This PPT gives an Introduction to different Research Methods (including legal research methods). It was used by me to teach at PLEA Webinars in 2023. It is extremely useful for students of BA.LLB, BBA.LLB, LLB, LLM, UGC NET, SET, Ph.D. Teachers can use it to teach the topics explained. Use lecture method of classroom pedagogy. Students should refer to textbooks and reference books for in-depth study.

1. Introduction To
Research Methods
ADV. SHRADDHA PANDIT
BA, LLB, LLM, SET, Diploma in German,
Post Graduate Diploma in IPR, AIBE, Pursuing Ph.D. in Law

2. ABOUT THE SPEAKER
She is currently pursuing PhD in Law at
KMPSOL, NMIMS, Mumbai. She has completed
her LLM in Criminal Law and Administration. In
addition, she has also completed a Post- Graduate
Diploma in IPR and a Diploma in German. She
has qualified M-SET 2023 exam in first attempt
itself.
She has industry experience in the field of IPR
before venturing out into the field of teaching.
She has taught subjects such as IPR, Hindu Law,
Contract law, Public International Law, Law and
Medicine, Jurisprudence, English, Gender Studies,
Mooting, etc. as an Assistant Professor of Law at
colleges affiliated to University of Mumbai and
SNDT Women’s University. Having stood as a
Class Topper throughout school, college and law
course, she has also participated in numerous
international Faculty Development Programs
(FDPs), conferences, summer schools, etc.
Her name featured in the newspapers for the
Dehradun Literature Festival in 2022 and the
National Advocacy Workshop in 2020, both of
which she won at such young age. She even
represented her college at the Indo-German
Exchange Program in 2013. She has also
published numerous articles, research papers in
peer reviewed and UGC Care journals and blogs.

3. SOME BASIC RULES
Keep Audio and Video off
Keep mobile phones away, unless you are attending the FDP on your
mobile
Reply in the Chat to questions asked during the class
You may take screenshots of the slides if they are helpful for your
study, but use them keeping in mind the copyright
There is a list of references, will be shared at the end

4. WHAT IS RESEARCH
Research in simple terms would mean “an original
contribution to the existing stock of knowledge
making for its advancement. It is the pursuit of truth
with the help of study, observation, comparison and
experiment.” As per Sandra Helperin, Political
Scientist & Professor of International Relations at
University of Sussex, UK, “Research that we do
should have a systematic inquiry into current-day
problems and be of contemporary significance.”

5. Research is basically the systematic, scientific and rigorous investigation of a
situation or a problem in order to validate existing knowledge or to generate
new knowledge.
There could be different types of research such as laboratory-based research,
practice-based research, clinical trials based- research (in pure sciences) or
even market-based research (in management, advertising, consumer-
behaviour studies, psychology, economics, etc.)
But, our focus would be more or less on legal research, which is related to
law, social sciences and its allied fields.

6. WHAT IS LEGAL RESEARCH
Legal research, in simple terms would mean "the process of identifying
and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making”.
Scientists vs. Social Scientists (legal researchers)- long debate
Legal research cannot be conducted by scientists in a laboratory-based set-
up.
Here, we aren’t dealing with chemicals, compounds, machines or animals, but
with human beings. Hence, society itself is our laboratory.
Legal research is both a science as well as an art / skill.

7. TYPES OF RESEARCH METHODS
Descriptive – involves describing a problem and its features
Analytical – involves critical in-depth analysis and evaluation of already
existing phenomenon or problem
Applied – involves finding solutions to practical problems, also known as
“Action Research” as it requires immediate application or action
Fundamental – involves theory-building by answering fundamental
questions, also known as “Basic or Pure Research”

8. Conceptual – involves concepts and abstract ideas
Correlational – involves studying the correlational relationship between
variables (direct, indirect, positive, negative, inverse, zero or no) using
statistical techniques
Empirical – involves gathering primary data based on observation, survey,
interviews, etc.
Experimental – involves manipulation of independent variable and studying
its impact on the dependent variable, requires testing of hypothesis

9. Historical – involves studying a concept or problem since its inception in the
past and looking at how it evolved through the ages till the current times,
also known as “Evolutionary method”
Ethnographic – involves the study of a group or community and their
unique cultural traits, theories, behaviour and characteristics
Phenomenological – involves the study of a social phenomenon, its past,
present and future

10. Quantitative – involves , answers the question “WHAT?” (deals with
quantity/amount/numbers)
Qualitative - , in-depth understanding of human behaviour, answers the question
“WHY?” (deals with quality/traits/features)
Mixed Methods Research (Triangulation – mix of both Quantitative and Qualitative
methods overcoming shortcomings of each individual methods by using a
combined approach)
Other types:
Setting- Based

11. One time or Longitudinal
Clinical, Diagnostic, or Decision-oriented or Conclusion-oriented
Grounded-theory-based
Deductive, Inductive
Impact analysis/ Cause-Intervention-Effect Model

12. WHO ALL DO RESEARCH
Scientists, Companies, Ad agencies, etc.
Coming to legal research:
Students (LLB, LLM, Ph.D.)
Academicians, Professors
Think Tanks, NGOs, Policy makers, Legislators
Advocates, Activists, Journalists, News Reporters, etc.
Magazine, Journal, Book Editors and Publishers
Domestic & International Organizations like
National Family Health Survey, National Commission for Women,
UN, WIPO, WTO, ILO, WHO, OXFAM, Medicin sans frontiers, etc.

13. WHY RESEARCH? / UTLITY OF LEGAL
RESEARCH
Research is important to quench the thirst/ curiosity for new knowledge
When it comes to legal and socio-legal research, research helps to find gaps or
limitations of the current laws, amend them or suggest better and cogent laws and
policies
No laws are perfect or final
Laws need to change and keep up with the changing needs to the society
No discipline/branch is left untouched by law
Eg. Engineering, infrastructural development, medicine, artificial intelligence, artistic,
literary and musical works, etc.

14. Social research without investigation in Law is of no use, same way legal
research without investigation into society is of no use.
To introduce new laws where there are none existing
Eg. India had to introduce news laws such as Environment Protection Act,
Information Technology Act, Prevention of Sexual Harassment at
Workplace, etc. as per level of awareness and changing needs of the society.

15. • If we speak of public utility services or
FMCGs, research helps to provide better quality
services and options to consumers to choose
from.
• If we speak of universities, research helps in
connecting students and academia to the job-
market, high ranking in NAAC, NIRF, UGC,
BCI, etc., students can show their research
publications to apply for good internships,
placements and jobs in India and abroad

16. WHERE TO PUBLISH RESEARCH PAPERS &
HOW TO IDENTIFY PREDATORY JOURNALS?
If you want to make a good impact in your academic career, it is always
advised to choose a good journal for publishing your research papers,
that is not publishing in predatory, cloned or fake journals!
Lets now have a look at some guidelines in choosing a good journal and
identifying a predatory journal:
Predatory journals would be defined in simple terms as “ones which do
not publish authentic data, which lack peer review process and editorial
board, and often charge exorbitant fees for publishing.”

17. First select your topic or problem area, find journals that might publish articles on
your chosen topic (theme)
Eg. If you choose cyber criminology as your theme , you can publish in the Journal
of Criminology
Then check whether it’s an online journal or print one
Whether it has a website or not
Whether it has an E-ISSN or ISSN assigned to it (International Standard Serial Number
is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a
magazine/ journal whereas a book has an ISBN)

18. • Whether it is indexed in UCG Care (Grp I & II Journals)
• Whether it is indexed in Web of Science, SCOPUS, Google Scholar
• A predatory journal will not have an ISSN and will not be indexed in these
• Whether it has Impact Factor (always publish in high impact factor journals)
• Do not publish if journal displays “Predicted Impact actor” or “Self
Calculated Impact Factor”, then it is predatory journal for sure

19. Predatory journals do not have a good Editorial Board and many a times they do
not provide Contact details of their journal (eg. Institutional Address, City, Country,
etc.)
The contact email id is of a person and not the institutional email id
(eg. Ending with yahoo.com, gmail.com and not with .edu.in or .edu.uk)
Predatory journals often charge huge fees for publishing and sometimes ask for
Website Maintenance costs from the author.
The author should check the previous issues and current issues if any published by
the journal. It would not be surprising to find low quality research papers, whose
data has not been verified and is thus not reliable

20. Don’t publish on AI-powered platforms, where human don’t actually read and review your
research work
Check whether your journal is open-access or paid-access journal
Check on DOAJ, SHERPA, ROMEO, UCG- INFONET before you proceed
A predatory journal will not have any plagiarism policy in place and thus, violate intellectual
property rights, they will publish even papers which have high level of plagiarism
A good journal will always follow COPE & WAME guidelines, but a predatory journal will
not
A predatory journal will not have a proper copyright arrangement policy or a retraction
policy in place

21. Predatory journals will accept your submission within 24 to 28 hours without blind
peer review
In blind peer review, both the authors and reviewers keep their anonymity. Only the
editor knows the identity of all parties involved. Thus, the reviewers take their time
to read, review and suggest changes to the manuscript, which may take weeks or
even months, after which they communicate to the editor and the article sees the
day of light (publication) after proofreading, spell-check and editing.
This leads to good research publishing and quality peer reviewed journals, which can
be relied upon.

22. Where to find a good journal?
Elsevier Journal Finder
Scopus Journal Selector
University Journals where you work/ or you know of
UGC Care Group I and II
DOAJ

23. Wherever you choose to publish your research paper and whichever topic
you choose for your research, it should have these elements:
Objectivity
Validity / Accuracy
Reliability / Consistency
Replicability

24. WHAT IS THE FORMAT OF A RESEARCH
PAPER?
Every research paper will have more or less all of these elements in common:
However, a scientific research paper might be a little different, as it has lengthy descriptions of
laboratory experiments and patents in it. Our focus is on research papers of the law and social
sciences fields.
Title (short, long, descriptive, analytical – arousing curiosity- not negative)
Affiliation
Abstract and Keywords (not more than 5)
Introduction
Statement of the problem
Objectives of the study (and rationale)
Utility of the Research (its usefulness to the society- state the beneficiaries)

25. Review of Literature
Research Methods and Techniques
(Hypothesis, Variables, Population, Sample- respondents, Sample size, Sampling
technique- techniques used to collect data – survey or experimental- if quantitative,
No. of Research participants involved- techniques used to collect data – interviews,
observation, etc.
Doctrinal and Non-doctrinal sources- if comparison method)
Data processing and analysis methods – statistics, if required

26. Results and Findings
Discussion (Conclusion, Recommendations, Critical Analysis, The Way Forward)
References (Bibliography)
Tables and Figures
Glossary and Abbreviations
List of Cases
Appendix (evidence/documents to support your argument)

27. WHAT ARE CITATION STYLES?
• CITATION can be simply defined as “a set of rules telling how to acknowledge the thoughts,
ideas and works of others in a particular way”.
• It is a crucial part of successful academic writing and is key to the assignments and research
• A researcher needs to use predefined styles stating how to set them out-which are called
“Citation styles”.
• One needs to give proper references using footnotes, endnotes, bibliography and proper citation
styles as required by your research paper, dissertation, book or journal.
• Footnoting and citing references helps to reduce plagiarism in ones’ research work. Let’s see
some of the popular citation styles:

30. • Harvard (used mostly in law books, journals and research)

31. WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF
LITERATURE REVIEW?
In order to understand the significance of a good literature review, we need to first understand the
meaning of literature. ‘The literature’ is the body of academic research that has been published and
disseminated through publications such as books, academic journals, practitioner journals, government
databases, websites and other sources. It’s basically a shorthand way of referring to the sum of
published knowledge about a particular subject.
A good literature review is a comprehensive summary of the ideas, issues, approaches and research
findings that have been published on a particular subject area or topic. However, it is not a simple
description of all that, but a critical analysis of that available literature and pointing out the gap-areas,
the limitations and inadequacies of the solutions proposed, a synthesis of all that data as well as better
solutions that can be provided by the researcher in order to solve those contextual and contemporary
problems.

32.  In fact, doing a good literature review is not that easy, the reason being there is sufficient volume of grey literature,
which we are not aware about. ‘Grey literature’ has recently been defined to include various types of document
produced by governments, academic institutions, businesses and industries that are protected by IPR, of sufficient
quality to be collected and preserved by library holdings or institutional repositories, but not controlled by
commercial publishers i.e., where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body. (Schöpfel, 2010).
Basically, the term describes documents that may not have been published through conventional routes, and which
may therefore be trickier to find and access. They can be thought to occupy a ‘grey area’ in comparison to traditional
published material. Therefore, this information might be very crucial for one’s research and the researcher might not
have any access or insights into this grey literature which can also include trade secrets, unpublished theses and
dissertations, unpublished government data, confidential reports, internal minutes of the meeting and reports which
are not available to the public.
 There are both pros and cons and risks involved in accessing and using such literature for one’s review. The
researcher might have to weigh both positive and negative aspects of the existing literature available in his or her
hands and suggest ways by which he or she can take it froward from there leading to his or her original and
innovative work. Literature review helps the researcher to understand the kind of research methodology to be
adopted depending upon the limitations of the earlier researches at hand and what is feasible and practicable for
him or her to do.

33. When doing and writing a literature
review, it is good practice to:
summarise and analyse previous
research and theories;
identify areas of controversy and
contested claims;
highlight any gaps that may exist in
research to date.

34. HOW TO WRITE A GOOD RESEARCH
PAPER?
 Choose a topic.
 Read and keep records/ bookmark (literature review)
 Form a writeup.
 Create a mind map or outline of work and a budget and timeline for the research.
 Read again.
 Rethink your argument.
 Draft the body and Give references.
 Revise.
 Add the beginning and end (both should match).
 Proofread and edit.
 Check plagiarism and keep it a minimum.
 Submit for publication with a cover letter and CV…That makes an impact!

35. WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
Plagiarism is the theft of the ideas or writings of another person.
It amounts to the violation or infringement of intellectual property of other
researchers and authors. Hence, a complete copy-paste should be avoided.
Wherever you use other’s works, always give references and due credit to the original
author, paraphrase if necessary.
Usually, 10% or less similarity is the mandate in universities and journals.
UGC has introduced strict norms since 2020 and even self-plagiarism is not allowed
now!
Publishing plagiarised works deteriorates the quality and reputation of journals and
leads to academic pollution! Hence, it is disliked and abhorred by journals!

36. • List of softwares used to detect plagiarism:
• Grammarly
• Duplichecker
• Turnitin
• Drillb
• Plagarism checker by Editpad
• Ithenticate
• Urkund – Ouriginal
• PLAGSCAN

37. TYPES OF PLAGARISM
 Investigators, during peer-review process, taking ideas from others' grant proposals/articles and
including them in their own publications
 Students taking material from the internet verbatim, without attribution, during write-ups of research
 Faculty taking dissertation material or other scholarly work for their own Ph.D. or incentives, funding
or promotions
 publications without giving due credit to original authors
 Self-plagiarism amounts to recycling or copy pasting one’s past works in several consequent works
 Failing to cite an indirect quote or paraphrase
 Failing to substantially paraphrase instead of just rewording
 Failing to attribute the ideas or conclusions of another to their author
 Failing to give credit to all group members for work done in collaboration with others

38. REMEMBER, ALL OF US CAN DO GOOD
RESEARCH AND MAKE A MEANINGFUL SOCIAL
IMPACT ON THE WORLD AROUND US!

39. Acknowledgements
• Firstly, I would thank my mother, for her constant support.
• Secondly, I would thank Professors at NMIMS, Mumbai for their timely
guidance and encouragement.
• I would also love to thank PLEA and Malavika Sharma ma’am for
giving me this wonderful opportunity.
• Last, but not the least, I would thank all my participants and students
for making this 2-day workshop a huge success!

40. CONNECT TO ME ON THESE!
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/shraddha-pandit-1267591a6
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3669-5883
Lawteachers.in: https://law-teachers.in/law-teachers-details.php?id=392
RESEARCHGATE: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shraddha-
Pandit-8