Research and development

By
Abdulbasit H. Mhdi
Department of Chemical Engineering

Research is a process that acquires
new knowledge.

The purpose of research is to discover the answers to the
questions through the application of scientific procedures.
The purpose of scientific writing is to communicate new
scientific findings.
The main aim of research is to find out the truth which is
hidden and which has not been discovered yet.
Each research has its own specific purpose.

Knowledge could not be widely circulated
with no effective duplication
In 1665, the first scientific journals were
published.

 Should have a clear statement of the problem Requires a proper
plan
 Need existing data, using both positive and negative findings
 New data should be collected as required
 Concrete findings to answer the research question
 Thus it has to be clear, simple to transmit new scientific findings
 Scientific writing must use proper English which gives the sense in
the fewest short words

What thing makes people to undertake research?
Or
Why people will do research?

Desire to get a research degree
Desire to face the challenge in solving the unsolved problems
Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some creative work
Desire to be of service to society
Desire to get respectability

Research Laboratories
Power Electronics Research Lab.
Automation/Learning Research Lab.
Elevator Research Lab.
Power Protection &
Power Quality Research Lab.
Air-Conditioner Research Lab.
Permanent Magnet Synchronous
Motor Research Lab.

A text that has not yet been published.
• A scientific experiment is not complete until the
results have been published and understood.
•A scientific paper is a written and published report
describing original research results.
•Your very best effort
Manuscripts are defined as any written texts that have not yet been published. The general structure of
manuscripts intended for publication is not much different from submission . It should be an authorʼs
absolute best effort, as it is being published as the final word on its particular subject.

Outline
•Anatomy of a Manuscript
•The Academic Publishing Process

The typical research manuscript has four distinct sections. There may be some slight differences in your
discipline, but the general structure is usually quite similar.

Title, Keywords ,
Abstract
Introduction
Materials & Methods
Results
and
Discussion & Conclusion
Acknowledgment
References
Appendix
What is IMRaD ?

 organization of a scientific paper started to develop .
 format slowly progressed in the latter half of
the 19th century.

The introduction is the place where
readers settle into the story of your
research

Background
Unknown info.
objective
The
introduction :
funnel
technique

 Nature & scope of the problem
 (literature review)
 Rationale (reasons the study was
carried out)
 Statement of purpose
(hypothesis, predictions,
purpose, objectives etc.)

 Include only important references.
 Define specialized terms on the first term.
 Clearly state the study objective in the last paragraph.
 Introduction: 4-6 paragraphs

 ( lengthy introduction)
 Details of your study
 Expression such as “novel” ,”first time”,” never reported”
 Citing outdated references
 Citing many references for one author
 Do not cite over-referenced; it should give only
strictly pertinent references
 Do not include data or conclusions from the work
being reported.
 Do not use expressions like "This study will examine.

•You want to make sure that you include basic terminology common in your field.
This helps orient the reader, and introduces him or her to the vocabulary you will
be using throughout the document.
•It is essential to reference the key papers that led to your study. Finally, some
people feel that you should not mention specifically what you’ll be doing until
your methods section, but a short mention of how you will be answering your
questions can be a nice way to transition into the next section.
•You want to avoid giving an exhaustive literature search in your introduction.
Leave that to a review paper. You just want to give enough background to setup the
context for your study. And while a brief mention of your research design can be
helpful, you don’t want to include too many details of your study.

Experimental Work
How was the problem studied?
The answer is in the methods.

 The experimental section has two purposes:
1- To allow the readers to repeat the experiments
if they wish.
2- To convince readers that the work has been
done systematically & thoroughly using
appropriate equipment.

 The methods section is a complete account of
all the steps in your study.
 You should present the information in logical
order .
 You need to include anything you did that was
involved in collecting and analyzing data.

1- This section should be easiest to
write
2- You should start this section
during conducting your research
3- Most of this section should be
written in the past tense

 The selection & description of study component
 Data collection process & Method used for analysis
 Includes the exact technical specification &
quantities & source or method of preparation
 Possible to list the physical properties of the reagent
used .

•All materials, quantities, brands of
major equipment and study locations
•Citations of novel techniques
•Figures of complicated setups
•Equations and statistics
•Tables
 All materials, quantities, brands of
major equipment and study locations
 Citations of novel techniques
 Figures of complicated setups
 Equations and statistics
 Tables

 Don’t Include Finicky details.
 Don’t Include Results.
 This section is the most thoroughly
inspected part by reviewers.

 The results are the meat of the paper and the most important
part of a study.
 All other sections serve subordinate roles , either preparing
the readers for the results , or providing supplement
information to augment the finding.
 The results are presented as text, illustration, & tables .
 All three forms many be used , but the same data should
NOT be repeated in more than one form.
 Don’t include information that properly belongs in other
sections of the paper such as materials & methods.

1- Be sure that the text , illustration, and tables are
consistent with one other.
2- Analyze your data by statistical methods , if
appropriate .
3- Be honest . Don’t omit data do not support your
hypothesis & conclusion or do not answer the
research question.
4- Use figures & tables to reveal trends and to make
the most important points stand out.

Include
•Summary of your
findings (i.e. averages,
trends)
•Tables and Figures
•References to tables and
Figures
Don’t Include
•Raw data
•The same information
twice
•Too many figures
•Interpretation of your
results

 The discussion complements the introduction.
 Instead of starting out general, it begins by
examining the specifics of your study.
 Knowing what you know now (from the results)
what can you say about your hypothesis, objectives etc.

1- This very important section tells your readers why your
work is valuable.
2- You must clearly & logically convince your audience.
3- The discussion takes the data reported in the results
section and interprets the finding, evaluate their
significances & examining the implication.

Guideline for developing the discussion:
1- Begin the discussion with a topic sentence that return to
the question raised in the introduction.
2- Mention new finding , knowledge & concepts that
resulted from your study.
3- State whether you have achieved your goal of answering
the research question or have found exception &
unexplained results.

4- Discuss any possible application of your finding
5- Don’t repeat materials that was presented in other section of
the paper
6- Compare your results & interpretation with related
published work , even though it may be disagree with yours.
7- End the discussion with a short summary or conclusion
regarding the significance of the work.

Include
Most papers from the
introduction
References to tables and
figures
Summary / Conclusion
Don’t Include
Detailed account of
your results
Any new ideas not set
up in the introduction
In your discussion, you should refer to many of the papers that you cited in your
introduction. Knowing what you know now, what can you say about your research’s place.
Some people feel that refer to tables and figures in the discussion constitutes repetition of
the results, but it can be a good way to refresh the reader’s memory. Finally, you should end
off with some sort of summary or conclusion. Even if you feel you’ve accomplished
everything you setout to do, your reader will benefit of some final comments.
Your discussion section should not surprise the reader in any way. You should not discuss
any ideas that have not been setup in the introduction.

Figure 4. Isotherms of pure nitrogen on zeolite 5A.
Y-axis
Axis
label
Captio
n
X-axis
Symbols
Major tick
Legend

The figure caption consists of:
 The title of the figure
The experimental conditions to the
data presented in figure

1- All figures and Tables must be
referenced to in the text
2- Figures and Tables should be
numbered in the order they
are cited in the text.
3- Refer to the figures sequentially :
Figure 1 must be refereed before
Figure 2

Table
number
Title
Column
Headings
Horizontal
rule

1- Summarize the results first.
2- Summarize the main discussion point.
3- Give major finding
4- You should provide a clear scientific justification for your work in
this section.
5- Should not be another abstract.
6- Can suggest further experiments & point out those that are
underway

1- To credit those who have made a significant research
contribution to your work
2- To mention individual & entities that have provided essential
support such as research grant & fellowships other source of
funding
3- Encouragement from friends should not appear in
acknowledgments .

Example:
We thank Dr. A.C. Abdullah for his comments on the
manuscript and Mr. A. Zakerea for his technical
assistance . This work was supported by Ministry of
Science , Technology and Innovation grant D-13453-44.

1- References section is a list of all citations appeared
in the Mn.
2- Formatting of the references is different from
one journal to another.
3- references can be listed alphabetically or by the
order of appearance in the text .

Journal reference has two components:
 Bibliography elements
 Punctuations marks

Example:
U.G. Akpan, B.H. Hameed, The advancements
in sol-gel method of doped-TIO2 photocatalysts,
Applied Catalysis A, 375 (2010) 1-11.
Author
Names
Article
title
Publication
Years
Volume
number
Journal
name
Page
number

•The two basic components of documentation system are:
 The text citation
 The reference list
•Follow the journal’s instructions for documentation.

(1) Number System
The reference list is arranged in order of the first
citation of each source in the text
The source are numbered sequentially , starting
from 1, and cited in the text by number.
The citation appears in parentheses, brackets,
or superscript; for example, (1), [3-6], or .3

In 1964, PSA process was used to separate oxygen from air[1].
Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) processes , has become a subject
of interest in gas separations and widely used in industries for air
and other gas separations. Oxygen and nitrogen are produced
from atmospheric air by either of two methods depending upon
the volume of production. For high volume production, cryogenic
distillation of liquefied air is employed, whereas, for low to
medium volume production, air separations by methods such as
pressure swing adsorption are found to be more economical,
because of its low energy and cost requirement [2, 3, 4].
In text
In references
section
-Mendes A. M. M., Costa C. A.V., Rodrigues A. E., Oxygen
Separation from Air by PSA: Modeling and Experimental
Results , separation and purification technology, 24, pp173-
188, 2001.
- Rege S.U. and Yang R. T. , Kinetic Separation of Oxygen and
Argon Using Molecular Sieve Carbon, Adsorption 6, 15–22
(2000)
- Lemcoff N.O. and LaCava A.I , Effect of regeneration pressure
level in kinetically controlled pressure swingadsorption , Gas
Separation & Purification 1992 Vol 6 No 1.
- Mostamand A., . Mofarahi, M., Simulation of a Single Bed
Pressure Swing Adsorption for Producing Nitrogen,
International Conference on Chemical, Biological and
Environment Sciences (ICCEBS'2011) Bangkok Dec., 2011.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
References
_____________________________________________

2- Author date ( Harvard system)
 Hameed (2007)
 Hameed and El-Khaiary (2008)
 Hameed et al., (2008)

Example:
References
______________________________________
Citation
Hameed (2007)B.H. Hameed (2007) Equilibrium and kinetics
studies of ………….., Colloids and Surface A:
Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 307,
45-52
Hameed and El-Khaiary
(2008)
B.H. Hameed, M.I. El-Khaiary (2008) Removal
of basic………………: pumkin seed hull, journal of
Hazardous Materials , 155,601-609.
Hameed et al., (2008)B.H. Hameed, I.A.w. Tan , A.L. Ahmad (2008)
Adsorption…………………………, Chemical
Engineering Journal , 144, 235-244
Formats differ from journal to journal. When preparing a paper for publication,
follow the format used by the journal to which you are submitting your paper.

Oxygen and nitrogen are produced from atmospheric air
by either cryogenic distillation of liquated air, or
adsorptive methods such as pressure swing adsorption
depending upon the volume of production (Yang, 1997).
Air drying using activated alumina was also modeled by
Farooq et al. (1988), Further details of the numerical
scheme used are discussed elsewhere (Sun et al., 1996).
Farooq, S., Hassan, M. M., Ruthven, D. M. (1988). Heat
e!ects in pressure swing adsorption systems. Chemical
Engineering Science, 43, 1017}1031.
Sun, L. M., Le Quere, P., LeVan, M. D. (1996). Numerical
simulation of difusion-limited PSA process models by “ finite
difference methods. Chemical Engineering Science, 51(24),
5341}5352.
Yang, R. T. (1997). Gas separation by adsorption processes.
London: Imperial College Press.
In Text
In references
section
References
_______________________________________________

References
Use EndNote ( or similar ) to output the
references in the correct format
BUT, which references do you cite:
•High impact factor journals
•Void citing reviewer
•Void over citation of yourself

1- The title is the most important phrase of a paper
2- Tittles are first thing readers see
3- The final of writing manuscript
4- Avoid “question” ? titles.
5- Brief not more than 13 words.
6- Be specific

1- Describes the subject of
the articles and does not reveal the
outcome or conclusion
2- : Include what article say,
not just what they cover.

Key words and terms in a title are very important because
they are the same terms that indexing search engines
( e.g. , Google ) key on.
Search engines like BioMedLib, Scopus, Scrius,
Thomas Scientific or Google Sort the results
by their relevance to the submitted query.

1- Include key word in the title
2- Capture the topic of the paper and possibly its
finding
3- Void the term “novel”
4- Avoid abbreviations
5- Avoid “ Exp. Study, Studies on , Investigation
on , study of , and full stop at the end of the title.

1- Development and evaluation of a new zeolite
based heterogeneous catalysts for the production
of biodiesel from palm oil and non- edible jatropha
oil
2- Production of biodiesel from palm oil and
jatropha oil using Zeolite –based catalysts
Production of biodiesel from
palm oil and jatropha oil using

1- Development and evaluation of a new zeolite based
heterogeneous catalysts for the production of
biodiesel from palm oil and non- edible jatropha oil
2- Zeolite-based catalyts for Production of biodiesel from
palm oil and jatropha oil
Zeolite-based catalyts

1- Stands on its own without to read the MS.
2- Follow the order of the main text (IMRAD).
 The question(s) you investigated# (from Introduction).
 Setup used, independent and dependent variables*(from Methods).
 The major findings including key results, or trends* (from Results).
 Interpretations and conclusions#. (from Discussion).

3- Contains the same key words and terms as the
title and the introduction.
4- Stays within the allowed word count (150 w).
5- Dose not contain information absent in the MS.

6- Limits the use of abbreviation.
7- Dose not include references .
8- Dose not cite Tables & Figures.
9- Should be a single paragraph.
10- Write it after completing the main text.

 Mainly used for indexing.
 Enable your Manuscript to be more easily Identified
and Cited.
 Avoid words with a broad meaning .
 Consider the number of keywords allowed.
 Some journals give a list to chose from.

The list of keywords is especially
important for one reason: so that search
engine & readers can easily find
article if it is related to what they are
looking for.

Writing the first draft & how to
select the right journal for
your manuscript

Getting in the
Mood to write
Gather all the
information
Determine the basic format
•Full- length research article
•Short communication
Requirement a journal
•Language , English
•Journal impact factor
•Indexing
•Reputation
•Time to print
•charge
Start writing
Write with out editing
Keep to the plan of your outline
Write the paper in the parts
Put the first draft side
IMRaD
Revise R.
Be consistent (often a
Manuscript has more then one
author and therefore the
writing may be shared)
Revise
again &
again
Get feedback on your
manuscript and then
revise your
manuscript again
Read guide
for author
Format the
manuscript
Ready to
submit to
Editor

Revise
Revise
Revise
First
draft
Final
draft

What is the right journal ?
Increase the chance of getting accepted
Popular and respected in the field
High impact factor
Fast(Publication time.)
No publication fee
My work is read and CITED
Publication time.

What does is matter?
Community of readers & reviewers.

Submission & publication
process

Manuscript life cycle
Author
Journal
Editor
Editorial &
Production
Electroni
c journal
printed
journal
Citation
Reviewer
Author Reviewing Production
publication
Post
publication

Download and read the
journal’s
“guide for Author”

Format the manuscript
according to the journal’s
guide

Format the manuscript
Ensure your manuscript is properly formatted
 Check the journal’s guide for author to
check the style of the individual journal.
 You may use bold face , italic, subscripts,
superscript, etc., as appropriate .

Format the manuscript in the following order.
•Title
•Authors
•Affiliation
•Abstract
•Keywords
•Main text
•Acknowledgment
•Appendix
•References
•Figures
•Legends
•Tables

Prepare graphs , photos, tables
All according to journal standard

Draft the cover letter
All submission must be accompanied
by a cover letter

Edit your manuscript
Make sure it is thoroughly checked error.
Re-check your journal ‘s ‘ Guide for Authors’ to
ensure proper preparation

E-mail address
Full postal address
Telephone and fax numbers
Keyword
All figure captions
All tables ( including title, description, footnotes)

Manuscript has been “ spellchecked” and “grammar-checked”
All references mentioned in the References list are
cited in the text, and vice versa .

Dealing with reviewers
comments

Peer Review
 Evaluation by experts in the field .
 Purposes of peer review:
To help the editor decide whether to publish the manuscript
To help the author(s) improve the manuscript, whether or not
the journal accept it.
Review process may take from 1 to 9 months or more.

Editor’s Decision
Author
submit article
Editor Reviewer # 1
Reviewer # n
Decision
Re- reviewer if
Major revision
Revised
Minor
revision
Major
revision Accept Reject
Notification to author’s
Accept Paper sent to publisherRevised
Revise & submit
Detailed list of
changes

The editors decision
Based on the peer reviewers evaluation report, the editors
own evaluation, the availability of space in the journal &
other factors:
 Accept as is (Rare).
 Accept after minor revisions.
 Reconsider if revised.
Reject

Editor’s decision
Reviewer # 1 Reviewer # 2 Editor’s
decision
Minor revision Minor revision Minor revision
Major revision Major revision Major revision
Major revision Major revision Reject
Major revision Minor revision Major revision
Major revision Minor revision Minor revision
Reject Minor revision Reject
Reject Major revision Reject

Top reasons why the MSs are rejected
Submitting to the wrong journal.
No originality .
Poor English grammar.
Not clear methodology.
Conclusion not supported by data.
Failing to address reviewers & Editors
comments & suggestions.

Revision, response
to reviewers & resubmit

Response to reviewers comments
 Don’t get angry
 Don't take it personally
 Be calm and objective
 Don’t ignore any comment
 Try to make the majority of the changes requested.
 Negotiate the more radical suggestions as needed
 Respond to every comment, positive & negative

Response to reviewers comments
 Make changes if you agree with them
 Remember that the reviewer is not always
right!!!!
 Respond in an appropriate time – don’t
miss deadline.
Try to win the editor!

Citation count as indicator for
evaluation of research
Research Research
citation
publication
publication
Existed
results
problem
New
results
problem
manuscript
New
results
manuscript

ISI Web of Knowledge is an online academic
database provided by Thomson Scientifics Institute
for scientific Information (ISI).
It provides access to many databases and
other resources: Web of science ( including
Science Citation Index(SCI), Social Sciences
Citation Index (SSCI), Arts & Humanities
Citation Index (A & HCI), etc.

How to calculate impact factors (IF)?
2010 journal impact factor =
Number of citations in 2010 to articles published in 2009 & 2008
Number of articles published in 2009 & 2008

How to Thomson Reuters calculate Impact Factors
Citations in 2010 to
articles published in
2009 2008 Total
187 310 497
Number of articles
published in
54 46 100
Impact Factor= 497/54=
4.97
Example:

The h-index rates a scientist's performance
based on his career publications, as measured by
the lifetime number of citations each article
receives.
The measurement is dependent on both
quantity ( number of publication) and
quality ( number of citation) of an academic’s
publication.

It was proposed
as a single
number that measures impact of research
output by combining quality with quantity.
 The h-index is a feature available on web of science.

To calculate the h-index, only two pieces
of information are required :
 The total number of papers published
(Np)
 The number of citations (Nc) for each
paper.

An h-index of 5 means the author has
published 5 articles that have at least 5 citations.
Papers Number of
citations
1 15
2 11
3 9
4 7
5 5
6 2
7 1
Ex. What is the h-index of the researcher according to the following table:
Papers Number of
citations
1 2
2 11
3 9
4 15
5 7
6 1
7 5
Sort the articles
from high citation
to low citation
5 5

Papers Number of
citations
1 30
2 35
3 250
4 19
5 25
6 30
7 20
8 148
9 15
10 20
11 12
12 3
13 26
14 19
15 30
Ex. What is the h-index of the researcher according to the following table:
Papers Number of
citations
1 250
2 148
3 35
4 30
5 30
6 30
7 26
8 25
9 20
10 29
11 19
12 19
13 15
14 12
15 3
Sort the articles
from high
citation to low
citation
An h-index of 13 means the author has
published 13 articles that have at least 13 citations.
13 15

Figure 1. Variation of the h-index between two researchers with
the same number of publications.
A few highly-cited papers
Lower h-index
Large number highly-cited papers
Lower h-index
AB
Nc=Np=h-index
Nc=Np=h-index

The index has several advantages over other metrics:
 It relies on citations to your papers, not the journals,
which is a truer measure of quality
 Unlike total number of citations would be.
 Unlike total number of papers would be.

It’s good for comparing scientists within a field
at similar stages in their careers
 It may be used to compare not just individuals,
but also departments, programs or any other
group of scientists.

How is the H-index different from the Impact Factor?

40
20 40 60
1
20
Years of
research
activity
Successful
scientist
Outstanding
scientist
Unique
Individuals
h-index
Likely be found only a the top universities
or major research laboratory
Benchmarks

Proofreading
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