HT 2011, Period 1, II2202 Research Methodology and Scientific Writing
Last modified:
Sat Oct 15 08:38:35 CEST 2011
Announcements
Still under development - draft for 2011
Final report due date shifted.
Zotero style
IEEElike-with-access used in the example in
lecture 4.
Friday lab on 9 September will be moved to Thursday 15-17
8 Sept. 15:00-17:00 rooms Ka-C21, Ka-C22 (for sections d-e)
II2202 Research Methodology and Scientific Writing
(II2202 Forskningsmetodik och vetenskapligt skrivande 7,5 hp) is a 7.5
credits course. The course provides the theoretical insight and
practical skills required to plan, implement, analyse and report a
scientific experiment in the area of communication systems.
The main parts of the course are scientific methods of projects
including research methodology, and ethics both theoretical and
practical. It also includes scientific writing, reviewing, and
presentation of texts.
Course Organisation
The course is given in period 1. It is divided into three parts,
where lectures and labs provide support for handling:
- Research Methodology (40%), which is motivating, and preparing as well as performing an
- Evaluation (20%), giving insights in evaluations for scientific research, and a
- Scientific Report (40%), reporting the outcome of the evaluation.
These three parts are examined by a project proposal (or project
plan), a method description and a report as well as a opposition
report. The guidelines for the assignments can be fetched from
Bilda. (Note that you can choose your prefered language when
interacting with Bilda via the Personal->Preferances menu
(Personlight->Inställningar). The choices are English and
Swedish. Activate by clicking on Save (Spar) at the bottom of the
page.)
Assignments
There are four different assignments during the course. Observe
that the assignment must be handed in before deadline to be considered
during the course. Please check the schedule for the deadlines!
Scientific report
The scientific report should have the layout of a scientific paper,
a maximum of five A4 pages in length (atleast 1200 words).
The paper should reflect the number of hours put into it. The report
is assigned 2.5 credits, which means roughly 100 hours of work.
Two people will work together on the paper and each of the parts of
the report must indicate who is the responsible student. Therefore,
make sure you explicitly indicate who has written which section of the paper.
The course is taught in English. All scheduled course activities are
located in Kista.
Information is available on:
The aim of the course is to give the students the theoretical and
practical skills to conduct, analyze and present in written an
experimental task in the area of data commuincation and to give
insight and understanding of research methodology.
Following this course a student should be able to:
- explain and apply techniques for scientific writing and research methodology to prepare the writing of a scientific report.
- perform investigation using methods, explain and take position on the results as well as summarize related work
- apply the knowledge in scientific writing and research methodology and use the knowledge to write a scientific report.
Prerequisites
Good knowledge of English and basic knowledge of data communication.
Contents
The course is divided into three parts where the parts are integrated in a final project. The three parts are:
- report writing
- research methodology
- experimental assignment
Topics
Examination Requirements
- INLA - Assignment 1, 0.5 credits, grade scale: P, F
- INLB - Assignment 2, 1.5 credits, grade scale: P, F
- INLC - Report, 2.0 credits, grade scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F
- INLD - Opposition, 0.5 credits, grade scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F
- VSK1 - Scientific Writing, 3.0 credits, grade scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F
Requirements for final grade
The course is divided into three parts, and to receive a final grade "pass" all three parts must be approved:
- scientific writing (A-F): mandatory participation in lectures and
submission of an approved written report
- research methodology (Pass/Fail): mandatory participation in
lectures and approved home assignments
- experimental assignment (Pass/Fail): mandatory particpation
A higher grade than "pass" is determined by the quality of the
written report. A higher grade requires high quality of the report's
structure, research methodology, summary technique, handling of
references, description of experiment, and analysis of experimental
(measurement) data.
Code of Honor and Regulations
It is KTH policy that there is zero tolerance for cheating, plagiarism, etc. - for details see
KTH startpage->Student->Student rights
See also the KTH Ethics Policies
Staff Associated with the Course
Registering
Use the normal process for registering. For most students this
means you should speak with your study advisor (studievägledare).
Literature
Main Text-Book
The course will mainly be based on the books:
- Peter Bock, Getting It Right: R&D Methods for Science and
Engineering, Academic Press; 1 edition (September 13, 2001), 406
pages, ISBN-10: 0121088529, ISBN-13: 978-0121088521
- Justin Zobel, Writing for Computer Science, Springer; 2nd edition (April 27, 2004),
paperback: 280 pages, ISBN-10: 1852338024, ISBN-13: 978-1852338022;
web page for the book
- Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, The
Craft of Research, 2nd edition (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing,
and Publishing), University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (March 2003),
paperback: 336 pages, ISBN-10: 0226065685, ISBN-13: 978-0226065687
Additional Reference Books
- Angelika H. Hofmann, Scientific Writing and Communication: Papers,
Proposals, and Presentations, Oxford University Press, USA (December
16, 2009), Paperback: 704 pages,
ISBN-10: 0195390059, ISBN-13: 978-0195390056
The books are to be available via the KTH student bookstore - 5th
floor of the Forum building. There will also be copies of all the
textbooks on reserve in the library.
Lecture notes will be available on-line in PDF format. See the
notes associated with each of the course topics.
Supplementary readings
Lecture Plan and Lecture Material (OH slides)
Schedule
The schedule for the course is shown below (Note that in the following
"xx" means "xx:00", not "xx:15".):
Note: The scheduled is subject to changes in times, dates, topics,
and teachers.
Week | Day | Date | Time | Title | Room | Teacher(s) | Notes |
35 | Monday | 29 August | 15:00-17:00 |
Lecture 1: Introduction | Ka-Aula | Anne Håkansson |
36 | Monday | 5 September | 10:00-12:00 |
Lecture 2: Writing powertools, openness, and other
issues | Ka-438 | Gerald Q. Maguire Jr. (same content
as the 15:00-17:00 session; only for those who can not come to the
regularly scheduled session) |
36 | Monday | 5 September | 15:00-17:00 |
Lecture 2: Writing
powertools,
openness, and other issues | Ka-Aula | Gerald Q. Maguire Jr. |
| Tuesday | 6 September | 13:00-15:00 |
Lecture 3: Introduction to
Quantitative and
Qualitative
Methods | Ka-Aula | Mark T. Smith and Anne Håkansson |
| Thursday | 8 September | 13:00-15:00 |
Lab 1: Proposal | Ka-533, Ka-539, Ka-540 |
(a) Mark T. Smith, (b) Anne Håkansson, (c) G. Q. Maguire Jr | sections a-c |
| Thursday | 8 September | 15:00 |
Submit proposal v.0 | | | sections a-c |
| Thursday | 8 September | 15:00-17:00 |
Lab 1: Proposal | Ka-C21 | (d) Dan Wu | sections d |
| Thursday | 8 September | 17:00 |
Submit proposal v.0 | | | sections d |
| Friday | 9 September | 13:00-15:00 |
Lecture 4: Writing:
Common mistakes and Oral presentation techniques | Ka-Aula | Gerald Q. Maguire Jr. |
37 | Monday | 12
September | 10:00-12:00 | Lecture 5: Professionalism and
Ethics in Computing Technology | Ka-Aula | Ellen McGee |
| Monday | 12 September | 23:59 |
Submit proposal v.1 | | | |
| Tuesday | 13 September | 13:00-15:00 | Lecture 6 | Ka-Aula | Ellen McGee |
| Thursday | 15 September | 13:00-17:00 |
Seminar 1: Proposal presentation of revised proposal v.1 | Ka-540 | Mark T. Smith | section a |
| Friday | 16 September | 08:00-12:00 |
Seminar 1: Proposal presentation of revised proposal v.1 | Ka-439, Ka-530, Ka-532 |
(b) Anne Håkansson, (c) G. Q. Maguire Jr (d) Dan Wu | sections b-d |
38 | Monday | 19 September | 10:00-12:00 |
Lecture 7: Quantitative methods (Introduction to
Research and Data Collection Methods (MTS) and
Quantitative tools: R and more (GMSJr and MEN) | Ka-Aula |
Mark T. Smith and Gerald Q. Maguire Jr. |
| Tuesday | 20 September | 13:00-15:00 |
Lecture 8:
Qualitative methods | Ka-Aula | Anne Håkansson |
| Thursday | 22 September | 10:00-12:00 |
Lab 2: Quantitative methods | Ka-531, Ka-532, Ka-540 |
(a) Mark T. Smith, (b) Anne Håkansson, (c) G. Q. Maguire Jr | sections a-c |
| Friday | 23 September | 10:00-12:00 |
Lab 2: Quantitative methods | Ka-C21 |
(d) Dan Wu | section d |
| Friday | 23 September | 23:59 |
Submit proposal v.2 (Method description) | | | |
38 | Monday | 26 September | 08:00-12:00 |
Seminar 2: Revised proposal v2 | Ka-540 | Mark T. Smith | section a |
| Monday | 26 September | 13:00-17:00 |
Seminar 2: Revised proposal v2 | Ka-439, Ka-530, Ka-539 |
(b) Anne Håkansson, (c) G. Q. Maguire Jr., (d) Dan Wu | sections b-d |
| Tuesday | 27 September | 13:00-14:15 |
Lecture 9:
Advanced Qualitative methods | Ka-Aula | Anne Håkansson |
| Wednesday | 28 September | 13:00-15:00 |
Lecture 10:
Advanced quantative methods | Ka-Aula | Gerald Q. Maguire Jr. |
| Thursday | 29 September | 13:00-15:00 |
Lab 3: Qualitative methods | Ka-531, Ka-532, Ka-533 |
(a) Mark T. Smith, (b) Anne Håkansson, (c) G. Q. Maguire Jr | sections a-c |
| Friday | 30 September | 10:00-12:00 |
Lab 3: Qualitative methods | Ka-532 | (d) Dan Wu | section d |
40 | Monday | 3 October | 13:00-15:00 |
Lecture 11:
Selected topics in Qualitative
methods; Writing results and Discussion of report | Ka-Aula |
Anne Håkansson |
41 | Monday | 10 October | 13:00-15:00 |
Lecture 12:
Avoiding Plagarism with
examples 1 & 2 | Ka-Aula | Carl-Mikael Zetterling |
| Tuesday | 11 October | 13:00-15:00 |
Lecture 13: Writing a cohesive report:
Qualitative method writing 111011
| Ka-Aula | Anne Håkansson |
| Friday | 14 October | 10:00-12:00 |
Lecture 14:
Final wrapup | Ka-Aula | Anne Håkansson |
| Friday | 14 October | 23:59 |
Submit draft of report | | | |
| Monday | 17 October | 23:59 |
Submit opposition report | | | |
42 | Tuesday | 18 October | 09:00-13:00 |
Seminar 3: Seminar presentation of report | Ka-540 | Anne Håkansson, | section b |
42 | Tuesday | 18 October | 14:00-18:00 |
Seminar 3: Seminar presentation of report | Ka-439,Ka-530, Ka-539 |
(a) Mark T. Smith, (c) G. Q. Maguire Jr., (d) Dan Wu | sections a, c-d | |
| Monday | 31 October | 23:59 |
Submit final report | | | |
Other on-line Course related Material
Books, articles, web pages, and other information
- Tom Tullis and Bill Albert, Measuring the User Experience:
Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics,
Morgan-Kaufmann, 2008, ISBN 978-0-12-373558-4
- Dennis Meredith, Explaining Research:
How to Reach Key Audiences to Advance Your Work, Oxford
University Press, 2010, ISBN 13: 978-0-19-973205-0, ISBN 10: 0-19-973205-1,
paperback, 376 pages;
book website
and
author's blog
- Nancy Baron, Escape from the Ivory Tower: A Guide to Making
Your Science Matter, Island Press, 2010, 240 pages,
ISBN 13: 978-1-59726-664-2; ISBN 10: 1-59726-664-7;
book website
- Marion Ben-Jacob, Computer Ethics: Integrating Across the
Curriculum, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2010, ISBN 9780763778095
(audio book/CD-ROM)
- Ken Kelley, Keke Lai, and Po-Ju Wu,
Using R for Data Analysis: A Best Practice for Research,
Chapter 34 in Jason W. Osborne (Editor),
Best Advanced Practices in Quantitative Methods, Sage Publishing,
Thousand Oaks, CA, USA, 2008, pages 535-572 - a very nice introduction
to how to use R for data analysis with lots of examples (including
loading data from a Excel spreadsheet using ODBC); the emphasis in
this chapter is on the "Methods for the Behavioral, Educational, and Social Sciences"
(MBESS) R package; there is web page for the whole
book
- Joseph L. Schafer,
Simple Linear Regression, Part I (Linear regression in R using lsfit.),
Lecture notes for Stat 511, Lecture 10, Department of Statistics and The Methodology Center,
The Pennsylvania State University, 17 February 2009 (note: This
course
uses the textbook: Michael Kutner, Christopher Nachtsheim, John Neter, and William Li,
Applied Linear Statistical Models,McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 5th edition, 2004, 1396 pages
ISBN-10: 007310874X and ISBN-13: 978-0073108742)
- Sharon L. Lohr, Sampling: Design and
Analysis, second edition, Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning, 2010, 608
Pages, ISBN-10: 0-495-10527-9, ISBN-13: 9780495105275;
Table of
contents for first edition
- Nicholas J. Horton and Ken Kleinman,
SAS and R: Examples of
tasks replicated in SAS and R, blog, for example their posting
on their book: Nicholas J. Horton and Ken Kleinman, Using R for Data
Management, Statistical Analysis, and Graphics, CRC
Press, 28 July 2010, 297 pages, ISBN-10: 1439827559 and ISBN-13:
978-1439827550
- Phil Spector, Data Manipulation with R (Use R),
Springerm 19 March 2008, 154 pages, ISBN-10: 0387747303 and ISBN-13: 978-0387747309
- Paul Webb, R and Quantitative Data Analysis,
social research UPDATE, Department of Sociology, University of Surrey,
Guildford, United Kingdom, ISSN: 1360-7898, Issue 55, Spring 2009
- Juan Miguel Marín Diazaraque of the Department of Statistics, Universidad Carlos III of Madrid
has written a
Tutorial
for SAMPLING in R
- Michael E. Driscoll,
How Google and Facebook are using R,
Dataspora Blog: Big Data, open source analytics, and data visualization
February 19, 2009 - panel discussion with four R users from industry:
Bo Cowgill (Google), Itamar Rosenn (Facebook), David Smith (Revolution
Computing), and Jim Porzak (The Generations Network and Co-Chair of
Bay Area R Users Group)
- Methodology
tutorial - quantitative data analysis, web page, EduTech Wiki, Last modified: 4 August 2009
- Q-Q
Plots, webpage, Murdoch University, School of Chemical and Mathematical
Sciences, HTML last modified 22 July 2009 - give useful insights into
how to interpret a Quantile-Quantile plot
- Probability plots
webpage, Quantitative Decisions, page was created 24 January and last
updated 18 February 2003.
Surveys and analysis of surveys related references
To read the literature on surveys and important term to understand
is: primary sampling unit (PSU)
- Thomas S. Lumley, Complex Surveys: A Guide to Analysis Using R,
Wiley, March 2010, 296 pages, ISBN-10: 0470284307 and ISBN-13: ISBN: 978-0-470-28430-8
- Thomas S. Lumley, R survey
package, web page, last modified 13 August 2010.
- Summary of Survey Analysis Software,
Section on Survey Research Methods, American Statistical Association,
last modified 9 September 2008
- David Eagle, R Survey
Analysis: Weighting Data: Inverse-Probability Weights and
Inverse-Variance Weighting, web page, last modified 17 September 2010
-
Household Sample Surveys in Developing and Transition Countries,
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Economic
and Social Development, Statistics Division, Report number ST/ESA/STAT/SER.F/96/WWW,
March 2005. See for example James R. Chromy and Savitri Abeyasekera,
Chapter 19: Statistical analysis of survey data, 30 pages.
- Glenn D. Israel,
Analyzing Survey Data, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of
Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS),
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. See other papers by this
author.
- The United Kingdom's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
sponsored a
Research Methods Programme (2002-2007), which in turn
sponsored P|E|A|S
(Practical Exemplars and Survey Analysis) - this site gives
examples (with different types of surveys and using different
techniques), theory, and descriptions of software that can be used for
surveys. This work in continuing as part of the U.K.'s ESRC
National Centre for Research Methods
- Steven G. Heeringa, Brady T. West, and Patricia A. Berglund,
Applied Survey Data Analysis, Chapman & Hall/CRC Statistics in the
Social and Behavioral Science, April 5, 2010, 487 pages,
ISBN-10: 1420080660 and ISBN-13: 978-1420080667,
web site Applied Survey Data Analysis
- Christian Boudreau of the Dept. of Statistics & Actuarial Science, University
of Waterloo, gave a workshop on
Analysis of Survey Data to the
Milwaukee Chapter of the ASA (MILWASA)
of the American Statistical Association (ASA) on September 26, 2008
- The Morgan Centre for the Study of Relationships and Personal Life of the
University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K. as part of the ESRC
National Centre for Research Methods has made available a webpage of
Resources for teachers and supervisors
- CRAN Task View:
Official Statistics & Survey Methodology
- Phillip S. Kott,
A Model-Based Look at Linear Regression with Survey Data,
The American Statistician, American Statistical Association, Vol. 45, No. 2 (May, 1991), pp. 107-112
- Stefan Loehnert,
"About Statistical Analysis of Qualitative
Survey Data", International Journal of Quality, Statistics, and
Reliability, vol. 2010, Article ID 849043, 12 pages,
2010. doi:10.1155/2010/849043
- David A. Binder and Georgia R. Roberts,
Statistical inference in survey data analysis: where does the sample design
fit in?, lecture slides, for the conference: Statistics Canada Research
Data Centre Network Conference 2003: Transitions in Employment, Income and
Wellbeing, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 24 September 2003
- R. L. Chambers, C. J. Skinner (Editors),
Analysis of Survey Data, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2003
Print ISBN: 9780471899877, Online ISBN: 9780470867204, Published Online: 30
May 2003, DOI: 10.1002/0470867205
On-line survey tools
Some tips on writing a questionnaire
- David O'Brien,
Questionnaire Design
A report for the course CS 6751, Human-Computer Interface, College of Computing, Georgia
Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, Winter 1997
- Bob Kaden,
Guidelines
for Writing an Effective Questionnaire, CustomerThink Corporation,
20 November 2007
- Steve Gould,
1.05
How to write a questionnaire, Part of Study Guides: Writing,
Learner Development Unit, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK,
Last updated: 20 February 2007
- Office of Educational Assessment,
Tips for Writing Questionnaire Items, Catalyst Tools Workshops,
Learning & Scholarly Technologies, University of Washington, Seattle,
WA, USA, Last Updated: October 2006
- How To Write
A Good Survey, InfoPoll: Software for Surveys & Polls, Softlogic
Inc. Dartmouth, NS, Canada, September 19, 1998
- Wai-Ching Leung,
How
to design a questionnaire, StudentBMJ,
BMJ Publishing Group Limited, U.K., volume 9, May 2001, pages 143-145
-
Statistical Computing Seminars
Introduction to Survey Data Analysis,
University of California at Los Angles (UCLA): Academic Technology Services,
Statistical Consulting Group, accessed on 2010.09.28 - the focus is on
Stata, SUDAAN, WesVar, and SAS - but includes some useful definitions
and examples
- Hossein Arsham,
Questionnaire Design and Surveys Sampling, 9th Edition, University of Baltimore
Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
- Willem E. Saris and Irmtraud N. Gallhofer, Design, Evaluation,
and Analysis of Questionnaires for Survey Research, Wiley Series
in Survey Methodology, Wiley-Interscience, 3 August 2007, 392 pages,
ISBN-10: 0470114959 and ISBN-13: 978-0470114957.
- Katja Lozar Manfreda, Zenel Batagelj, and Vasja Vehovar,
"Design of Web Survey Questionnaires: Three Basic Experiments",
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC), 7(3), April 2002.
- Jezz Fox, Craig Murray, and Anna Warm,
"Conducting research using web-based questionnaires: practical,
methodological, and ethical considerations",
Internation Journal on Social Research Metholdology, ISSN 1364-5579
print, ISSN 1464-5300 online, Taylor & Francis Ltd., 2003,
Volume 6, number 2, pages 167-180, DOI: 10.1080/1364557021042883
- Stephen J. Sills and Chunyan Song,
Innovations in Survey Research: An
Application of Web-Based Surveys", Social Science Computer Review. SAGE
Publications (UK and US), eISSN: 1552-8286, ISSN: 0894-4393, 2002, Volume 20,
number 1, pages 22-30
Principal Components Analysis
Computer ethics
- Deborah G. Johnson, Computer ethics (2nd ed.), 1994,
Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA, ISBN
0-13-290339-3, 978-0-13-290339-4
Some useful tools
- Zotero extention to FireFox
for helping you manage references, Center for History and New Media,
George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
- BibTeX web page, last
accessed 19 September 2010 - note that there is a BibTeX mode in emacs
- Bevan S. Weir,
Step-by-step guide to using EndNote with LaTeX and BibTeX, web
page, Last modified 25 March 2010
- James,
How to use JabRef (BibTeX) with Microsoft Word 2003, web page,
medicalnerds.com, "technology, stats and IT for medics",
25 March 2007
- JabRef - an open
source reference manager written in Java
- ispell - use with the "-t" option for LaTeX files
- OpenOffice.org - open
source word processing, with grammer checking via the
LanguageTool extention or
After the Deadline
- Using dynamic abbreviations (dabbrev) in Emacs - can greatly increase
your typing speed
- Two GNU programs style
and diction. For more information see Michael Stutz, "
Explore powerful UNIX writer's tools:
Using new, open source equivalents of the classic UNIX Writer's
Workbench", a tutorial from IBM's developerWorks web site, 22 May 2007
- gnuplot - basic plotting
in 2D and 3D with lots of output formats
- See also Micah Altman,
The Impoverished Social Scientist's Guide to Free Statistical Software
and Resources, web page, Last Updated: December 18, 2008
- Converting a PCAP file to LaTeX can be done with
pcap2tex
Some sample data files - with .PCAP files from Wireshark
The Centre for Academic Writing (Språkverkstaden)
In the conjunction with your subsequent studies at KTH (i.e. after
completing the course II2202) - for individual help in specific
writing problems or oral presentation problems - see the services offered by
The Centre for Academic Writing (Språkverkstaden).
Previous versions of the course
Page History
2011.10.15 | Added lecture notes from 2011.10.11 and 2011.10.14 |
2011.10.12 | shifted final report due date and added
lecture notes from 2011.10.10 |
2011.10.05 | Added lecture notes from 2011.10.03 |
2011.10.03 | Shifted opposition due date |
2011.09.28 | added lecture notes from 2011.09.28 and 2011.09.27 |
2011.09.21 | Added some pointers to sample data for
Lab 2 (for those who have not yet gotten their own data) |
2011.09.21 | Change in title for Labs 2 and 3 |
2011.09.21 | added lecture notes from 2011.09.20 |
2011.09.19 | added lecture notes from 2011.09.19 |
2011.09.11 | added Zotero style file from 2011.09.09 |
2011.09.09 | added lecture notes from 2011.09.09 |
2011.09.06 | added lecture notes from 2011.09.06 |
2011.09.05 | added lecture notes from 2011.09.05 |
2011.08.30 | added informaiton on how to choose the
language for the Bilda interface |
2011.08.30 | added lecture notes from 2011.08.29 |
2011.06.18 | Added schedule |
2011.03.18 | first draft version for 2011 |
© Copyright 2010, 2011 Anne Håkansson and G.Q.Maguire Jr. (maguire@kth.se)
All Rights Reserved.
Sat Oct 15 08:38:35 CEST 2011