Nov 27, 2023 |
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See the Top Reads of October 2023
Welcome to Zendy’s top read highlights — the top five research papers of the month. In the evolving landscape of academic scholarship, we bring you a selection of noteworthy contributions to research. From the depths of science and humanities to the forefront of technology and law, these papers exemplify academic excellence. Law of the Sea and Democracy This journal article discusses how the laws that govern oceans are democratic however they are not directly related to democracy. The paper goes on to emphasize the complex framework of sea law recognizing that most democratic countries abide by it and how it has presented conflict in sea usage which escalates issues in international law. It also touches on how certain nations are divided on various sea matters such as coastal countries versus those that rely on open sea or developing versus developed countries. Read more here: Law of the Sea and Democracy Graphic Design and Button Placement This journal article is an analysis of user preferences regarding button placements on map applications, the study focuses on 6 map applications and analysed them based on the graphic diversity of buttons. The research concluded that to achieve effective map application design, the process needs to start considering the smallest possible device the application would be used on. Read more here: Graphic Design and Button Placement for Mobile Map Applications Flipped Micro-modules for Teaching Sustainable Engineering Practices This journal article explores a teaching method known as “flipped micro-module pedagogy” wherein students utlise AR and VR technology to engage in immersive learning, use social media platforms to disseminate course materials, and the method encourages project-basec learning where students apply their learnings to real-world issues. The goal of the study is to assess whether engineering students find this approach effective compared to their existing curriculum. Read more here: Flipped Micro-Modules for Teaching Sustainable Engineering Practices Evaluation of Carbon Farming Strategies This journal article places emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in organic vegetable growth. It proposes carbon farming as an alternative because the method improves soil health, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and supports biodiversity, however, the how effective carbon farming is, is unclear. The study also highlights the importance of measuring and estimating changes in soil carbon stock and potential environmental and economic impact on farmers. The findings suggest that carbon farming can be beneficial in various aspects however further research is required to optimise implementation. Read more here: The Evaluation of Carbon Farming Strategies in Organic Vegetable Cultivation The Science of Judicial Psychology This paper claims that crime in Romania has seen an increase due to severe economic and social challenges and the crisis of authority within institutions, emphasising that in this context crime is driven by needs, tendencies, motives and goals. The article goes on to dissect the complexity of criminal behaviour while highlighting all relevant motivators and factors that lead to a crime being committed. Read more here: The Science of Judicial Psychology Discover millions of e-books, journal articles, proceedings and more on Zendy now.
What is research design? A comprehensive guide to design types, components and challenges
Research design is the strategy that tackles collection, interpretation and discussion of data, it determines how research will be carried out. A well-planned research design ensures that the methods correspond with research objectives, quality data is collected and analysis is done appropriately. Research design is essentially the blueprint that guides the research writing process, shaping the questions, methods, and conclusions. In this blog, we explore the key components of research design, discuss different approaches and methodologies, and provide insights into how to create a robust design that yields valuable insights. Types of Research Design Before beginning the research process, it is imperative to determine the type of research design that will comprehensively answer or prove the research question or statement. Research DesignDefinitionExploratoryExplores the gaps in research, which are areas that have not been explored in depth.DescriptiveFocuses on everything besides the “why”. Descriptive research aims to obtain sufficient information to describe a phenomenon.ExplanatorySpecifically investigates the “why”. Sets out to equip reader with further knowledge on the subject area and predict developmental trajectory.ExperimentalThis is the process of carrying out research in a controlled and objective manner to produce credible results that align with a thesis statement.Cross-sectionalThis is an observational study that measures both the outcome and exposure of certain stimuliLongitudinalThese are repetitive cross-sectional studies where participants are observed over a long period of time.Case studyThis is an in-depth study conducted over a period of time to observe the development of a situation or a person. Components of Research Design Design components are the building blocks of constructing an effective research design. To yield objective findings, the research design should be set up in a way that every relevant contributing factor is either a variable or a control to influence the experiment appropriately. Design ComponentRelevance and DefinitionResearch questionThe research question is what the research or project is designed to answer, formulating and phrasing the research question dictates the data collection and analysis methods.HypothesisThis is a proposed explanation that is based off of the limited research and evidence, it is the starting point of further research and investigation.VariablesThese are measurable factors. There are 2 kinds of variables; independent and dependent and they are used to observe cause and effect relationships.Data collection methodsThese are the ways in which primary research can be conducted and the most common ones are surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations etc.Sampling techniquesThese are strategies to select participants based on relevant factors. The most common techniques are snowball, cluster, stratified, systematic, randomised, quota and convenience.Data analysisThis is the most crucial stage of research as it summarises the data in an analytical manner to establish patterns, trends or relations. Creating Effective Research Design For a research design to be effective, all the components must align with one another. To ensure this alignment, the researcher should determine whether the data needs to be qualitative or quantitative while also considering the scope of the research question and the answer the study derives. To avoid misalignment of components, refer to the order below: • Your research objectives must be consistent with the “gap” that your research is addressing. • Your research questions must be aligned with research objectives. • Your hypotheses must be aligned with your research questions. • Your research method must be appropriate to research objectives and research questions. • Your research design must be consistent with your research method. • Your research methodology must be consistent with research design. Common Challenges & Tackling Them Participant and sample collection The most efficient way to attract participants is to have incentives and learn to “sell” your research project to potential participants, this would make them more willing to partake in the study. Finding research collaborators The first place to look for collaborators is within your own professional network. However, if you’ve struggled to find them, then you can look into expanding your network by attending academic conferences. Another tip is to look for collaborators that challenge you to see your research through different aspects. Finding research funding To find research funding, try to branch out to international sources as well. Look for online sources and apply, this can help put you in touch with international researchers which also fosters collaboration and inclusivity within your research. In conclusion, research design is the compass that guides the expedition into the realm of knowledge. It is a meticulous process that, when executed effectively, paves the way for discovery, innovation, and progress. As we highlighted the key components of research design, this blog uncovered its multifaceted nature. From the types of research design, each with its unique purpose and methodology, to the essential components that form the building blocks of an effective design, it is clear that a well-planned approach is essential. FAQs What is the role of research design in research study? The purpose of research design is to dictate the effective plan to carry out the study. It is the approach with which a study is executed, it ensures that all variables within the study are carefully planned for and accurately measured. How does the choice of design impact data collection? The chosen research design ensures that all relevant factors within the research study can be analyzed to provide clear insights. The design determines whether the data collected will be qualitative, quantitative or a mix of both. What are the key differences between exploratory and experimental research designs? The main difference is that experimental research is done in a controlled environment and exploratory research seeks to answer a question or address a phenomenon or statement. How can a strong research design enhance the validity of study results? The strongest research designs avoid far-fetched correlations, rigorously test the hypothesis, and ensure that the results are generalisable. table, th, td { border: 1px solid; } td { padding: 8px; } td a { color: rgb(234 170 0); } table { margin: 20px 0 } ul li, ol li { margin: 0 0 0 40px; } ul li a{ --tw-text-opacity: 1; color: rgb(234 170 0); } ol { list-style: auto; } ul { list-style: disc; }
Zendy Announces a New Global Subscription Plan at Frankfurt Book Fair 2023
Frankfurt, Germany – October 19 2023 - Zendy, the AI-powered research library, announced the launch of its global subscription plan at the 75th annual Frankfurt Book Fair event in Germany. This launch enables students, researchers, and professionals around the world to access leading journals, e-books, and research papers on one intuitive platform. Founded in 2019, Zendy has introduced an ‘affordable access’ model and is committed to fostering a more affordable and inclusive ecosystem for individuals to read and download scholarly material. Despite progress with open science initiatives, the majority of published scientific findings — and the vast majority of prestigious new research is hidden behind paywalls. Given the global disparity in current access models, affordable and accessible solutions are required to facilitate the future of research. This global subscription plan gives individuals unlimited access to paywalled research for the monthly price of a single research paper. Zendy also offers a free Open Access plan. Both plans come with a host of features including AI summarisation and keyphrase highlighting and more. “Research should be accessible to everyone and it must be affordable. The only way we can address these issues is to shift our perspective on the economics of the publishing industry. Our affordable access solution with Zendy Plus helps publishers increase visibility and proceeds in emerging markets, and most importantly, gives individuals an affordable alternative. It’s taken us years of conversations and collaboration to reach this milestone so we thank our community for their unwavering support,” said Zendy co-founder Kamran Kardan. Zendy partners with leading providers and publishers including Bristol University Press, De Gruyter, EBSCO, Emerald Publishing, IEEE, Taylor & Francis, Wiley, and more. To find out more, visit: www.zendy.io. About Zendy Zendy is a product of Knowledge E. Since its inception in 2019, Zendy has introduced over 350,000 users to a better way to research. Zendy’s intuitive AI-powered research library features millions of journals, articles, e-books, and more; allowing users to access unlimited content for an affordable monthly subscription. Zendy also offers a free open access plan. Press contact:Monica ChinsamiHead of Marketing
Open Access Week 2023: Interview With Kamran Kardan and Sara Crowley Vigneau
Imagine a world driven and progressing through the dissemination of objective research. This is the vision that introduced Open Access week. What begun in 2007 as Open Access day through the partnership of student volunteers and SPARC, has since become a globally recognised movement and event that stands to disseminate quality academic research without paywalls and restrictions so that global societies are free to make informed decisions towards progress; the Open Access movement has also assisted in creating more inclusive and collaborative research communities. A brief history of open access While the movement began taking form in the late 2000s, the first few open access journals appeared between the late 80s and early 90s and were disseminated through emails, newsgroups and volunteer labor. Due to this emerging trend, an online repository known as e-prints was founded by American physicist, Paul Ginsparg in 1991. This database was then renamed ArXiv.org in 1999 which encouraged the publishing industry to establish other open access databases like SciELO, BioMed Central, PubMed Central and more. Zendy’s open access journey Zendy is one such digital library that was inspired by the Open Access movement. Zendy offers affordable access and open access research content on one platform. Open Access week is significant to Zendy as we stand to create knowledgeable global communities by disseminating quality academic research from leading publishers. Our co-founder, Kamran Kardan says “I have been involved in the Open Access movement since its earliest days. I had also done my thesis around it. Since then, I have been concerned about what triggers the movement. I believe the biggest motivator of the movement is affordability; as access to journals was paid for with taxpayer money, to access research that was also funded through taxpayer money. This overlapping cost drives the movement.” He went on to express, “Looking at the challenges faced by pirated access and given the vast content that is still paywalled, it leaves room to explore a different business model known as affordable access. It’s not something that’s new, as this is present in the entertainment industry as many of us have Netflix and Spotify subscriptions. Zendy has taken that and applied it to scholarly research.” The 2023 Open Access Week marks 16 years since its inception. The theme for this year is “community over commercialisation” which encourages open conversation around open access initiatives that serve communities and those that engage in commercialising academia, essentially this year's theme places open access initiatives under a microscope. It also sets out to highlight the importance of freely available scholarly materials to teachers, researchers, and lifelong learners. Open access week provides academics with the perfect opportunity to learn of and spread open access initiatives to help widen the conversation and normalise open access alternatives across the world of publishing. Driving change with the SDGs The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) place great emphasis on the open access movement. Opening academic research to the wider public not only helps individuals make informed decisions but also contributes to creating more inclusive scientific communities while accelerating global collaboration on interdisciplinary research. Broadening opportunities in education and increasing global literacy rates directly supports SDG-4 (Ensuring Quality Education). Zendy’s Partnerships Relations Manager, Sara Crowley Vigneau says, “Open access reduces inequalities in access to content that is directly relevant to the SDGs, promoting a more equitable and inclusive publishing system. From the start of 2023, Zendy’s readership has seen an increase of professionals outside of academia and essentially, this is what open access does, it increases the societal relevance of academic research.” She went on to express, “The role of open access in supporting the SDGs is to broaden scientific and policy related conversations by ensuring researchers from all regions can contribute to research regardless of funding. This also opens the door to academic research being published in local languages, thereby eliminating language barriers and allowing for research to be region-specific to increase its relevance rather than just following the leading, benchmark research from developed regions.” As we observe Open Access week in 2023, it is imperative to recognise the collaborative progress made by the ecosystem of open access stakeholders, including researchers, institutions, publishers, and providers. Publishing open access benefits readers and researchers alike, as it increases the visibility of research. While there is still significant progress to be made, the world of academia has seen an influx of initiatives to empower research communities and create stronger and more inclusive collaborative ecosystems. Discover millions of open access research papers across an array of disciplines on Zendy now. h2 { font-size: 24px; padding: 10px 0 5px; } p { padding-bottom: 1rem; }
Utilise these online tools to improve your academic writing skill
In the current digital age, academic writing has undoubtedly been transformed from what it once was. The internet has brought a new era of convenience and efficiency for students and scholars alike. Academic writing is a writing style that demands a clear tone and formal language, finding the balance between the two can be challenging. As a result, online academic writing tools have emerged, offering resources and assistance to streamline the writing and citation processes. In this blog, we explore online tools that can help you conquer academic writing challenges, boost your productivity, and elevate the quality of your scholarly work. Writing Tools The chosen writing platform can impact the quality of an academic essay, however, this is dependent on personal preferences. A well-known universally adopted writing platform is Microsoft Word, which is very versatile and caters to a variety of writing projects. Platforms specifically geared towards academic writing usually host citation managers and other formatting specialities. Listed below are a few writing platforms that Zendy recommends. PlatformBenefitsMicrosoft WordA versatile tool that is user-friendly, provides formatting options, collaboration and sharing tools, citation features, templates, spell and grammar check, and auto-save.LaTeXMost used by academics as the platform is designed to smoothly manage heavy files including data in the form of text, visuals and equations. Provides writers with professional typesetting tools to easily meet institutional or journal requirements easily.LibreOfficeLibreOffice Writer provides an array of writing tools ranging from advanced formatting options to spell-checking, in terms of academic writing, this can be a good platform to conduct final touches on an academic paper.ScrivenerFor academic writers, Scrivener is best used as a note-making tool as it efficiently stores and organizes all the notes, sources and citations.Google DocsGoogle Docs works best for researchers who are collaborating on an academic paper, it conveniently tracks everybody’s contributions ensuring equal participation and smooth workflow.Dropbox PaperDropbox paper can be considered a slightly advanced version of Google Docs as the platform is designed to assign tasks, organize documents and create to-do lists to ensure researchers collaborate efficiently. Citation Management Tools In academic writing, referencing and citations are arguably the most time-consuming tasks. Online citation tools are designed to generate accurate citations and curate specifically formatted referencing lists to ensure productivity in research. Citation managers generate both in-text citations and list versions to ensure the source is being used correctly to avoid plagiarism, furthermore, some citation tools also evaluate sources and rule out or alert the writer about the non-academic ones. Listed below are a few citation management tools that Zendy recommends. PlatformBenefitsZoteroZotero is an efficient citation management tool that generates citations by dragging the link of the source to a dropbox. A unique feature is that Zotero also allows academic writers to annotate PDFs on the app to highlight key concepts within a research paper.Mendeleygenerates citations and bibliographies of multiple mediums and allows users to collaborate with other researchers online.EndNoteEndNote is a great way to organise citations by research paper. It hosts interesting features such as PDF annotation and allows users to generate citations from over 7000 referencing styles. This platform also allows researchers to share reference lists with other authorised collaborators.PaperpilePaperpile allows users to access their libraries across multiple devices and also functions as a plug-in to collaborate on Google Docs. It also secures bibliographies as it is a cloud-based reference manager.RefWorksRefWorks allows users to simply share citations and documents with other collaborators and efficiently manages multiple formats, including webpages. Grammar and Spell-Check Tools In academic writing, it is important to ensure there are no spelling or grammatical errors and that all sentences are structured in a formal and objective manner. The core of academic writing is to clearly and accurately convey information and findings, any grammatical or spelling errors have the potential to misinform readers. Listed below are a few grammar and spell-check tools that Zendy recommends. PlatformBenefitsGrammarlyGrammarly is a universal plug-in that enhances clarity and readability while also highlighting errors. This platform can be optimized to cater to any writing platform and tone. Allowing researchers to work on different projects error-freeProWritingAidThis tool assesses an array of writing mistakes like sentences that interrupt the flow, word choices, consistency of tense usage, and readability.MS Word Spelling and Grammar CheckerEfficient for writers who primarily utilise MS Word, as it is an efficient tool that saves time in the proofreading stage. Plagiarism Detecting Tools To be a credible academic, your record must be free of plagiarism as it can quickly taint your career and reputation. Plagiarism detectors ensure that all the content in a research paper is original and cited correctly, some detectors also evaluate how credible a source is and if it can be utilised in an academic paper and then highlight the problem areas. Regularly using plagiarism detectors helps researchers adhere to ethical guidelines to disseminate credible academic research. Listed below are two plagiarism detectors that Zendy recommends. PlatformBenefitsTurnitinThis platform educates students on identifying and crediting other authors’ works, using appropriate referencing techniques, and detecting plagiarised parts for students to efficiently paraphrase.CopyscapeCopyscape helps identify plagiarism and the exact source from where content has been plagiarised, this helps students understand the context of the information while correcting the plagiarism. In the fast-paced world of academia, where the pursuit of excellence is paramount, these online tools have proven to be indispensable for students and scholars alike. From harnessing the power of plagiarism detection to ensuring impeccable grammar and streamlining the tedious task of citation management, these digital aids have transformed our approach to academic writing. As we conclude our exploration of these tools, it's worth noting that while they provide invaluable assistance, they are no substitute for the core skills of critical thinking, research, and writing. Instead, they serve as enablers, freeing up time and mental bandwidth, and allowing us to focus on the true essence of scholarship: the pursuit of knowledge and the articulation of innovative ideas. Use Zendy to conduct your research through quality scholarly papers and easily consume the content with our AI-based summarisation and keyphrase highlighting features. table, th, td { border: 1px solid; } td { padding: 8px; } td a { color: rgb(234 170 0); } table { margin: 20px 0 }