GCC603 Scientific Research Methods and Ethics

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Course Description

A brief introduction to characteristics, types and scheduling of research. Research planning and design. Methodologies of research design. Measurement, data analysis. Presenting the results of research.

Prerequisites

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Course Objectives

• To teach the basic steps of scientific research methods.
• To help students improve their ability to make connections across ideas, read carefully, assess the quality of sources on which they or others rely.
• To develop communication skills that required to suggest and discuss scientific questions in the student field of study both written (informal memos and letters, formal project proposals, reports, thesis and journal papers) and oral (presentations, scientific discussions) communication.
• To reinforce students’ sense of professionalism and ethical behavior.
• To assist students in seeing and being able to take advantage of the possibilities for improving the world via research.

Course Outcomes

At the end of the course the student should be able to

• Define basic principles and steps of the scientific research.
• Understand scientific research ethics.
• Formulate a research plan.
• Evaluate literature, form a variety of sources, pertinent to the research objectives.
• Write a scientific research proposal, report and/or paper.
• Present their research work.

Meetings

• Class meets weekly on Monday 16:00-18:50 (Room: VT 1 D04 / Online)

Grading Policy

The tentative point distribution is as follows.

Homeworks	40%
e-Quiz	10%
Project and Presentation	50%

Policies

• Students must use my email address neu.gcc501@gmail.com to submit their assignments and etc.
• Late assignments will not be accepted unless an agreement is reached with the leturer.
• The class grades will be assigned using the Near East University's grading scale.
• Minimum attendance requirement is 70%
• Cheating will not be tolerated.
• Attacks performed against University/Lecturer resources are expressly prohibited.

Textbooks

• Dipankar Deb, Rajeeb Dey, Valentina E. Balas, Engineering Research Methodology: A Practical Insight for Researchers, Springer, 2019.
• Caroline Whitbeck, Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research, 2e, Cambridge University Press, 2011.
• Peter Pruzan, Research Methodology The Aims, Practices and Ethics of Science, Springer, 2016.
• C.R. Kothari, G. Garg, Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques, New Age Int., 2019.

Schedule

Online lecture

Week	Topic	Readings
1	Introduction	Deb Ch1, Kothari Ch1, Pruzan Ch1 & 2
2	Defining the problem	Kothari Ch2
3	Literature Review, Slides: Part 1 Part 2 Homework Assignments and Project.	Deb Ch2, Online Videos: Youtube "Literature Review" , SAGE Research Methods Video
4	Research planning and design Online lecture 1, March 30 (16:00-18:50).	Kothari Ch3, Deb Ch8
5	Writing project proposal NEU Research Proposal Guidelines	Online Videos: Youtube "Writing research proposal"
6	Data Collection Online lecture 2, April 6 (16:00-18:50).	Kothari Ch6
7	Processing and Analysis of Data	Kothari Ch7
8	Technical Writing Online lecture	Deb Ch6
9	Attributions and Citations Online lecture	Deb Ch3
10	Building Intellectual Property Rights Online lecture	Deb Ch4
11 and 12	Ethics in Engineering Research Online lecture	Deb Ch5, Whitbeck
13	Contributions, Arguments, and Dealing with Criticisms Online lecture	Deb Ch7
14	Presentation Skills e-Quiz will be held on May 18 at 16:00.	Deb Ch9
15	Review of the Semester	-
16	Presentations (will be held on June 1 at 16:00)	-

The instructor reserves the right to make changes to the Syllabus as necessary. Students are responsible to be aware of changes announced in class and/or via the internet.