fopr beginners

1. Module: Academic skills
Tutor: B Tatton
Assignment title: Research and academic integrity
Assignment No: 1.1
Student: Iveta Ermane, 1105617
Academic writing is very important for anyone who is doing any type or level
research.
This essay had been written to identify different types of research and explain-
why research is very important. Also explain why references are important and
different types of cheating and consequences of cheating.
The main reason why people research is that there are many issues and
subjects about what people do not have knowledge, and also the need for research
is related to the human compulsive need for growth.
Global publisher of academic books- Routledge states that “The defining
research is less important than understanding its nature.”
Research can be split in different types, depending on the purpose, logic,
outcome, and the process of the research.
There are different styles of research and data collection methods: Case
studies, focus groups, large-scale surveys, action research, ethnographic, field
experiments, forecasting, different questionnaires etc. Business research is mainly
for to help understand how business organisations works.
Researcher should follow four steps. Firstly set up research problem or
question and to select research topic. After that next step is to decide what type of
strategy researcher will use and tactics. The selection of strategy is one of most
important decisions made by researcher. Third step is to collect information and
analyse data. And the last step is to present results.
It is very difficult to research into management, lots of factors beyond the technique
of research, for example philosophical or political issues.
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2. “Philosophical issues in to management research can persuade the selection
of methods and judgements about the quality and value of outcomes.
Political issues are important because of the frequent of need to gain access to
organisation and handle the dynamics of power within and between the
organisations.” Management research (1993,pp viii)
There are some main philosophical questions about research, example: “Why
research? What to research? Where to research? When to research? And How to
research?”
Understanding of the philosophical issues is very important. It will help to simplify
research plan by which data is collected, analysed, decide what kind of evidence is
used and also knowledge of philosophy can help to recognise, what type of research
will work and what type of research will not.
There are two types of research: Primary and secondary research. Primary
research is also known as “Field research” and secondary research is also known as
“desk research”. Primary research is brand new information, example, face to face
interviews, telephone surveys, postal surveys, mystery shoppers and questionnaires,
but secondary research is “second hand” information. Secondary research may be
government reports, statistics, newspapers etc.
Information from primary research is “primary data” and information from secondary
research is “secondary data”. An advantage of primary research is that it is always
up to date, but main disadvantage that primary research may be very expensive.
Secondary research is often much cheaper than primary research, but secondary
data may be out of day.
The most common type of primary research involves the use of questionnaires. A
questionnaire is a list of planned, carefully structured questions to find out what
respondents think, feel, as example, questionnaires are used for market research.
After researcher get answers from respondents, then researcher doing sampling.
Hussey R., and Collis J(2003) pp.10-12 suggests that there are three different
purposes of research: exploratory research, descriptive research and analytical or
explanatory research. The exploratory research aim is to look for patterns,
hypotheses or ideas. And this type of research provides both – qualitative or
quantitative data. Descriptive research is known as “statistical research”. For
example, descriptive research may answer a question such as:”How many people
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3. use Open Athens WEB site and why do they do it?” The data collected in this
research is often quantitative.
Analytical research is deeper than descriptive research. The analytical researcher
explains why and how it is happening. An analytical research question could
be:”How we can improve Open Athens WEB site?”
Also the process of the research can be split into two parts: qualitative
research and quantitative research. Quantitative research is about collecting and
analysing numerical data. Qualitative research is when reason for something must to
be found and described.
Quantitative variable can also be split in two parts: discrete quantitative or
continuous quantitative. In discrete research the variable values can be only 0,
1,2,3,4,5, but in the continuous research have more accurate measurement,
example, 45.6, 34.5, 1.09 etc.
There are also three various types of research: pure research, applied
research, and action research.
Pure research (fundamental) may be split in three parts: discovery, invention
and reflection. (See appendix 3)
Discovery is when coming up absolutely brand new idea. English Oxford
dictionary describes discovery as “an act or the process of finding
something/somebody, or learning about something that was not known before.”
A more general type of pure research is invention. Invention means that there is
created method or idea, how to deal with exacting problems. Example to invention
research would be scientific Taylor.
Third type of pure research – reflection is when existing theory or ideas are re-
examined, maybe even in different organisation or social group.
Applied research usually involves searching for solutions for specific problems
and mostly involves working together with different people. Genuine research
always must have thought lots of “Why” questions and it is very important to be
critical sometimes on some of the ideas and methods which has been used and think
about quality of evidence.
The main examples of applied research are reorganisation of department, training
new graduates in company, or introduction with new technology.
The third type of research- action research (developed the 1960s) usually
starts from idea and if someone wants to understand it then it may be changed.
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4. Mostly it is used in Organisational development. The main type of action research is
to go into a situation, try to bring change and keep an eye on results.
There is also theory in research – Grounded theory. Grounded theory is
qualitative research method. “The purpose of Grounded theory is to build theory that
is faithful to and which illuminates the area under investigation.” Hussey R.,Collis J.
(2003) . Using this theory researchers will start research by collecting data, and
subject is chosen by theoretical sampling.
In research are important four concepts: reliability, accuracy, validity, and
confidentiality. Reliability refers to the problem, whether the evidence and the
measures used are consistent and firm, and it is very important for findings.
Oxford English dictionary describe –reliable as “able to be trusted” and “good in
quality.”
Validity of research shows whether the researcher has enough knowledge.
Therefore, it is important with using secondary data, firstly to research and be sure,
about who the author is. There are three types of validity: Internal, population and
ecological validity.
Johnson Phil,Gill John(1991)pp.88 describes:”Validity refers to the accuracy of the
measurement process while the reliability of measurement refers to its consistency;
that is the extent to which a measuring device will produce the same results when
applied more than once to the same person under similar conditions. The most
straightforward way of testing reliability is to replicate; either by administering the
same questions to the same respondents at different times and assessing the
degree of correlation, or by asking the same question in different ways at different
points in questionnaire. It is important to note that questionnaire designers need to
be aware that, although they may have a highly reliable measure, it may not
necessarily be measuring what it is intended to measure: Reliability does not
necessarily imply validity, whereas if the measure is valid it will be reliable. “
When we are doing any type of research it is important to not break
Intellectual property rights.
Intellectual property rights‟ is a generic term,which refers to copyright, trademarks,
patents,and other claims for „ownership‟ of a resource –whether it is registered or
unregistered.
Academic integrity is very important moral policy, because that is how we show
respect to another person work.
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5. There are different types of academic integrity, -plagiarism, different types of
cheating (example cheating in exams), falsifying the results, false statements,
falsifying important documents etc.
Plagiarism is one of the most abused types of academic integrity.
English Oxford dictionary describes plagiarism as “the practise of taking someone
else‟s work or ideas and passing them off as own”. There are different types of
plagiarism and different sources. Most popular source of plagiarism is World Wide
Web. WEB gives access to a variety of different materials available 24/7 and it
makes it extremely easy to copy someone else work. Sometimes researchers may
rely too much on another people work without acknowledging the source.
To avoid plagiarism, firstly: anyone should give a credit when using someone else‟s
work, idea, theory, slogans, or even when paraphrasing someone else‟s words.
When using someone else words they always must be in quotation marks and
referenced. If the researcher does not acknowledge the original author‟s work or
reference it that means researcher is breaking Copyright.
Copyright provides protection for any intellectual property. The basis for copyright
legalisation is Copyright, Design, and Patent Act 1988.
It is very important to understand the Copyright Act, because you not only avoid the
possibility of copying someone else work, but you also protect your own intellectual
property. Academic integrity requires that all new intellectual property should have
authorship.
There are lots different types of consequences by unfair means. Using someone
else‟s work, trademark, copyright or idea is breaking of the law. If a student cheats
then can have different type of consequences such as, failure in exams, but
in some cases it may be even a crime. Nowadays in universities there is available
service, where student submit their work online, e.g. “TurnitinUK” which helps decide
whether or not plagiarism is present.
Oxford English dictionary describes Copyrights as “the exclusive and assignable
legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish,
perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical materials”.
In the UK there is not a Copyright register, because it works automatically, but
however there are some options to protect your work. One of the options is
Intellectual Property office- executive agency from department for Business
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6. Innovation and skills (BIS).Intellectual Property office provides a good
understandable IP system.
To summarise this essay- it is very important to know how to research. After
the researcher has chosen the topic, the next step is to decide, what type of sources
researcher will use and what style of research.
The most important step of research is referencing and giving credit to the
original author.
Research without references is plagiarism. If we do not referencing, we breaking the
Copyright, Design, and Patent Act 1988.
There are different types of consequences of unfair means.
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7. Appendices
Appendix 1
Essay plan
Introduction Importance Different types Difference
of research of research between
(10%) skills primary and
secondary
data
Different
sources of
Evaluate
primary and Concepts of
primary
secondary accuracy,
methods and Consequences
data validity,
data collection of unfair
reliability and
confidentiality means
Concepts of
“Intellectual
ownership”,
“academic Consequences of
Conclusion
integrity”, and unfair means
“unfair
means”.
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8. Appendix 2
Management research
Philosophical
Political Technical
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9. Appendix 3
Research types
Research
Pure Action Applied
Discovery Invention Reflection
Method or idea existing theory or
Brand new idea how to deal with ideas is re-
exacting problems examined
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10. Bibliography
Howard K., Sharp J. (1983), The management of student research, Gower, Aldersot
Hussey R., Collis J.(2003) Business research,2ed, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillian
Intellectual Property Office, IP Mission, available Online, http://www.ipo.gov.uk/
Johnson P., Gill J. (1997) Research Methods for managers, 2ed, London, Paul
Chapman Publishing LTD
Oxford English dictionary,(2005),Electronic resource, 2ed, Oxford, Oxford University
press, http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/BOOK_SEARCH.html?book=t140
Remenyi D, Williams B, Money A,Swartz E (2005), Doing research in Business and
management, London, SAGE Publications
Routledge (2011), PowerPoint presentation, What is research?, Global publisher of
academic sources, Available Online,
cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415493932/downloads/ch01.ppt,
Smith M,Thorpe R,Lowe Andy,(1993) Management Research An Introduction,
London,
Tatton B.(2011),Handout on Importance of research skills, Access to HE Business
management, Intake 2011/12, University of Bolton
Tatton B.(2011) PowerPoint presentation Intellectual ownership, Access to HE
Business management, Presented in University of Bolton
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