Mastering Scientific Research, Writing and

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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