Assignment: Research Report

Topic: Web security services using XML Encryption and Signatures

You are to conduct extensive readings in the area of choice,then develop a sub-topic or question that you will address in detail in your report.

The report must have a title, an abstract, an introduction and at least one section that extensively reviews the literature you have read. Include other sections and subsections to carefully structure your report. It is advisable that you try to include recent developments, current problems, possible solutions, examples of implementations, and future directions, if applicable. The report must be ended with a list of references.It is not the objective of this assignment to create new knowledge, nor to propose novel solutions to a problem. You should alsonot implement any software, as this is a research-only assignment.

In scientific writing, it is important to compare and contrast whenever possible, and remain objective at all times. Present what you have learned in your own words, and if applicable show that you can critically reason about the topic using your own ideas and arguments.

Requirements for the Research Report

• List of references Your list needs to include sufficient numbers of primary (= peer-reviewed academic journal articles and conference papers) and secondary (= text books and other formally published work) resources. The entries of your list need to be as complete as possible: check the BibTex fields page for the different kinds of entries.

• Length Your report must be of reasonable length (between 10 and 15 pages, not including tables, images, source code etc). The PDF must be produced using LaTeX.

• Originality Your research report should not contain any text that is copied from any kind of resource, except when it is clearlyquoted and cited. Even so, such quotes should appear very seldom in a paper. It is better to rephrase someone's ideas in your own terms and include a reference to the source. This will also make your research report more readable, as the language you use is then more consistent.

• Scientific language While correct English spelling and grammar is desirable (you should do your very best here, even though many are non-native English speakers), of much greater importance is that you employ a scientific writing style. This means that you need to be as precise as possible (no informal language), as concise as possible (no overlong discussions when something can be stated briefly) while also being as complete as possible. This may be hard at first, but is necessary to learn. Scientific writing also means that you must use correct terminology and define new concepts. Finally, you should remain as objective as possible, and clearly state when you are making personal claims which should be backed-up with evidence as far as possible.

• Content You need to show that you have read widely and deeply about your topic. If you don't fully understand the details of certain papers that you have read, be sure to include in your report a brief discussion of what you believe the authors were trying to do. It is also beneficial to include in your report a discussion of current, active research questions in your topic of choice.