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In my experience, the first step is to read many journal papers and scholastic books on one's interrests. Find some gaps in knowlede and focus on that for a research topic.

A good motivator is to find a conference, which matches the topic, submit an abstract and present there. This, of course, if one already has some results (paper study, experimental work etc) and something to present.

I would suggest for up and coming young researchers to start with University level conferences, working their way up to the heavyweights. The latter which can be discouraging, because of the high standards expected and one does not want these potential wolrd class researchers lost to science because of that.

At a former University, we used to have these Friday lunchtime 5 minute presentations on just one simple concept (one or four slides). It was useful to build the confidence of the youngsters with their research work and to tell their peers about their research.

Once a researcher has worked his way up to an acceptable level, they can go online and submit abstracts to any of the large publishers, e.g. Elsevier, IEEE etc. or large international conferences.

I suggest you to contact some active research groups in your country (institution) and find where you can fit most. Then join them by offering your experince and time. This is step (Phase I) and the rest is matter of time and hardworking attitude.

I think this is can start with reading the conference papers and journals in the same field of the project. Second step is discussing where is the points that is need more efforts in research and then he can start in the research way

If we are talking a small research project to publish some papers on methods and results, well as it is said above read many conference and journal papers not only to study the methods, approaches, achievements of your field, but also the writing style, how the paper develops from introduction , to problem description, proposed method, results, conclusion. Keep in mind that many journals and the reviewers of these journals look for exhaustive and complete bibliographic references: a good bibliography tells them that you are aware of the research in your field and that you are already starting from a good point.

Even if your idea is not really original (it is difficult to be really original!), maybe you present useful practical results, or you test a method in conditions never considered before .... theory is more difficult, and prone to errors and "ingenuities", think practical, be practical and you will obtain honest results!

Then cross check your results with simple law of physics, check repeatability and reproducibility, do simplifying assumptions and verify if everything holds true and sensible.

Keep in mind that at conferences there are prizes for students, and that nobody wants something really excellent fromsomeone who is writing his/her first paper. However I have seen very good things written and even presented at conferences by students, both in a relative and an absolute metric.

If you are looking for funding on the contrary it is a different pair of shoes: there is much more competition, the proposal must be exhaustive, timely written, for the right call, etc etc ... but it's not in the scope.

Good luck to all the students.

Read, read, read.

Do literature survey of related research papers,start thinking what further you can do. Use internet to get your answer.If you are good at mathematic try formulate the problem using equation and justify with mathematical modeling of problem.Try to make the generalise program to solve it using different data with computer.

Hi, I just though to give my views on the topic, since I was also an undergraduate, once upon a time. But before I continue, one should know that undergraduates won't be much familiar with papers unless their curriculum demands. In my experience with my colleagues, they won't know much about a paper. But it doesn't mean they can't do a research. There are numerous research projects to do e.g. energy harvesting, energy conservation, various controller designs, application specific devices etc. Latest technical gadgets, replicating them or working on the robotics related are things that are interesting. These kinds of works are more understandable and they can do it in groups. Some things that is real life projects would sparkle them to work. Of course there would be some sub-set who would be very brilliant at mathematics for them they can take up the task of mathematical modeling of the systems. They need to learn many things but by working upon a research project they will learn quicker. As they go on working on a research project they would also learn reading from papers.

So, by now you would have understood that motivating undergraduates is a challenging task. But once they get to work on a project, everything else would come to place like, presenting a paper at conference, publishing work etc. What I think is that motivating students is challenging and a proper guidance is needed by faculties and if you can convince them at some point they can go on working with self motivation. So, there a bit philosophy involved.

Here is one last para to answer your question in complete. To carry out research work, one should do or be aware of the following,

1. what is the project or select a research project

2. what are you trying to solve?

3. what is the purpose of doing the research?

4. what is the current knowledge on the research area

5. what is still unknown or what kind of questions, the researchers are trying to answer?

6. how would you go about solving it given the resources you have?

When doing research, one should be aware of the above so that he can convince for himself that the work he is doing is worth publishable. Of course literature survey is necessary purely because you don't want to work on some thing that is already been done by someone else. You would want to do something new that no others have thought about, and this is where the secret lies.

do survey to know the history related to your topics first.

Dear friend,

I have a very good article on "Practical Research Method" written by Dr. Catherine Dowson from United Kingdon. Hope this article would help you arriving at the answer to your querry.

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I think it is a very time consuming process to start a research project. Because doing research project is something planning or engineering your career or future journey, so if you get disappointment at this stage , it will cost you in the future. The best thing to do is to dig out your own interests. What you wanted to do and what you are after. If we succeed to define the scope of the project , it will be easy to define your objectives and methodology to meet these objectives. In my view defining the scope of the project is the most important step. Once you are done with this stage , then you need to look for the background knowledge about the subject related to the project and need to look for the research gap. Once you have identified the research gap , it means you are near to set the objective what you are looking to achieve. One thing is the learning outcomes and one is the objectives and deliverables. Learning outcomes are something you're being judged on at the end. Objectives are something that you wanted to achieve and the deliverables are something you have got at the end.

After setting your goals and objectives , devising the methodology to meet these objectives. This is what my point of view about starting the research project.

Before starting a new research project you need to be well aware of the current state-of-the-art. Only when you have a good overview you can decide where you can make your own contribution. We usually provide our students with some introductory literature. Based on this, they have to do a more detailed literature review.

Choose a topic, read some journal papers, consult the experts, do experiments, collect the data, start writing, improve your writings, make corrections with the help of professors, let the reviewers do the rest.

Find a problem or observe something ( choose a topic, this can also be done in a literary resource hunt, find similar studies in that field ) , how does this topic impact the community ( area of study or expertise) , what methods do you want to use and how much resources do you have ( methodology and funding) , what is the practical need in your field ( for example if you want to study leg surgery but the field is in high demand for forearm and shoulder surgery, your research has less likelihood of gaining traction and or funding) , reach out to professors and or professionals in your field of interest and begin grant writing. Get someone to review your grant proposal and figure out the next steps.

Choose the area of interest and identify your special topic which is most challenging for today. Find the literature related and other information. Planning is a next important step. Then, find out the availability of resources whether it can obtain your expectations. Identify the Collaborators and take their willingness. Write the proposal with time frame and start.

Dear Iman Sadeghkhani

Please check the following link

http://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/research/research_paper.html

"Find yourself"...Find what area you are interesting in, then you can make your own contribution. The students should read more review papers.