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MODULE-2
New and Existing Knowledge
New knowledge in research can only be interpreted within the context of what is already known, and cannot
exist without the foundation of existing knowledge. In this chapter, we are going to look at how that foundation of
knowledge needs to be constructed so that our new knowledge is supported by it. The new knowledge can have vastly
different interpretations depending on what the researcher’s background, and one’s perception of that new knowledge
can change from indifference to excitement (or vice versa), depending on what else one knows. The significance can
normally be argued from the point of view that there is indeed an existing problem and that it is known by looking at
what already exists in the field. The existing knowledge is needed to make the case that there is a problem and that it
is important. One can infer that the knowledge that is sought to be produced does not yet exist by describing what
other knowledge already exists and by pointing out that this part is missing so that what we have is original. To do
this, once again needs the existing knowledge: the context, the significance, the originality, and the tools.
Where does this existing knowledge come from? Normally, one finds this knowledge by reading and
surveying the literature in the field that was established long ago and about the more recent knowledge which is in
fact always changing. With this foundation in place, the new knowledge that one will make will be much more difficult
to challenge than without that strong foundation in place which is ensured with lots of references to the literature.
Often, but not always, the textbooks contain the older established knowledge and the research papers the newer work.
Reading the textbooks on one’s topic provide the established knowledge and the background to be able to read the
newer work usually recorded in the research papers. Very often, reading a textbook is not too difficult for it is written
as a teaching instrument, and the author of the textbook normally starts from the basics and take the reader, through
everything that one needs to be able to understand that topic. This is not at all the case with a research paper where
the goal is normally to present a small piece of new knowledge, and that new knowledge will not have stood the test
of time in the same way as the knowledge in a textbook would have.
The research paper is written for other researchers out on the edge of knowledge and it assumes that the
reader already knows a lot in that field. A researcher may find oneself continually going back to other sources to try
and interpret what is going on in a particular research paper. It can be difficult to find the right work to read, but the
objective with all this reading and learning is to be able to get the knowledge that one needs to build the foundation.
The review process must explain how a research item builds on another one. This is because useful research
should elucidate how and why certain technical development took place, so that it is easy for the reader to comprehend
why the present talk is being undertaken, and a good literature survey would provide a convincing under to that
question. An effective review of literature ensures a firm foundation for advancing knowledge, facilitates theoretical
growth, eliminates as areas that might be of interest, and opens new avenues of possible work. An efficient literature
review is centered around concepts and not authors. Generally, a good literature survey is the first expectation of a
supervisor from the research student, and when done well can create a good impression that the state of art in the
chosen field is well understood. Simple rules for writing an effective literature review are important for a research
scholar, are provided. A good literature review would not draw hasty conclusions and investigate the individual
references to determine the underlying causes/ assumptions/ mechanisms in each of them to synthesize the available
information in a much more meaningful way.
A literature review should be able to summarize as to what is already known from the state of the art, detail
the key concepts and the main factors or parameters and the underlying relationships between those, describe any
complementary existing approaches, enumerate the inconsistencies or shortcomings in the published work, identify
the reported results that are inconclusive or contradictory, and provide a compulsive reason to do further work in the
field.
A good literature survey is typically a two-step process as enumerated below:
(i) Identify the major topics or subtopics or concepts relevant to the subject under consideration.
(ii) Place the citation of the relevant source (article/patent/website/data, etc.) in the correct category
of the concept/topic/subtopic (with the help of a, for example).
It could be that as one is reading and comes across something that one considers to be very important for
one’s work, a core principle, or a description of something that just sounds good, and one is excited to have found it.
Naturally, one highlights that section or underlines it, or put an asterisk in the margin, so that one could come back
to it later. Effectively, one is saying that it is important and hence the marking so as not to forget it. After having
marked or highlighted the section, it is suggested that the paper be put away or the book be closed. Then one should
write about the highlighted part without copying it. As one writes about why one thinks that part is important and
what it contains, one is automatically changing it and making it fit into one’s foundation in the way that makes sense.
There are shaping and crafting of that piece of knowledge to fit where one needs it to be.

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To build the knowledge foundation, one needs to be reading and learning continually. But that is not enough,
one also needs to be writing about what one has read. A comprehensive literature survey should methodically analyze
and synthesize quality archived work, provide a firm foundation to a topic of interest and the choice of suitable
research methodologies, and demonstrate that the proposed work would make a novel contribution to the overall
field of research.
Analysis and Synthesis of Prior Art - Bibliographic Databases
After collecting the sources, usually articles, intended to be used in the literature review, the researcher is
ready to break down each article and identify the useful content in it, and then synthesize the collection of articles
(integrate them and identify the conclusions that can be made from the articles as a group). A literature survey grid of
N topics and M sources is shown below to help crystallize the information in different categories. A researcher should
analyse the relevant information ascertained in Table below by undertaking the following steps:
(i) Understanding the hypothesis
(ii) Understanding the models and the experimental conditions used
(iii) Making connections
(iv) Comparing and contrasting the various information, and
(v) Finding out the strong points and the loopholes.
It is always good to be suspicious of the claims made in the sources that have been thoroughly reviewed,
especially in the case of tall claims. If one is amenable to easily accept whatever is available in the literature, one may
find it difficult to go beyond it in one’s own work and may also fail to carefully analyse with a suspicious bent of mind
one’s own results subsequently. The goal of literature survey is to bring out something new to work on through the
identification of unsolved issues, determine the problems in the existing models or experimental designs, and present
a novel idea and recommendations. No matter where one gets the available information, one needs to critically evaluate
each resource that the researcher wishes to cite. This methodology analyses available materials to determine suitability
for the intended research. Relying on refereed articles published in scholarly journals or granted patents can save the
researcher a lot of time. Here are a few criteria that could help the researcher in the evaluation of the information
under study:
Authority: What are the author’s credentials and affiliation? Who publishes the information?
Accuracy: Based on what one already knows about the topic or from reading other sources, does the information
seem credible? Does the author cite other sources in a reference list or bibliography, to support the information
presented?
Scope: Is the source at an appropriate comprehension or research level? There are other criteria to consider as well,
such as currency, objectivity, and purpose. It is important to ensure that the search question is neither too narrow nor
too broad.

Table: The literature survey grid

“Bibliographic databases” refer to “abstracting and indexing services” useful for collecting citation-related
information and possibly abstracts of research articles from scholarly literature and making them available through
search. Performing simultaneous searches through such large databases may allow researchers to overtly rely on any
one database and be limited by the intrinsic shortcoming of any one of them for quality research. A researcher should
be able to quickly identify the databases that are of use in the idea or problem that one wishes to explore. In this
section, we present some details about a few of the popular bibliographic databases most sought after by engineering
researchers, but do not attempt to provide exhaustive details.

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Web of Science
Web of Science (formerly known as ISI or Thomson Reuters) includes multiple databases, as well as
specialized tools. It is a good search tool for scholarly materials requiring institutional license and allows the researcher
to search in a particular topic of interest, which can be made by selection in fields that are available in drop down
menu such as title, topic, author, address, etc. The tool also allows sorting by number of citations (highest to lowest),
publication date. ([Link]
Put quotes around phrases, add more keywords, or use the “Refine Results” panel on the left to narrow
down the search by keyword, phrases in quotation marks, type of material such as peer-reviewed journal articles, date,
language, and more. Expanding the search results is possible by looking for alternate word endings, breaking the
search concepts down, thinking of alternate search terms (including scientific names if applicable) and connecting
them with OR, and using the database’s features for finding additional references.
“Cited reference search” option enables a researcher to trace articles which have cited a formerly published
paper. Using this element, it is possible to find how a familiar idea has been applied, improved, or extended
subsequently. A structured search like this that enables narrowing and refining what one is looking for is effective to
ensure that the results throw up relevant sources and time spent in studying those is likely to be well utilized. Based
on the researcher’s need the search result can be broadened or narrowed down using the built-in fields provided in
this website. When clicked on any of the search results, this website provides the title of the paper, authors, the type
of journal, volume, issue number and year of publication, abstract, keywords, etc., so that the researcher has enough
information to decide if it is worthwhile to acquire the full version of the paper.
Google and Google Scholar
Google is a great place to start one’s search when one is starting out on a topic. It can be helpful in finding freely
available information, such as reports from governments, organizations, companies, and so on. However, there are
limitations:
(i) It’s a “black box” of information. It searches everything on the Internet, with no quality control—one
does not know where results are coming from.
(ii) There are limited search functionality and refinement options. What about Google Scholar? Google
Scholar limits one’s search to scholarly literature.
However, there are limitations:
1. Some of the results are not actually scholarly. An article may look scholarly at first glance, but is not a good source
upon further inspection.
2. It is not comprehensive. Some publishers do not make their content available to Google Scholar.
3. There is limited search functionality and refinement options. There are search operators that can be used to help
narrow down the results. These help one find more relevant and useful sources of information. Operators can be
combined within searches.
Here are some basic ones that one can use:
(i) OR—Broadens search by capturing synonyms or variant spellings of a concept. Example: Synchronous
OR asynchronous will find results that have either term present.
(ii) Brackets/Parentheses ( )—Gather OR synonyms of a concept together, while combining them with
another concept. Example: RAM (synchronous OR asynchronous).
(iii) Quotation marks “ ”—Narrow the search by finding words together as a phrase, instead of separately.
Example: RAM (synchronous OR asynchronous) “Texas Instruments”.
(iv) Site—limits the search to results from a specific domain or website. This operator is helpful when
searching specific websites such as the BC government, which is Example: RAM (synchronous OR
asynchronous) “Texas Instruments” site: [Link]
(v) Filetype—limits the search to results with a specific file extension one could look for pdf’s, PowerPoint
presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and so on. Example: RAM (synchronous OR asynchronous) “Texas
Instruments” site: http:// [Link], filetype: pdf.
The Search Tools button at the top of the Google results gives you a variety of other options, such as limiting
the results by date. There are other operators and tools that one can use in Google and Google Scholar. Google is but
one search tool a researcher can use—it is not the only one! It can be hard to sift through all the results in Google or
Google Scholar, especially if the intent is to find scholarly resources from a specific subject area.

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To find the best resources on a topic, one should search in academic databases, in addition to Google.
Databases provide access to journal articles and conference proceedings, as well as other scholarly resources. One gets
more relevant and focused results, because they have better quality control and search functionality. One should
choose a database based on subject area, date coverage, and publication type. Interfaces vary between databases, but
the search techniques remain essentially the same.
Effective Search: The Way Forward
A scholarly publication is one wherein the published outcome is authored by researchers in a specific field
of skill. Such work cites all source contents used and is generally peer reviewed for accuracy and validity before
publication. Essentially, the audience for such works is fellow experts and students in the field. The content is typically
more complex and advanced than those found in general magazines. While most of the engineering researchers need
to refer articles that appear in scholarly journals, books or other peer-reviewed sources, there is also a substantially
useful content in more popular publications. These are informal in approach and aim to reach a large number of
readers including both the experts in the field and also amateurs, but the content focuses on news and trends in the
field.
Research outcomes are not typically first disseminated here but are usually meant for general reading. A
researcher should use all search tools for comprehensive search. No one place or one source exists that will provide
all the information one needs; one will likely need to look in all the places that would be described in this chapter and
in others not mentioned. A researcher must consider what type of information is needed, and where it could be found.
Not all information is available online. Some information is only available in print. It can take time for scholarly and
peer-reviewed information to be published. One might not be able to find scholarly information about something
currently being reported in the news. The information may not be available, or studies on a topic of interest to the
researcher have not occurred. In such a case, the researcher should look for similar studies that would be applicable
to the specific topic; look for broad information (general process, technology, etc.), as well as information that
addresses the specific context of the researcher’s report. Searching is an iterative process:

• Experiment with different keywords and operators

• Evaluate and assess results, use filters
• Modify the search as needed; and
• When relevant articles are found, look at their citations and references
After the search is complete, the researcher needs to engage in critical and thorough reading, making
observation of the salient points in those sources, and summarize the findings. A detailed comparison and contrast of
the findings is also required to be done. This entire process may be needed to be done multiple times. The conclusion
of the entire process of literature survey includes a summary of the relevant and important work done, and also the
identification of the missing links and the challenges in the open problems in the area under study. One must note
that the literature survey is a continuous and cyclical process that may involve the researcher going back and forth till
the end of the research project. Not many people begin research work in their graduate program with an already
acquired skill to efficiently parse math-heavy articles quickly, but those who eventually succeed in an engineering
research career quickly develop that skill from reading a lot of papers, seeking help in understanding confusing parts,
and getting through relevant coursework to build up the required skills and intuition.
It is very important to not lose sight of the purpose of an extensive search or literature survey, for it is
possible to spend a very significant amount of one’s time doing so and actually falsely think that one is working hard.
Nothing will come of it unless one is an active reader and spends sufficient time to develop one’s own ideas build on
what one has read. It is not as if literature survey ends and then research begins, for new literature keeps appearing,
and as one’s understanding of the problem grows, one finds new connections and related/evolving problems which
may need more search. It is mandatory for a Ph.D. scholar to write a synopsis of the topic and submit it to the doctoral
committee for approval. During this stage, the scholar needs to undertake an extensive literature survey connected
with the problem. For this purpose, the archived journals and published or unpublished bibliographies are the first
place to check out. One source led to another.
Introduction to Technical Reading - Conceptualizing Research
It is now imperative for any active researcher to keep oneself abreast with research outcomes in their field
of interest. Finding the right work to read can be difficult. The literature where knowledge is archived is very
fragmented and there are bits and pieces all over the place. Very rarely will one find everything that one wants close
together in one place. However, it is obvious that the number of papers relevant to a particular researcher is very few,
compared to the actual number of research papers available from peer-reviewed technical sources. It is also important
to know where to read from; relying on refereed journals and books published by reputed publishers is always better
than relying on easily available random articles off the web.

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While reading an engineering research paper, the goal is to understand the technical contributions that the
authors are making. Given the abundance of journal articles, it is useful to adopt a quick, purposeful, and useful way
of reading these manuscripts. It is not the same as reading a newspaper. It may require rereading the paper multiple
times and one might expect to spend many hours reading the paper. A simple, efficient, and logical approach is
described in this section for identifying articles and reading them suitably for effective research. Amount of time to
be spent will get ascertained after an initial skimming through the paper to decide whether it is worth careful reading.
There will also be papers where it is not worth reading all the details in the first instance. It is quite possible that the
details are of limited value, or simply one does not feel competent to understand the information yet.
Start out the skimming process by reading the title and keywords (these are anyways, probably what caught
the initial attention in the first place). If on reading these, it does not sufficiently seem to be interesting; it is better to
stop reading and look for something else to read. One should then read the abstract to get an overview of the paper
in minimum time. Again, if it does not seem sufficiently important to the field of study, one should stop reading
further. If the abstract is of interest, one should skip most of the paper and go straight to the conclusions to find if
the paper is relevant to the intended purpose, and if so, then one should read the figures, tables, and the captions
therein, because these would not take much time but would provide a broad enough idea as to what was done in the
paper. If the paper has continued to be of interest so far, then one is now ready to delve into the Introduction section
to know the background information about the work and also to ascertain why the authors did that particular study
and in what ways the paper furthers the state of the art.
The next sections to read are the Results and Discussion sections which is really the heart of the paper. One
should really read further sections like the Experimental Setup/Modelling, etc., only if one is really interested and
wishes to understand exactly what was done to better understand the meaning of the data and its interpretation. As
one works through the literature in this way, one should consider not only the knowledge that is written down but
also the reputation of the people who made that knowledge. A researcher will always need to be searching for the
relevant literature and keeping up to date with it. If one is busy with a small project, the advisor might just give a single
important paper to read. But with a larger one, you will be searching for one’s own literature to read. For this one will
need a strategy as there is just too much work out there to read everything.
Conceptualizing Research
The characteristics of a research objective are that it must have new knowledge at the centre, and that it must
be accepted by the community of other researchers and recognized as significant. But how do we conceptualize the
research? Besides being original and significant, a good research problem should also be solvable or achievable. This
requirement already asks us to think about the method and the tools that could be used to obtain that new knowledge.
Now, the significance and the originality and all the theory that we read and tools and methods that we need to take
on a problem, all of these normally come from the existing recorded literature and knowledge in the field.
Coming up with a good research objective, conceptualizing the research that meets all of these requirements
is a tough thing to do. It means that one must already be aware of what is in the literature. That is, by the time one
actually has a good research objective, one is probably already an expert at the edge of knowledge else it is difficult to
say with confidence that one has a good research objective. If one is doing research at the Ph.D. level or higher, then
conceptualizing the research is probably something that one needs to do oneself. This is a very tough step because
one needs to know all that literature in the field. So, when working at the Ph.D. level, one needs to be prepared to
become that expert, one needs to be continually reading the literature so as to bring together the three parts:
(i) Significant problem
(ii) The knowledge that will address it, and
(iii) A possible way to make that new knowledge.
How these three aspects would come together will be different for every person doing research and it will
be different in every field, but the only way to be that expert is by immersing oneself in the literature and knowing
about what already exists in the field. However, if one is working on a research project that is of a smaller scope than
a Ph.D., let us say a master’s thesis, then conceptualizing the research is possibly too tough to do, and one does not
have the time that it takes to become that expert at the edge of knowledge. In this case, the researcher needs the help
of someone else, typically the supervisor who may already be an expert and an active researcher in that field, and may
advise on what a good research objective might be. An established researcher in any field should be able to immediately
point to the landmark literature that one should read first.
Otherwise, one would need to spend a lot of time reading the literature to discover. As engineers, we like to
build things, and that’s good, but the objective of research is to make knowledge. If one’s research is about building
something, one ought to take a step back and ask if new knowledge is being formulated. Even if what one is building
is new and has never been built before, if it is something that any experienced and competent engineer could have
come up with, one runs the risk of one’s work being labelled obvious and rejected as research.

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Critical and Creative Reading

Reading a research paper is a critical process. The reader should not be under the assumption that reported
results or arguments are correct. Rather, being suspicious and asking appropriate questions is in fact a good thing.
Have the authors attempted to solve the right problem? Are there simpler solutions that have not been considered?
What are the limitations (both stated and ignored) of the solution and are there any missing links? Are the assumptions
that were made reasonable? Is there a logical flow to the paper or is there a flaw in the reasoning? These need to be
ascertained apart from the relevance and the importance of the work, by careful reading. Use of judgemental approach
and boldness to make judgments is needed while reading. Flexibility to discard previous erroneous judgments is also
critical.
Additionally, it is important to ascertain whether the data presented in the paper is right data to substantiate
the argument that was made in the paper and whether the data was gathered and interpreted in a correct manner. It is
also important to decipher whether some other dataset would have been more compelling. Critical reading is relatively
easy. It is relatively easier to critically read to find the mistakes than to read it to find the good ideas in the paper.
Anyone who has been a regular reviewer of journal articles would agree to such a statement. Reading creatively is
harder, and requires a positive approach in search. In creative reading, the idea is to actively look for other applications,
interesting generalizations, or extended work which the authors might have missed? Are there plausible modifications
that may throw up important practical challenges? One might be able to decipher properly if one would like to start
researching an extended part of this work, and what should be the immediate next aspect to focus upon.
Taking Notes while Reading
A researcher reads to write and writes well only if the reading skills are good. The bridge between reading
and writing a paper is the act of taking notes during and shortly after the process of reading. There is a well-known
saying that the faintest writing is better than the best memory, and it applies to researchers who need to read and build
on that knowledge to write building on the notes taken. Many researchers take notes on the margins of their copies
of papers or even digitally on an article aggregator tool. In each research paper, there are a lot of things that one might
like to highlight for later use such as definitions, explanations, and concepts. If there are questions of criticisms, these
need to be written down to avoid being forgotten later. Such efforts pay significantly when one must go back and
reread the same content after a long time.
On completing a thorough reading, a good technical reading should end with a summary of the paper in a
few sentences describing the contributions. But to elucidate the technical merit, the paper needs to be looked at from
comparative perspective with respect to existing works in that specific area. A thorough reading should bring out
whether there are new ideas in the paper, or if existing ideas were implemented through experiments or in a new
application, or if different existing ideas were brought together under a novel framework. Obviously, the type of
contribution a paper is making can be determined better by having read other papers in the area.
Reading Mathematics and Algorithms
Mathematics is often the foundation of new advances, for evolution and development of engineering
research and practice. An engineering researcher generally cannot avoid mathematical derivations or proofs as part of
research work. In fact, these are the heart of any technical paper. Therefore, one should avoid skimming them. By
meticulous reading of the proofs or algorithms, after having identified the relevance of the paper, one can develop
sound understanding about the problem that the authors have attempted to solve.
Nonetheless, one might skim a technical section if it seems like an explanation of something already known,
or if it is too advanced for the research at the present moment and needs additional reading to be understandable, or
if it seems to specialized and unlikely to be needed in the course of the research program in which case one can get
back to it later on. Implementation of an intricate algorithm in programming languages such as C, C++ or Java is
prone to errors. And even if the researcher is confident about the paper in hand, and thinks that the algorithm will
work, there is a fair chance that it will not work at all. So, one may wish to code it quickly to check if it actually works.
Reading a Datasheet
Researchers in different fields of engineering will need to read certain types of documents. For example,
mechanical and civil engineers would need to read drawings related to mechanical parts and buildings. Researchers in
the field of electronics need to read datasheets. On occasions, researchers in other fields may also need to incorporate
a certain electronic part in which case careful reading of the datasheet is imperative. The same principles like initial
skimming of the datasheet are required to ascertain whether further careful reading is needed. Datasheets are
instruction manuals for electronic components, which (hopefully) details what a component does and how one may
use it.

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Datasheets enable a researcher (or a working professional) to design a circuit or debug any given circuit with
that component. The first page of the datasheet usually summarizes a part’s function and features, basic specifications,
and usually provides a functional block diagram with the internal functions of the part. A pinout provides the physical
location of a part’s pins, with special mark for pin 1 so that the part can be correctly plugged into the circuit. Some
parts also provide graphs showing performance versus various criteria (supply voltage, temperature, etc.), and safe
region for reliable operation which should be carefully read and noted by the researcher. One should be also in the
lookout for truth tables which describe what sort of inputs provide what types of outputs, and timing diagrams which
lay out how and at what speed data is sent and received from the part.
Datasheets usually end with accurate dimensions of the packages a part is available in. This is useful for
printed circuit board (PCB) layout. When working with a new part, or when deciding which part to use in the research
work, it is recommended to carefully read that part’s datasheet to come up with a bit of shortcut that may potentially
save many hours later on. As already stated, an engineering researcher will have documents to read which are specific
to the branch of engineering in which one is researching in. However, the objective of the authors herein has been to
use datasheets as an example to state the need to pay attention to the art of reading such documents. Technical
published papers or books are not the only contents that a researcher must master reading!
ATTRIBUTIONS AND CITATIONS
Giving Credit wherever Due
It is important to extend attributions and acknowledgments to roles and responsibilities beyond primary
authors of journal articles or principal investigators of grant proposal documents. This would be applicable especially
to scientific research projects that involved diverse skill sets and expertise. Academic writing, by definition, must
follow certain rules and conventions. Among the most important of these are the rules and conventions about citing,
referencing, attributing, and acknowledging the works of others. That means giving proper credit wherever due. Citing
is the practice of quoting from, referring to other authors’ works and ideas in the text of our work in such a way that
the context is clear to the reader. Referencing is the listing of the full publication details of a published work that is
cited to give background information to the readers. Acknowledgment in research publications indicates contributions
to scientific work. However, acknowledgment, attributions, and citations differ in the manner of their application.
Acknowledgment is arguably more personal, singular, and simply an expression of appreciations and contribution. In
this chapter, we address these issues in detail apart from the legal challenges when attributions and citations are not
adequately done.
Citations: Functions and Attributes
Citations (references) credit others for their work, while allowing the readers to trace the source publication
if needed. Any portion of someone else’s work or ideas in papers, patents, or presentations must be used in any new
document only by clearly citing the source. This applies to all forms of written sources in the form of texts, images,
sounds, etc. and failure to do may be considered plagiarism which will be described in detail in subsequent chapters
of this book. One should avoid distress and embarrassment by learning exactly what to cite. Depending on the exact
type of material, the researcher may need to give due credit to the creator of the original source. The growth of
knowledge in any field of study, especially in technological fields, is primarily incremental and a researcher invariably
and naturally builds upon prior information. There are well-established means of preventing and spreading knowledge
through publication of patents, papers (conference paper and the peer-reviewed journal paper), or articles, and through
textbooks and classrooms. While it is true that research needs to leverage the prior art around research interest to
make further development, at the same time it is important to ensure that credit for that existing knowledge is suitably
acknowledged.
When a bibliography of previously published patents or papers is placed in the new works of a researcher, a
connection is established between the new and previous work. As per relevance to context, the researcher provides
due credit using a citation. Citations help the readers to verify the quality and importance of the new work and
justification of the findings. It is a way to tell readers that certain material in the researcher’s present work has come
from another source and as an ethical responsibility, appropriate credit has been given to the original author or writer.
Materials that can be cited include journal papers, conference proceeding, books, theses, newspaper articles, websites,
or other online resources and personal communication. Preferably, citations should be given at the end of a sentence
or the end of a paragraph as can be seen even in this paragraph. Citation must contain enough details so that readers
can easily find the referenced material.
A researcher needs to cite each source twice:
(i) In-text citation, in the text of the article exactly where the source is quoted or paraphrased, and
(ii) A second time in the references, typically at the end of the chapter or a book or at the end of a
research article.

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Most citation styles have the same or similar elements, but differ on the order of elements and layout. Unless
otherwise specifically required by a particular journal or a book, one may choose any style of one’s choice if one is
consistent. The citation elements differ and so what is to be recorded can differ from one source to another. It is also
important to mention the date the source was published and sometimes also the date it was accessed by the researcher
if it is related to web content. LaTeX, a document preparation system often used by engineering researchers to
automatically format documents that comply with standard formatting needs, is very effective to track and update
citations. LaTeX has a steep learning curve and will be repeatedly used in this book to address different issues
pertaining to technical writing which is intimately linked with research for engineers.
There are three main functions of citation:
(i) Verification function: Authors have a scope for finding intentional or unintentional distortion of
research or misleading statements. Citation offers the readers a chance to ascertain if the original
source is justified or not, and if that assertion is properly described in the present work
(ii) Acknowledgment function: Researchers primarily receive credit for their work through citations.
Citations play crucial role in promotion of individual researchers and their continued employment.
Many reputed organizations and institutes provide research funding based on the reputations of
the researchers. Citations help all researchers to enhance their reputation and provide detailed
background of the research work.
(iii) Documentation function: Citations are also used to document scientific concepts and historical
progress of any technology over the years. Citations are the currency that authors would wish to
accumulate and the technical community gives them credit for these contributions.
When other authors make citations, they honour those who initiated the ideas. Authors demonstrate their
comprehension skills by identifying, estimating, and incorporating other’s research work and then create and express
their own ideas precisely while acknowledging ownership of ideas through citation. Authors should cite sources to
indicate significance of the work to the reader. Relevant citations help authors develop an easily understandable
argument and prevent the need to navigate through work irrelevant to the reader’s interest areas. Failure to cite
appropriately infringes on the rights of the researcher who did the original work.
There are certain cases when references do not fulfil the actual goal of citations and acknowledgments, and
thus do not benefit the reader.
1. Spurious citations: In certain cases, when citation is not required or an appropriate one is not found, if
the author nevertheless goes ahead with including one anyways, it would be considered as a spurious citation. These
sorts of citations do not add any value to the reader in terms of properly understanding the paper. Such actions result
in loss of time of the reader or reviewer in looking for the cited paper that is otherwise not relevant. Just as due credit
should be given to a paper through citation, inappropriate credit must be avoided so that the credibility of a research
work or of the journal or conference proceedings where that paper is published is not lost through this sort of
carelessness.
2. Biased citations: When authors cite the work of their friends or colleagues despite there being no
significant connection between the two works, or when they do not cite work of genuine significance because they do
not wish to give credit in the form of citation to certain individuals, then such actions can be classified as biased
citations. Neglect of citations to prior work whose conclusions or data contradict the current work is also biased.
3. Self-citations: There is nothing wrong in citing one’s prior work if the citation is relevant. Self-citation of
prior papers is natural because the latest paper is often a part of a larger research project which is ongoing. Sometimes,
it is also advantageous for the reader because citations of all the related works of the same author are given in one
paper and this may reduce the effort of the reader in trying to find the full versions of those papers. However, it is
helpful and ethical only if all the papers are relevant to the present work. However, there can also be negative impact
on the journal as well as individual researchers due to inappropriate and irrelevant self-citations. Self-citations in such
cases may be either spurious or biased or even both. Editors of journals who ignore such types of citations and allow
by negligence or otherwise, to be included in published materials end up directly or indirectly altering the impact factor
of those publications.
4. Coercive citations: Despite shortcomings, impact factors remain a primary method of quantification of
research. One side effect is that it creates an incentive for editors to indulge in coercion to add citations to the editor’s
journal. Even if not explicitly stated, the implied message is that the author could either add citations or risk rejection.
Such demands consequently diminish the reputation of the journal. From the above discussions, it is clear that the
author(s) must maintain a balance between too few and too many citations. At the same time, author(s) must give
credit whenever due even if it is their own work.

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Impact of Title and Keywords on Citations

The citation rate of any research paper depends on various factors including significance and availability of
the journal, publication types, research area, and importance of the published research work. Other factors like length
of the title, type of the title, and selected keywords also impact the citation count.
Title is the most important attribute of any research paper. It is the main indication of the research area or
subject and is used by researcher as a source of information during literature survey. Title plays important role in
marketing and makes research papers traceable. A good title is informative, represents a paper effectively to readers,
and gains their attention. Some titles are informative but do not capture attention of readers, some titles are attractive
but not informative or related to the readers’ research area. The download count and citation of a research paper
might be influenced by title.
There are three different aspects which provide a particular behaviour to the title:
(i) Types of the title
(ii) Length of the title, and
(iii) Presence of specific markers.
Stremersch analysed title characteristics of the papers published during 1990–2002 in research and studied
relationship between title characteristics and citation, which concluded that title length positively affects the number
of citations. In another study, Sagi and Yechiam found that highly amusing titles have fewer citations and pleasant
titles have no significant relation with citations.
In yet another study, Jacques and Sebire analysed different papers’ titles and their citations hit for 25 most-
cited and 25 least-cited research and review papers of a particular genre of journals, and found a strong association
between title lengths and citation rates, with highly cited articles having more than twice as many words in the title
compared with lower cited papers. Jamali and Nikzad analysed several open access papers and found that articles with
question-type titles are downloaded more but poorly cited compared to the descriptive or declarative titles. Declarative
titles are downloaded and cited less than descriptive titles but difference is not much.
As per analysis of Habibzadeh and Yadollahie, longer titles are strongly associated with higher citation rates.
Longer titles mainly include the study methodology and/or results in more detail, and so attracts more attention and
citations. In general, titles containing a question mark, colon, and reference to a specific geographical region are
associated with lower citation rates, also result-describing titles usually get citations than method-describing titles.
Additionally, review articles and original articles usually receive more citations than short communication
articles. At least two keywords in the title can increase the chance of finding and reading the article as well as get more
citations. Keywords represent essential information as well as main content of the article, which are relevant to the
area of research. Search engines, journal, digital libraries, and indexing services use keywords for categorization of the
research topic and to direct the work to the relevant audience.
Keywords are important to ensure that readers are aware about research articles and their content. If
maximum number of allowable keywords are used, then the chance of the article being found increases and so does
the probability of citation count of the article. Usage of new keywords should be minimal as such keywords may not
be well known to the research community and so may lead to low visibility of the article.
Knowledge Flow through Citation
Knowledge flows through verbal communications, books, documents, video, audio, and images, which plays
a powerful role in research community in promoting the formulation of new knowledge. In engineering research,
knowledge flow is primarily in the form of books, thesis, articles, patents, and reports. Citing a source is important for
transmission of knowledge from previous work to an innovation. Production of knowledge can be related to the
citation network. Knowledge flow happens between co-authors during research collaboration, among other
researchers through their paper citation network, and between institutions, departments, research fields or topics, and
elements of research. Figure below shows the relationship between citations, knowledge flow, and elements such as
researchers, papers, journal publications or conferences, and institutions. If paper A is cited by paper B, then
knowledge flows through citation networks across institutions. The complex interdisciplinary nature of research
encourages scholars to cooperate with each other to grab more advantages through collaboration, thereby improving
quality of the research. Sooryamoorthy examined the citation impact of the South African publications among
different collaboration types, discipline, and sectors, and observed that co-authored publications had more citations
than single author paper and there was a positive co-relation between number of authors and the number of citations.
Figure below shows a relationship between co-authorship and different types of citations. Three articles (X, Y, and Z)
and five references (X1, X2, X3, Y1, and Y2) of article X and Y, respectively, are considered. A, B, and C are authors

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of article X, and D, E, F, G, and also A are authors of article Y. Article Z has two authors H and E. References X1,
X2, X3, Y1, and Y2 have authors (A, P), (H, R), (D), (Q, B, F), and (R), respectively.
Based on co-authorship citation network, references X1 and Y1 are considered self-citation, reference X3 is
a level-1 co-author citation because author of article Y is direct collaborator of author A, reference X2 is a level-1 co-
author network because author A is collaborator of E who collaborated with H. We conclude that papers which
frequently cite collaborators will also often cite collaborators of collaborators. Collaborations certainly impact citation
counts.

Figure: Citation-based knowledge flow

Citing Datasets
The nature of engineering research has evolved rapidly and now relies heavily on data to justify claims and
provide experimental evidences and so data citations must fetch proper credit to the creator of the dataset as citations
of other objects like research articles. Data citations should have provisions to give credit and legal attribution to all
contributors, enable identification and access, while recognizing that a specific style may not apply to all data.
Ascertaining the ownership of data can be a complicated issue especially with large datasets, and issues of funding can
also make it a difficult matter. A researcher should obtain necessary permission for using data from a particular source.
Citations related to datasets should include enough information so that a reader could find the same dataset again in
the future, even if the link provided no longer works. It is proper to include a mixture of general and specific
information to enable a reader to be certain that the search result is the same dataset that was sought.

Figure: Co-authorship network

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Styles for Citations

Citation styles differ primarily in the order, and syntax of information about references, depending on
difference in priorities attributed to concision, readability, dates, authors, and publications. Some of the most common
styles for citation (as well as other aspects of technical writing) used by engineers are as follows:
1. ASCE style (American Society of Civil Engineers)
(a) Reference list: This part is to be placed in the bibliography or references at the end of the article or report.
A template with example for the same is given below:

(b) In-text citation for journals or books: The following part is to be placed right after the reference to the
source of the citation assignment:

2. IEEE style (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

IEEE style is standard for all IEEE journals and magazines, and is frequently used for papers and articles in
the fields of electrical engineering and computer science. The IEEE style requires endnotes and that references be
cited numerically in the text. Those submitting to an IEEE publication should see guidelines for the specific journal
or magazine and may also refer to the complete IEEE editorial style manual. Some examples of IEEE styles of
citations for different types of sources are enumerated below:

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3. ASME style (The Association of Mechanical Engineers)

Acknowledgments and Attributions

Acknowledgment section is a place to provide a brief appreciation of the contribution of someone or an
organization or funding body to the present work. If no guideline is available for the intended publication, then it can
be introduced at the end of the text or as a footnote. Acknowledgment is a common practice to recognize persons or
agencies for being responsible in some form or other for completion of a publishable research outcome.
Acknowledgment displays a relationship among people, agencies, institutions, and research. In some case, certain
individuals may help in the research work but may not deserve to be included as authors. As a sign of gratitude, such
contributions should be acknowledged. Classification of acknowledgment into six different categories like moral,
financial, editorial, institutional or technical, and conceptual support.
Acknowledgments and attributions are also very important in the publications of journal or conference
papers. Giving proper credit wherever it is due is very important and even if the contribution is minor, it should not
be neglected. A researcher should always recognize the proprietary interest of others. Whenever possible, author shall
give name of persons who may be responsible, even if nominally, for designs, inventions, writings, or other
accomplishments. Given the importance of work published, authorship is also important. The reward triangle theory
shows a relationship between citations, acknowledgment, and authorship.
In engineering research, acknowledgments are meant for participating technicians, students, funding agency,
grant number, institution, or anyone who provide scientific inputs, shared unpublished results, provided equipment,
or participated in discussions.
What Should Be Acknowledged?
Every author should know that what should/should not be acknowledged. Author should acknowledge
quotation, ideas, facts, paraphrasing, funding organization, oral discussion or support, laboratory, and computer work.
i. Quotation: In technical writing such as in the field of engineering, quotes are used very rarely. Quotations
are of two types:
• Direct quotations are used when author use actual words or sentences in the same order as the
original one. Author should use quotation marks for the words or sentences with proper
acknowledgment.
• Indirect quotation summarizes or paraphrases the actual quote. In such cases, it is important to
acknowledge with proper name and date.
ii. Authors should acknowledge people who give appropriate contribution in their research work. Non-research
work contributions are not generally acknowledged in a scientific paper but it may be in a thesis. Persons
must be acknowledged by authors, who gave a scientific or technical guidance, take part in some discussions,
or shared information to author. Authors should acknowledge assistants, students, or technicians, who
helped experimentally and theoretically during the research work.
iii. If the researcher received grant from a funding agency and if those funds were used in the work reported in
the publication, then such support should always be acknowledged by providing full details of the funding
program and grant number in the acknowledgment section. The authors should also gratefully acknowledge
use of the services and facilities of any centre or organization with which they are not formally affiliated. An
example of acknowledgment of grant received is as follows:
If there are any concerns that the provision of the information provided in acknowledgment may
compromise the anonymity dependent on the peer review policy of a particular journal or conference
proceedings, the author(s) may withhold the acknowledgment information until the submission of the final
accepted manuscript. Many technical journals explicitly discourage authors to thank the reviewers in their
article submissions. This could be construed as favouritism or an attempt to encourage reviewers to accept
their manuscript for reasons other than scientific merit.
iv. Acknowledging that results have been presented elsewhere: If the results were presented as an abstract in a
journal, then there should be a suitable citation. If the results were presented as part of scientific meeting,
symposium, or other gathering, then some relevant information should be provided. At the very least, the

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name of the gathering and year should be cited. Other helpful items include the location of the gathering
(city and state or country) and the full date of the occasion.
By acknowledging all help received in one’s research work, the author(s) demonstrate integrity as a researcher,
which in turn encourages continued collaboration from those who helped in different ways. One may also
appropriately bolster one’s colleagues’ careers, as being credited in an acknowledgment section is emerging as one of
many ways a researcher’s professional impact is evaluated. Acknowledgment is no longer simply a means of expressing
gratitude.
Funding agencies these days often require that their grant be acknowledged and explicitly state the exact
information to be provided if the research work leads to a publication. The grantee is responsible for assuring that an
acknowledgment of support is made in any publication (including websites) of any direct or indirect outcomes from
the funded project. The format of required information is often explicitly stated in the terms and conditions of grants
provided.
Acknowledgments are also appropriate in technical presentations. Failure to acknowledge funding may result
in the discontinuation of current funding and/or ineligibility to receive future funding for a certain number of years
or indefinitely. Unless the information can be considered “common knowledge,” proper attribution of an idea,
algorithm, computational methodology, or experimental design is required even if a journal operates with double-
blind review.
Acknowledgments in Books Dissertations, Dedication or Acknowledgments?
A page of acknowledgments is usually included at the beginning of a thesis/ dissertation immediately
following the table of contents. These acknowledgments are longer than the one or two sentence statements in journal
papers or articles in conference proceedings. These detailed acknowledgments enable the researcher to thank all those
who have contributed in completion of the research work. Careful thought needs to be given concerning those whose
inputs are to be acknowledged and in what order. Generally, one should express appreciation in a concise manner and
avoid emotive language. The following are often acknowledged in these types of acknowledgments: main supervisor,
second supervisor, peers in the lab, other academic staff in the department, technical or support staff in the
department, colleagues from other departments, other institutions, or organizations, former students, family, and
friends.
Dedication is almost never used in a journal paper, an article in a conference proceeding, or a patent, and it
is used exclusively in larger documents like books, thesis, or dissertations. While acknowledgments are reserved for
those who helped out with the book in some way or another (editing, moral support, etc), a dedication is to whomever
the author would like it to be dedicated to, whether it is the author’s mother, the best friend, the pet dog, or Almighty
God. And yes, it is possible to dedicate something to someone while also mentioning them in the acknowledgments.
For example, one may dedicate a book to one’s spouse, but acknowledge them for being the moral support
and putting up with when one got very stressed. The acknowledgments in technical books can be sometimes as brief
as the ones in journal articles. The acknowledgment section of a technical report may be a paragraph that is longer
than a journal paper but shorter than dissertations. Generally, the length of the acknowledgment may have some
correlation with the length of the document.

Dr K R N Aswini