HOW AN OUTPUT OF A RESEARCH PROJECT SHOULD LOOK LIKE

1
HOW AN OUTPUT OF A RESEARCH PROJECT SHOULD LOOK
LIKE?

• Karel Janda
• Institute of Economic Studies (IES)
• Charles University
• Prague , Czech Republic

2
Goal of the research project

• The goal is to produce a research paper that
  could be shared with others.
• The aim is to convey your own original
  contribution and thus generate new knowledge.
• BUT how to get there?

3
Golden rule of writing

• How to write a good research paper? Write a
  sequence of papers!
• Start writing before you are ready!
• Proceed step by step
• 1. Write a literature survey paper
• 2. Write a descriptive paper
• 3. Finish with research paper including
  elements of 1 and 2.
• Do not try to do all at once when you are
  ready!You will run into unexpected problems and
  end up empty handed.

4
The steps towards a good research paper

• Have an approximate idea what you want to write
  about
• as covered in your Research Proposal
• Example Government financial support to rural
  development in a low income transition country.
• Start writing before you are ready!
• Write down the first sketch of your ideas
• Example Compare the cost of credit subsidies and
  guarantees.
• Find relevant books and articles
• Browse and read some they will lead you to new
  sources
• Update your ideas for your project
• Write down the second sketch of your ideas
• Example Incentive problems in provision of
  credit guarantees and subsidies

5
The survey paper

• Start writing before you are ready!
• Write the literature survey paper based on
• Initial sketches of your argument
• Comprehensive review of literature
• international (western) literature
• other transition, developing countries experience
• local literature
• 5 to 10 pages should be enough
• Do not say
• There in nothing written about my topic.
• Search for applicable and similar papers.

6
Your comparative advantages

• Local knowledge your comparative advantage
• Keep it down to earth
• collect the descriptive information about your
  topic in country and region
• use local language sources - government reports,
  statistics, newspapers, studies
• if possible compare approaches in different
  comparable countries in your region
• Example K. Janda, M. Cajka Czech and Slovak
  Agricultural Financial Institutions, IES WP 84,
  2005
• Make original contribution by merging
  international theory and local knowledge and data

7
The first draft of description

• Start writing before you are ready!
• Write the first draft of the descriptive paper
• Remember your comparative advantages
• Be aware that information which may be obvious to
  economists in your country and industry, may be
  helpful contribution to international literature.
  
• Typically it could be 15 to 25 pages long
• Example Brokes, G., Donhauser, F., and Janda,
  K. The Effectiveness of Agricultural Credit
  Market in the CR, Research Paper, PAU of Czech
  Ministry of Agriculture, 1996

8
Getting ready!

• Work on theory think about applications of
  theoretical models to the specific situation in
  your country
• Start writing before you are ready!
• Example Janda, K. Credit Rationing Under
  Asymmetric Information and the Fund of Guarantees
  for Agriculture and Forestry, CERGE-EI WP 70,
  1994

9
Now you are ready!

• Finish the project write final paper by
• integrating theoretical contribution with
• the policy relevant institutions in your country
• adding a conclusion
• writing an introduction
• doing all the formal technicalities
• Example Janda, K. The Quantitative and
  Qualitative Analysis of the Budget Cost of the
  Czech SGAFF, IES WP 86, 2005.
• Note good ideas for the related research
  projects!
• Example SBC and bankruptcy in Janda, K.,
  Bankruptcy Procedures with Ex Post Moral Hazard,
  IES WP 61, 2004

10
Time management

• Where to find a time to do it all?
• Synergize
• your research topic should be related to your
  other work
• use it for dissertation/qualification for higher
  degrees
• write more than one masterpiece when you are
  ready
• write a number of smaller papers before you are
  ready and submit them and present them at
  various forums

11
Sequence of research output

• Scientific output should undergo a testing
  procedure as
• discussion paper
• working paper,
• part of project report
• chapter in book (takes longer to publish)
• peer-reviewed journal articles (takes very long
  to publish)
• Different outlets for your output
• electronic versions, hard copy versions,
• ISBN (books), ISSN (journals) helpful

12
Technical details of a paper

• Complying with the formal standards is a must!
• Ideally, use a software package to do it
• (e.g. EndNote bibliographic software,
• or LATEX family)
• Otherwise you need to do it manually.
• See examples on the following slides

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Front page of paper

• Title The Comparative Statics of the Effects of
  Credit Guarantees ...
• Author KAREL JANDA
• Abstract
• We compare the effects of government credit
  subsidies ...
• Keywords Transition, Credit, Subsidies,
  Guarantees.
• JEL Classification D82, G28, P31 see
  www.aeaweb.org
• Acknowledgements
• The work on this paper was supported by the
  research project of
• the Czech Ministry of Education, grant number MSM
  0021620841.
• Department of Microeconomics and Mathematical
  Methods,
• Charles University, Opletalova 26, CZ110 00
  Prague
• E-mail Karel-Janda_at_seznam.cz.

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Typical structure/content

• Theoretical paper (Comparative Statics of )
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Model
• 3 The Solution of the Model
• 3.1 Lump-sum Guarantees
• 3.2 Interest Rate Subsidies
• 4 Conclusions
• Appendix - The Solution of the Asymmetric
  Information Problem

15
Typical structure/content

• Empirical paper,
• e.g. Janda, Munich The IIT of the CR in the
  Economic Transition
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Czech Trade in Transition
• 3 Structure of the Czech Trade
• 4 Measurement of IIT
• 5 Empirical Results
• 6 Conclusions
• Convenient automated features LATEX - table of
  contents,
• references, titles, KEEPING UNIFIED STRUCTURE,
  not forgetting references

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Dont bother with formatting

• _at_TECHREPORTJanda_2005WP,
• AUTHOR "Karel Janda",
• TITLE "The Comparative Statics of
  the Effects of Credit Guarantees and Subsidies",
• INSTITUTION "IES FSV UK",
• TYPE "Working Paper",
• NUMBER "82",
• ADDRESS "Prague, Czech Republic",
• MONTH "",
• YEAR "2005
• Karel Janda. The comparative statics.... Working
  Paper 82,
• IES FSV UK, Prague, Czech Republic, 2005.
• Janda, K. (2005). The comparative statics....
  Working Paper 82,
• IES FSV UK, Prague, Czech Republic.

17
References

• References
• 1 Chinneck, J. W. How to organize your thesis.
• Carleton University, September 1999.
• 2 Hamermesh, D. S. The young economists guide
  to professional etiquette. Journal of Economic
  Perspectives 6, 1 (Winter 1992), 169179.
• 3 Levine, J. Writing and presenting your thesis
  or dissertation.
• Michigan State University, September 2005.
• 4 Qaim, M. Guidelines for writing academic
  papers in
• agricultural economics. University of Hohenheim,
  August 2005.
• 5 Thomson, W. The young persons guide to
  writing economic
• theory. Journal of Economic Literature 37, 1
  (March 1999), 157183.

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Good ideas for thinking about

• Thinking about it stage
• do not eliminate ideas too quickly
• write down your ideas
• set a realistic goal
• set time lines
• try a preliminary study
• Tailor your study. Ask some of the following
  questions
• what will the paper be used for?
• by what channels will it circulate?
• who are all the people, who may read your text?
• what is their educational background?
• what are your readers concerned with?
• what are their goals, values, needs, constraints?
• how will you make it easy for busy people to read
  and use?
• what are the most effective arguments and
  approaches to raise interest
• among your readers and convince them?
• what objections might your readers raise?

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Good ideas for writing

• Writing stage
• begin writing with sections you know the best
• read papers by others before you begin
• Exampleshttp//ies.fsv.cuni.cz
• Economics Education and Research Consortium
  (EERC) http//www.eerc.ru/
• introduce tables in the text, present it,
  describe it
• write real conclusions and implications - dont
  restate findings
• make your Suggestions for Further Research
  meaningful
• use we form instead of I form
• minimize footnotes
• Abstract, Introduction, Conclusions - really
  important parts

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Introduction, Conclusion, Abstract

• Introduction
• explain the topic of the paper and put it into a
  broader context
• clearly state the papers objective
• emphasize the importance of your contribution
• name the concrete research questions
• mention the methodological approach and data
  sources
• give a short overview of the structure
• Conclusion
• summarize
• raise questions for further research
• Abstract
• your audience reads it to decide whether to read
  the paper