributions should be acknowledged. Classification of
acknowledgment into six different categories like moral, financial, editorial, institutional or
technical, and conceptual support.
• Giving proper credit wherever it is due is very important and even if the
contribution is minor, it should not be neglected. A researcher should always
recognize the proprietary interest of others. Whenever possible, author shall give
name of persons who may be responsible, even if nominally, for designs,
inventions, writings, or other accomplishments. Given the importance of work
published, authorship is also important. The reward triangle theory shows a
relationship between citations, acknowledgment, and authorship.

• In engineering research, acknowledgments are meant for participating technicians,

students, funding agency, grant number, institution, or anyone who provide
scientific inputs, shared unpublished results, provided equipment, or participated
in discussions.
3.4.1 What Should Be Acknowledged?

• Every author should know that what should/should not be acknowledged. Author should
acknowledge quotation, ideas, facts, paraphrasing, funding organization, oral discussion or support,
laboratory, and computer work.
(i) Quotation: In technical writing such as in the field of engineering, quotes are used very rarely.
Quotations are of two types:
(a)Direct quotations are used when author use actual words or sentences in the same order as the
original one. Author should use quotation marks for the words or sentences with proper
acknowledgment.
(b)Indirect quotation summarizes or paraphrases the actual quote. In such cases, it is important to
acknowledge with proper name and date.
• (ii) Authors should acknowledge people who give appropriate contribution in their
research work. Non-research work contributions are not generally acknowledged in a
scientific paper but it may be in a thesis. Persons must be acknowledged by authors, who
gave a scientific or technical guidance, take part in some discussions, or shared
information to author. Authors should acknowledge assistants, students, or technicians,
who helped experimentally and theoretically during the research work.

• (iii) If the researcher received grant from a funding agency and if those funds were used
in the work reported in the publication, then such support should always be acknowledged
by providing full details of the funding program and grant number in the acknowledgment
section.
• The authors should also gratefully acknowledge use of the services and facilities of any
center or organization with which they are not formally affiliated to [22].
iv. If the results were presented as an abstract in a journal, then there should be a
suitable citation. If the results were presented as part of scientific meeting,
symposium, or other gathering, then some relevant information should be provided. At
the very least, the name of the gathering and year should be cited. Other helpful items
include the location of the gathering (city and state or country) and the full date of the
occasion.
• Acknowledgment is no longer simply a means of expressing gratitude. Funding agencies these
days often require that their grant be acknowledged and explicitly state the exact information to be
provided if the research work leads to a publication. The grantee is responsible for assuring that an
acknowledgment of support is made in any publication (including websites) of any direct or
indirect outcomes from the funded project.

• The format of required information is often explicitly stated in the terms and conditions of grants
provided. Acknowledgments are also appropriate in technical presentations. Failure to
acknowledge funding may result in the discontinuation of current funding and/or ineligibility to
receive future funding for a certain number of years or indefinitely
3.4.2 Acknowledgments in Books/Dissertations
• A page of acknowledgments is usually included at the beginning of a thesis/ dissertation
immediately following the table of contents. These acknowledgments are longer than the one
or two sentence statements in journal papers or articles in conference proceedings. These detailed
acknowledgments enable the researcher to thank all those who have contributed in completion of
the research work.
3.4.3 Dedication or Acknowledgments?
• Dedication is almost never used in a journal paper, an article in a conference
proceedings, or a patent, and it is used exclusively in larger documents like
books, thesis, or dissertations.

• While acknowledgments are reserved for those who helped out with the
book in some way or another (editing, moral support, etc), a dedication is to
whomever the author would like it to be dedicated to, whether it is the
author’s mother, the best friend, the pet dog, or Almighty God.

• And yes, it is possible to dedicate something to someone while also

mentioning them in the acknowledgments.