ABC University Academic Paper Database Management System Project

This project outlines the development of a database management system for ABC University, designed to track research papers, journals, and student comments. The system aims to replace manual processes with an online database and user-friendly GUI, allowing students to easily search, retrieve, and comment on academic papers. Key features include student registration, paper details, search functionality, and administrative controls for managing user profiles and the document database. The feasibility analysis covers technical, economic, logical, operational, and scheduling aspects, ensuring the project's viability and effectiveness in streamlining research paper management.

Running head: A PERSONAL DATABASE OF ACADEMIC PAPER
A Personal Database of Academic Papers
Name of the Student
Name of the University

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Introduction............................................................................................................4
1.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................4
1.2 Background of the Project................................................................................................4
1.3 Scope of the Project.........................................................................................................5
1.4 Project Aim......................................................................................................................5
1.5 Project Objectives............................................................................................................6
1.6 Problem Statement...........................................................................................................7
1.7 Key Deliverables of the Project...................................................................................7
1.8 Feasibility Analysis..........................................................................................................8
1.9 Project Schedule.............................................................................................................10
Chapter 2 - Literature Review..................................................................................................12
2.1 System Analysis.............................................................................................................12
2.2 Software requirements...................................................................................................13
2.3 Hardware Requirements.................................................................................................13
2.4 Existing vs New System.................................................................................................14
2.5 Database management system........................................................................................15
2.6 Microsoft Access 2016...................................................................................................16
2.7 Windows Application.....................................................................................................17
2.8 Visual Studio 2017.........................................................................................................18
2.9 Authentication and Authorization..................................................................................24
2.10 Data type Summary......................................................................................................25

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2.11 Process modelling........................................................................................................26
2.12 System testing..............................................................................................................27
Chapter 3: Research Methodology...........................................................................................29
3.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................29
3.2 Method Outline:.............................................................................................................29
3.3 Research Philosophy......................................................................................................29
3.4. Research Approach.......................................................................................................30
3.5 Research Design.............................................................................................................31
3.6 Data collection procedures and techniques....................................................................31
3.7 Ethical Considerations...................................................................................................32
Chapter 4 – Results and Implementation.................................................................................33
4.1 Login..............................................................................................................................33
1.2 Register..........................................................................................................................36
1.3 Menu..............................................................................................................................37
1.4 Add Books......................................................................................................................38
1.5 Update Books.................................................................................................................39
1.6 Delete Books..................................................................................................................41
1.7 Search Page....................................................................................................................43
Chapter 5 – Testing..................................................................................................................47
5.1 Authentication................................................................................................................47
5.2 Data Redundancy check.................................................................................................49

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5.3 Searching........................................................................................................................53
5.4 Insertion..........................................................................................................................55
5.5 Deletion..........................................................................................................................57
Chapter 6 - Conclusion.............................................................................................................59
REFERENCES:........................................................................................................................60

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Chapter 1 – Introduction
1.1 Introduction
In this project, a typical database management system will be designed for ABC
University, which will be used to keep track of the research papers, journals, documents, e-
books and PDFs read by the research students (both undergraduate and master’s students).
Along with that, the database system will also store the individual comments and opinions
submitted by the research students on specific research papers, thesis and documents that they
have already read. The database management system will help identify what copies are
possessed by which students and in which locations those copies are stored. The development
of such a database system will be undertaken in this project along with the GUI (Graphical
User Interface). To be more precise, the project will focus on the development of a web
application that typically stores various academic research papers. Students will be able to
read, post comments and opinions about them and know the locations where the papers are
stored in order to retrieve them. The database will also include fields that display the specific
topics that the papers are written on. The GUI will provide users with the ability to search the
database in a variety of ways. They can also add papers they have read or want to read to the
database whenever they want.
1.2 Background of the Project
The database management system will involve a small or medium sized application.
The application will keep track of the research papers, documents and articles using a
computerized GUI by recording the details about the particular paper, along with the
comments left by the students on them, the subject or the topic of the book. The project will
focus on the detailed process to be used for designing, developing and implementing the
database system for managing the research papers. The main purpose of developing this

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project is to provide convenience to utilize the research papers by the students of the
university. However, it requires subscription for membership for keeping track of the
documents and files. Presently, the manual system of keeping track of the papers is quite
exhausting for the students as well as the university staffs. Therefore, the database
management system will potentially help in identifying the topic of the paper, along with the
comments from students who have already read them. It will enable fast retrieval of the
particular book. Not only that, all the detail information about that book will be available
through a click.
1.3 Scope of the Project
The proposed web application system and database will have the major components
such as a GUI, a central storage system and automatic retrieval system. It will ensure easy
tracing of a paper along with its associated details such as name of students who has read the
book, any comments left by them, the topic of the book and he location where it is stored. It
will involve a membership process where each student will be provided with a membership
identification number. The database can also upload important lecture notes, thesis and
dissertation papers developed by university students, research articles, journals, e-books and
so on. Hence, the proposed system will significantly reduce the manual workload and
facilitate proper monitoring and retrieval of the huge amount of university papers. The
research groups will be benefited by the records or multiple physical copies of papers stored
inside the database by the different individual students. For this purpose, the project will
cover a thorough system requirements study including the functional and non-functional
requirements. The GUI must provide option to the users to search the database depending on
selecting the search type. In addition to that, the system must enable the users to filler papers
based on entering different keywords.

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1.4 Project Aim
The basic aim of the project are described below:
The project to eliminate manual searching and retrieval of research papers by the
students in ABC University. The basic functionality of the proposed computerized system is
to record details regarding every paper read by individual students, along with the associated
transactions and the comments and reviews posted by them. Another major aim of the project
is to execute and arrive to successful conclusion of the project within the stipulated time
frame or estimated schedule.
1.5 Project Objectives
The primary objectives of the project are defined below:
 To eliminate the need of manual tracking, updating, retrieval and management
of the research papers by students and research groups
 To record the student details and document details in an automated
computerized system to enable easy retrieval of the desired paper a student is
looking for along with the associated information about the paper such as
research topic, name of students who already read the paper, storage location,
date of modification/ update, reviews and comments about the paper posted
previously by other research students
 To design an user friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface) that perfectly suits
the need of the university students
 To accomplish the entire project successfully according to the estimated
project schedule
 To document the project report that comprises of all the phases, deliverables
and tasks associated with the project

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1.6 Problem Statement
With the present system, it is not possible to retrieve the desired research articles on a
particular topic in a fast and efficient way. Students need to leave comments and reviews
about specific books or research papers by writing it on a paper, which in turn needs to be
manually searched and retrieved. Moreover, it is not possible to manually update, delete or
create information about each particular paper in a proper systematic way. Therefore, in order
to overcome these various kinds of issues and enable the research groups to carry out their
research studies in a convenient and effective manner, the project focuses on developing an
academic database management system, which can facilitate the research groups as well as
the individual students to maintain their research papers that they have read or will read based
on a particular topic and also leave comments, opinions and reviews about the papers they
have already read. To be more precise, the proposed system application will convert the
manual process into an online database and web application with clean, user friendly GUI
(Graphical User Interface).
1.7 Key Deliverables of the Project
The key deliverables of the proposed system are briefly outlined below:
 A GUI interface where the students will be able to register and login using
their full name, email address and password in order to view and use the
application
 A student database that will store these details about the students along with
the names of the research papers they have read or want to read or any posts
(comments and reviews) made by them on papers existing in the database
 Students will be able to view profiles of other users, see reviews posted on
research documents

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 The database can be searched using keywords such as the relevant topic of a
research paper, location where it is stored and so on
 Administrative functionalities will exist for privileged users who can add/
modify/ update/ delete and manage user profiles, documents database and
supervise the overall working principles of the system application
 The GUI will provide users with the facility to filter the search results based
on entering keywords
 System will show books/ papers available for reading along with papers
already read by students
 The common student profiles will not be given the right to modify details
about any research document stored in the database
1.8 Feasibility Analysis
It is crucial to conduct a thorough project analysis, which is a quick analysis of the
overall requirements and deliverables of the project in order to simply paint a picture of the
total work associated in the project to successfully perform and reach completion.
Sometimes, a deep project analysis is required for factoring itself into a negotiation process.
In this relation, conducting the feasibility analysis helps in analyzing the size and scope of the
project and thereby, decide if the target objectives can be adequately satisfied. In addition to
that, feasibility study also helps in identifying the key issues that required to be addressed.
The five areas of feasibility analysis are termed in short as ‘TELOS’, the full form of which is
Technical, Economic, Logical, Operational, and Scheduling analysis. Below, the five areas of
feasibility analysis are undertaken with respect to the proposed project:
Technical Feasibility: The technical feasibility of the project is measured by the
success level of using the software, hardware and other technical equipment for satisfying the
project requirements. In order to develop the academic database management system, only

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stable platforms such as MS Access and Visual Basic to create an efficient Windows
application.
Economic Feasibility: The project will further be assessed to analyse its economic
feasibility to determine the positive economic benefits that the university can utilize. The
proposed system will provide potential benefit to the university as it will omit the
requirement of manually managing the academic papers by the students. As a result, it will
reduce significant costs related to paper-based database management. The system will
provide automation and integration of the overall retrieval and update process of the research
papers, facilitating both time and cost savings to the university as well as to the students
using the academic database GUI. The economic scope of the project can be expanded in
future by incorporating advertisements that will increase the possibility of earning facility.
Logical Feasibility: The project evidently meets the logical feasibility criteria. The
overall system design of the project is logically sane and possible. Moreover, it is ensured
that the system design does not contain unnecessary options and features that can puzzle or
confuse the users while operating the system.
Operational Feasibility: The measuring of operational feasibility is defined by the
way a system resolves a particular problem. Along with that, operational feasibility also takes
the opportunities identified at the time of definition of scope and analyses how the path
undertaken satisfies the requirements of the project. The project requirements as defined in
the requirements analysis phase is compared and contrasted with the defined scope of the
overall system development. Furthermore, it can be said that this personal academic database
management system will be designed in a proper manner and users will not have problems
while using the GUI software, as it will be an adequately user friendly, easy to use, simple,
fast and efficient application.

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Schedule Feasibility: It can be said that the project will be completed within the
stipulated time frame by applying the COCOMO model. Moreover, the estimated time to
design the overall system is 1 month 9 days. Therefore, the project will successfully meet its
deadline.
1.9 Project Schedule
Task Name Duration Start
Academic Database Management System 40 days 1/5/19
Initiate 8 days 1/5/19
Requirements Study 4 days 1/5/19
Definition of Scope 2 days 5/5/19
Contracts Signing & Agreement of Deliverables 2 days 7/5/19
Design & Development (GUI & Database) 13 days 9/5/19
Frontend Design 8 days 9/5/19
Layout Design 2 days 9/5/19
Database Structuring of Elements and Search 3 days 11/5/19
Global Search & Other Search Integration 2 days 15/5/19
Design finalization 1 day 18/5/19
Administration Design 3 days 19/5/19
Detailed Admin Database Table and Schema 2 days 19/5/19
Backup & Archive Management 1 day 21/5/19

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Functional Modules Design 2 days 22/5/19
Documentation 6 days 22/5/19
System documents 6 days 22/5/19
Source codes 3 days 22/5/19
Functional modules 3 days 26/5/19
Finalization 9 days 29/5/19
System Quality Test 9 days 29/5/19
Unit testing 5 days 29/5/19
Integration testing 2 days 3/6/19
System testing 2 days 5/6/19
Closer 4 days 7/6/19
Installation 4 days 7/6/19
Implementation 2 days 7/6/19
Training and tutorial 2 days 9/6/19
Table 1.1: Schedule for eAcademic project
Source: (created by author)