Research Methods in Geosciences

Bahir Dar University

School of Earth Sciences

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Content 3:
[Link]-scientific Writing & Research Publications
[Link] Writing Assignment
[Link] issues in Geoscientific Research & Writing
[Link] for a Presentation
[Link] & Oral Presentation Exercise

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Outline
 Citation and Reference List
 Geo-scientific Writing and Research publication
 Ethics & professionalism in science
 Preparing Power point presentation
 Oral presentation
 Poster presentation

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 Citation and Reference List
Science is a collective enterprise; any thesis or
paper is only one small building-block.
Citation to other’s works are used for anything that
is not the result of the author’s own creative effort.
These appear two places in the document:
in-text citation: next to the information it supports;
refers to . . .
a reference list entry: in a list at the end of the text.

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 Purpose of citations
 To present definitions and concepts proposed by others:
 To present opinions that are not yours, and allow the
reader to go back to the original source and check if you
correctly summarized it.
 To present data and results that are not from your own
research, and allow readers of your work to find the
original source if they wish.
 To refer to previous work on your topic, which motivates
your study and places it in context:
 They refer to standard methods, so that you don’t have to
repeat them in your text. This is common in your
‘Methods’ chapter.
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 Purpose of citations
 They provide detailed justification of mathematical or
statistical methods and formulas, so you don’t have to
derive or defend them.

 To refer to other studies related to your results, with

which you should compare, in your ‘Results’ chapter.

 To allow the reader of your work material to go deeper

into a topic than was necessary for your purposes.

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 When not to use a reference
 If it’s your idea or result:
 If the fact is known to any person with a relevant education
(for the intended audience):
 Satellite remote sensing has an advantage over aerial
photography: large areas are imaged all at once.
 If the fact can be found in a standard secondary-school or
general reference;
The area A of a circle is 𝐴 = 𝜋𝑟2
 If the fact is more or less fixed and can be verified in many
ways;
 Ethiopia is an African country

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 Citing material you can’t read
Always go back to original sources for facts that are
established by them.
Reason: do not trust someone else’s interpretation, you
must read for yourself and make your own interpretation.
Only two cases when you may cite something you haven’t
yourself read:
1. You can’t obtain the original source; or
2. You can’t read the original language.
but you need to cite some fact or result from them.

It may be sufficient for your purpose to cite a secondary

source (where you found the reference to these
inaccessible sources). 8
 cont’d
• The “cited in” approach
• Only if absolutely necessary, use the ‘cited in’
approach: cite the original author, but the
bibliographic reference is to the source you yourself
read.

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 Reference list
Purpose of the list of references
The list of references is:
an appendix to a thesis or paper . . .
…which lists the sources that are cited in the text.

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 What must appear in the citation?
 There must be sufficient information given for readers
to find the same source.
 Minimum information to find a source:
 Journal article: Journal name or standard
abbreviation; journal volume number; first page
number
 Book : Author (or editor); title; edition; publisher; city
(if available)
 Book chapter: Author of chapter; chapter number,
further as for book
 Digital resource URL, access date

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 Reference styles
There are different styles of referencing.
Eg: APA, Chicago, MLA, Turabian, IEEE etc
Here we will see the APA style

What is APA?
APA = American Psychological Association
 “APA style” refers to a system of citing
research sources
 APA citation styles:

In-text citations:
Reference list citations:
“Choose references judiciously . . . [and] reference
data must be correct and complete” (Publication
Manual, 2009).
 In-Text Citations
You must provide information that will allow the reader to locate
exactly where you found information in your sources. Usually this
is the author's last name and the year of publication, for example:
(Abebe, 2019)
Example: Thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing provides a method
for finding LST information at the regional and global scales since
most of the energy detected by the sensor in this spectral region is
directly emitted by the surface(Sobrino, 2008).
• When the author's name appears as part of your sentence (known
as a “signal phrase”), do not use it again in the parenthetical
citation. Just give the year of publication:
Sobrino(2008) argues that thermal infrared(TIR) remote sensing…..
 In-Text Citations
 When there are two authors, name both authors
every time their work is referenced in your paper:
 Among epidemiological samples, Selbst and
Tikling (2008) found that early onset social
anxiety disorder results from adverse parental
responses to bed wetting.
 The study also showed that there was a high rate
of alcohol and drug abuse associated with
unresolved bed wetting issues (Selbst and
Tikling, 2008).
 References List
 The References list appears at the end of your paper on
its own page.
 Everything you referenced in your text must be listed in
your References list .
 Conversely, everything you list in the References list
must be cited in your essay.
 The References list provides the information needed for
a reader to find and retrieve any source used in your
paper.
 In-Text Citations
 When there are between 3 and 5 authors, name all at their first
citing, including the year of publication. At subsequent citings in
your paper, retain only the first author and replace the others with
“et al.”
 Ethiopia, like other countries in the region, is highly exposed to
climate change and variability and has experienced several food
crises during the last decade (Viste, Korecha, and Sorteberg,
2013)
 Other studies in different parts of Ethiopia did not find
statistically significant trend in the annual rainfall (Viste et al.
2013)
 When there are 6 or more authors, use first author’s surname
and “et al.” including the year of publication in all citing
instances.
 Most Periodical Citations Will Include:

• Author
• Date
• Title
• Source information
• DOI (Digital Object Identifier)
 Format for Citing References for Books

Author, A. (year). Title of book (edition if not first).

City: Publisher.
Book by a single author
• Leshin, C.B. (1997). Management on the World
Wide Web. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

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 Book by two authors
• Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Title of book
(edition if not first). City: Publisher.

Book by more than three authors

• Cornett, M., Wiley, B.J., & Sankar, S. (1998).
The pleasures of nurturing (2nd ed). London:
McMunster Publishing.

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 Format for Citing References for Journal Article

Journal Article
Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Title of article. Title of
Journal, volume number (issue number), page numbers.
• Barry, H. (1996). Cross-cultural research with matched
pairs of societies. Journal of Social Psychology, 79 (1),
25-33.
• Jeanquart, S., & Peluchette, J. (1997). Diversity in the
workforce and management models, Journal of Social
Work Studies, 43, 72-85.

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 Format for Citing References

• 1

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Components of Thesis/ Research Paper
A research proposal usually has a logical structure something
like:

The problem, objectives, questions and hypotheses are usually

in one chapter
called Introduction.
• This is usually followed by literature review and methods
chapters.
The thesis will then have several more chapters, covering
* results,
* discussion,
* conclusions and
* recommendations.
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 Assignment 1
Explain in brief about abstract writing in
thesis/journal Article with examples:

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 Abstract
 Each thesis/ research paper shall contain a concise abstract of
maximum (1 page for thesis / 200-250 words for articles).
 The abstract should contain the purpose of the research, the
materials and methods, the principal results and major conclusions.
 Abstract should be presented separately from the thesis manuscript, so
it must be able to stand alone.
 Therefore, references should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the
author(s) and year(s). Moreover, non-standard or uncommon
abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined
at their first mention in the abstract itself.
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 Introduction
 Introduction should contain the rationale/background, goal and
objectives of the study, and scope together with the limitation of the
study.
 Student should begin with the establishment of a study territory by
showing the importance, interesting, and/or problems of the general
study area, and/or by reviewing the previous studies.
 Student could then continue with the indication of gap or weakness of
previous study based on which the present study must be conducted.
 At last, student should finish the introduction section with the
announcement of the goal and specific objectives of the study with the
scope/limitation of present study.
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 Literature Review
Author could prepare the literature review by taking into account the
following criteria:
 To show the history of the related study field/topic
 To review all previous work done related to the thesis topic
 To integrate and synthesis work from different study field/topic
 To present/evaluate the current state of art of study field/topic
 To reveal the inadequacies in literature and gap where further
research needs to be done

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Methodology or Materials and Methods
 In this section, title of this section could be chosen either
Methodology or Materials and Methods accordingly to
your preference.
In general format, Author must provide
 sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced; in
addition, methods already published should be indicated
by a reference while only the modifications should be
described.

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 Methodology/Materials and Methods
 Methodology is usually sub-divided into many sub-sections:
 Materials for the study: author must describe in detail (physico-
chemical characteristics, technical specification, data, model,
software, equipment, etc.)
 Experimental operation for the study: author must describe (in
detail) how laboratory or full-scale experimental set-up is
constructed.
 Parameter analyses: author must describe (in details) how to
measure/determine each parameter during the study

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 Results and discussion
 The results should be clear and concise, separated into
different sub-sections depending on the findings, and
discussing the significance of the results/findings, not repeat
them.
 In this part, author should state the main findings in order
and evaluate how the results fit in the previous findings;
therefore, citation and discussion of the published work
should be included in this part.
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 Conclusions (and Recommendations)
 The main conclusions drawn from results should be presented in
a short conclusions section.
 Author must ensure that the conclusions response/reflect the
specific objectives stated in the introduction section.
 Any discussion must not be included in this section.
 In the recommendations section, author should (not obligate)
describe the limitation/gap of the study based on which author
should recommend for further studies/investigations.

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 References
 References in the list should be placed alphabetically,
for example:

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 Components of Thesis
• Appendices
• 1. Acknowledgments
• 2. Abstract
• 3. Abbreviations and Symbols
• 4. Table of Contents
• 5. List of Figures
• 6. List of Tables
• 7. Introduction
• 8. Literature Review
• 9. Methodology or Materials and Methods
• 10. Results and Discussion
• 11. Conclusions (and Recommendations)
• 12. References

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Components of manuscript

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 Ethics & professionalism in science

What are ‘scientific ethics’?

Ethics: correct behavior within some social setting.
Scientific ethics: procedures: rules of conduct

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 Fraud
Scientific fraud: any action which will fully mis-
represents the truth
Three types, in order of seriousness:
Fabrication: making up data, lying about
procedures;
Falsification: manipulating data (or not) to obtain
a pre-determined conclusion;
Plagiarism: taking credit for someone else’s work.

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Fabricating data: inventing data or lying about the
procedures by which it was obtained.
• This is the cardinal sin against science.
• Examples:
• filling in survey sheets without actually making field
visits
• over-interpreting a survey response or field
observation
• inventing laboratory results without actually doing the
procedures
 Without accurate primary data, the entire research is
invalid.

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 Discarding data
Under certain circumstances, data may be
discarded; but:
always explicitly mentioned, at least in the
laboratory or field notebook, probably in the
methods report;
based on objective criteria that are equally-applied
and justified
Note: if data is discarded, the work may now refer
to a smaller population than planned (e.g.
agricultural soils vs. all soils in a region)

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 Discarding data during analysis
• ‘Outliers’: data points that don’t fit an overall pattern. . .
• . . . but these may be the most interesting and give the
most insight
• Must be reported in the raw data
• Criteria for eliminating must be clear and consistent
• must argue that they are not part of the population being
analysed.
• Poor record-keeping (reflects poorly on your technique,
but at least you are admitting it);
• From a markedly-different site that is not included in the
population you are studying.

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 Manipulating raw data – why?
• It may be necessary to adjust raw data to correct
for inconsistencies, e.g.,
• different instrumentation or analytical methods to
measure the same thing.
• within the same experiment.
• change in procedures over time (time-series, e.g.,
water or soil monitoring)

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 Plagiarism
• Plagiarism: Knowingly representing the work of others as one’s
own
 The unacknowledged use or appropriation of another person’s
words or ideas
 A form of cheating or stealing
 A serious academic offense
• Several forms:
• Copying someone else’s work;
• Paraphrasing someone else’s work, i.e. saying the same thing with
slightly different words and phrasing;
• Reporting someone else’s work (e.g. fieldwork) as if it were your
own;
• Getting someone else to do your work for you (‘ghostwriting’);

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 Plagiarism
 Many students plagiarize unintentionally.
Remember, whenever you summarize, paraphrase
or quote another author's material you must
properly credit your source.

 If you are using another person’s idea, you must

also cite your source!
 Plagiarism
 You are Plagiarizing if you are
 Cutting and pasting from other sources
 Quoting without “…” or a citation
 Paraphrasing or summarizing without a citation
 Using images, tables or graphs without a citation
 Re-using own work which was previously marked
 Collaborating on what should be individual work
Forgetting to cite is still plagiarism!
 Plagiarism
• `

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 How to avoid plagiarizing?
 Three golden rules:
1. Everything you write outside of quotation marks must be the
result of your own creative effort.
 Otherwise, you are taking credit for something you did not
write.
2. Every idea that is not your own must be credited to the
person(s) who conceived it.
Otherwise you are taking credit for the other person’s idea.
3. Every fact that you did not yourself establish must be
credited. Otherwise you are claiming direct knowledge that you
do not have. This includes field or laboratory work actually done
by others which you are reporting.

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 Instead of plagiarizing . . .
• Think and write for yourself!
• It’s your project, and you should want to express
your ideas.
• Summarize one or several works in your own words
• Quote when you really need to use the text (e.g. to
discuss another author’s statement)
• Make a reference to the source

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 Plagiarism detection software
 Various commercial computer programmes can
compare new with previously-published work.
 A Google search works well also, also searches
within Web of Science, Science Direct, Springer
Link etc.

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Plagiarism detection software

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Preparing Power point
presentations

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Power point(PPT)
Preparing Power point
presentations

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 Preparing Power point presentations
 Simplify and limit the number of words on each screen.

 Use key phrases and include only essential information.

 Use contrasting colors for text and background.

 Make sure slides are readable from the back row seats.

 Limit the number of slides. A good rule of thumb is one slide per minute.

 Limit the number of lines in each slide.

 Use appropriate fonts (Title: 36-44, Text: 24-32)

 Don’t put too much information or long sentences , and don’t let the

background distract
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 Good or Bad for ppt presentation?
 Groundwater is the most abundant source of fresh water on earth and

importance to life. It is the resource which is not visible in our naked eyes

and found in the pores and cracks underground, after entering from the

earth’s surface or having been captured due to sedimentation, volcanic

activity and geological structures (Fetter, 2001; Fitts, 2012).

 Water is the most significant natural resource for human existence,

economic growth and environmental development (Todd and Mays,

2005). It is vital for domestic and importance in the development of

agricultural and industrial purposes.

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 Good or Bad for ppt presentation?
 Groundwater is the most abundant source of fresh water on earth

and important for life (Fetter, 2001; Fitts, 2012)

 According to Todd and Mays (2005), groundwater is the most

significant natural resource for:-

 human existence

 economic growth

 environmental development

 agricultural and industrial purposes

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 Oral presentations
When you present your work:
 Don't read your presentation straight from the slides. The content of
your slides is for the audience, not for the presenter.
 Don't forget your audience
 Choose readable colors and fonts
 Don't overload your presentation with animations
 Use animations economically to enhance your presentation
 Do not speak to your slides. Many presenters face the direction of their
presentation rather than their audience.

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 Think about the audience
Effective Communication
 Effective communication rules

• Who are you addressing?

• Why is your message important?
• What is your ‘take home message’?
• What prior knowledge and expectations may your audience
have? Adapt to them!
• What technical language do they understand?
• How can you best deliver your message?
 Timing of presentation is important

 Most presentations are

10, 20 or 30 min

 Time is fixed and limited

 Good timing is essential

 Rehearse!
 Dressing for a Presentation

Your clothes communicate identity, personality, and image

● Dress to Feel Good
● Dress to Look Good
 Structure of presentation
(outline of Presentation)
• Title
• Introduction
• Body = M&M + Results
(Keep M&M short!)
• Summary/Conclusions
Most important part
 Retention of information
• Words AND Pictures work best!
Global Water Cycle and Water Scarcity
Glacier melting
 Poster Presentation
 A poster session or poster presentation is the
presentation of research by an individual or
group for a class or academic or professional
conference.

 It is a way to communicate your research work

or your understanding of a topic in a short and
concise format.
 Poster Presentation
Poster Content Planning the poster
• Make it easy to read
• Title • Make it easy
• Authors and Affiliations r to understand
• People only have a few minutes
• Introduction
r per poster
• Data and Method • Poster should stand alone
• Results
• Conclusions and future
work
• References

Poster Presentation
• You need to be able to give an overview of
your work in 3-5r minutes
• Practice your presentation ahead of time
• Get feedback from colleagues