Credit hours: 02 (2+0)

The course aims to:

1. Develop research skills
2. Provide understanding on how to design scientific research, collection of data and its interpretation
3. Emphasize the importance of ethics in scientific research
4. Enable students to write a research proposal

Major areas of this subject include:

• Concept and need of research
• Importance of reviewing the existing literature from authentic sources
• Online databases for review of literature
• Formulating a problem and findings solutions to scientific problems
• Writing a research proposal for future studies
• Processes involving funding acquisition form a research organization
• Writing proper bibliographic sources citing the authors both in text and complete bibliography

Course Requirements:  In order to successfully complete this course, you should regularly attend classes and prepare the given assignments. The quality of your work will be graded with regards to originality, rationality of your opinions and the content relevancy. You are expected to use peer-reviewed literature resources to support your thoughts, ideas and opinions. An active participation in all class based activities is mandatory for succeeding in this course.

Course Contents:

Theory:

1. Significance: objectives of research, types of research, Research approaches,                
2. Research process: steps involved in research process, (Survey, Observation, case study, experimental, historical and comparative methods)
3. Data: Types of Data, Data collection, processing, analysis
4. Review of literature, Research problem, Hypothesis.
5. Bioethics: Ethical, legal, social and scientific issues in Biological Research. Plagiarism:
6. Funding Sources: A brief idea about the funding agencies such as HEC, PSF, USAID etc.
7. Writing of Research Proposal: Thesis/Report and Research Paper:
8. Footnotes and Bibliography.    

Readings:

1. Ranjit Kumar. 2010. Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners. SAGE Publications Ltd
2. Johann Mouton and HC Marais. 1996. Basic Concepts In The Methodology Of The Social Sciences.

Additional references compiled from a variety of sources will be used to develop lecture materials and/or assigned as outside readings.

Assignment: Preparation of a research proposal

Class: M.Sc Zoology 4th Regular

Class Schedule:  Tuesday: 01:00-02:00 PM

                               Wednesday: 11:00-12:00 PM

Assessment criteria:

• Sessional: 20%
  • ​Presentation: 10%
  • Participation: 10%
• Final exam: 50%
• Midterm exam: 30%

Course Schedule:

Week 1: Introduction to research methodology. Concept of a research article, review article and scientific report

Week 2: Why research needs to be done? Types of research on basis of objective perspective, mode of inquiry.

Week 3: Fundamentals of research- formulation and identification of a research problem, construction of hypothesis

Week 4: Research design- introduction, formulation and functions. Conceptualization of research design

Week 5: Quantitative and qualitative study designs. Experimental designs commonly used in scientific research

Week 6:  Application of biostatistics in experimental designs

Week 7: Data collection from different sources (field experiments, laboratory analysis) and interpretation of data via application of biostatistics

Week 8: MID EXAMS

Week 9: Research proposal – contents and detail. Characteristics of a good research proposal

Week 10:  Information retrieval from online databases (PubMed, Google scholar)

Week 11: Methods of literature collection and their compilation for preparing a research proposal

Week 12: Citing the collected data in form of in-text citations and bibliography

Week 13: Consideration of ethical issues in data collection. Research involving human subjects and animals

Week 14: A brief introduction on research organizations (HEC, PSF, USAID) in Pakistan

Week 15: Components of a project submitted to funding/research organizations

Week 16: Components of a review article and research report

Week 17: FINAL EXAMS