Reference no: EM132862908 , Length: word count:3000
CIS 4011-N Research Methods - Teesside University
Learning Outcome 1: Communicate complex academic issues effectively to specialist and non- specialist audiences.
Learning Outcome 2: Defend the rationale and decisions made for the research proposal.
Learning Outcome 3: Select appropriate research strategies and data generation methods for a computing context, and critically evaluate their effectiveness within the development and evaluation of computing-related artefacts.
Learning Outcome 4: Use a systematic search, analysis, synthesis and critique of the literature within computing to articulate how their work, or planned work, contributes to knowledge within the computing field.
Learning Outcome 5: Design a research proposal to address significant areas of computing-related theory and/or practice
Learning Outcome 6: Critique the professional, legal and ethical implications of their work within a computing context.
Element 1: Systematic Literature Review and Report (2500 words)
Identify a computing related research topic or area and carry out a systematic search of Teesside University library's online databases to identify relevant peer-reviewed academic journal or conference papers (not books).
The topic you select for this element will be used for your project proposal (Element 2 of this ICA). Your list of papers should include some primary research, not just articles that summarise the literature or give a personal opinion.
Prepare a report to describe your full literature search and review process, including the following:
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Report Heading
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Description
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Introduction
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Short introduction to your topic (a couple of paragraphs). What area are you interested in?
Why do you think it will make a good research topic?
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Search Results
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Ideally in table format with columns for keywords, filters, number of results and notes. Here you should show your skill in using the databases.
- Specify the database that you use for each search.
- Say why you have chosen each database.
- Aim to search at least 3 databases.
- For each database, continue to refine your results until you have 30 or less.
- Notes should contain your thoughts on the number of returned results and your reasoning behind your next search terms to expand/reduce the number of matches.
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Criteria
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Define criteria for determining which papers will be included or excluded from the final list. Consider the relevance of each paper identified in the short list (from the searches) and state the reasons (based on the criteria) for including or excluding from the final list.
At the end of your literature search you will have a number of papers e.g. 30 or less from each database you searched. This is your short list.
You must now decide which papers to include in your final list, and which to exclude.
Your final list should contain the 10-30 papers that are most relevant to your chosen research topic.
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Conclusions
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What did you learn about doing a systematic literature search?
How well do you feel the literature search went? Did it go as you expected? What difficulties did you have? How easy did you find the different databases to use? What limitations did you encounter?
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Element 2: Research Proposal Poster
Create a research proposal poster, which could form the basis of your master's project.
Your poster should be A3 size. You may use any software to create the poster but the final version must be in pdf format.
Your poster will contain a research proposal, a plan for a masters project. It can form the basis of your masters project but does not have to.
There is no word count for the poster but note that you should aim to minimise the word count. This is not a report.
Your proposal should mostly draw upon the papers that you found in Element 1 (but you can include additional references). It should contain the following:
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Poster Heading
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Description
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Research Purpose
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Introduce and explain the research's purpose:
- Short introduction to your topic
- Your overall research question that will be addressed by the research
- You must also define the anticipated product(s) i.e. the anticipated contribution to knowledge
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Background Context
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Justify the need for your research question.
- Why is your research important?
- What were your main findings from your final list of papers from element 1. Summarise them for the poster.
- Cite the papers that you discuss.
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Research Methodology
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Identify and justify:
- One or more research strategies that you will use
- The data generation methods that you will use
- If appropriate, your data analysis techniques
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Evaluation Methodology
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Justify how you plan to evaluate your end product(s)/contribution to knowledge. How will you check the usefulness of your findings/artefact/product to your
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target audience? Note that masters projects are expected to include third party evaluation of the end product if at all possible.
Identify and justify:
- One or more research strategies that you will use
- The data generation methods that you will use
- If appropriate, your data analysis techniques
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Schedule and Publishing
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- Identify the set of tasks, the timescale for each task and hence the timescale for the overall research which captures your schedule visually.
- Allow 13 weeks (or 26 weeks if your studying part- time) from 'project start' to 'hand-in of all project work'. Projects normally include a viva that should not be included in the schedule as it is normally after the hand-in.
- Identify the academic journal or conference for which you will prepare your project's final research paper.
- You can use a project planning tool e.g. produce a GANTT chart to show your tasks.
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Professional, legal and ethical issues
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- Professional, legal and ethical issues that your proposal raises, and how they will be addressed.
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Attachment:- Research Methods.rar