MAS TERING S CIENTIFIC R,W, and 0 ,(2018)
Humanity has an-access-to works, of all-great-scientists, Engineers, and inventors, because they did publish, their-researc h-findings. On-the-oth erhand, currently, researches, of all-categories, are under-increasing-pressure to-publish, for career prospects, and for professional-recognition. Publishing, especially in the-early career stages, can-be-puzzling, and, thus, challenging, or even, scary and unapproachable. This-book, attempts todemystify the-process, leading t o a quality scientific-publication. It-is focused, mainly, on peer-reviewed article, and largely presumes no explicit disciplinary perspective, however, some-emphasis on Engineering-Research, is given. The-book principally targets greenhorn' scientific academicresearchers and writers, including Masters and PhD-students. Seasonedscientific-writers, on-the other-hand, will hopefully, also find fewinteresting-revelations, and food-for-taught'. The-book is a-result of thecritical-evaluation, of more-than 350 relevant reference documents, supplemented-by the-aut hor' submission, based-on personal-experiences, in-publishing.
Diana Starovoytova
Mastering Scientific Research, Writing and Dissemination
Diana Starovoytova is a Professor of MIT-Engineering, at the Moi University, Kenya. Since 2012, she has published over 60 scientific-papers and patented one-invention (all are freelyaccessible via https:// ww w. researchgate. net/ profile/ Diana_Starovoytova2). She also researched at the universities of Ghent, Belgium and Textile & Design, Russia.
S tarovoytova
978-3-330-08000-3
Diana Starovoytova
Mastering Scientific- Research, Writing, and Disse mination
L AP L AMB ERT Ac a d em ic P u b lis h i n g
Imprint Any brand names and product names mentioned in this book are subject to trademark, brand or patent protection and are trademarks or regist ere d trade mar ks of their respec tive holders. The use of brand names, product names, common names, tr ade names, produc t descriptions etc. even w ithout a particular marking in t his w ork is in no way to be construed to mean t hat such names may be regarded as unrestric te d in respect of trademark and brand protection legislat ion and could thus be used by anyone. Cover image: Image belongs to the a uthor Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing GmbH & Co. KG Dudw eiler Landstr. 99, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany. www.lap-publishing.com Printe d at: se e last page ISBN: 978-3-330-08000- 3 Copyright © Diana S tarovoy tov a Copyright © 2018 Int erna t ional Book Mar ket S erv ic e Ltd., member of O mn iScript um P ublishing Group All rights reserved.
Prelude Hu manity has an-access, to-works, o f all-great-scientists, Engineers, and inventors, because they did publish, their-research-findings. On-the-otherhand, researches, of all-categories, are under-increasing-pressure topublish, for career-p rospects and for professional-recognition; this is particularly-so, for those, in their-early-career-stages. This-book, attempts to-demystify the-process, leading to aquality scientific-publicat ion. It-is focused, mainly, on peer-reviewed article, and largely presumes no explicit-disciplinary-perspective, however, some-emphasis on-Engineering-Research, is given. The-book principally targets ‘greenhorn’ scientific/academic-researchers and writers, including Masters and PhD-students. The-seasoned-scientificwriters, on-the other-hand, will-hopefully, also-find few-interestingrevelations, and ‘food-for-taught’. In-simple-terms, a-quality scientific-publication requires 3 maincomponents: (i) an-ethical and quality-Research; (ii) a-properlystructured and well-written-manuscript; and (iii) an-appropriatedissemination-channel, to-provide h igh-visibility and exposure, for theresearch-findings. The-book offers theoretically-insightful-fusion of guiding-princip les, relevant to-each of the-components; and it-is theresult of crit ical-evaluation, of mo re-than 350 relevant-referencedocuments, supplemented-by the-author’ submission, based-on personalexperiences, in-publishing, of over 65 Scientific-works. The-book is organized in 3 ch ronological-chapters: Chapter One—scientific/academic Research; Chapter Two-- scientific/academic Writing; and Chapter Three—Dissemination of research-findings. Summary, for each of the-Chapters; lin ks to-relevant and useful-websites; and suggestions for further-reading, is also-presented. The-author hopes that, this-book, will help the-readers not only to-understand, but also, with t ime, to master scientific-publishing for anyjournal, and eventually become an-expert, with a-distinctive and wellregarded-voice, in-their-field. Finally, the-author welco mes constructive-crit icis m, and suggestions, if any, via: drdsme
[email protected].
Best of luck with your-future-publicat ions, Diana Starovoytova.
TABLE O F CONTENTS DEDICATION.
i
TABLE O F CONTENTS.
ii
LIST O F FIGURES.
v
PREAMBLE.
vi
CHAPTER O NE: SCIENTIFIC/ACADEMIC RESEARCH.
1
1.0. 1.1.
Introduction.
2
Research: its essence, purpose, types, and approaches.
3
1.1.1. The-essence, purpose, and motivations for.
3
1.1.2. Forms and types.
5
1.1.3. What is, and what is not, a ‘Scientific’ Research.
6
1.1.4. Approaches.
8
1.2.
The-overall-process/steps of Research.
10
1.3.
Research in Engineering:
14
1.4.
1.3.1. Specifics.
14
1.3.2. Multi-disciplinary Research.
18
Selected difficult-issues in Research:
24
1.4.1. Qualitative-research vs. Quantitative-research.
24
1.4.2. Reviewing the-literature/Document-Analysis.
29
1.4.3. Evaluation and selection the-most-appropriate and reliable-sources. 31 1.5.
1.6.
1.7.
1.4.4. Sample-size and sampling-techniques.
37
Quality of research:
40
1.5.1. Concepts.
40
1.5.2. Models of assessment of research-quality.
41
Good-research practices.
47
1.6.1. Merton’s CUDOS-norms.
47
1.6.2. Ethical-issues in research:
48
1.6.2. 1. Scientific-misconduct, errors, and negligence.
48
1.6.2. 2. Conflict of interest.
50
1.6.2. 3. Storage of data.
51
1.6.2. 4. Human and animal-subjects, and laboratory-safety.
52
Chapter-One Synopsis.
54
CHAPTER TWO: SCIENTIFIC-WRITING.
57
2.0.
Introduction.
58
2.1.
Writing: concepts, types, approaches, reasons behind, and benefits.
59
2.1.1. Concepts and types.
59
2.1.2. Approaches.
60
2.1.3. Specifics of scientific/academic writing.
61
2.1.4. The-reasons, behind scientific-writing and its-benefits.
61
2.2.
Scientific-publication: its-essence and types.
64
2.3
Lack of awareness and misconceptions, about scientific-writing.
65
2.4.
2.5.
Rejections of manuscripts, for publication.
67
2.4.1. Main-reasons for rejections: Poor-quality of manuscripts.
67
2.4.2. Rejection experiences and how to-deal with them.
69
General-structure of a-scientific-paper.
72
2.5.1. The-Title-section.
73
2.5.2. The-List of Authors section.
75
2.5.3. The-Abstract-section.
77
2.5.4. The-Keywords-section.
80
2.5.5. Body of a-paper.
80
2.5.5.1. The-Introduction section.
81
2.5.5.2. The-Materials and Methods-section.
83
2.5.5.3. The-Results-section.
84
2.5.6. The-Discussion-section.
85
2.5.7. The-Conclusions and Recommendations-section.
87
2.5.8. The-Acknowledgments-section.
87
2.5.9. The-References-section.
88
2.6.
English, as ‘de facto’ language, of scientific-communication.
92
2.7.
Micro-issues of writing.
94
2.7.1. Grammar and spelling.
94
2.7. 2. Punctuations.
96
2.8.
Good research-paper and competent-scientific-writing.
2.9.
Chapter-T wo Synopsis.
98 104
CHAPTER THREE: DISSEMINATIO N O F RESEARCH-FINDINGS.
109
3.0.
Introduction.
110
3.1.
Scholarly-publishing.
111
3.2.
Process of publication and dissemination, and its-players.
112
3.3.
Peer-review and its-outcomes.
113
3.5.
Major-dissemination-channels.
116
3.5.1. Journals, including African-journals.
119
3.5. 2.Traditional-print-journals and ‘The Cost of Knowledge’ campaign.
121
3.5.3. Open-access Journals (OAJs).
125
3.5.4. Predatory-journals.
131
3.5. 5. Institutional-Repository (IR).
133
3.5.6. Social-networks.
135
3.5.7. Conference-presentations.
138
3.6.
Publication-Ethics, in-scientific-publishing.
140
3.7.
Credibility and ranking of scientific-journals.
142
3.8.
Choosing an-appropriate-journal.
144
3.9.
Submission of a-manuscript, for-review.
152
3.10.
Increasing citation-rates of a-publication.
153
3.11.
Future-prospects of the-dissemination of research-findings.
155
3.12.
Chapter-Three Synopsis.
156
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
161
REFERENCES AND FURTHER-READING.
162
LIST O F FIGURES
Figure 1: Focus of the-Chapter One.
3
Figure 2(a): Deductive-approach.
9
Figure 2(b): Inductive-approach.
9
Figure 3: Conventional research-process.
11
Figure 4: Engineering design-research-process.
16
Figure 5: Engineering-Research-Methods.
18
Figure 6: Difference between multi- and interdisciplinary-research-approach.
21
Figure 7: Reliability and newness, of selected-documents, for literature-review.
31
Figure 8: Calculation of sample-size.
38
Figure 9: Focus of the-Chapter T wo.
58
Figure 10: Issues in academic-writing.
67
Figure 11(a): Structure of a-scholarly-paper: (a) Original ‘Hourglass-Model’
73
Figure 11(b): Structure of a-scholarly-paper: Expanded ‘Hourglass-Model’
73
Figure 12: Focus of the-Chapter Three.
111
Figure 13: Publication and dissemination.
112
Figure 14: T wo-stage-publication with interactive-peer-review.
115
Figure 15: Major-dissemination-channels.
119
