International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2021 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTER TO THE EDITOR Interdisciplinary Integrated Tools to Problem Solving: How to Apply to Writing a Thesis and Planning a Research Espona M. J.1 1 Argentina Information Quality, Argentina Received: 02.11.2021; Accepted: 30.11.2021; Published: 25.12.2021 Keywords: problem-solving course, methodology, research, thesis Copyright: © 2021 Espona M. J. Published by Archives of International Journal of Science Annals DOI and UDC DOI https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2021.2.5 UDC 303.823.2/4 Conflict of interests: The author declares that there is no conflict of interests Peer review: Double-blind review Source of support: This study did not receive any outside funding or support Information about Espona Maria Jose – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0719-0148; the author: mariaespona@argiq.com.ar; Doctor in Criminology, Professor, Director, Argentina Information Quality (ArgIQ), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dear Editor, Writing a thesis or a research proposal poses enormous This course has been presented several times at challenges specially in these times of information universities and other places in Argentina and also in superabundance. And the positive side is that we have a Peru, with interesting and relevant results. lot of information to use during our research. We consider that the first situation to address is how we The other phenomenon to take into consideration is the see the world, and its problems. To do it, we present a misinformation and how it could affect our research. lecture on mental models and discuss the different Again, we can overcome this difficulty by applying perspectives we all have when approaching any given structured research methods. subject. The students enjoy a lot this lecture since it The methodology proposed here starts with allows them to see how different we all are but see this understanding the research problem applying the as something positive that helps to build and understand systemic thinking; then looing for information with the world, not destroy it. mapping studies; evaluating the publications obtained Then, they are ready to focus on their specific problems with information quality tools; testing multiple and start to understand and work on them. hypothesis at the same time; and finally, if needed The second lecture is on the systemic thinking, this preparing a Gantt chart to plan the research. method helps them to conceptualize the research All these methodologies when together highlight the problem. positive side of the synergies while minimize the impact In summary, the key assumptions of this theory of the cognitive bias. developed by Von Bertalanffy (1968) are: The aim of the study. To describe the importance of 1. Systems exist within systems. having a structured tool to write a thesis or setting up a 2. The systems are open. research project. 3. The functions of a system depend on its structure. The proposal presented here is a problem-solving course According to Von Bertalanffy (1968), the system that includes five methodologies: systems theory, functioning includes inputs and outputs, processes and mapping studies, information quality, and competing the components involved. In some cases, the output hypothesis, plus the Gantt chart. When they are used in becomes the input of the system (feedback). sequence, it is possible to obtain outstanding results and This first step is the one that takes longer since also the process is auditable in its whole extension. understanding the problem is the most difficult phase. The identification of the process and its components is critical to the next steps of this sequence. 47 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2021 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa At this point, the students decide with which problem or results obtained, and finally the result will be a set of situation they want to analyse and understand. By doing publications that fulfil the requirements and answer the this, they move out from the words of the ideas to research questions. drafting them. This process takes time and requires Once we finish downloading and answering the reflection, and also decisions should be made to set up questions, it is time to analyse the results: comparative the limits (system border) and the components – and analysis and graphs are easy to make and to show the relations between them – of the problem under study. state of the art of any given topic. Studies that using the When doing this conceptualization process, the system traditional methods could take ages, using this tool is is developed with a specific objective and if the possible to be done in just minutes. objective changes, the system will also do. The fourth step is applying the information and data Once the system is ready, the third step is to look for quality tools; since the information obtained could be information in a structured way. In this methodological validated using the information quality techniques, and sequence, the mapping studies technique will be applied. in this way, it is possible to evaluate its properties With the information obtained here it is possible to (Espona & Fisher, 2015). In this sense, experts at the prepare the State of the art of any thesis or research Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) proposal. (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) developed an There are many ways to do it, here we will do a information quality method. Lately, professionals from systematic literature review (or systematic mapping other universities and countries expanded and added studies) designed by Kitchencham et al. (2010) from more elements to it. Keele University. Also, Genero et al. (2015) from the Wang and Strong (1996) developed a framework to Alarcos Group (University of Castilla La Mancha – evaluate and hierarchically organize information. To UCLM – Spain) are leading the field in Spanish- create this method, they sent a survey to information speaking countries. consumers and master’s in business administration The outstanding feature of this tools is that to select the (MBA) students asking about the most critical attributes different articles when searching in any searching that information should have. The result was a list of 179 engine, the selection is made if the article answers or not attributes. After that, they performed a second survey to to a research question, it doesn’t matter how it does but learn and understand the importance of the attributes if. In this way, we are sure that all the possible options identified. Finally, they come out with a list of 15 are registered. dimensions, grouped into four categories: The methodology includes three phases: planning the - Intrinsic (accuracy, believability, objectivity, and review, executing it and writing the report. reputation); In the first phase, many tasks will take place. First, the - Contextual (value-added, relevancy, timeliness, need for a review must be identified. It is important to completeness, and amount of data); note that by doing this review, it is possible to - Representational (interpretability, ease of summarize all the information on a topic, in a format that understanding, representational consistency and resembles a database. representation conciseness); To begin with the practical steps of this tool, the research - Accessibility (access and security). questions formulation is the next step. These research It is important to point out that these dimensions could questions will be the tool to select the publications, be evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively. And considering whether they answer or not to them, and not that the clear definition of all of them contribute to the how they do (this is important for the later analysis of evaluation, understanding and communication in the the results). This way of selecting the publications helps field of knowledge and in the organization in which the to minimize the impact of our cognitive bias, allowing research is taking place. us to have the whole set of possible answers, and not The fifth step is competing hypothesis. This tool was only the ones we like. developed by Heuer (1999), an intelligence analysis Before performing the search, a protocol must be expert from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), developed. This plan includes: the identification of the during the Cold War, and a few years later was provided search terms (plus synonyms and other alternative to the public. terms, and the use OR and AND, or other Boolean This tool is especially useful in cases of complex operators is recommended); the sources of information problems, with many possible scenarios and a lot of must be chosen and specified (use virtual libraries, evidence to analyse. It allows to study simultaneously Google or other search engines); inclusion and exclusion all likely hypothesis and verify them with all the criteria; and the design of a form to transfer the selected available information simultaneously. In the case of a publications and the research questions, usually an thesis maybe is not always useful, but yes in the case of Excel sheet. a research where more hypotheses are on the table. In the second phase, the review takes place, and all is Also, all the evidence already gathered in the mapping executed according to the plan. Now, it is important to studies could be considered the evidences in this check all the results, one by one, and the publications method, saving a lot of time and creating a positive that answer the research questions will be transferred to synergy. The outcome will be a table including the the Excel file and the different fields will be completed. evidence and the hypotheses and the results of the The inclusion and exclusion criteria will help to filter the evaluation performed (Table 1). 48 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2021 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa Table 1 Resulting Table as Consequence of the Execution of the Competing Hypothesis Method Evidences Hypothesis 1 Hypothesis 2 Evidence A Support (+) Support (+) Evidence B Highly support (++) Not support strongly (--) Evidence C Support (+) Not apply (no relation) Evidence D Not apply (no relation) Not support (-) Evidence E Not support (-) Support (+) Subtotal 4 (++++); 1 (-) 2 (++); 3 (---) Total +3 (+++) -1 (-) The winning hypothesis, in the Table 1 example will be Review, 70, 35–36. the Hypotheses 1. But it is important to remember that https://community.mis.temple.edu/mis0855002fa the winning hypothesis has more support according to ll2015/files/2015/10/S.M.A.R.T-Way- with the available evidence and not a higher probability Management-Review.pdf of occurrence. Espona, M. J., & Fisher, C. (2015, November 5-7). In the case this method is performed, and a winning Teaching information quality to professionals in hypothesis is identified, it means the solution to the intelligence government agencies [Paper problem with more support in the available information presentation]. Information Systems Education has been found. Conference (ISECON), Orlando, FL. Finally, it is time to plan the implementation using the https://www.isecon.org/ISECON2015ProgramG Gantt chart. To do it, first the objectives and tasks must uideFinal.pdf be identified. There are four phases: design, planning, Genero, M. B., Cruz-Lemus, J. A., & Piattini, M. G. V. execution and evaluation. The objectives preferable must (2015). Métodos de investigación en ingeniería be SMART (Doran, 1981). del software [Research methods in software In this last step, must be taken into consideration the engineering]. Ra-Ma. system designed at the beginning and put it together with http://190.57.147.202:90/xmlui/handle/12345678 the winning hypothesis. This is part of the diagnosis, that 9/2525 [in Spanish] needs also a survey to include the qualitative evaluation Heuer, R. J. (1999). Psychology of intelligence analysis. of the situation. Planning and Executing follows the usual Center for the Study of Intelligence. logic but during the evaluation is good to add a new https://www.ialeia.org/docs/Psychology_of_Intel survey to include again the people involved and get their ligence_Analysis.pdf opinion, always critical to the success. Kitchencham, B., Pretorius, R., Budgen, D., This problem-solving course has been presented in Brereton, O. P., Turner, M., Niazi, M., & different formats many times, to different audiences, with Linkman, S. (2010). Systematic literature reviews different objectives, with outstanding results. in software engineering – A tertiary study. Considering the audience and their specific needs, the Information and Software Technology, 52(8), focus is on the different methodologies. Usually, the most 792–805. demanding stage is the implementation of the systemic https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2010.03.006 method but at the same time it is the most rewarding, Von Bertalanffy, L. (1968). General systems theory: since many participants experience Eureka moments Foundations, development and applications. when discovering their real problems. George Braziller. The methodologies included in the courseled to finding http://monoskop.org/images/7/77/Von_Bertalanf the solution to many problems, in an unbiased, fy_Ludwig_General_System_Theory_1968.pdf structured, auditable and at the same time, in a simple Wang, R. Y., & Strong, D. M. (1996). Beyond accuracy: way. What data quality means to data consumers. Journal of Management Information Systems, References 12(4), 5–33. Doran, G. T. (1981). There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write http://www.jstor.org/stable/40398176 management’s goals and objectives. Management Cite this article as: Espona, M. J. (2021). Interdisciplinary integrated tools to problem solving: How to apply to writing a thesis and planning a research. International Journal of Science Annals, 4(2), 47–49. https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2021.2.5 The electronic version of this article is complete. It can be found online in the IJSA Archive https://ijsa.culturehealth.org/en/arhiv This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en). 49