Trends & importance of research in

current scenario :

Connect research &

Connected researcher

S G Deshmukh

ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management Gwalior

FDP on

Multivariate Data A alysis for Ma age e t Research 14 June 2013

Acknowledgement

This presentation is based on extensive

discussions/brain storming sessions with

– Prof R P Mohanty Prof S S Yadav, Prof Ravi Shankar, Prof M K

Tiwari, Prof R S Deshpande, Mr N Ratnaliikar, Dr Jitesh Thakkar

– Thankful to numerous research scholars and faculty

members from various institutes for making us realize

the trends and importance of research in current

scenario

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Prelude

As a prelude, You may look at the presentation

given by me on 23 July 2012 at FDP on Multivariate

Data Analysis for Management Research at ABV-

IIITM Gwalior.

Available at

http://www.slideshare.net/SanjeevDeshmukh

/trends-inmgmtresearchjuly2012sgd

3

Speaking points..

Imperatives

About Research

Part I : Connect Research

– Connecting with oneself, institute, society

Part II: Connected Researcher

– Trend 1 : Collaboration

– Trend 2 : Emergence of social media

– Trend 3 : Alternative Metrics

Closing remarks..

4

ARC view of research

• Attributional

• Relational

• Classificational

• “our e: Deshpa de ‘ “, I stitute for “o ial & E o o i Cha ge, B lore

5

Research in pursuit of knowledge

• Attributional:

– Attributing a measurement (definition) to a

particular Concept.

• Growth, Leadership, Managerial Efficiency

• Relational:

– Relating a phenomenon with its determinants

• Explaining behaviour

• Classificational:

– Understanding by categorizing on the basis of some

indicators

• Taxonomy, Innovators Vs Followers, Leaders Vs Laggards 6

Some basic feature of research

process • Always involves bringing together three sets of things:

some content that is of interest

some ideas that give meaning to that content, and

some techniques or procedures by means of which those ideas and content

can be studied.

• These three sets of things more formally, as three distinct, though interrelated

domains:

The Substantive domain, from which we draw contents that seem worthy of

our study and attention;

The Conceptual domain, from which we draw ideas that seem likely to give

meaning to our results; and

The Methodological domain, from which we draw techniques that seem

useful in conducting that research.

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Stepping into research

• Method and Methodology

– Method refers to the techniques and Methodology to the strategy

• Logic as an Essence of Philosophy

– Inference depends on the law of Causation

– Deductive and Inductive are methods Non Exclusive

– Structuralism as the holistic approach

• Why Philosophy?

– In Search of Knowledge, Understanding of Nature and Meaning of Universe.

– Creation of Theories OR Universality about Basic things.

– In-depth knowledge of a phenomenon

8

Two models : AROHA and AVAROHA

A - Algorithm

A – Approach V - Variables

R – Review A - Arrangement

O - Objectives R - Results

H - Hypothesis O - Objectivity

A - Analysis H – Humanistic

A – Analytical Rigour

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Source: Deshpande R S, Institute for Social & Economic Change, B’lore

How to get into a research topic?

• Searching for new evidence from facts and concluding with a new hypothesis.

• It should be net addition to the existing knowledge or at least a new interpretation of that.

• It should be crystal clear in its meaning.

• It should have a hypothesis which is not a statement of existing facts.

• It should be empirically analyzable.

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How it Should be?

• It should be amenable to the resources at the control of the researcher.

• It must match with the time and budget of the researcher.

• It must allow critical appraisal and stand to the rigourous testing.

• Debate on a topic is different from research, former poses two different points of views whereas, the later provides test of a hypothesis.

• It should be ethically correct. 11

15

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Some aspects of boundary • Discipline Boundary

• Time or Resource Boundary

• Information or Data Boundary

• Contextual boundary

• These boundaries may affect

connectivity !

Observation:

Researchers and research quality

• The profile of researchers in the country is by

and large not very promising

• There is a disconnect between researcher and

his research

• Disconnect between researcher in India and

the Global community

• Not able to penetrate into high quality

original/novel research as recognized by the

international community

Current scenario..

• Collaborative focus

• Interdisciplinary push

• Immediacy factor

• Need for visibility

• Suited to addressing socio-economic

imperatives

• Openness (process, findings, outputs)

Starting points.

• E er thi g is o e ted to e er thi g else

• Connected world view

– E a led i tri si desire to e o e ted – Enabled by research

– Enabled by IT

Two views..

• Classical view

– Research in isolation

– Research is

compartmentalized

– No sharing

• Contemporary view

– Research is connected

– Research cannot be

done in isolation

– Research has to be

connected to society?

Connecting with oneself

• Identify your strengths

• Leverage these strengths

• Develop your research theme

• Develop your glossary

• Develop/use appropriate methodology

• Internalize research (RS must absorb deeply

into the process so that the topic becomes

part of his genetic code or DNA )

Connecting with institution/university

• Understand the research profile of your

institute/university

• Develop friendship /affiliation with other

researchers of the institute/university

• There is an established repository of

knowledge and systemic procedure

embedded in the institute: follow that

• Attempt to fit yourself in the bigger picture

Connecting with industry

• Transfer of knowhow from you to industry

• Understand and appreciate needs of industry

• Establish a dialogue with industry

– E a ple of Vipul Gupta s Ph D ith JK T res

• Invest in some confidence building exercises

• Get feedback and give back your deliverables

Connecting with society

• What is the relevance of your research to

society

• Societal view ?

• Ask some embarrassing questions

– Is my research really relevant to society ?

– Is my research going to change quality of life?

• Keep reflecting on these questions and you

yourself will come out with answers, may be

after getting Ph D !

Part II

Connected Researcher

Trend 1 : Collaboration !

• Sharing of information

• Institutional

collaboration

• Professional networks

• Social networks

Implications

• Sharing of information/Knowledge made easy

• Ope sour e paradig • You must collaborate

• Your collaborator may be anywhere in the

globe!

• Be comfortable with power & influence of

social media !

• ‘esear h . ?

Remark..

New digital technologies are predisposing scholars to an open scholarship of content, knowledge and lear i g (Katz, 2010).

24

Types of scholarly resources

• E-journals

• Reviews

• Pre-prints and working papers

• Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and annotated content

• Data

• Blogs

• Discussion forums

http://www.arl.org/sc/models/models-pubs/search-form.shtml

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Trend 2: Social media

• Social media are tools for social interaction using

Web-based and mobile technologies (Wikipedia).

• These technologies, often referred to as Web 2.0 ,

provide services that support users in generating

and publishing their own content.

• The social interactions developed as a result of

this activity can support engagement with

communities of practice through networking and

other co-operative and collaborative practices.

Connected researcher and social

media • Idea of o e ted resear her is ot alie -

Researchers have always exchanged, shared and

disseminated information through various media:

brain storming sessions, conferences, workshops,

symposiums, doctoral consortia etc,

-Researchers have always built a network of peers,

friends, seniors

• Range of social media tools to facilitate and

support existing behaviours and practices –

– easy and free to use, user friendly !

Social media and researchers

• Use of social media becoming more

widespread amongst researchers

- Social Media : a guide for Researchers

published in February 2011 by RIN -

Digital Researcher Days run by Vitae at the

British Library

Why use social media? ..1..

• Help to build your research profile – sho ase ourself and your work thus facilitating visibility – Allows to build network, Help to explore and leverage research opportunities

Help to get early feedback

– Facilitate your online visibility

• Enhances research - according to CIBER (2010) – Disseminating findings, Identifying Research Opportunities

– Finding collaborators

• “o ial edia prese ts so e opportu ities for etter, faster resear h a d disse i atio CIBE‘

CIBER. 2010. Social media and research workflow? http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/research/ciber/Charleston-2010.pdf

Brabazon, T. 2010. A community of scholars.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=413384

Cann et al. 2011. Social Media: a guide for researchers. http://ht.ly/3TWiR

Why use social media? ..2..

• The connection with:

– Other researchers and Ph D students, both

internal and external

– Research community

– Experts

– Industry

– Society

• Growing need to communicate research

findings to public – these tools make it easier

Why use social media? ..3..

• May save time – use it to har est the isdo of ro ds a d fi d resour es through our et ork

• It a help o er o e the s dro e of isolatio of doi g resear h

• Engages you with a community that cares about

what you care about and in turn share with them

We do t ha e a hoi e o hether e do social

media, the question is how well we do it”. –

Erik Qualman

•

How to do it:

Your digital identity

Ha e a o li e prese e or digital footpri t

Institutional – e.g. information on

institute/university webpages (www.iiitm.ac.in)

Professional – e.g. LinkedIn profile, Academia ,

ReserarchGate

Social media - e.g. Facebook, Twitter

Slideshare , Authorstream

Digital Identity

• A hypothetical example

• Dr TechnoWatch

• Joined xxx in 1995;, a huge multinational.

• Technowatch Community (Leader since 2000 focusing on emerging trends, technologies, and

business issues.

• Current Title: Principal Resesrch Consultant - Social Insights, Corporate Market Insights

• My Identity

Profile = LinkedIn

Community =TechnoWatch

Blogs : Typepad = hhh ; Tumblr = pppp

Twitter ID = Technowatch

Facebook = pppzzz

Scopus Author Code : 17181009

Online presence considerations

• Use social media for your online identity

• Lots of tips available (e.g. Online Research

identity blog post)

• Google scholar citation profiles

Example: Blogs

Blogs are a great way to share information

– Test your ideas out with a wide audience

– Learn from others

– Form new relationships

– Build / manage your online personal brand

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Mendeley : Useful tool

• Mendeley is a free reference

Manager and academic social network that can

help organize research, collaborate with others

online, and discover the latest research.

– Automatically generate bibliographies

– Collaborate easily with other researchers online

– Easily import papers from other research software

– Find relevant papers ased o hat ou re readi g

– Access your papers from anywhere online

www.mendeley.com

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Characteristics of CR

• Connected researcher is IT savvy

• Connected researcher spend more time online

compared to an average researcher

• Connected researcher responds positively to

criticism

• Connected researcher is positively engaged

with the topic

• Connected researcher is also a Contended

researcher 37

Connected research community

Amar Amik Garg

Bakshi

KVS Rao

Sharad

Tripta

Anandan Prof. Sastry

Venkie

Prof Ajit Verma

Prof. Brahma

Prrof Biswas

Prof. G Kaushik

Dr. A D Garg

Ravi

R S Dalu

Avneet

Vipul

Prof. Vargheese

Ramamoorthy

Murali

Prof. Nirmal

Prof. Prateek

Jyoti

Shankar

Prof. Subramanyam

Prof. Veni

Research Scholar

How Emerald measures impact*?

• Citations

• Usage

• Inclusion of research in courseware/

Training material

• Media comment

• Implementation in Practice

• Transformation of Research for new audience

• Awards

*Source http://www.emeraldinsight.com/authors/impact/index.htm

Impact zones of research Source: Emerald Insight

Trend 3: Altmetrics altmetrics is the creation and study of new metrics based on the Social Web for analyzing, and informing scholarship. www.altmetrics.org

• Supplement to traditional peer-reviewed metrics

• Looks at downloads

• Crowdsource peer-re ie

• Many tools currently available: – Google Scholar Profile/citations

– Mendeley

– Total-Impact

– ReaderMeter

Mobile apps for researchers

• Research will go mobile

• ZappyLab is pioneer in creating an ecos-

system which is useful, practical and foolproof

• Currently for medicines..

• http://www.authoraid.info/resource-library

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Closing remarks..

• To be effective researcher, one must be able

connect research with

• Oneself

• Institute

• Industry

• Society

• In contemporary world, researcher must also

be connected . For this Social media offers an

interesting scope

43

References

Bozalek V, N’gambi D & Gachago D (in press) Emerging Technologies in South

African HEIs: Institutional enables and constraints

Eysenbach G (2011) Can Tweets Predict Citations? Metrics of Social Impact Based

on Twitter and Correlation with Traditional Metrics of Scientific Impact. Journal of

Medical Internet Research 13(4). Available at: http://www.jmir.org/2011/4/e123

Thorin SE (2003) Global changes in scholarly communication. In SC Hsianghoo, PWT

Poon and C McNaught (eds) eLearning and Digital Publishing. Dordrecht: Springer.

Available at http://www.springerlink.com/content/w873x131171x2421/

Waldrop M (2008) Science 2.0: Great new tool, or great risk? Scientific American.

Available at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=science-2-point-0-

great-new-tool-or-great-risk

References

• Digital Researcher http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/315321/Digital-

Researcher.html

• Cann, A., Dimitriou, K., Hooley, T., "Social Media : A guide for researchers",

(February), 2011

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-

media-guide-researchers

• Pegrum, M., "'I link therefore I am': network literacy as a core digital literacy", E-

learning and Digital Media 7(4), 346-354 2010 doi:10.2304/elea.2010.7.4.346

• Research Information Network, "If you build it, will they come? How researchers

perceive and use web 2.0", 2010

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/use-

and-relevance-web-20-researchers

• iGoogle http://www.google.com/ig

• Google Reader http://www.google.com/reader

• Fellowship Down http://my.rsc.org/blogs/73

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Thank you

deshmukh.sg@gmail.com

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