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Kabul Polytechnic University

Hydraulic Structure Department
MSc Program
Research Methodology
Data Collection & Plagiarism

Presented: By Mohammad Najim Nasimi

Wednesday 29 July 2020

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Data Collection Definition

❖Data collection is the process of collecting and measuring information of
selected variables in an established systematic manner.
❖Data collection methods vary by discipline, the emphasis on ensuring
accurate and honest collection is common.
❖The goal of data collection is to get quality evidence which will allow
researcher to analyze formulation of convincing and credible answers to
prove his/her hypothesis.
❖Data collection begins after finalization of research problem, accurate
data collection is necessary for maintaining the integrity of research.

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Types of Data
The data has been divided into two types: primary and secondary.
(i)Primary data:
The data which are collected fresh for the first time are called as primary data This may
include number of ways like interviews, focus groups, telephone surveys, and so on.
Advantages of Primary Data
• The primary data is original and pertinent to the subject of the research to achieve
high accuracy in research
• The researcher can get a realistic view about the topic under consideration from the
primary data
• Primary data are highly reliable because these are collected by the researcher or
concerned and reliable party
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Disadvantages of Primary Data

• Restricted in size and for larger coverage a more number of researchers are
required
• The cost of the data collection will increase with increase in time and efforts of
more people but the importance of the research may drop
• Primary data collection takes lot of time and efforts. The problem of the
research can become serious or out dated before completing the process of data
collection, analysis and report preparation. It may defeat the purpose of the
research
• In collection of survey based data one can face design problems while
preparing questionnaire. The prepared questionnaire must be simple to
understand and respond
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Timely responses are not received from some respondents
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• Respondents may give socially acceptable, fake answers to suppress the realities.
• Skilled personnel are required for data collection. Unskilled person in data
collection may give inadequate data of the research

(II) Secondary data

❖The data which has already been collected by someone else, analysed and
statistically processed is called as secondary data.

❖It has been collected by someone not related to the current research field but
collected this data for some other motive and at different time in the past.

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Secondary data can be of internal or external type:

• Internal (Information gathered within the organization)
• External (If the data is gathered outside sources)
Advantages of Secondary Data
• Secondary data is economical and faster to access
• It gives a way to use the work of the best intellectuals all over the globe
• It imparts a persuasion to the researcher about direction he/she should follow for
the selected research topic
• Secondary data adds value to the research study by preserving time, effort, and
Money
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Disadvantages of Secondary Data

• The data collected by someone else may not be as reliable and as accurate
compared with primary data
• Data collected at one location may not be acceptable for the other
location because of inconsistent environmental conditions
• As time passes the data becomes obsolete and antiquated
• Collected secondary data may pervert the results of the research
• To use secondary data a special care and permissions are necessary to
amend or modify for use
• To use secondary data, care should be taken to avoid issues of copyright
and authenticity
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Methods of Data Collection

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(i)Observation:
❖ As it forces researcher to do multitasking and to use a number of techniques
continuously; including her/his five senses to collect data.
❖ observe things/people in their natural ways as they follow their everyday
lives
Observation can be participant or non-participant based on participation of researcher.
➢ Participant: The researcher observes actual situation carefully by putting
himself in that situation he collects the data from respondents by observing
their natural behaviour talent and skills of the researcher (Important for
quality of data)

➢ Nonparticipant: It is a data collection technique whereby the researcher does

not take an active part in the situation
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Advantages

• Subjective bias can be eliminated

• Data is unaffected by past behaviour or future intentions
• Natural behaviour of group is allowed to record

Disadvantages
• Gives limited amount of information
• Unseen factors can affect the observation task

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ii. Interviewing:
the interviewer (researcher) personally communicates with the informants and asks
required questions to them about the research topic.
Advantages
• This method allows the researcher to gather information from illiterate humankind
• As interviewer collects data personally there are nil chances of non-response
• As interviewer tactfully collects the data by cross examining the responders hence
collected data is very reliable
Disadvantages
• It has chances of bias
• The informants may avoid answering few personal questions
• The process is time-consuming
• Requirements of money and manpower are very high
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For successful implementation of interviewing, the researcher should take the follow:

• Interviewer should be carefully selected.

• Interviewer and respondent must be attentive, and observant
• Technical competence and necessary practical experience
• Occasional field checks must be arranged to ensure that interviewers are not
cheating or deviating from instructions given to them.
• create friendly atmosphere of trust and confidence
• must ask questions intelligently and properly
• must record the complete response.

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iii. Questionnaire:
• Collect answers from respondents
• In printed or electronic form.
Advantages
• Large amounts of information can be collected from group of people in cost effective way
• Can be carried out by the researcher or by any number of people with limited affect to its
validity and reliability
• Quick and easy quantification of the results can be done by either a researcher or through
the use of software
• Scientific and objective analysis can be done effectively compared to other forms of
research

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Disadvantages
• The response rate is very less due to low literacy rate or lack of interest in the research
topic
• It is criticized to be inadequate to recognize some forms of information –, that is,changes
of emotions, behavior, feelings, and so on
• Gives only a limited amount of information without any explanation of it
• Truthfulness of a respondent is difficult to measure
Sample Questionnaire
• Five scales are defined as
• Be clear about the various aspects

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Sample Questionnaire

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Plagiarism
Introduction
While presenting and publishing any document, it is imperative to ensure its
uniqueness and credibility. Attempts of manipulation, fabrication or falsification of the
data, experiment, process, equipment, procedures, observations, findings, or results
lead to issues of misconduct and are extremely unethical and illegal.
The Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics surveyed 43,000 high school students in
public and private schools and found that:

• 59% of high school students admitted cheating on a test during the last year; 34%
self-reported doing it more than two times.
• One out of three high school students admitted that they used the Internet to
plagiarize an assignment.
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Plagiarism
Plagiarism is an inappropriate act of claiming credit or ownership of someone else’s
ideas or unfair annexation of another’s work and entitling it as your own.

“plagiarize” means to:

• Steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own
• Using other work or idea (another’s production) without crediting them
• Commit literary theft
• Present as new and original, an idea or product derived from an existing source

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Form of Plagiarism
❖The copying words or sentences of the other work in our work without citing,

❖Incorrect information about the source of a quotation,

❖Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source or copying

❖So many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work

❖ include intentionally copying lengthy passages from a book or journal article,

❖ purchasing or downloading whole papers and submitting them as your own work

❖A postgraduate student working on a project copies the aim, objective, and hypothesis
from another report,

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Reasons for Plagiarism

• People tend to postpone the expected and inevitable tasks/assignments/ exercises
until the last minute.
• People lack knowledge about proper citations.
• Students are not fully aware about plagiarism
• people are overconfident about their skill set and believe they can escape and get
away with plagiarism.
• Sometimes negative emotions and competitive urges to gain the credits for the
module without sincerely working

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Plagiarism in Academia and consequesnces

• It is considered as a biggest crime in academic
Why does plagiarism matter?

➢ A principle of honesty: all academic community should acknowledge their

originator of idea, words and data
➢ It is unethical: can impact serious problem on future career
➢ It’s under estimate the whole academic record
Does every statement in my essay have to be backed up with references?

• No it’s not necessary to give references for fact that are common in discipline but
before it we have to confirm whether it’s common or not
• But is safer side better to be citing the reference
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Software Used for Identifying Plagiarism

The software available online is of two types
• Paid software (iThenticate, Turnitin, Urkund)
• Free software
(i) i Thenticate
• iThenticate is very famous software widely used in famous publications IEEE, Elsevier and
Springer and so on.
• iThenticate also provide different file type that we can upload easily without any restriction
of file type. The file types that supported to upload in iThenticate are Microsoft Word®
(DOC and DOCX), Word XML, Plain Text (TXT), Adobe PostScript®,
• Portable Document Format (PDF), HTML, Corel WordPerfect® (WPD) and Rich Text
Format (RTF). Even submitting paper may not exceed 400 pages and file size may not
exceed 100 MB.
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(i) i Thenticate Continue…

• Advanced Plagiarism checking
• Match report
• Content tracking
• Review report
• Major matches
• Online sustain and guidance
• Multiple user collaboration
• API integration for organizations and many more

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(i) i Thenticate Example:

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Turnitin
Turnitin is widely used commercial internet based plagiarism software tool for plagiarism
detection services launched in 1997.

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Techniques to Avoid Plagiarism

1.Referencing

❖Citation

❖References

❖Bibliography

2.Paraphrasing

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