How to ensure a  meaningful research paper has been created while following all the dos and don'ts of research writing? Read to know more.

Research writing is a mammoth task. But in following the technicality of it, the essence of writing research papers is often lost.

Most of the time students forget that research papers are not only written for scoring a good grade and securing marks, but also for contributing positively to the fields of study or industries they chose.

To also work on a discovery that may have never struck anyone in the field previously, or to sometimes bring newer versions of existing concepts, advanced and enhanced concepts better than before. ( https://research.com/research/top-10-qualities-of-good-academic-research )

The whole idea of research is to come up with newer developments in the field and to come up with discoveries or changes that can help academic scholars across the globe.

We refer to so many research papers and scholarly articles before we start working on our paper or study. These research papers act as a rich source of information that guides us about what has previously been done related to our research topic.

The goal of the research is to build a treasure chest full of knowledge and advanced information. To always research the significance of a field of study and to keep checking how accurate it is even over the years.

Research has enabled us to dig deep and get our hands on literally any source of information we could want from the internet, from published books, audio files, films, etc. 

But what if the research you use as a guide is not accurate and is vague? What if the research has a lot of loose ends? What if the data collected was breached or not statistically correct?

Or just assume what if the researcher was biased throughout the research? These factors would affect the quality of your research as well right?

o matter how accurately or truthfully you may work on your research the flaws of faulty guiding research will reflect in your work nonetheless.

While our Mentors and Research Guides give us framework works and research blueprints to follow, they often make use of qualitative elements that must be kept in mind at all times.

Have you noticed some of these? For eg: your mentor may say to make sure you do not manipulate your data to come to a conclusion you wish to achieve. Make sure you are not going to be biased toward the research.

Make sure you are not duplicating the work of some other researcher. Surely you must have heard these sentences from your mentor or guide. But have you noticed why these elements are so important?

Are they simply a part of the research framework? Is that all there is to it? Well, the answer is No. These minute details and ethical practices contribute positively to the quality of your research.

They bring the element of righteousness, fairness, and just practices to your part as a researcher, and thus these elements or qualities are important. (http://studylecturenotes.com/qualities-of-a-good-researcher/ )

So what are the qualities that make good research? Let's find out:

1. Good Research is Orderly and Systematic: All research is scientific. All research is Systematic. All research is Data-driven. Even the most qualitative researchers are data-driven. This is the first thing you must remember at all times. If your research is all over the place and scattered, you won't be able to work on anything that makes sense. The framework, the guidelines of research, the process, and the stages are all meant to give your research order. For eg, you cannot be working on the hypothesis even before you have worked on your research problem. Similarly, you cannot change the order of how information gets presented in a research paper because that simply disrupts the course of action of how your research progresses. So your research needs to be orderly and systematic- be it in terms of organizing information or collecting and analyzing it. 

2. Good Research is Based on Professional Real World Issues: can you be writing a research paper on how birds fly? Of course not. Because it does not contribute to any field in any way. However, could you be writing a research paper on how airplanes were designed using the same techniques as how birds fly and back it up with data? Yes. The latter is relevant because you bring in aerodynamics or aviation and aeronautical engineering. You make sense because you want to research how an airplane flies and functions. Good research is always based on professional issues. You cannot be writing a research paper on why your maid did not turn up to work today. Research is scientific but the goal of the research is to contribute to solving a real problem, a professional one. Not to solve hypothetical theories like Pythagoras’ theorems and vague metaphor problems. If you are a student of science your research should be focused on resolving a professional issue in the field of science. In the field of specialization, you study or work for biology, zoology, microbiology, biotechnology, medicinal sciences, etc. ( https://bscholarly.com/qualities-of-a-good-researcher/ )

3. Good research begins with a Defined Purpose: are you doing your research just for the sake of doing it? When you talk about resolving real issues and dealing with professional problems through research, you have a purpose to achieve a conclusion that solves your research problem. Purposeless research is a mere piece of informative article. If you do not wish to solve a problem, if you do not wish to discover a breakthrough discovery, if your research is simply not aiming to achieve something then your research does not contribute to any professional areas or industries. For you to be able to conduct your research accurately you must first have a clearly defined research purpose. Why are you working on the topic? What do you aim to get out of it? You must know the purpose of your research. 

4. Good Research Emphasises developing, refining, and expanding professional Knowledge: when you work on a professional problem in your research based on your industry of work and education, you naturally develop a deep understanding of how things work at the professional front in your industry. You meet real people who work in the industry and gain insights from them through interviews, you visit actual organizations and companies to collect data, and you do an actual survey to collect real-time and real-life data. This entire process polishes your knowledge and gives you a deeper understanding of professional life.

5. Good Research is Directed towards Developing or Testing Theories: in Academic Research, you can develop your theories or even test existing theories. For eg: in media studies, you could test media theories like agenda setting theory and how much of it is applicable in media functioning and behavior today. You can put it to the test and check the practical aspect of a theory through a research paper. 

6. Problem Solving is at the heart of Good Research: as mentioned earlier, you wish to achieve a solution to your research problem at the end of your research study. The whole purpose of research is to come up with solutions that could solve real problems in the professional world. 

7. Good Research is Dedicated to Empirical Evidence: Empirical Evidence simply means that if someone else tries to conduct the same research as you did step by step, they would come to the same conclusion as your research did. Empirical studies are an attempt at creating research papers that are practically doable, verifiable, or observable in nature. Good research aims at creating empirical evidence so that if someone wishes to cross-check whether your conclusions are accurate or not, they can do so and because of empirical evidence they will arrive at the same conclusion no matter how many times they conduct the same research. This ensures that your research is accurate.

8. Good Research Strives to Collect First-Hand Information: Secondary Data is good to collect primitive information but when you as a researcher take up primary data collection and conduct actual surveys and interviews that give you first-hand data, you contribute to knowing the real status of things in the world. A survey or interview that you conduct yourself gets you responses that have never been recorded or collected before and are exclusively related to your research only. This increases the accuracy and quality of your research because you could gather first-hand relevant to your study data for your research. 

9. Good Research is Objective and Logical in Process: a single research paper should never be subjective. You are aiming to narrow down your focus onto one particular severe issue that you wish to address and not multiple issues that make a big issue. The more objective you are, the more tightly knit your research is. If you add in too many angles on a single issue you end up causing unnecessary confusion. Which one would be your main goal to achieve? It will end up diluting your research into a vague concept with too many angles to focus on. Good research is always looking at things from just one point of view and debating over whether it is or it is not the case. 

10. Good Research Uses appropriate Methodology: is your research Qualitative or Quantitative? Are you making use of Primary or Secondary Data? What are your Data Collection Methods and Tools? Good Research is always sure about what methodology should be followed. If you want to focus on the quality of response and data and not numbers then you should go for the qualitative methodology. And if you want more statistical and numerical data you must go for quantitative methodology. 

11. Good Research Conducts on Representative Sample: if you conduct research and include only your family and friends in the sample of data collection and generalize the findings to your city, this sampling is incorrect and will not bring you any results. This is because your sample is not representative of the population that you wish to generalize it to. For example, if you chose arts students as your sample for a science field it would be a disaster because your sample of art students is not representative of the field of science. Good research always ensures that the sample you pick for your research comes from the larger population to which you would generalize its results or is a part of the larger population.

12. Good Research Uses Appropriate Data Collection Methods and Tools: You cannot be collecting secondary data and call it first-hand data collection. You can also not be conducting experimentation when you need to be doing a survey. The right method and the right tool are crucial to the most important aspect of research I.e data collection. With wrong methods of data collection and faulty data tools, your research will have inaccurate results. 

13. Good Research is Carefully Recorded and Reported: imagine you worked hard on your research report and gathered all required evidence to conclude your data. But right before submitting your research, you realize some participants have given false data and information. Would you just submit the research report without making the required changes? A carefully reported and recorded research report simply ensures that all the evidence you collect to prove your data is being recorded correctly and is not missing attention to detail. You as a researcher are just as responsible when it comes to fact-checking and making sure the data is accurate as the respondent is. 

14. Good research is adequately Analysed and Researched: if you feel like something seems to be missing try and find out more information about it. Try and add more details if you believe your explanation is not sufficient. Research loves a thorough explanation and not leaving any loose ends only ensures that your research is very easy to understand and grasp and deals with all the checkpoints effectively. 

15. Good Research is Patiently Carried Out: Can you complete a research paper in a week? If your answer is yes, chances are you will not even bother to analyze the information you collected correctly. Even a month is a really short time to complete a research paper. You must dedicate your sincere effort and attention to your research paper and make sure you are not making errors in haste. 

Another quality that makes your research stand out is practicing and following ethical means of research and staying true to your research.

Follow these pointers to ensure your research is accurate and passes the quality check of an ideal research paper! Get writing! ( https://www.slideshare.net/maheswarijaikumar/a-good-research-108088964 )