This guide that has been designed for new students, fellow Researchers or anyone who is interested in research. In this modern day, the difference between a academic student and an “Industry-ready” academic student, is the ability to transfrom education to applied education.
This is one of the key outstanding attributes within the LIFS Institute, hence this guide seeks to advice and recommend ways a researcher can initiate and embark on a research project.
What is Research
“American sociologist Earl Robert Babbie, defines “Research as a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict and control the observed phenomenon, whilst other scholars have simply defined research as “systematic investigation”. In carrying out this systematic research various methods, tools, processes and procedures are applied. Of importance to a Researcher is the ability to properly formulate research questions pertaining to the subject matter. We acquire new knowledge or contribute to existing knowledge, hence the need for backround research and literature review of your research project. Open sources, past research papers, books, journals, internet aticles provide a rich source of primary or secondary sources.
At Hallym University, the University operates an online library database Hallym Online Library which also acts as gateway to other paid journals and publication materials. The Practise of Social Research Various sources provide research papers and material, in finding these papers it is critical to be able to segment your research question or research topic into various integrating units.
Please refer to a practical contextual example below, On how to embark/start a research project or idea.
Research Topic/Research Question
“Data acquisition from a Samsung Smart TV” – This Research topic can be segmented into 4 (four) various research units, with each unit needing its own respective research papers/material. This topic, two or more questions can be made that will need answering through research and data.
- How can data be acquired from a Samsung Smart TV?
- What type of data can be found from the Samsung Smart TV?
Now planning your Research or finding out how to get materials and sources for this project, the 4 units area
- Digital Forensic- An already existing science detailing processes to gather or acquire, store and process digitally sound evidence, and past work has been conducted in Digital Forensic Science.
- Data Acquisition- Standard process of getting signals from devices, converting them into digital- numeric values and manipulating them to produce actionable information. Find research papers on Digital Data acquisition, procedures done and investigating the device (Smart TV’s) irrespective of TV brands.
- Samsung – In this context, Samsung is a manufacturer and provider of the device under research, hence every material on Samsung as an organization, Samsung products (TV), standards, hardware configurations, software products for the Smart TV (Operating System, Applications or TV architectural designs amongst others), would be very important for the research project.
- Smart TV- The device under investigation is an electronic device with capabilities to connect to other networks using various means such as Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi, 4G etc, hence research will need past or current papers on Smart TV, its operation, architecture, components, and firmware.
Writing the Research
As mentioned ealier on, Research or investigation is a scientific process, that takes plannng and during execution, a process or procedure that can be followed step by step to verify or validate results
Basic Research writing process
- Research Introduction (Problem Definition)
- Literature Analysis and Review
- Methodology and Tools
- Data Collection /Design
- Interpretation and Analysis of Findings/Results
- Comments, Recommendations, Conclusions
- Referencing and Citations