課程資訊
課程名稱
 工程科學研究方法
Research Methods for Engineering and Natural Science 
開課學期
 111-2 
授課對象
 工學院  土木工程學系  
授課教師
 汪立本 
課號
 CIE7214 
課程識別碼
 521 M1080 
班次
  
學分
 3.0 
全/半年
 半年 
必/選修
 選修 
上課時間
 星期四3,4,5(10:20~13:10) 
上課地點
 土研405 
備註
 初選不開放。與蔡亞倫合授
總人數上限：20人 
  
課程簡介影片
 
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課程概述

This course provides a training on research methods, literature review and scientific presentation and writing. Whereas many similar courses focusing only upon either theory or tool aspects for research methods, this course offers trainings for both aspects. Each week we offer a 2-hour theoretical training as well as an 1-hour relevant tool uses.  

課程目標
 Toward the end of the course, students are expected to learn:
• How to structure a research plan
• How to evaluate research literature from various perspectives
• How to use tools to manage references
• Essential statistical skills for result analyses
• How to compose a well-structured scientific publication
• How to communicate your research in a scientific conference 
課程要求
  
預期每週課後學習時數
  
Office Hours
  
指定閱讀
  
參考書目
 • Notes/slides prepared by lecturers.
• Thiel, D., Research Methods for Engineers, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
• Deb, D., Dey, R., and Balas, V.E., Engineering Research Methodology: A Practical Insight for Researchers, Springer, 2019.
• Christensen, L.B., Johnson, R. B. and Turner, L. A., Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Pearson, 2014.
 
評量方式
(僅供參考)
    
課程進度
週次
日期
單元主題
Week 1
 02/23  Part 0: Course introduction
1. Introducing topics will be covered
2. Format: 2-hour theory + 1-hour practice
3. Final: a mock academic conference 
Week 2
 03/02  2 Part 1: Foundation of research
1. The purpose and motivations of research, what are the difference of research to informal sharing? (logics and standardized method)
2. What are the benefits and necessities of learning research methods?
3. Types of research (qualitative/quantitative)
4. Research ethics (I) (plagiarism and peer-reviewed)

Practice: Design Thinking as a tool. 
Week 3
 03/09  Part 2: Identification of research problems via literature review
1. Types of literature (review/research/technical...)
2. Methods and resources for literature searching (WoS/Google Scholar, and their difference)
3. Impact factors (how they are calculated), citation indices of journals (SCI/SSCI/TSSCI/A&HCI), and why they are popular in Taiwan (controversy)
4. Open Access vs. predatory publishing (controversy)
5. Grey literature (not peer-reviewed, difficult languages, …)

Practice: Reference managers (Endnote, Zotero) 
Week 4
 03/16  6. Methods for literature reading and noting
7. Tools for literature noting and organizing
8. How to efficiently collect key information in literature? (which chapters contain what information)

Practice: Tools for taking notes 
Week 5
 03/23  9. Research ethics (II) (plagiarism, citing is not all you need)
10. Methods for documenting literature
11. Tools for documenting and their comparisons 
Week 6
 03/30  Part 3: Research design
1. What are research gaps, relevance, and novelties?
2. How you define your research objectives.
3. The things you should know before start to do your research (data availability, validation, pure science or practical workflow…)
4. Aim higher or easier? Trend or interests? And what are their pros/cons?
5. Learn from literature (identifying their structure) and how to judge/criticize them
6. Validation 
Week 7
 04/06  Part 4: Data analysis
1. Introduction of basic statistics
2. Introduction of key python modules for data science (pandas, numpy, scipy and so on)
3. Performance measures 
Week 8
 04/13  No Class 
Week 9
 04/20  4. Data visualization (case studies of good/bad papers’ tables/figures)
5. Theories and tools of data visualization  
Week 10
 04/27  Part 5: Paper writing
1. The classic structure of paper (IMRAD)
2. How to write each chapter (how to avoid mixing them up), especially results/discussions, abstract/conclusion, appendix
3. How to allocate time (editing while/after writing, …)
4. Things you should avoid (full of abbreviations, redundant words, jumping logics, passive/active, …) 
Week 11
 05/04  Part 6. Paper submitting
1. How to decide your targeted journal (checking papers you cited, IF, papers published amount/frequency, editors’ nationalities, limitations of max. pages/words/figs, …)
2. How to check whether you manuscript suit it (aims and scopes)
3. Formatting and other necessary documents (cover letter, title page, highlights, suggestion of reviewers, …)
4. Deciding authorships and why it matters (controversy)
5. Introduction of the peer-reviewed evaluation process (editors, reviewers, and potential decisions)
6. Research ethics (III) (double submission and conflicts of interest)
7. How to make you paper (potentially) easier to be cited? (keywords, abstract, …)
8. How to response to (difficult) reviewers

* Abstract submission deadline for the final conference
 
Week 12
 05/11  Part 7: Presentation on a conference
1. What are conferences and why should you attend them (overall structure, sessions, meeting your communities…)
2. Submitting and writing abstracts
3. How to prepare a poster nicely 
Week 13
 05/18  4. How to prepare an oral presentation (what is the difference between presentation and writing a paper)
5. Time allocation and structure
6. How to face potential tough questions
7. How to choose between poster or oral and what are their pros/cons? 
Week 14
 05/25  Part 8: Career in research
1. Writing your CV (what should (not) be included) and cover letter
2. How to find potential master/PhD/postdoc opportunities in different countries
3. How to reach you potential/dream supervisors? (conference, mails, …) and how to make sure he/she suits you
4. What is the difference between a project/funding proposal and a journal article? 
Week 15
 06/01  Potential and overall discussions 
Week 16
 06/08  Conference (oral and/or posters) with awards