First Step To Research

To start a research one needs to know that what is happening all-round in the current domain to gather some context. To know this read research papers of that.

The best source of research papers is ‘Google Scholar’ give it the reference to research paper and it will find that paper, But there only the abstract and summary of research paper will be present and never the whole paper. The research papers are normally placed in Digital Libraries of the Universities and if you are not part of the faculty you cannot access it unless you have a reference or you can have membership of organization such IEEE which will give you access to their research paper repositories. If you don’t have either then all you are left with is gathering information using abstract and summary.

Once you have the research paper what you need to do is to first skim it rather then read it. If you find it very relevant to your research topic then you should read it thoroughly while taking notes. After reading write your own summary for it and a small critique for it.

If there are two research paper on the same topic. You can sort them out using the following criteria:

• If it’s published in conference it’s a descent one (Conferences level one and two level only)
• If it’s published in journal then it’s a good one.

It is not about gathering others arguments and mixing it all together and presenting it as your own work this is sheer dishonesty and against the spirit of research. So whenever using an idea which is given by somebody else ALWAYS gives reference to the original idea.