CRITIQUE OF AMMAR YASSIR AND SMITHA NAYAK, PUBLISHED RESEARCH

ABSTRACT

Peer review is an important aspect of science. Since peer review is the only way in which scientifically published information quality is improved. Peer review is a scientific nature of correcting an applauding a work already published in an academic journal. This document is a peer review of the work of Ammar Yassir and Smitha Nayak, Cybercrime: A threat to Network Security published in the IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.12 No.2, February 2012. This document provides the biographic information of the authors; the critique of their; abstract; literature review; the aim of the study; research method and design; data collection method; their data analysis; findings all the way to the references.

Sample peer review

The author of this research is Ammar Yassir and Smitha Naya

Smitha Nayak did her bachelor’s in Physics at Mumbai University, India, and Masters in Computer applications at Visweshwaraiya Technological University, India. She is pursuing his Ph.D. in; ;Information Technology at CMJ University, India. He is a lecturer at Department of Computing, Muscat College. Smitha is a specialist in artificial intelligence, distributed data mining java programming image processing, and signal image and video processing from Muscat College. The two authors have also co-authored in an article title cloud computing as an emerging paradigm. The two have also cooperated in writing of another published peer-reviewed research titled: Analysis of Different Features and the Application of Cisco;s SecureX Architecture in Secure Environment. Ammar Yassir did his bachelor’s in computer science at Future University, Sudan, and Masters in Business Administration and Information Technology degree at Sikkim Manipal University, Indian. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in   Information Technology at CMJ University, India. He is a lecturer at Department of Computing, Muscat College, and Sultanate of Oman, Researchgate (2016). Generally, the two are computer specialists. 

The research had keywords which were relevant to the study but difficult to state whether they were informative or not because the author just listed the words without any additional information. The key words in this research were: Security, Network Security, Computer, Privacy, and Cyber Crimes.

The research had an ordinary abstract with approximately 200 words. However, the only correct thing about the abstract is the name. The rest is poorly done since the abstract fails to explain the purpose of the research or explains why the research was carried out; the methodology used in the paper and the statistical of findings. Moreover, the abstract of this paper fails to mention the conclusion arrived at and the data collection tools. Therefore, the two authors fail to summarize what their document is talking about.  

On the other hand, the introduction familiarizes the reader with the study and the concept of cybercrime. The introduction provides a history of cybercrime. The authors though detailed also introduce the research question under the introduction. The research question mentioned in the introduction is researchable and adequately justifies the need for research in cybercrime. Which is totally researchable and enough to justify the research. The background the author presents is relevant and gives a clear sense of what the study does. Moreover, the introduction clearly states the purpose and reason of the study.

Research paper critique

The two authors completely forget to include the literature review for this study. Therefore, they fail to acknowledge others work and to provide background information to the audience of the paper. It might also mean that the authors either plagiarized their work or they created an entirely new concept. Since there is no literature review for this paper, one cannot describe the broadness and focus of the literature review. In addition, the author fails to present convincing evidence to support the assertions made in the research. Moreover, the author fails to compare similarities and differences between works of literature. He is also unable to point out the strength and limitations of various kinds of literature. The work also fails to use any theoretical framework or point out to the weakness of the theory. Consequently, the author fails to identify the gaps to be filled by the study.

Ammar and Smitha provide a clear aim for this study.  The author states study serves four main objectives, which include: to determine the impact of cybercrime on networks; to determine the advent of cyber-crime; to determine the pros and corn of network security and to determine how network security reduces the threat of cyber-crimes.

In addition, Ammar and Smitha provide a clear research method and research design. The authors point out that they used qualitative approach rather than the quantitative approach because the qualitative approach is more inherent compared to quantitative analysis. The authors also suggest that they used case studies; they fail to explain why they used case studies. However, the case study is also a perfect approach to use for the study because and case study methods because allows the research to retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life events.  Creswell (2013) confirms that these methods are necessary if the researcher intends to get an appropriate answer for his research question. They have clumped too much information under research design until it confuses the audience on whether secondary research is a research design or a data collection method.

The authors identify companies as the target of the study, which is very confusing since if it is secondary data collection, there is no need of target population. Therefore, the research provided adequate information about the participants, which was unnecessary.

The two opt to use secondary data collection method methods, which is easier and has been used widely. However, with this method, it is difficult to determine whether the collected data is reliable and valid. The secondary data collection approach is not good because information can be outdated therefore misleading.  Most academic research papers use secondary data collection like books, journals, and libraries to collect data. According to Creswell (2013), this is an acceptable study method that saves time and cost of research but he warns that it is very unreliable. Moreover, the author identifies the qualitative descriptive method of data analysis.  The authors fail to discuss some of the limitations and challenges that he encountered while using the above method of study. The paper does not outline or explain the challenges encountered when using secondary data collection method. However, the authors also use correlation studies approach but fail to explain how the qualitative data analysis was done on related literature material. 

Peer Review Example

The author uses diagrams and tables to present his data. This is confusing to the audience and a clear lack of consistency since the author had strictly chosen qualitative data analysis method. It would have been better if the author had chosen to use both qualitative and quantitative data analysis method. The tables are colorful and clear and present the distinct nature of the different themes in his studies. The tables are well organized and all data is taken into account. The presented data is enough to validate the claims of the study. He uses the results to support claims from other studies. The authors also fail to mention the significance of the study and its findings. The paper ensures that we do remember that.

The authors do not group the data into main points but they clearly draw the main points of argument. Moreover, in the conclusion, the author makes fresh insights and a new perspective on the topic. Such conclusions and recommendations are based on this study. Nayak and Yassir (2012) conclude that:

Companies should invest a significant portion of their money in protecting their information since the loss of irreplaceable data is a real threat to their business.

This is an ergonomic approach and a better way to make one’s work applicable to solving potential cyber-crimes. The author also uses the conclusion part to propose the way of action for people faced with cyber threats.

The paper uses references that are relevant. The reference material is also relevant and adheres to the referencing style of today. All the sources both seminal (classic) and more contemporary have been clearly cited all through the document. The authors used references from a wide range of material in the field of the cybercrime and information security and but could not site from their other published academic works. To sum up, the authors Ammar and Smitha adhered to most profound standards and ethic of research writing.

References

Creswell W. J (2013). Research Design: Qualitative And Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approached 4th Ed. New York: Sage Publications Inc.

Farmer, Dan. ; Charles, Mann C. (2013) Surveillance nation. Technology Review; Vol. 106, No. 4, 2013:

Madruga J.J. and Garcia-Luna -Aceves (2015), Scalable Multicasting: The Core Assisted Mesh Protocol. Accepted for publication in ACM/ Baltzer Mobile Networks and Applications Journal.

Malekzadeh M., Malekzadeh, A.A.A., Ghani, Z.A. Zulkarnain and Z. Muda, (2015) Security improvement for management frames in IEEE 802.11 networks, International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security;

McGuire M. ; Dowling S. (2013) Cyber-crime: A review of the evidence Summary of key findings and implications Home Office Research Report 75.

Nayak S. and Yassir A. (2012) Cybercrime: A threat to Network Security. IJCSNS International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, VOL.12 No.2, February 2012.

Palmieri F. (2013). VPN scalability over high performance backbones evaluating MPLS VPN against traditional approaches. In: Proceedings of the eighth IEEE international symposium on computers and communications (ISCC), vol. 2, June ;July 2013. p. 975

Researchgate, Smitha Nayak, retrieved 13/12/2016 from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Smitha Nayak/publications;

Student Learning Center, (2016) Critiquing Research Articles retrieved 13/12/2016 from http://www.flinders.edu.au/SLC

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