RESEARCH REFERENCING, PROPOSAL CONTENTS AND ETHNICAL ISSUES

You have come to the last unit of this course. You have already learnt enough to enable you
conduct your research investigations. After writing your research report, you need to cite all
reference materials used in the research report. In this unit, you will also learn about the proposal
content and research ethnics. These are some of the things you need to know in your research process.

OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit, you should be able to:-

1. Explain research referencing 
2. Write reference from variety of sources 
3. List differences between research reports and proposals 
4. Discuss ethnical issues in research 

RESEARCH REFERENCING

In writing your research report, you have to make sure that you list all the references cited with
full details. You should ensure that the details of the author, date, place of publications, publisher
and page numbers are accurate.

 This will enable your reader to retrieve the source cited. Some of  the times some additional references not cited are included in the references. This is then called  the bibliography. Such additional references draw the readers attention to further literature in the  area. There are different types of methods used. Some of them are Turabian or numeric index, the American Psychological Associational system. This is the most popular. Therefore we shall follow it in this unit. Let us see how to use it in the reports.

Books

When you make a book reference, you should include the following details in the sequence in which we have listed them.

• Surname of the author(s) or editor(s) separated from the initials with comma(s)
• Add the initials of the author(s) or editor(s). 
• Use the abbreviations Ed or Eds in parenthesis to specify the editor or editor(s). 
• Put the year of publication in parenthesis, separated from the title with a full stop. If it is a reprinted book, the year of the first publication is used. If it is a revised edition, the date of the revision is used. 
• Where applicable, include sub titles to the titles delimited by a full stop 
• All editions other than the first should be specified using such abbreviations as 2nd ed., rev. ed., African ed. In parenthesis. A full stop should be used to separate the edition from the volume number, serial numb or town of publication as applicable. 
• Add the volume number and/ or series number and a full stop. 
• Add town of publication separated from the publisher with a colon. If the towns are more than one, they should be delimited using commas.
•  The last is the publisher followed by full stop. Johnston, J. W. C. and Rivera, R. C. (1965). Volunteers for Learning Chicago: Aldline Publishing Co. Kanu, O. R. (1994). Teacher Education in Nigeria: A historical perspective. Umuahia, Owerri, Enugu, Lagos: Ark Publishers McKean, D. G. (1977). Introduction to Biology (West African Ed.) London: John Murray Ltd. Nkpa, N (1992). A Practical Guide to Continuous Assessment in Science. Umuahia, Owerri, Enugu, Lagos, Sokoto: Ark Publishers 

Articles or Chapters in Books

For this, essential features of references are as follows.

1. Author of articles or chapter is listed. 
2. Year of publication is listed in parenthesis 
3. The title of the article is added. This is not underlined. It is delimited with a full stop. 
4. Use the term „in to show that the article is contained in a more comprehensive work. 
5. Editor(s) of the book is added with the initials before the surname. 
6. Add Ed. or Eds in parenthesis, separated from the title by a full stop. 
7. Add the title of the book underlined and delimited by a full stop. 
8. Add town of publication separated from the publisher by a colon. 
9. Put the publisher delimited with a comma. 
10. Add the page numbers in which the article appeared. Examples:- Dash, N. K. (1993). Research possibilities in Distance Education. In M. Co. Moore (Ed). Contemporary issues in American Distance Education. New-York. Pergamon Press. PP 386-396 Ohuche, R. O. Nwachukwu, V. and Nzewi, U. (1990). Trends in unpublished higher degree research in Nigeria (1965-1887). In R. O. Ohuche and M. Anyanwu (Eds) Perspective in Educational Research and National Development. Volume I. Onitsha: Summer Educational Publishers Limited, 63 – 73 

Government Document

Examples in this category are Abia State of Nigeria (1995): Government White Paper on the Report of the Panel of Inquiry into the Affairs of the Secondary Education Management Board. Umuahia: Government Press. Federal Republic of Nigeria (1981). National Policy on Education (Rev. Ed.) Lagos: Federal Government Press. National Open University of Nigeria (2004). Educational Research methods. EDU 702. Lagos: Noun.

 Periodicals

These are published and issued at regular intervals. They may include Journals, magazines, bulletins, News letters, News papers etc. Essentially, these are to be included:-

• Authors name separated from the initials with a comma. 
• Year of publication enclosed in parenthesis. 
• Title of the article. Only the first letter of the title is written in capitals 
• Name of the periodical underlined 
• Volume number underlined, issue number in parenthesis or page numbers. 

Example.
Nkpa, N. (1992). The Chinese checkers motion game. STAN Bulletin. 6(2), 13-15.
Osuji, U. S. A. (2007). Improving educational access through open and distance learning: The
way forward to globalization in Nigeria. International Journal of Development Studies.
Vol. 2. No. 2. 100-104.

 Others

a. Technical Reports and Monographs: References for these are entered in the same manner as books. Some monographs or reports may be together without publishers.

Examples.
ASUU (1995). The Destruction of the University of Abuja. Academic staff union of universities. UNESCO/ICDE (1990). Developments in Distance Education in Asia: An Analysis of Five Case
Studies, Bangkok. UNESCO.

b. Published Conference and Workshop Proceedings: References to this are documented
in the same way as that for periodicals but the volume and issue numbers are not available.
Osuji, U. S. A. and Okonkwo, C. A. (2005). Open and Distance Learning: A liberalization of
Educational Opportunities through integration of ICTs in Teachings and Education.
Conference proceedings of the e-learning held at University of Ibadan. 1-10

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2

What are the main components of a research proposal?