UGC NET Law Unit - IX Syllabus

How does an interview differ from a questionnaire?

An interview is an oral, face-to-face (or telephonic) verbal interaction where the researcher asks questions; it allows probing and clarification, whereas a questionnaire is self-administered in writing.

Name the main types of interviews.

Structured (standardized), unstructured (unstandardized), semi-structured, focused, clinical, and depth interviews.

What is observation as a method of data collection?

Systematic watching and recording of behaviour/events as they occur; can be participant or non-participant, structured or unstructured, controlled or uncontrolled.

What are 'library records' as a data source?

Secondary documentary sources — books, journals, reports, archives, registers and records housed in libraries — used to collect existing data and conduct literature reviews.

What is a rating scale (and a checklist) used for in research?

A scale measures the degree/intensity of an attribute or opinion along a continuum (e.g., Likert); a checklist is a simple list recording the presence or absence of items/characteristics.

Name the four levels of measurement scales.

Nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales.

What is a Likert scale?

A summated rating scale measuring attitudes where respondents indicate agreement on a (usually 5-point) range from 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree'.

What are the common methods of presentation of data?

Textual (narrative), tabular (rows and columns), and graphical/diagrammatic (bar diagrams, histograms, pie charts, line graphs, frequency polygons).

What is a frequency distribution?

A tabular arrangement of data showing the number of observations (frequency) falling into each class or category.

Name the three measures of central tendency.

Mean (arithmetic average), median (middle value), and mode (most frequently occurring value).

Name common measures of dispersion.

Range, quartile deviation, mean deviation, standard deviation, and variance (standard deviation squared).

What is the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics?

Descriptive statistics summarize and describe data (mean, SD, frequencies); inferential statistics use samples to make generalizations and test hypotheses about populations (t-test, chi-square, ANOVA, correlation).

What does the correlation coefficient (r) measure and what is its range?

It measures the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables; it ranges from -1 (perfect negative) through 0 (no correlation) to +1 (perfect positive).

What is the chi-square test used for?

A non-parametric test used to assess the association/independence between categorical variables or goodness of fit between observed and expected frequencies.

What is a spreadsheet and a common example used in research?

A software application that organizes data in rows and columns for calculation, charting and basic statistics; Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets are common examples.

What is SPSS?

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences — software for managing data and performing statistical analyses (descriptive stats, t-tests, ANOVA, regression, factor analysis) widely used in social-science research.

What is Bibexcel used for?

A bibliometric software tool that analyzes bibliographic data to perform citation analysis, co-citation, co-word and bibliographic coupling, often feeding results into network/visualization tools.

What is 'R' in statistics?

R is a free, open-source programming language and environment for statistical computing, data analysis and graphics, extensible through numerous packages.

What is the typical structure of a research report?

Preliminary section (title, certificate, acknowledgements, contents, abstract), main body (introduction, review of literature, methodology, results/analysis, discussion, conclusion), and reference/end matter (bibliography, appendices).

What does 'style' refer to in research report writing?

The manner of writing and formatting — language clarity, objectivity, tense, formatting of citations, headings, tables and figures, following a prescribed style manual consistently.

Name some widely used style manuals for research writing.

APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), Chicago Manual of Style, Turabian, and the Bluebook (legal citation).

What is the standard legal citation style used in law research?

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (in India also ILI/OSCOLA-style citation), governing citation of cases, statutes and legal materials.

Give examples of online citation tools.

Tools that generate formatted references automatically, such as Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, Cite This For Me, and BibMe.

What are reference style management tools and what do they do?

Software like Zotero, Mendeley and EndNote that collect, organize, store and automatically format citations and bibliographies in chosen styles (APA, MLA, etc.).

Name common anti-plagiarism (plagiarism detection) tools.

Turnitin, Urkund (Ouriginal), iThenticate, Grammarly, Plagscan, and Viper.

What criteria are used in the evaluation of a research report?

Clarity of problem and objectives, soundness of methodology, validity and reliability, logical organization, adequacy of data analysis, originality, correct citation, and proper conclusions.

What is bibliometrics?

The quantitative, statistical study of books, articles and other publications to measure patterns of authorship, publication and citation in a field.

What is scientometrics?

The quantitative study of science, technology and innovation — measuring and analysing scientific output, growth, productivity and citation impact of research and researchers.

What is webometrics?

The quantitative study of web-based content and link structures — analysing websites, web pages and hyperlinks using bibliometric/informetric methods.

What are altmetrics?

Alternative metrics that measure research impact through online activity such as social media mentions, downloads, views, bookmarks, blogs and news coverage, beyond traditional citation counts.

Differentiate bibliometrics, scientometrics, webometrics and informetrics.

Informetrics is the broadest (study of all information); bibliometrics measures published literature; scientometrics measures science and technology output; webometrics measures web content and links.