CSSP, Kanpur organised National Workshop on ‘Research Paper Writing’ (19-21 December 2018)

The Centre for the Study of Society and Politics (CSSP) Kanpur organised three-days National Workshop on ‘The Art and Science of Writing Research Papers’ during 19-21 December 2018. The participants included Amongla N Jamir from Fazl Ali College, Nagaland, Dr. Arti Dwivedi from AND College, Kanpur University, Awadhesh Kumar Singh from Deshbandhu College, Delhi University, Dinesh Singh from Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, Vijay Pratap Singh from YD College, CSJM Univerity, Kanpur, L Muhindro Singh, S Kula Women’s College, Manipur, Ms Narotila Imchen from Fazl Ali College, Nagaland, Priyanka Marko from Shahdol (MP) and Dr Sarika Dubey from  Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth, Allahabad University, Prayagraj. The participants came on their own and also paid a token fee for the programme. That speaks about the credibility of the programmes organised by the CSSP, Kanpur. The Centre is totally non-funded so far.

Day 1: 19 December 2018

Prof A K Sharma, Professor of Sociology, IIT-Kanpur chaired the inaugural session of the Workshop.

In the first session, Dr. D C Srivastava, Head, Philosophy Department of Christ Church College, Kanpur dealt with the ‘Philosophy of Research’ and discussed various tricky issues of Ontology, Epistemology and Axiology in social science research and how they need to be connected to pursue good and standard research. The ‘ought’ question in research is very important; what ought to be your objective? What ought to be the research question? What ought to be the right method and methodology? What ought to be the paradigm? Unless a researcher is clear about these foundational questions, he might face many jerks in her research journey.

The second presentation was by Prof A K Sharma, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT-Kanpur on the ‘Typology of Research Papers’. Many scholars undertake writing research papers without fully exploring the various types of research papers. He explained various types of papers though he cautioned that there are no pure types. But, awareness about them gives some clarity about the methods and methodology that researchers ought to pursue. He also pointed out that initially scholars may target ‘A’ grade journals, but at the same time, should not hesitate from publishing in ‘B’ or ‘C’ grade journals. Many international journals encourage articles by authors which might be written on the basis of collaborative International research. Hence, Prof. Sharma advised the participants to develop global networks with scholars working in their respective field and attempt collaborative research and writing.

The third presentation on the first day was by Dr. A K Verma, Director, CSSP, Kanpur. He dealt with the Pre-Writing stage in Research Paper Writing. Like no one would go in an Examination without a good preparation, similarly, no scholar should write a research paper without adequate homework. When young scholars think of writing a research paper, they face lots of anxieties. The surest way to blast those anxieties is to develop confidence. All research writing must be preceded by literature review for the proper identification of research problem, selection of methods and methodology. Dr. Verma introduced ‘Funnel Model’ for the proper formulation of Research Topic. He also introduced participants to the intricacies of ‘Free-thinking, Brain Storming, Clustering and Cubing in developing a paper.

Day 2: 20 December 2018

On the second day of the National Workshop, the training focused on the two major categories of research papers viz. Quantitative and Qualitative. Dr. Ashutosh Saxena trained participants in the designing and structuring of a ‘quantitative paper’. Usually, one should start with a simple one where there could be just three sections – Problem, Methods & Data, and Results. But, as one goes further, the designing becomes a little more complex. The recent trend, Dr Saxena said, was of ‘triangulation’ where researchers try to amalgamate the Quantitative and Qualitative. At this point, Dr A K Verma interjected to point that an eminent scholar Prof Yogendra Yadav, formerly with CSDS, Delhi always advised scholars to not dichotomise the theoretical and empirical papers as separate entities and not consider empirical papers as shudras. He suggested that scholars should attempt theoretically driven empirics and empirically grounded theory. Accordingly, young scholars should write papers using both theory and empirics.

The second presentation on Day-2 (20 December) was by Dr. A K Verma, Director CSSP. He dealt with the designing of Qualitative Research Papers. He outlined various types of qualitative papers viz. Analytical, Argumentative and Descriptive and emphasised on incorporating the “Why Question” in a research paper. He discussed the importance of the Abstract, the Introductory, and the concluding paragraphs.

Day 3: 21 December 2018

On the third-Day (21 December 2018) of the Workshop, Dr. Sanjay Kumar, Head, Political Science, YD College, Lakhimpur Kheri Chaired a session on Ethics and Research. He discussed the concept of Ethics and pointed out the importance of ethics in social science research. The session focussed on four trajectories; the general ethics, the survey ethics, the writing ethics and the funding ethics. Dr. A K Verma, Director, CSSP dealt with the issue of ‘plagiarism’ and how to avoid that in research and research writing. He gave practical training using online free softwares that can help scholars detect plagiarised portions in their research papers and tell them what percentage of their articles are plagiarised. That can help scholars remove the plagiarised portions and not face embarrassment when they attain eminence in future.

The final session of the Workshop on 21 December 2018 was Chaired by Dr (Mrs) Nita Jain, former Head, English Department and Principal (Retd), Christ Church College, Kanpur. She Chaired session on ‘Language, Literature Review and Social Science Research’. She gave valuable tips about importance of language, how to do literature review, what is paraphrasing and how even a paraphrased portion may fall within the ambit of ‘plagiarism’.

In the end, Dr (Mrs) Nita Jain gave away certificates to all those who successfully completed the three-day Workshop.

 

 

The “Best Organiser Award” was given to Mr. Kamal Kumar Srivastava, Research Assistant, CSSP, Kanpur for his hard work, dedication and attention to minute details in successfully holding the three-day National Workshop organised by CSSP, Kanpur.

Best Volunteer Award (2018)

The ‘Best Volunteer Award’ was given to Mr. Pawan Kumar Sharma, MA (Final), Political Science, Christ Church College, Kanpur for assisting the organising team in successfully holding the National Workshop organised by CSSP, Kanpur.

The three-day workshop was also well covered in the press.