Ethiopian Civil Service University

College of Urban Development and Engineering

Research Report Writing and Ethics

Name – Mulugeta G.

2021

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Research Report Writing and Ethics

• At the end of the session you will be able to:-

– Recognize significance of Research and Research Report

– Identify the components of research report
– Indicate the contents of each component of the
research paper
– Acquire how to write short research paper
– Recognize Harvard Referencing System
– Identify ethical considerations in research
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Research Report Writing and Ethics
• The contents of the session are:

– Research Paper Writing

– Presentation Skills
– Referencing
– Ethical Guidelines

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Research Report Writing

• There are three ways to communicate your research findings:

– Written Reports (e.g. thesis);
– Journal articles; and
– Oral presentations
• Written reports
– Follow the organization or institute guideline, if any
– Ask your supervisor for format and refer previous theses
– If you are not student you may have more flexibility
– However, it needs to be good, sound piece of research and
more professional
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Research Report Writing (Cont’d)

• Some basic considerations:

 Remember the audience

 Form and length of a report
 Aim (exploratory, explanatory & descriptive) & limitation
of the report need to be clearly stated; and
 Organization of the report.

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Written Report Format
• Title page
– Title of the report,
– Name of the author,
– Purpose, e.g. “a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment…”,
– If the research is funded, details about the organization
• Contents page
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgement
• Abstract (150-1000 depending on the institute)
– Aim of the study
– Research methods
– Main findings
– Conclusion
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Written Report Format (Cont’d)
• Introduction
– Introduction to the research area
– Justification of the research
– General and specific objectives
– Conceptual definition
– Scope and delimitation
– Organization of the research report
• Literature Review
– Theories
– Previous researches in the area
– Controversies on the issue
• Methodology and Methods
– Detailed description and justification of the research methodology and
research methods used
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Written Report Format (Cont’d)

• Finding/Analysis
– The major findings (tables, graphs, lengthy quotations, etc.)
• Conclusion
– Sum up your finding and draw conclusion from them, in relation to other research or
literature
• Policy implication/recommendation
– Recommendation for applied research
– Policy implication for academic research
• Further research
• References
– List of referred works
• Bibliography
– List of all relevant publications read while doing the research
• Appendices
– Relevant addendum
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Presentation Skills

• What are according to you criteria for a

“good” presentation?

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Why to use PowerPoint?
 Visual support tool

 Activating audience during presentation

 Offering audience additional information: pictures, audio, video

 Variation, maintaining attention

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Structure presentation

• Introduction
– gaining attention
– Outline
 Content
 present your research
 background
 research question(s)
 Methods
 Findings & analysis
 Conclusion
 Etc

 End
 summary and conclusion
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Tips for using PowerPoint (1)

 Do not use abbreviations

 Do not give too much information
 Maintain attention by offering variation:

 verbal and visual information

 use pictures, diagrams, etc.

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Tips for using PowerPoint (2)

 First slide:
 title presentation
 name (and department presenter)
 date
 Next slide:
 structure presentation
 Last slide:
 summary and conclusions

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Presenting with PowerPoint

 Do not read the text from your slides

 Keep eye contact with the audience
 Build in rest moments; present new slide, give audience time to
look at the slide
 Use the pointer

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Style of the slide (1)

 Not too much information on a slide

 One subject per slide
 5/6 words for each sentence;
 7/8 lines per slides
 Not whole sentences –keywords
 Distinctive colors for different types of information (e.g.
principles in black text and examples in blue letters)

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Style of the slide (2)

 Limit the number of data you present

 One design for your entire presentation
 Not too many slides (one slide per 2 to 3 minutes)
 Do not make your presentation too long (maximum of 20
minutes)

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Style of the slide: Animation

• Moving slides, pictures or letters

• Keep animations simple
• One type of transition for going from one slide to the other
• for going from one point to the other

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Style of the slide: Font (1)

• Use a maximum of 2 fonts

• Use one of these fonts: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, Comic
Do not use Times New Roman or Courier
• Bold is better than Underlined
• Sufficient contrast, because of loss of quality during
presentation

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Style of the slide: Font (2)
• Font size is minimum of 22
• For example: title on first slide 44 - bold
• titles on other slides 36 - bold
• subtitles 28 - bold
• text 28 of 24

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Referencing

• Every source in a report need to be cited properly and

referenced to avoid plagiarism.
• There are two major types of referencing systems. These are:
– Old MLA- Footnote and endnotes
– New MLA-In-text Citation
• There are plenty referencing variants of New MLA:
– ASA, APA, APSA, Harvard, Vancouver , etc.
• CUDE claims they are using Harvard Referencing Style,
however, in the Thesis Guideline the referencing does not look
like any version of Harvard.

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When Must We Provide Citation
• Quote directly
• Paraphrase
• Summarise
• Use ideas, theories, facts, experiments, case studies,
from a source
• Adopt another person’s research method, survey or
experiment design
• Use statistics, tables, diagrams etc.

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Cases Where No Citation Required

• Your own ideas, theories, arguments, conclusions

• Surveys and experiments designed and carried out by you
• Your own research method
• Very basic common knowledge: i.e. Addis Ababa is the capital
of Ethiopia
BUT
• Addis Ababa is the capital of Ethiopia and has a population of
2,700,000 (cite source!)

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American Psychological Association (APA)
– In the case of one and two authors- Surname of the author(s)
followed by year of publication and page number if it is direct
quote
• Cormack (1994) work supports … view (paraphrasing)
• Cormack (1994, p.32-33) states that 'when writing….’ (quote)
• writing for a professional audience (Cormack and Jacky, 1994).
– In case of three to five authors-Write the surnames of all of the
authors the first time the text is cited, then after the surname of
the first author followed by et al. meaning and others
• Further research (Green, Harris and Dunne, 1969) showed that …
• The research (Green, et al., 1969) has also found that the majority of
– In the case of six and more authors- the surname of the first
author followed by et al. every
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Mulugeta G the work is cited 23
APA (Cont’d)

• Several works by one author in the same year will be identified by

an alphabet
– Earlier research by Dunn (1993a) found that…but later research
suggested again by Dunn (1993b) that ….
• When you cite a chapter from an edited book, you cite the author
of the chapter not the editor of the book
• In case you want to cite a work that hasn’t an author
– Marketing strategy (Anon., 1999)
• In case you want to cite a work that hasn’t a date
– Earlier research (Smith, n.d.) demonstrated that …
• Second hand references
– Urban areas are ….(Brown, 1966 cited in Bassett, 1986, p.142)
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APA (Cont’d)

• Citing from Religious Texts (like Bible, Qu’ran)

– Qur'an- (Sura no., Verse no.) e.g. (Sūra 19, v. 12)
– Bible- (Chapter name Chapter no.: Verse no.)
• (Genesis. 1:1)
• Citing from personal communication
– (Surname of the information source, personal
communication, Month day, Year of the interview)
– (Kebede Balcha, personal communication, September, 12,
2012)
• You do not need to include religious text in reference
list
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APA (Cont’d)

• Reference list
– Books
• Author, Initials. (Year) Title of book. Edition. (only include this if not the
first edition) Place of publication (this must be a town or city, not a
country): Publisher.
• Redman, P. (2006) Good essay writing: a social sciences guide. 3rd ed.
London: Sage Publishers.
– Books with more than six author
• First author, Initials. Followed by et al. (Year) Title of book. Edition. (only
include this if not the first edition) Place: Publisher.
• Grace, B. et al. (1988) A history of the world. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
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APA (Cont’d)
• Books which are edited
– Author, Initials. (Ed.) (Year) Title of book. Edition. Place:
Publisher. Keene, E. (Ed.) 1988. Natural language. Cambridge:
University of Cambridge Press.
• Chapters of edited books
– Chapter author(s) surname(s) and initials (Year of chapter) Title
of chapter. In Book editor(s) initials first followed by surnames
with (ed. Or eds). after the last name. Title of book. (pp. Chapter
first and last page numbers). Place of publication: Publisher.
– Samson, C. (1970) Problems of information studies in history. In:
S. Stone (ed.) Humanities information research. (p.44-68).
Sheffield: CRUS.
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APA (Cont’d)

• E-books and PDFs

– Author, Year. Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher. Followed
by Retrieved on Month day, year from e-book source/database,
website
– Bank of England (2008) Inflation Report. Retrieved on March 29,
2009 from
<http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/inflationreport/ir08
nov.pdf>
• Journal articles
– Author, Initials. (Year) Title of article. Full Title of Journal, Volume
number (Issue / Part number), Page numbers.
– Boughton, J.M. (2002) The Bretton Woods proposal: a brief look.
Political Science Quarterly, 42 (6), p.564-569.
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APA (Cont’d)
• Conference papers
– Authorship (Year) Full title of conference paper. In: followed by editor or
name of organization, Full title of conference. Location, Date, Place of
publication: Publisher.
– Brown, J. (2005) Evaluating surveys of transparent governance. In:
UNDESA (United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs), 6th Global forum on reinventing government: towards
participatory and transparent governance. Seoul, Republic of Korea
24-27 May 2005.New York: United Nations.
 Reports by organizations
– Authorship/Organization (Year) Full title of report. Place: Publisher.
– Department of Health (2001) National service framework for older
people. London: Department of Health.
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APA (Cont’d)

• Dissertation and theses

– Author (Year of publication) Title of dissertation. Level. Official name of
University.
– Richmond, J. (2005) Customer expectations in the world of electronic banking: a
case study of the Bank of Britain. Ph. D. Anglia Ruskin University.
– Newspapers and magazine articles
– Author, Initials.,(Year, Month day) Title of article or column header. Full Title of
Newspaper or Megazine, volume if given, page number.
– Slapper, G. (2005, September 3) Corporate manslaughter: new issues for lawyers. The
Times, 78, p.4b.
• Websites
– Author (Year of Publication) Title of webpage: subtitle if needed. Retrieved on
[accessed date] from [the website]
– UN-Habitat (1996) Localizing Agenda 21. Retrieved on February 9, 2009, from
www.un-habitat.org/la21
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APA (Cont’d)

• If the publication year is not know for sure, you can use:
– 1995? probable year
– ca. 1995 approximately 1995
– 199- decade certain but not year
– 199? probable decade
• If certain bibliographic details are missing, use:-
– Anon author anonymous or not identifiable
– s.l. no place of publication (Latin: sine loco)
– s.n. no named publisher (Latin: sine nomine)
– n.d. no date
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Guidelines for Research Ethics

• As a concept, ‘research ethics’ refers to a complex set of values,

standards and institutional schemes that help constitute and
regulate scientific c activity;
A. Research Ethics, Freedom of Research and Society
1. The value of research and research ethics
2. The importance of independent research
B. Respect for Individuals
5. The obligation to prevent harm and suffering
6. The obligation to obtain free and informed consent
• Insufficient or diminished competence to grant consent
• Research without consent
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Guidelines for Research Ethics (Cont’d)

B. Respect for Individuals (Cont’d)

10.Regard for third parties
11.Children’s right to protection
12.The obligation to respect individuals’ privacy and close
relationships
13.The obligation to respect confidentiality
14.The obligation to restrict re-use
15.Respect for the values and motives of others
16.Researchers’ responsibility for clear role definition
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Guidelines for Research Ethics (Cont’d)

C. Regard for Groups and Institution

20.Regard for private interests
21.Respect for vulnerable groups
22.The requirement for independence
23.Research on other cultures and times
24.Limits on cultural recognition
D. The Research Community
27.Scientific integrity
28.Plagiarism
29.Verification and subsequent use of research material
30.Professional assessments
31.The responsibility of supervisors and project managers
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Guidelines for Research Ethics (Cont’d)

E. Contract Research
36.The balance between contract research and researcher-driven research
37.Research institutions and the individual researcher
38.Information about the funding of research
39.The use of research results
40.The right to publish
F. Science Communication
43.Science communication as a specialized task
44.The communication of results and verifiability
45.Participation in social debate and responsibility for how research is
interpreted
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Thank you !!!

End of the lecture