Tips for Writing a Research Paper

Research papers are another way of showcasing your talent. But you still are in confusion as to On what topic should I write?… How to actually write it?… What sections should be included?… and so on…? Well finally you landed on the good page it seems! Let us have some brief about Research papers first.

Research papers are kind of POC (Proof of Concept) where you as a Student, Developer, Faculty or anyone can carry out a detailed study on some topic relevant mostly to technology (Not specific stream but any like Civil, Mechanical, IT). Research papers show how some particular tasks can be achieved not too perfectly but on a preliminary basis. For example, you may read existing papers on Self-driving cars and how they work and upon that existing work, you propose a more concrete or additive solution to that theory!

Usually, there is exactly no such thumb rule as to which format must be followed, but IEEE (One of the reputed organization) has a repository of research papers and people who write to them follow a certain standard.

Components of Research Paper (Ideally)

1. Title: In Center and at the top in Big Fonts (Times new roman preferred by organizations).

2. Author Names: Below the Title, in columnar fashion. If there are multiple authors who can’t fit in columns, you can also list down Author names comma separated.

3. Abstract: This is the smallest section mostly around 60-90 words explaining the overall idea of your research paper, topic or content.

4. Introduction: In this section, explain what you have researched so far, what you are proposing, probably with respect to work which is your strongest section (like Proposed System or Approaches).

5. Related Work: Here, discuss what has been done in the field so far and what has been successful. By which authors, which research papers and so on.

6. Proposed System or Proposed Methodology or Proposed Work: Most important section. This should be very technical yet simple in the language would be the best choice. Here discuss what is your idea and what you propose which should be done in order to add value to the research.

7. Approaches: Again most important section. This is where you would explain the working of your proposed work. For example, You propose an algorithm in the previous section? List down the Algorithm here with example. This is a kind of operational section for your paper.

8. Conclusion and Future work (or Scope): Here you can list down some subtle points or upcoming technologies or approaches. Give a proper conclusion for your paper and then quote some work that you think might be an add-on in the research area in the future.

9. References: It is very important section. Here, you can mention in chronological order, with numbering, existing research paper references as well as website links. Note: While mentioning web links, you should write like Web content available on date 12-Jan-2020 on [Here goes your link].

Important Points:

• The headings except Title, Author names, and References, must be in Roman letters. Like I. INTRODUCTION II.RELATED WORK and so on.
• Whenever you write the content which is already mentioned in some other paper, quote it by giving a small square bracket around it. For Example, This is the statement I am making but already defined in other paper[2]. Number 2 in bracket says that it such statement is already said in Research paper or Web content mentioned at Reference number 2.
• Never copy and paste content directly, unethical as well as it might lead to plagiarism! Write in your own words though however simple it is!
• Last but not the least, do refer other papers as well. They would be most boring to read but would help you to frame your paper.