Systematic approach to prepare a technical research

paper
P. M. Menghal , Asst. Professor
Military College of Electronics &
Mechanical Engineering,
Secunderabad, 500 015 , AP, India
prashant_menghal@ yahoo.co.in
A. Jaya Laxmi, Associate
Professor, Dept. of EEE,
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological
University Kukatpally, Hyderabad-
500085, AP, India
ajl1994@yahoo.co.in
K. Uma Rao, Professor, Dept. of
EEE, R V College of Engineering,
Mysore Road, Bangalore-560059
Karnataka, India
drumarao@yahoo.co.in

Abstract— A major problem that young researchers face is their
inability to write good research papers. Publication of research
work is important for two reasons: To improve the professional
profile of the author and to share the research knowledge with
others, so that the wheel is not reinvented again and again. The
last decade has seen a prolific increase in professional colleges
across India, exponentially increasing the number of people
pursuing research. Many of the researchers are not clear about
what constitutes research, which areas of research can be taken
up, how to compare their research with existing published work
in the field and finally how to publish their research work. This
paper is intended to address these issues and guide young
researchers to publish their research work.
Key words— Objective, Literature survey, style, Graph,
Discussion,
I. INTRODUCTION
“Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of
paper until drops of sweat form on your forehead” Gene
Fowler. The research you have conducted is obviously of
vital importance and must be read by the widest possible
audience. A major problem that young researchers face is
their inability to write good research papers. This paper is
meant to be a guideline on the various stages involved in
writing a technical research paper and how to
systematically present the research work . It contains ideas
that have been gained through experience. Skilled authors
will find themselves familiar with these ideas. Fortunately,
with so many engineering journals (print and on-line),
International Conferences and symposium across the globe,
research publication is relatively easier today. Nevertheless,
the research paper must be constructed in an approved
manner and presented with the highest possible standards.
Editors and assessors ,without doubt, will look adversely
on scruffy manuscripts – regardless of the quality of the
engineering research work. All manuscripts are constructed
in a similar manner, although some notable exceptions
exist, like the format used by Nature. Such exceptions are
unlikely to trouble you in the early stages of your research
career. The object of writing a research paper could be one
of the following:
 Review the status in a particular area.
 Communicate new ideas.
 Share and Convince people of your new
approach/method/algorithm etc.
 Describe experiments and discuss the results.
 Permit others to use your work.
This paper focuses on guiding young researchers to write a
good technical research paper. The paper is structured as
follows:
 Title of the paper
 What Constitutes Research?
 How to do Literature Survey?
 Definition of Objective.
 Presentation of mathematical Model.
 Plotting of results
 Language and style
 Conclusion
 Plagiarism
II. SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO PREPARE A RESEARCH PAPER
Generally, researchers write paper on their research when
their mathematical analysis, simulation and experimental work
is completed and they feel that the results are unique and there
is an advancement in knowledge in a particular field. Any
research paper contains abstract, introduction, simulation and
experimental results as well as analysis of results including
Figures or Tables and references. Preparing a good
introduction is always a difficult task and is best written in the
end after writing the main paper, so as to ensure that the
introduction aptly supports and highlights the research work
presented in the paper. From the introduction, any reader
should get a comprehensive idea about your research and feel
motivated to read your whole paper, if they are interested in
the field of research. Introduction should cover a brief
literature survey, current status of the problem, probable
solution and methods used to resolve this problem and
limitations of other existing algorithms, processes or methods.
The introduction should conclude what you intend to present
in the paper , as done in the introduction section of this paper.
The second important aspect of writing the paper is editing.
A few interesting quotes on editing:
“I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.”
James Michener
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it
right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.” Robert
Cormier
“The time to begin writing an article is when you have
finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to
clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to
say.” Mark Twain. Edit the paper completely, section by
section, to ensure that your presentation is not ambiguous
anywhere. To summarize, your abstract and introduction give
the reader the motivation to read further. We will now proceed
to other important aspects of paper presentation.
A. Title of the Reserch Paper
Getting a paper published is one thing. Writing a paper that is
a “good read” requires additional skill and thought. The title is
the first line anybody reads and hence the most important.
Consider it as the signpost that tells the reader what your
paper is about and encourages them to invest time in your
paper. Titles must be functional, should be direct, and need
not be dull. Use simple language. Be concise, memorable, and
informative, with an edge to alert the browsing reader and
encourage them to read on, and with just enough detail for the
focused reader to recognize the paper for which they have
been searching. Use words such as new, novel, unique,
detailed, systematic , model, simulation, etc. to indicate that
there is some novelty in the work you have done. Titles that
are too clever or whimsical may briefly interest a browser but
may be missed by the purposeful reader. Avoid being very
short and cryptic.
B. What Constitutes Research
A short definition of research, as given by Booth, Colomb,
and Williams (Booth et al., 1995) is “gathering the
information you need to answer a question and thereby help
you solve a problem” . Research may be defind as “Hunting
for facts or truth about a subject” as well as “Organized
scientific investigation to solve problems, test hypotheses,
develop or invent new products.” Research must be
systematic and any of the following can fall into the category
of research:
 An original idea.
 Improvement of an existing idea.
 New algorithms to solve an existing problem.
 Simualtion models.
 New application of existing algorithms.
 Improvement in control stategies.
 Critical review of literature in a specific area.
 Comparative study of existing methods,solutions,
models, etc. in a particular domain.
 Developments of new materials, products.
 New processes
Fig.1 shows steps for conducting reserch work. Research is
generally cyclic, going from one solution, to another problem
and so on. Therefore, your paper should help to continue the
chain of research.
Fig.1 Steps for Conducting Research
C. How to Do Literature Survey
Literature survey is the key element of any research. It helps
to gain a perspective of the work already existent in the area of
your interest, and also aids in giving a wholistic picture of the
whole problem. Reviewing literature also allows you to
understand how others have approached or dealt with the
problem. Further, you get an idea of the scope of work which
can be continued in the area. A thorough literature review,
itself could be written as a well documented paper, giving the
reader an overall perception of the problem on hand, along
with the references. When you write a review, you should
consider including technological trends in the area, recent
promising developments and open ended problems.
In your research paper, keep the literature survey brief , at the
same time ensuring that major milestones in the field are
mentioned. Connect the review to your work, the problems
which provided motivation for your work, and highlight the
methodology of your work and its significant contribution in
the field. The motivation should not be too elaborate; simply
two or three good reasons which are enough to state why your
research is important. Following care must be taken while
carrying out literature survey:-
 Read the latest published papers.
 To get the complete insight of the problem, take back
references quoted in the latest papers and go through
them.
 Understand the way the research in the area has
evolved.
 Foucs on the abstract and conclusion of each paper.
 Don’t miss the discussions, if any, in the papers !
 Read all journals in that reserch area, including open
access journals.
 Do a critical review of every paper.
 See what further work can be carried out.
 Get an insight into possible improvements.
 Group the papers surveyed into meaningful segments
such as papers on modelling, on simulation, on
control, etc, all of which are relevant to your area.
  If your review is exhaustive and meaningful, prepare
a review paper and publish it! .
D. Objective
Once you have selected a topic for your research paper and
are through with the literature survey , one of the things that
you might be struggling with is to state the clear objective of
your paper. Proper statement of the objective is vital, for it
gives an idea about your work to the reader. You can get
clarity on a proper statement for your objective by answering a
few questions:
 What motivated your work ?
 What was the problem to which your research
provides a solution?
 What result do you want to project at the end?
 How is your work better than the papers you had
surveyed?
The objective should be clearly stated in the abstract of the
paper in brief, and discussed slightly more in detail in the
introduction.
E. Wrting the Abstract
The abstract is what a person always reads first in a technical
paper. Based on the content of the abstract, the reader will
decide whether the paper is worthy enough to merit further
study. The abstract should classify your research and indicate
the contribution in the research areas. It should contain the
following four parts : a brief introduction describing the
discipline that the paper belongs to; a clear and concise
statement of your problem; a brief explanation of your
solution and its key ideas; a brief description of the results
obtained and their impacts. Abstracts are usually the only part
of the paper freely available via electronic search engines and
are read by more people than the rest of the paper. It is
therefore crucial, to sum up your paper in 200–300 words.
Structured abstracts are now the norm for papers that report
original research. These provide a format that requires authors
to summarise their work systematically by disclosing context,
objectives, design, setting, participants, interventions, main
outcome measures, results, and conclusions. Structured
abstracts thus are informative and help peer reviewers and
readers.
F. Mathematical Model
This section should describe, in logical sequence, how your
study was designed and carried out, mathematical models if
any, algorithms or flow charts, and finally how you analysed
your data. Present your equations, flowcharts, simulation
models in detail, so that the reader can clearly understand the
approach to the problem. The following are some good habits:
 If you are using existing mathematical models, quote
the reference and give only final equations you have
used. Details can be had from the reference, by an
interested reader.
 If you are developing a new model give all steps, so
that a researcher may duplicate your work if
necessary.
 State and highlight the assumptions made, if any.
 Give clear notations and meaning of the
abbreviations.
 Give references to standard algorithms, mathematical
tools, charts etc., if you have used them.
 Use equation editor for writing equations, avoid
using an image of equations, as this does not read
well on print.
G. Plotting of Graphs
The graphs should be plotted and put in an aesthetic and
presentable form. You need not present every scrap of data
that you have collected or all the results you have generated.
Normally, there is a restriction on the number of pages in a
research paper, and so present only what is important.
 You can use MATLAB or SIMULINK for plotting.
 Generally many simulation tools such as simulink,
Pspice, VHDL, etc. generate the plots on a black
background. These figures are unreadable when
printed. Flip image background colour and plot them
with a white background and coloured graphs. .
 Bar charts can be used to highlight comparison of
features.
 Excel can also be used for plotting.
 Clearly mention the axes legends and titles on the
plots.
 Quote references, if you are using a plot from an
existing source.
H. Language & Clarity
“One should use common words to say uncommon things”
― Arthur Schopenhauer. Check the language and style used
in your paper. This is any author’s greatest challenge. Use a
writing style guide. IEEE Computer Society recommends The
Chicago Manual of Style for papers submitted to IEEE; it is
not a bad idea to study the book prior to publishing papers.
Also, have a dictionary within reach; Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary is recommended by IEEE Computer
Society. Use a spell checker program on your document.
Evaluate the clarity and purpose of each paragraph: does it
meet its objectives? Are the objectives well stated at the
beginning? Is there a paragraph or a sentence at the end of
each section that concludes whether the objectives and
purposes have been met? Always ask yourself whether a
concept that you detail will be clearly understood. Never
assume that the reader will know how you think and never
expect that he can guess what was in your mind when you
wrote the text. Use consistent and conventional notation: “x, y,
z” are real numbers, “i, j, k” are integers, “α,π, μ” are
parameters, etc. Avoid recycling of identifiers, and do not
introduce an identifier unless you will use it later in the paper.
If possible, ask one of your friends/colleagues to read your
paper and test for its clarity. Style is the way the ideas are
presented. The style should be simple and easily understood.
“Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That
is the only secret of style”, Matthew Arnold.
III. RESULTs & DISCUSSION
The results section answers the question “What was found?” It
reports the results of the investigation(s) described in the
methods section, and it usually does not contain interpretation
of data or statements that require referencing. It is composed
of words, Figures, Simulation results, hardware and
analytical results, in the form of tables, graphs, plots, etc.
(a) Analysis
Analysis can be of two types: qualitative and quantitative. The
former means to show some properties (qualities) of your
solution, while the latter means to show some performance
aspects of your solution. Qualitative analysis is usually proof
of correctness, however it could also be proof that the solution
possesses some desired property. For algorithms or protocols,
a proof of correctness is always welcome. Quantitative
analysis is mostly performance analysis. It is important to
explain what performance metric you use and why you have
selected the specific metric. Choosing a metric that has been
widely used will make the comparison to other existing
solutions easier. Common metrics are computation time,
memory required, cost, ease of control, accuracy of results,
etc. The quantitative metrics should be neatly presented in the
form of a table or graph, to highlight the present work, and
compare it with others. Graphs are preferred to tables as the
information content is immediately perceived.
(b) Simulation and Experimentation
Depending on your budget and available time, you may have
performed simulations or even some experiments. In either
case, it is important to describe the environment of your
experiments or simulations. This includes stating the
parameters and conditions of the environment (simulated or
real), what measurements were taken and how they were
taken. You need to establish the fact that your simulation or
experiment results are statistically stable, meaning that they
are representative of the space of possible results. Performing
experiments and simulations is a subtle matter, always putting
the validity of your data at risk in many aspects. Before you
perform the simulation or experiment, educate yourself on
how to perform simulations, how to interpret the results and
how to present them in graphs and figures. Get to know the
limitations of the simulation tool you are using.
Each figure (or graph) presented as result, should be well
explained. Dedicate at least a few sentences to discuss the
result. Describe what the reader sees in each figure and what
he should notice. Moreover, reason on the results—are they
the way they were expected to be? Avoid giving tables of
numerical data as means of presenting your results, without
adding discussion on the contents of the table. Compare the
performance of your solution to the performance of one or two
other existing solutions. Usually, when you simulate or
conduct an experiment ,the simulation or experimentation is in
contrast to an existing solution. You have to make sure that
the test scenarios are fair to compare your results with that of
others, and make an argument about the fairness of your
comparison in the paper. A detailed discussion on the analysis
of your data, results obtained in your simulation or
experimentation is necessary, to tell the reader, what more
remains to be done. The discussion will also tell the reader
how your work fitted into the jigsaw puzzle of the original
problem.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this section, you try to wrap up what you have presented in
a tidy package. The conclusions section, similar to the
introduction and related work sections, serves two purposes.
The first is to elaborate on the impacts of using your approach.
The second is to state limitations or disadvantages of your
solution, thus enabling you to provide directions to the reader
for future research in the field. This section should present
your personal interpretation of your results. Critical comments
of your research outcome can also be made.
V. REFERENCECS
Some people call this section ’References Cited’, ’Literature
Cited’, or ’Selected Bibliography’. It is technically incorrect to
just call it a bibliography, because that refers to all literature
citations on any particular subject. This section will contain
only references to works cited within your paper. You should
not use footnotes or end notes in place of this section. There
are several formats that are acceptable for this section, and
corresponding ways to refer to these entries within the text.
You should choose one method and stick to it. Use a
bibliography utility to generate the bibliography. Do not
hesitate to include textbooks in your bibliography; mention
them in the introduction or in the related work section. If you
use software such as latex and bibtex or endnote, the process
of organizing your references can be easier. For example, I
could easily reprocess this document with the IEEE style and
produce a document with the style that the Institute for
Electrical and Electronic Engineers requires for their
publications.
REFERENCE
[1] Haynes RB, Mulrow CD, Huth EJ, Altman DG, Gardner MJ “More
informative abstracts revisited.” Ann Intern Med 1990;113:69–76
[2] Guide to a scientific writing style.
http://voxlibris.claremont.edu/research/lrs /science cit.htm.
[3] IEEE Xplore. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/.
[4] H. S. Stone. “Copyrights and author responsibilities”. IEEE Computer,
25(12):46–51, December 1992.
[5] M Jagdish Kumar “ Literal & Intelligent Plagiarism - Student Beware”
IETE Technical review journal Jan –Feb 2013.
[6] Long M. The Future: Electronic Publishing. In: Hall GM, ed. “How to
Write a Paper” Second edition. London: BMJ Publishing Group,
1998, pp 132– 137.
[7 ] Goldbeck-Wood . “What makes a good reviewer of manuscripts”. BMJ
1998, pp 316:386.
[8] B K Bose “Tips for Getting A Transactions Article Published” Industrial
Electronics Society Newsletter, vol. 53, March 2006
[9] B K Bose “How To Get A Paper Accepted In TRANSACTIONS?”
[10] http/www.theiet.org
 APPENDIX: A WHAT GOES TO AN APPENDIX
Moving text to the appendix is a good way to reduce the pages
of the main portion of your paper, and to preserve the pace of
reading. Appendices usually contain long program codes,
rigorous and tedious proofs, mathematical background of a
key concept which is not well documented, and detailed
instructions of reproducing an experiment. The appendix is
not absolutely necessary to understand the paper. The data
used for experiments, simulations, etc. can be given in the
appendix.
APPENDIX: B SOME USEFUL TIPS
This is not the only guide to scientific writing. There are
numerous, possibly better, guides on the web on how to write
technical papers. Just use a web search engine and you will
find many.
(a) Use the right software tools for preparation
Nearly all papers submitted to reputed journals are prepared
using LATEX . It is a good idea to get acquainted with this
powerful document preparation software. Make good and
readable graphs in the results section. Avoid three-
dimensional graphs, unless necessary to convey a three
dimensional relationship. An excellent tool for generating
graphs is gnuplot, which is free.
(b) Learn from others
There are many well-written papers that you can use to learn
how to write in a technical manner. Good papers can be found
in all journals. IEEE’s Xplore and ACM’s Digital Library
have all their journals and conference proceedings available in
PDF format over the web.You could also look for papers
which received Best Paper awards. Give your paper to one-or-
two trusted persons for review. Ideally, give one copy to a
person who is very familiar with the paper’s focus, and one
copy to a person who is generally familiar with the discipline
of the paper.
(c) Avoid Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the use of another individual’s published work
or unpublished ideas without attribution. Both scientific
papers and grant proposals have been used as targets for
plagiarism within the field of biomedicine. The growing
reservoir of electronic material and its ease of accessibility
have probably facilitated the use of plagiarism to enhance
authors’ apparent productivity. You can mention a publication
with minor contribution, but avoid describing or critiquing it.
Acknowledge your sources. Do not plagiarize and do not
fabricate results. The consequences of such acts can burden
you for a lifetime[5].
(d) What you should avoid
Do not cite references in the abstract. Many times, the abstract
will appear by itself and any citations in it will be pointless.
Do not use custom terminology in the abstract; use terms and
concepts that are widely accepted. Unless a formula is the
epitome of your results, do not write formulae in the abstract.
Doing so would require explaining the terms in the formulas,
which is basically impossible if you want a short and clear
abstract. Avoid repeating in the introduction, sentences which
are in the abstract.
(e)What You should check before Electronics Submission
The internet has revolutionised our lives completely over the
past few years. More and more researchers,academics, and
reseracher are turning to the online version, because they
know that they can access the information they require much
more quickly than searching through piles of paper journals.
We are now travelling at an even greater speed down the
“information superhighway.” A web based submission and
review system is a database held on a website and accessed
via a unique address (URL).Check the following before you
make an electronic submission:
1. Access the website via the URL by using a unique user
identifier and password
2 Enter the author submission area
3 Choose the “Submit a new manuscript” link
4 Enter the manuscript meta-data. This usually consists of the
following basic information: number of authors, type of
article, title, manuscript keywords, abstract, cover letter to the
editors, author details, suggested reviewers' names, and word
count. Most journals ask for extra information, but this is
usually explained in the instructions for authors and on the
submission pages.
5 Enter the number of files you are uploading. This consists of
one file for the actual article plus the number of image files
associated with the manuscript.
6 Search on your computer for your manuscript files and enter
the pathway into the appropriate field (for example: C:/My
documents/Manuscript title).
7 Follow the system's guidance to “upload” the article to the
Website.
8 The article is converted automatically into a pdf. This is
mainly for reviewing purposes and accessibility issues. The
pdf file size is smaller than standard word processing and
image files, and the software required to view it (Acrobat
Reader) is a standard piece of software easily obtained free of
charge from the web (http://www.adobe.com).
9 You then have the opportunity to view your submission
before it is submitted formally to the journal. This allows you
to make sure that what you are submitting is correct and of
peer review standard.
10 Once approved, the article is then considered to be a formal
submission.
Finally “SHARE YOUR RESEARCH”.