2 Week Capacity Building 21 May- 03 June 2015

1. Introduction:

In its quest for excellence and  to promote research, the Centre for Research Innovation and Training, The IIS University, Jaipur organized a 2 Week Capacity Building Programme in Research Methodology for Young Faculty in Social Sciences from 21 May 2015 to 3 June 2015. The course was sponsored by Indian Council for Social Science Research, New Delhi. The objective of the course was to re orient and re activate the young academicians to pursue quality research.

2. Selection of the Participants:

The Course received on overwhelming response from the young academicians.  In all about 56 applications were received, out of which 30 Faculty members were selected as per ICSSR Guidelines.  20 participants were from outside jaipur from different states like Karnataka, Telangana, Haryana, Andra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. One Participant, Dr. Nilendra Lokhande from SNDT College of Arts & SCB College of Commerce & Science, Mumbai could not come and intimated us on the day of  commencement of the programme.

3. Resource Persons & Course Content:

The inaugural session of the programme was graced by such luminaries from the field of education as Dr. Raakhi Gupta, Rector & Registrar, the IIS University, who gave the welcome address, Prof. Vinay Kumar Srivastava from Delhi University was the key-note speaker of the session, Prof. Karori Singh, Director, South Asia Study Centre, University of Rajasthan was the chaiperson, Dr. Subhash Garg, Dean and Director, CRIT, acquainted the august gathering with the aims and objectives of the programme as well as the activities of CRIT.

Eminent academicians from various Institutions of repute from all over India like

• Prof. Vinay Kumar Srivastava, University of Delhi
• Prof. Prabhat pankaj, Director, Jaipuria Institute of management, Jaipur
• Prof. N K Garg, MDU, Rohtak
• Prof. Sanket Viz, BPS Mahila University, Sonipat
• Prof. SP Gupta, Jai Narayan Vyas University, Jodhpur
• Prof. Balwinder Singh Saini, Gurunanak Dev University, Amritsar
• Dr. Neeraj Kaushik, NIT, Kurukshetra
• Dr. Sunita Arora, MDU, Rohtak
• Prof. Ajay Kumar Chouhan, IMT, Gaziabad
• Dr. Girish Taneja, DAV University, Jalandhar
• Prof. Sanjeev Mittal, Guru Gobind Indraprastha University, Delhi
• Prof. Amita Sharma, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur
• Prof. T N Mathur, University of Rajasthan
• Prof. Karori Singh, Observor of the course and Director, South Asia study centre, University of Rajasthan
• Prof. M L Sharma, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur
• Prof. N.D. Mathur, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur
• Prof. Roopa Mathur, The IIS University, Jaipur
• And Prof. Nisha Yadav, The IIS University, Jaipur

Were the resource persons for the various technical sessions.

These experts apprised the participants on qualitative and quantitative research; focusing upon the research design, review of literature, data collection techniques, formulation of research problems, objective wise analysis, field research, hypothesis testing, sampling, types of sampling, correlation, regression, usage of dummy variables in regression. The econometric issues like multicollinearity, autocorrelation and problem of heteroscedasticity were also addressed during the sessions.  Some sessions were specifically designed for orienting and training the participants on advanced data analysis techniques like Panel Data Analysis, Time Series Analysis, Structural Equation Modeling, Path Analysis, Conjoint Analysis.

The sessions towards the end of the programme addressed issues like ethics and politics of research, academic writing, various issues related to plagiarism, how to prepare a research proposal, publication process.

The key Highlights of the course were :

• Hands on training with SPSS, E Views and SPSS AMOS
• Discussion on application of various statistical tools
• Demonstration of Turnitin software to check the plagiarism, access to online databases like Ebsco, Questia, and Delnet.
• Paper Clinic

As part of the ICSSR Guidelines, it was mandatory for the participants to work upon a research paper. All the participants were asked to bring a draft paper. The papers were evaluated by various experts during the sessions and necessary feedback was given to the participants. The course concluded with an extremely informative session by Prof. T N Mathur, where all the participants presented their papers after incorporating the required changes and deposited the hard copy of the same. This concluding session was followed by a feedback session from the participants. It was a learning experience for all. The contributions of various resource persons to the course were invaluable and of immense intellectual significance.

4. Session Wise Detailed Report:

Day 1

Session 1

Day 1 started with registration of the participants from different states of the country .Registration was followed by the inaugural session. Dr. Arti Sharma, Head Department of Sociology, The IIS University welcomed the esteemed guest and the participants. Dr. Subhash Garg, Dean and Director, CRIT highlighted the aims and objectives of the course. He also talked about CRIT and other upcoming sessions during the period of 10 days. The key note address was delivered by Prof.Vinay Kumar Srivastava, Dept of Anthropology, University of Delhi. Prof. V.K Shrivastava, in his address highlighted various critical aspects in social research. The ceremony was concluded by Course Co-director Dr. Roopam Kothari’s Vote of thanks.

Session 2  Second session was addressed by Dr. Vinay Kumar Srivastava, where he highlighted upon the concept of research methodology and discussed research questions. He apprised the participants on aspects of qualitative research and stressed upon the fact that interpretation is always qualitative. But if incidences of behavior are countable, they must be counted because it gives precision, otherwise qualitative facts would appear impressionistic.

Session 3 Third session of the day was taken by Prof. Amita Sharma, Department of Statistics, University of Rajasthan. Prof. Sharma apprised the participants with the conceptual frame work of research design. She discussed the stages of research and types of research designs giving suitable examples. Prof. Sharma also highlighted upon the fact that how the factors play a critical role in topic selection and problem identification. 

Session 4 Resource person for last session of the day was Prof. N.K. garg, M.D.U Rohtak. Prof. Garg highlighted on the importance of exploring the existing literature through Review of Literature. He also described the importance of and correct way of including end notes, footnotes, bibliography and references in writing research   

DAY 2

Session 5, 6, 7 & 8

First session of day 2 was addressed by Prof. N K Garg. The session was in continuation of session on the previous day. Prof. Garg apprised the participants about the importance of problem formulation. He gave some real life examples related to research where the problems were not formulated correctly and what consequences were borne by the researchers. He highlighted upon the various sources of data collection, limitation of collecting data from both primary as well as secondary. He discussed the techniques of observation and interview with the participants and explained the intricacies involved in each of the techniques. In session 7 he discussed the concept of Case Study and Survey Methods. In session 8 he covered sample distributions.  Apart from the topics discussed above Prof. Viz Divided the participants into 5 groups. Each group was then asked to have one to one interaction amongst their group and to come up with individual research titles which were to be discussed in paper clinic session. Resource person for next 3 sessions of day 2 was Prof. Sanket Viz, BPS Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Sonipat.  Prof. Viz discussed techniques of data collection in second session.

DAY 3

Session 9 & 10

The first two sessions of the day were addressed by Prof. S.P. Gupta, Jai Narayan Vyas University, Jodhpur. He talked about ethnomethodology and explained the concepts of indexicality, reflexivity, rational accounting practices, practical sociological reasoning and glossing practices. He explained that every phenomenon is linked to ceratin context and without understanding the context ie time and place social events cannot be interpreted. He elaborated on situational context, linguistic context and biographical context. He also explained the importance of the process of verbal and non-verbal communication in the process of research.

Session 11

Resource person for this session was Prof. Roopa Mathur. Prof. Mathur illustrated the concept of field research in an interesting manner. She explained about different circumstances faced by the researcher during field work. She emphasized that pre field work ie knowledge of native language, understanding of culture is necessary for success of field work. She also stressed that patience is a necessary attribute of a field worker. She further discussed the various stages of field work viz. selecting a research setting, gaining access, presenting oneself, becoming invisible and gathering information. She concluded the session by focusing upon the concept of field notes.

Session 12

Prof. Nisha Yadav dealt at length with various aspects of Phenomenology. She discussed about existence and usage of philosophical research in contemporary scenario. Prof. Yadav also highlighted on various dimensions of critical social research. She explained that critical perspective can be used by the researcher for understanding social reality and socially constructed meanings at macro level historical context.

DAY 4

Session 13,14,15 & 16

Resource person for the day was Prof. Neeraj Kaushik from NIT, Kurukshetra. Prof.  Kaushik commenced his session by explaining the various concepts related to variables like what are variables? Why is it necessary to identify variables ? What are dependent & independent variables? etc. He then discussed the types of data ie longitudinal and cross sectional data. Taking his discussion forward with the help of some real life examples he then focused on measurement of scales viz. Ordinal, ratio, interval. He then told the participants about the validity & reliability tests. He concluded session I by explaining the concept of variables and measurement scales by representing the data in a tabular format, which was appreciated by the participants In next two sessions, Prof. Kaushik discussed the concepts of universe and Nature & types of Sampling. He told the participants about the concept of finite and infinite population by giving suitable examples. Then he explained the concept of sampling frame, sampling unit and types of sampling like probability & non probability sampling techniques. He further explained various techniques to choose a representative sample and also discussed about significance levels.

Last session was completely devoted to Objective wise analysis of variables. Where Prof. Kaushik discussed with the help of examples that given a title of research, how the researcher could find out the variables, identify the type of variables, frame the hypothesis, and identify what technique of hypothesis testing may be used. All four sessions of Prof. Kaushik were extremely enriching. After the sessions were over, Prof. Kaushik devoted some time to solve the individual querries of the participants

DAY 5

Session 17, 18, 19 & 20

Resource person for the day was Prof. B K Saini. Prof. Saini focused on the following topics in his first session : Basic Statistics: importance of statistical inquiries and their limitations; Collection and tabulation of statistical data, graphical presentation, frequency distribution. Measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion.

In session 2, Prof. Saini discussed the concept of hypothesis testing and various tools for testing the hypothesis through SPSS. He showed in detail the various parametric and non parametric tests on SPSS using different SPSS data files.

In session 3 & 4, Prof. Saini, trained the participants on correlation and regression analysis with the help of data files on SPSS. After running the analysis, he focused on the interpretation of results of correlation and regression by which the participants were highly benefitted.

DAY 6

Session 21, 22, 23 & 24

Resource person for all the sessions on day 6 was Prof. Prabhat Pankaj from Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur. Prof. Prabhat shared his expertise on dummy variable regression model & limited dependent variable models with the participants.

In session 1, he focused on the following topics:

• Dummy Variable Regression Analysis
• Bi-variate and multivariate regression models’ Result Interpretation.

In session 2, he explained the formulation of equation for logit analysis and demonstrated the analysis on SPSS. He further discussed that in what kind of circumstances the model may be applied

In session 3, He continued with the Probit model and discussed its application                   

Session 4, was given to the participants as practice session to practice the regression analysis on the data files under the supervision of Prof. Prabhat Pankaj.

DAY 7

Session 25,26,27 & 28

Resource person for the day was Dr. Sunita Arora. First two sessions were dedicated to panel data analysis. Prof. Arora explained the theoretical background of panel data analysis in the first session through her presentation and the second session was then devoted to the hands on training of panel data analysis using E Views software. In session 3, Prof. Arora focused on the basics of time series analysis, the concept of stationarity and the tests like dicky-fuller tests and PP test to test the stationarity.  Data files were shared with the participants to give them practice on E Views.

DAY 8

Session 29, 30, 31 & 32

Resource person for the day was Dr. Ajay Chouhan. He trained participants on Structural Equation Modeling using SPSS –Amos. All the four sessions were devoted to SEM. First two sessions were devoted to the theoretical aspects of the Structural Equation Modeling and remaining two sessions the participants were asked to practice SEM analysis which was made very clear by Prof. Chouhan to all the participants.

DAY 9

Session 33, 34, 35 & 36

On day 9 first two sessions were taken by Dr. Roopam Kothari, where she talked about applications of SEM analysis in various disciplines. She discussed some specific cases involving SEM. Next two sessions were taken by Dr. Shweta Kastiya. She discussed factor analysis with the help of SPSS and also highlighted that under what circumstances one should use Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis.       

DAY 10

Session 37,38,39 & 40

First session of the day was taken by Prof. N D Mathur. He threw light on one of the most important aspect of Research- Ethics and Politics of Research. He touched upon the following aspects in his lecture:

• Ethics and the researcher, ethics and the scientific community, ethics and the sponsors of research; ethical issues involving human subjects – harm, deception, informed consent, special populations and new inequalities;
• Privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality, making ethical decisions. The politics of research: limits on research, dissemination of research findings; The uses of research: science and society.

Resource Person for next three sessions was Prof. Sanjeev Mittal from University of Delhi. He discussed in detail the Ethics in Academic Writing. In his 2^nd session he discussed the following issues in detail with the participants:

• Meaning and types of academic writing, Papers for Journals
• Preparation of Reports, Writing Books (Difference from PhD thesis)

In his next session he discussed about plagiarism, different types of plagiarism, how to prevent plagiarism and importance of adhering to rules for referencing/citation.

In his last session he demonstrated the working of the Software Ternitin to detect the level of similarity index with the help of University’s publication officer.                               

DAY 11

Session 41, 42, 43 & 44

Resource person for the day was Dr. Girish Taneja. He discussed in detail the elements of wiring and covered in detail the following topics:

• Organizing and Presenting an Argument
• Discussion, Conclusions, Abstract (for papers)
• Differences between papers, reports and books in above
• Quantitative: Data presentation, analyses and discussion

In his next session he covered the basics which should be remembered while wrting and submitting a research proposal. He discussed the following aspects:

• Writing a research proposal (difference from papers / books / reports)
• Research Proposal: Main elements
• Identifying and Presentation of Issue(s)/Topic/Problem(s) to be studied.

In his last session he discussed about the publication process and threw light on the following aspects:

• Journals – submission, review, revision
• Books – manuscript presentation, review, editing,
• Dealing with Rejection
• Importance of Revision (Review Reports, Response sheets)
• Papers/Books: Criteria for selection
• Process: Acceptance to Publication (revision, editing, proofing, printing)

In the end he taught the participants to use google scholar account and how to keep a track of the papers already published.                                   

DAY 12 & 13

Day 12 & 13 was devoted to paper clinic. Prof. N D Mathur, Prof. Karori Singh & Prof. Subhash Garg discussed the research titles proposed by the participants on one to one basis and gave them the feedback. Participants spent the entire day in preparing their research paper in computer Lab. The participants prepared a rough draft on the following topics:

Day 14

On the last day individual presentations were scheduled. Prof. T N Mathur  evaluated all the presentations made by the participants.  The presentations were followed by the valedictory session.

 Outcome of the Programme:

It was a learning experience for all the participants.  Hand on training on SPSS, E Views, Ternitin etc. was appreciated by the participants. Sessions on paper  clinic  gave them chance to interact with resource persons on one to one basis. At the end of the programme all the participants were ready with a draft research paper/article.  The progress of the same will be reviewed by the organizers within a period of one year.

Group Formation for Paper Clinic