KBC North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon.

Pre-Phd Course Work

Research Proposal, Research Design

and Referencing in Social Sciences

Dr.Viqar R. Shaikh (Vice Principal)

Head Department of Political Science
Iqra H.J.Thim College of Arts and Science
Jalgaon
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 Point to Discuss
1. What is Research ?
2. PhD Outline/ Proposal/Plan
3. Research Design
4. Report Writing/Thesis Writing
5. Reference
6.Bibliography
7. End Note & Foot Note
8. Difference Between Dissertation and Thesis
9.Guideline for Synopsis Preparation

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 Why to Start Research

• Social Status
• Service Promotion
• Curiosity to Create New Knowledge
• Excitement and Creativity
• Innovation/Patent
• Facing the challenges

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 What is Research ?
• R-Radical-New
• E-Examination of facts from myths/notions
• S-Systematic investigation
• E-Energetic, Passionate, exhaustive
• A-Argumentative, questioning
• R-Result
• C-Characteristics
• H-Holistic
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 PhD Outline/ Proposal/Plan
Following Contain Cover the Basics of Out Line/Research Proposal.
•Title of PhD
•Introduction
•Introduction of research
•Aims and objectives of research
•Scope and period research
•Literature review
•Importance of research
•Hypothesis
•Research methodology
• Primary data-Questionnaire, Interview etc.
• Secondary data- Book, Gazette, report etc.
• Observation technique
• Library method, Historical method, Comparative and analysis method
•Limitation of research 5
 Chapter Scheme- (05 or 07)

•Chapter 1. Research methodology

•Chapter 2. Introduction of research area
•Chapter 3. Theory of research topic
•Chapter 4. Interpretation of data
•Chapter 5. Analysis of data
•Chapter 6. Testing hypothesis
•Chapter 7. Conclusions and suggestions
•List of Reference book
•Bibliography
•Appendix

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 Research Design
1. Selection of Research Problem
2. Review of Related Literature
3. Formulation of Research Objectives
4. Devising Hypotheses
5. Making the Research Design - Methodology
6. Sampling Procedure
7. Data Collection
8. Data Analysis and Interpretation
9. Hypotheses Testing
10. Deriving findings, Conclusion and Suggestions
11. Report Writing 7
The Research Process

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 Selection of Research Problem

Research problem is simply the topic of the research.

Selection of research problem involves selecting a broad
area and then narrowing it down to a specific topic.
Tested by RRC

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 Review of Related Literature
The next step is to study available literature on the topic – all the
previously done work on the topic including research thesis,
research papers, books, reports and publications. The purpose of
reviewing the related literature is:
• To understand various aspect of the topic – required for
conducting the research.
• To understand the nature of work done on the topic
• To identify research gaps – those areas which have not been
explored by others
• To make a theoretical background for the study – as it is added
as a chapter to your final report.

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Formulation of Research Objectives

• Objectives are aims that you want to explore in the

research. The simple way to make objectives is to
first make questions that what do you want to explore
about the topic and then convert these questions into
objectives.

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 Devising Hypotheses
• A hypothesis is a testable assumption showing a
relationship among certain variables. It can be a false
or true statement. It is put to test in the research to
check its authenticity.
• Hypothesis is a logical relationship and is relevant to
the theme of the research.
• It becomes a base for the research. It specifies the
focus of the research.
• It makes it easier for the researcher to carry on the
research to generate productive findings.
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 Making Research Design
The research design is a plan for a research. It outlines the
methods and procedures used in the research. It tells how the
researcher wants to conduct the research. It includes the following:
• Which methodology will be used? - e.g. quantitative or
qualitative method
• Which tool of data collection will be used? - e.g.
questionnaire, interview, or observation
• Who will be the respondents and how many respondents?
• How will be the collected data analyzed? - e.g. software,
manual, graphs, tables etc.
• Which test will be used to verify hypothesis or other facts? –
e.g. chi-square test etc

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 Sampling Procedure
• Sampling means to select a part of population for study. It is
difficult for a researcher to study all the population of an area
due to limited resources – time, money and energy. Hence, a
part of the population is selected for research study. The
number of total respondents for a sample is known as sample-
size. The sample size can vary depending upon your study.
• Sampling procedure means how to select respondents from
population to make a sample which is true representative of
the entire population. There are various sample procedures
such as random sampling, stratified sampling, purposive
sampling, probability sampling, nonprobability sampling and
so on. The sampling procedure and sample sized is always
mentioned in the research design.
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 Data Collection
• Data collection is an important phase of the research. The data
is collected for deriving findings, results and theories. There
are two types of data: primary data and secondary data.
• Primary data: It is the data which is collected for the first
time by the researcher from respondents. The research has to
visit the respondents and collect data from them using his
selected tool of data collection, e.g. a questionnaire, interview
or observation etc. It requires a lot of fieldwork activity.
• Secondary data: It is the data which has already been
collected by others and is available in the form of books,
reports, papers, websites, magazine, encyclopedias and so on.
Such a data is called secondary data.
 Data Analysis and Interpretation
• The collected data is properly analyzed to generate findings. Data
analysis involves data editing, data coding, data classification,
measurement and interpretation.
• Data editing means to check the collected data for errors or
missing information and correct it accordingly.
• Data coding means to scale the variables in the data so that they
can be measured. Various scaling methods may be used, such as
nominal scale, ordinal scale.
• The data is classified on the basis of relevancy and is presented in
the forms of tables, graphs, charts, diagram or texts so that it
can be easily analyzed by the researcher. The data may also be
statistically measured with the help assigned scales. The researcher
analyze the data to extract the important findings from the data.
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 Hypothesis Testing

• The hypothesis of the research is tested in the light of

analyzed data. For example, the hypothesis ‘Higher
the poverty in a society, higher will be the crime rate’.
The relationship of poverty and crime rate in the
analyzed data will either verify or reject this
hypothesis.
• Similarly, the researcher may use some test to test the
hypothesis such as chi-square test.

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 Deriving Findings Conclusion & Suggestions

• Data analysis generates findings of the study. The

research has to derive conclusion and suggestions on
the basis of the finding the study. The conclusion is
usually a summary of the findings which include only
the most significant findings. The research has to
devise some suggestions or recommendations, in the
light of findings, to the audience of the research
report – e.g. to government, to the community, to a
specific section of society.

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 Report Writing
• After conducting a research, all the details of the
research (e.g. basic concepts, literature studied,
methodology, findings, suggestions etc) are compiled
into a research report. The purpose of writing the
research report is to record your work as well as to
present your work in written form to the audience.
The widely accepted format for writing a research
report is as follows:

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 Thesis
What is a Thesis?
• Your thesis is a research report. The report concerns
a problem or series of problems in an area of your
subject and it should describe what was known about
it previously, what you did towards solving it, what
you think your result mean, and where or how
further progress in the field can be made.

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 Thesis
What do Examiners look for?
 “ Adequate” knowledge of the field and relevant
literature
 Well reasoned and well designed studies
 Logical presentation of results
 Effective arguments and conclusions
 In short – a coherent, readable story

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 Thesis
Examiners don’t like
 Poor use of Language English/Marathi
 Poor reasoning
 Poor experimental design
 Repeating or confirming established work
 Insufficient analysis
 Sloppy presentation
 Errors or omissions in references

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 Thesis
Checklist for Revising a Draft
 Does the content match the title?
 Are important point emphasized enough?
 Is the content within each section appropriate?
 Is there a logical sequence?
 Are information sources acknowledged?
 o the conclusions relate to the objectives?
 Have you followed the conventions and regulations?
 Is the meaning of each sentence clear – or open to
interpretation?
 Can long sentences be broken down?
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 Thesis
A Good Ph.d Thesis
 Has an appreciation of what came before
 Is well-reasoned
 Has well-designed experiments (hypothesis-driven)
 Will change the way people think
 Has publishable results
 Is logical in presentation, analysis and argumentation
 Is well-illustrated with figures and graphs
 Is written without grammatical and spelling errors
 Has an appreciation of what comes next
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 Thesis
A Bad Ph.d Thesis
 Is not interesting
 Deals with small or badly described problems
 Reasons / Arguments poorly
 Has badly-designed experiments
 Repeats or confirms well-established things
 Is inadequate in quantitative analysis
 Has poor presentation of graphs and illustrations
 Contains grammatical and typing errors

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 Thesis
External Examiner’s checklist
 Research aims clear?
 Literature reviewed / critiqued?
 Key papers included?
 Theoretical basis sound?
 Conjectures consistent with theory?
 Appropriate methodology?
 Evidence collected ethically?
 Sufficient evidence?
 Convinced of reliability and validity?
 Findings assessed against literature?
 Findings make significant contribution to the field?
 Any inconsistencies?
 Conclusions? 26
 Reference

•What is Reference:
The detailed description of the document from which you have
obtained your information referencing is way of demonstrating
that you have done that reading.
• Why we need reference?
•To acknowledge others works
•To allow readers to find original sources easily
•To get recognition & authentication of the work.
•To make the work informative and quality
•To trace the intellectual development of the ideas you present

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 Bibliography
What is Bibliography?
•Etymology: From the Greek, "writing about books"
(biblio, "book", graph, "to write")
•Bibliography is science of transmission of literary documents.
•A bibliography is an orderly list of resources on a particular
subject.

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 Types of Bibliography
1. Analytical Bibliography
A analytical bibliography is the study of books as physical
objects like list of citations to books articles and documents.
2. Enumerative Bibliography
Systematic or enumerative bibliography may be defined as the
preparation of lists of books in short, the compilation of
bibliographies which list describes and arrange all graphics
materials according to their affinity with each other for reference
or study.
3. Bibliography for non-book sources
• Discography
• Webography/Internet Bibliography
• Filmography
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 Elements in Bibliography

•Author
•Title of document
•Date (Year of Publication)
•Place of Publication
•Edition
•Periodicity (volume/issue/part number)

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 Sources of Bibliography

•Book
•Journal
•Newspaper/magazine
•Conference paper/proceedings
•Institutional/ government publications
• Electronic sources-website, database etc.

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 Referencing or Citation in PhD
Types of Reference/Citation: Each external source is cited at
two places within an academic work as follows:
• In-text citation (within the text)
• Reference List / Bibliography (at the end of report or publication)
Referencing styles:
APA Style (American Psychological Association)
MLA Style (Modern Language Association)
Name of Author: Last name, Initial of
Name of Author: Last name, Initial of first name
Title of book/report/article/publication
Year of Publication
Place of Publication (city)
Name of Publisher
Page Number
Edition Numb
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•End Note & Foot Note
 Styles of Referencing
style APA Style MLA Style
Format: Last name of author, Initial of first Format: Last name of author, First
name. (Year in parenthesis). Title of book name. Title of book in italics. Place of
in italics. Place of Publication: Publisher Publication:
In-text citation: (Last name of author, Publisher, Year of Publication In-text
Year) citation: (Last name of author Year)

Referencing Book with one author Book with one author

Style Burton, J. (1990). Conflict - Human Needs Burton, John. Conflict - Human Needs
Theory. London: Macmillan Theory. London: Macmillan, 1990

In-text (Burton, 1990) (Burton 1990)

citation
Referencing Book with two authors Book with two authors
Style Hobson, A., & Clarke, J. (1997). The Hobson, Allan., and Clarke, Jammie.
Power of Passion. Alberta: Everests Inc The Power of Passion. Alberta:
Everests Inc, 1997
In-text (Hobson & Clarke, 1997) (Hobson & Clarke, 1997)
citation
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 Difference Between Bibliography & References

•Bibliography: The term ‘bibliography’ is used to refer to only those

external sources which are used only for help to prepare a document
but are not actually present in the document.
•References : The term ‘references’ is used to refer to those external
sources which are used for help and are also actually present in the
document.
• Bibliography:
•1. Almond. G, Verba. S,- The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in
Five Nations, Princeton University Press 1963.
•2.Basu Durga Das- Introduction of Indian Constitution, Wadhwa & Company
Publisher, New Delhi, 1999.
•References:
•1. Almond. G, Verba. S,- The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in
Five Nations, Princeton University Press 1963.
•2.Basu Durga Das- Introduction of Indian Constitution, Wadhwa & Company
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Publisher, New Delhi, 1999.
 End Note & Foot Note

Footnote Endnote
Footnotes are located at the Endnotes are at the end of
bottom of the page chapter or entire work
It is easy to gain information The readers have to move
from the footnotes since back and forth between the
they are easy to find main text and the endnotes
Affect the layout of the Do not affect the layout of
page the page

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 Footnote & Endnote

Example-Footnote Example-Endnote

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Footnote & Endnote

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Footnote & Endnote in MS word

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Difference Between Dissertation and Thesis

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Guideline for Synopsis preparation

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 Mail id
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