Reporting,Conclusion and Publication of the Economics Research

1. Reporting,Conclusion and Publication of the Economics Research

2. REPORTING RESEARCH • No matter how: • important the theory and hypotheses of our study, or • how carefully we have designed and conducted it, or • how striking its findings, • all these will be of little value unless we report them adequately and to communicate with others our research experiences.

3. Several aspects need to be considered in the art of report writing: • Target audience (Who?) • Form, language and style of a report • Tables and pictorial presentation as useful tools for bridging the statistical data results (econometrics)

4. Ways in which research findings are discussed and interpreted • How to simply the tables and finding from econometrics exercise • We must follow appropriate format for the research reporting.

5. Target audience • The Academic Community • Form of research report is a thesis, a monograph or an article. • The Sponsors of Research • Research report will need to be tailored according to the sponsors’ objectives. • Researcher may be expected to present his findings from time to time in the form of progress reports and a final report.

6. The General Public • Reports in the form of summary, articles, or brochures for the general public who are interested in knowing about the salient features of the study and its findings without wanting to bother about the technicalities.

7. In report writing, it is difficult and usually not desirable to attempt to write one multipurpose report that is aimed at different target audiences. Such multipurpose reports rarely have much success. • The most useful approach is to choose and write for a single target audience, on a level appropriate to it.

8. The form, contents and style of a research report must be chosen to suit the level of knowledge, experience, and interest of the target audience as well as to anticipate likely uses they may find for the research findings.

9. Based on the above considerations, there are three main ways of classifying research reports: • A comprehensive research report or a monograph • Research articles (journals) • Summary reports

10. Comprehensive Reports • Aimed at an academic community. • The goal is to communicate in sufficient detail to enable readers to comprehend the data and determine for themselves the validity and importance of the conclusions. • It is not possible to document all research experiences. • Researchers need to select and organize them in a way that will preserve the smooth and continuous flow of an integrated story.

11. Researchers should have some prior notions about what the target audience would like to know about the study. • The material must be organized so that the audience will be able to comprehend an integrated story and the researchers should not force the readers to pull together disconnected data and material.

12. The major thrust of the report should be to communicate what actually happened throughout the research process, and not simply what we hoped would happen at each stage. • The report should not merely be a selective narration of the successes. It should also include failures and limitations, and the researchers’ opinions about the reasons leading to failures or limitations.

13. It is more efficient first to prepare an adequate outline and then to follow it by drafting a more detailed report. • The report should be organized and divided into chapters, sections, and subsections with appropriate headings so that any reader will have some help in selecting the material relevant.

14. Presentation of Statistics • Text paragraph format • Tabular format • Graphical format • Tables/graph/figures should be self-explanatory • do not manipulate figures/charts inappropriately • In writing a research (Final year project paper, journal article) there is always in-house formatting style (example: Journals format) • That why I do provide the guidelines for the economics term paper and the presentation (oral)

15. Example: International Journal of Business and Society (IJBS)

16. Example of self explanatory table

17. Broad Sequence of Contents (Final Year Project Paper) • Title page • The title should be clear, concise and indicative of its contents. • Abstract – summary of the overall thesis (research, paper) • Table of contents • Enable the readers to identify the parts of the report and to see the relationships of the parts to one another.

18. Introduction • Briefly introduce the readers to the research problem, its scope, its theoretical and practical importance and the manner in which the research have attempted to find answers to the research questions. • Sometimes it may also contain a brief narration about the organization of the material in the report.

19. Identification, selection and formulation of the problem • Should first tell the readers how and why we identified the broad area of research tackled in our study. • Give a specific and precise statement of the research problem as initially formulated, the objectives and the specific hypotheses.

20. Literature Review • A collection of articles that related to your field of study. • It must be very specific to your research area. However the scope of literature is general. • Example: if you do research on crime and unemployment in Sarawak – your articles must be related to the topic/title but the collection of articles are from the world.

21. Methodology / Research design and data collection • Include all relevant details regarding the design of the study: sampling plan, respondents, data-collection procedure, data-collection instrument, definitions of variables, additional sources of data, and so on.

22. Data processing and analysis • Describe the ways of processing the data, analytical and statistical procedures used etc. Findings • Discuss how the findings relate to the research questions, interpret the findings adequately and derive generalizations and implications from them. Also include suggestions for further research and suggestions for the application of the research findings.

23. Summary/conclusion/policy • The purpose is to enable a reader to discover the results of the study quickly. . • It is usually a somewhat categorical listing of the main findings of the report.

24. Appendices • Usually contains technical materials which would be cumbersome to be included in the body of the report or would unduly interrupt the orderly presentation of the story. • Include technical details and discussion about sample design, data-collection and measurement procedures (some statistical techniques).

25. Bibliographical references • At the end of the report, include all published and unpublished documents used in the report. • Citations should follow a uniform style (APA), with enough details so that a reader can easily locate the original source. • Still remember the GUIDELINES (given in Chap1) to write the economics term paper??

26. Footnotes and endnotes • Footnotes (bottom of page) and endnotes (end of chapter) are side comments to amplify a point made in the text. • Make sure that footnote or endnotes is just small notes and do not disrupt the flow of the paper (thesis) or research.

27. How to conclude your study? • After data analysis has been completed, the next step of the research process is to develop the conclusion of the study. • Normally consists of following parts: • Summary /concluding remarks • Policy implication • Limitation • Avenues for future research

28. Research Article • Should preferably focus on a single well-articulated research problem. • If the study has two or more aspects that can be discussed independently, it may be advisable to write separate articles rather than to try to crowd too many different findings into a single article. • Introduction must be very brief. • Present the research problem in a few paragraph and give references to important sources for interested readers.

29. Tables, charts and graphs should be used sparingly. • Present only the relevant minimum material to make an integrated argument concerning the specific research objectives chosen, summary of findings, conclusions, implications and suggestions for the purposes of the research article at hand. • Most journals require an abstract of about 200 to 300 words.

30. Publication of the economics term paper • Strategies: • Diversify your research portfolio • Concentrate on one or two fields • Generate one or two papers from your thesis • Maintain a stock of papers under review constantly • Don't put two good ideas in one paper

31. Approach different types of journals • Write clearly • Learn word processing skills and master other relevant software programs • Scan current journals • Present papers at conferences before submission • Only the tough get going • Patient of rejection letter

32. Recap of the whole semester • Introduction to economic research methods • Identify Researchable Issue • Formulation of the Research Problem • Preparing a Research Proposal • Literature Review • Theory, Concepts, Conceptual Frameworks in Economic Research • Research Designs • Locating Economics Data: Secondary Data • Processing and Transforming Economics Data • Data Analysis • Statistical Methods for Secondary Data • Reporting, Conclusion and Publication of the Economics Research