ÓNecmi K Avkiran 1996: This document is strictly for educational use on this homepage only. Its reproduction for commercial use or otherwise, including for sale to students, will be considered a breach of copyright laws. The author can be emailed on n.avkiran@mailbox.uq.edu.au.

FOREWORD

There is a multitude of technical books on research methods and statistics, some of which are cited at the end of this handbook. However, the average Masters or Doctorate candidate starting a research degree might have a limited understanding of the research process. While each university will have its own set of guidelines, there are certain procedures common to all.

The purpose of this handbook is to outline the main stages a research candidate needs to proceed through on the way to successful completion of the research degree. In doing so, the handbook also brings forth the main pitfalls of the research process.

I hope this handbook will raise the awareness of the research candidates on what to expect as they embark on their Masters or Doctorate studies. Those interested in further reading in this area should look at Phillips and Pugh (1995) How to Get a Ph.D.

Dr Necmi Kemal Avkiran

Ipswich Campus, The University of Queensland

• CHOOSING A TOPIC
• FINDING A SUPERVISOR
• DEVELOPING YOUR RESEARCH PROPOSAL
• DEVELOPING YOUR THESIS
• SUBMITTING YOUR THESIS
• WILL I SUCCEED?
• SOME USEFUL REFERENCES

CHOOSING A TOPIC

The first rule of the game is to find a topic you will be able to maintain interest in for a long time. In particular, if you are researching in the field of social sciences, the average completion time for a Ph.D. is around five years; for science students, this period is shorter. Commitment to a single topic over such a long time can become tiresome unless the topic is carefully chosen. According to Moses (1985, p.3), drop out rates vary between 29 to 48 per cent, and Masters candidates may take as long as Doctorate candidates to finish their degrees.

In choosing a topic, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the topic excite me?
• Do I feel the urge to visit the library and read about it in journals and various other publications?
• Can I talk about the topic for longer than half an hour without running out of material?
• Has this topic been researched before? If so, what is so original about my approach?
• Am I able to articulate the research problem in a single paragraph?
• Are data easily available on my topic? If not, what can I do to collect data?
• Are there other academics in the field who might be interested in supervising my research?
• How can I fund a research project in my chosen field?
• Do I have the support of my family and employer?

While this is not an exhaustive checklist, providing satisfactory answers to the above questions will save you a lot of heartache and disappointment later. Availability of data and impact of a long-term research commitment on family and work life are two of the most easily overlooked issues. Many a Ph.D. candidate is known to have aborted or delayed completion of their studies, citing a major conflict between family or workplace and research commitments. Therefore, it is a worthwhile investment to discuss in advance how your research activities will impact your family and work life.

The question of whether the topic has been researched before also needs careful attention. For most candidates, the first point of contact is either a lecturer at the university who is known to have research interests in the candidate's chosen field, or academic journals. You need to take this a step further by expanding your search to include the abstracts of past Masters or Ph.D. theses in Australia and overseas. In addition to reference collections in libraries, the Internet is an excellent source to search for thesis abstracts.

It is also possible that you may want to rephrase your topic after you have started the project. Whether this exercise will become an administrative problem will depend on the extent of the change. If you plan to ditch your topic in favour of a new, unrelated topic, then you will not be given credit for your work up to that point in time. Such a move will also have serious resource implications. On the other hand, if you simply rephrase your topic within the same field, you may receive some credit for your previous work. The nature of this credit is normally determined through an official application to the Dean of your Faculty.

Once your mind is set on a topic, you need to follow it with an intense concentration. An analogy I often use is the famous detective Sherlock Holmes on the trail of the criminal. The trait that makes research such an enjoyable activity is the amount of detective work involved and the learning that comes with it. Let us now look at how you are going to recruit Dr Watson!
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FINDING A SUPERVISOR

There are normally two supervisors for each research degree candidate, namely, a principal supervisor and a co-supervisor. In our discussion, we will focus on the principal supervisor. Choosing the right supervisor for your research project is one of the most difficult tasks you will have to face. The key issue here is that you need to make an informed decision, rather than simply accept the name suggested to you by the university. Like marriage, it has to be contemplated with due caution because you are about to enter into a long-term relationship. I would recommend the following guidelines in finding a supervisor who will provide you with the right amount of assistance, while allowing you to develop your own research skills:

• Do not choose your supervisor on hearsay. Be prepared to meet your potential supervisor a few times before you decide he or she is the right person. Exchange resumes if you feel this is acceptable to both parties.
• Make sure your supervisor shares your interest in the research topic.
• Establish as quickly as possible whether you can be friends with your supervisor.
• The supervisor cannot be expected to know everything but must complement your existing skills.
• Tell your supervisor what your expectations are and solicit his or her expectations of you.
• Meet regularly, arrive on time, and keep a journal.

It is worth bearing in mind that you should always be in charge of your research project. Your supervisor is there only to guide you. Traditional Masters or Doctorate degrees by research (as opposed to by coursework) still assume that the candidate is able to show a considerable amount of initiative in carrying out the research project. This means that you will need to be aware of your supervisor's other commitments e.g. he or she might be supervising four other candidates as well as teaching and doing own research. Do not assume that the supervisor will either spoon feed you or will anticipate every step of your project's progress. While you are there to tap into the supervisor's experience and expertise, it is logical that at any given point in time, you would have a better view of how well your project is progressing.

Basically, you need to set your own goals within the timeline put forward in your proposal and follow them religiously. If these goals are unrealistic, a good supervisor will bring it to your attention. One litmus test of a "good" supervisor is someone who returns your calls within a short time and is available for consultation. You also need to clarify from the start approximately how many hours per week the supervisor is willing to set aside to discuss your research with you. Finally, look for a personal rapport with your supervisor. If your instincts tell you that you can be friends with your supervisor, the research process is likely to be a less painful and more enjoyable one.

What do you do if your relationship with your supervisor turns sour? Each university will have its own set of arbitration procedures. However, before those formal procedures are initiated, you should first try other sources of help within your Department. Assuming that you have hit an impasse with your supervisor, you can talk to another lecturer who is close to your supervisor. Alternatively, talk to the Co-ordinator of Postgraduate Students or the Head of Department. If you follow the guidelines outlined earlier in this section, the chances of such a scenario are small. This means you will have to take a critical look at your part in the relationship before any blame is apportioned.
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DEVELOPING YOUR RESEARCH PROPOSAL

From the start, treat your proposal as the blueprint for your Masters or Doctorate thesis. A common mistake is to put aside the research proposal once it has been used to enrol in a research degree. With this in mind, it is time well spent if it takes you six months to twelve months to write up your proposal. The more care and attention you put into the preparation of your proposal, the less will be the probability of discovering a mistake or an oversight in your research design and having to make a costly revision. You will find that the nature of research is not forgiving.

Below I have put together what I would consider to be a generic outline for a research proposal:

• Statement of the Research Problem
• Review of Literature
• Proposed Model or Solution
• Research Design
• Planned Thesis Chapters
• Timeline for the Project

When you submit an application for candidature, you will find that the committee members passing judgement will look at your proposal as a whole, rather than simply reading the statement of the research problem. This requires careful thinking on all sections including the timeline. I will now make some brief comments on the importance of each section of the proposal.

Most universities require their research candidates to participate in an orientation program when their candidature is accepted. Such programs entail an overview of research methods and main statistical techniques, and guest speakers who normally talk about their experiences in completing a Masters or a Doctorate. One of the first exercises you would be asked to undertake is to write the Statement of the Research Problem. The purpose of this exercise is to force you to focus your thoughts on your research project. If you are unable to state the research problem, say, in a paragraph, then the implication is you need to re-think your project's contribution to that particular field of study. It is essential to keep the statement of the research problem within sight at all times during your research in order to remain focused on your study.

Review of Literature starts when you are writing up your research proposal and continues until the day you submit your thesis for examination. It is imperative that you start with a thorough literature review when you compose your research proposal. Otherwise, you run the obvious risk of missing a key study that may have already addressed your research problem. Equally important is the conceptual development in the proposed model or solution, which must build on the findings of the literature review. This brings us to the next section of your research proposal.

Proposed Model or Solution is the section where you link the existing literature with your own ideas. If you are developing a model that will address the research problem, you are required to demonstrate how it fits in with current theories in the field as well as its contribution to knowledge. It is also expected that you justify the use of any new variables you may be proposing.

The section entitled Research Design normally has two main parts, namely, data and methodology. Under the sub-heading of Data, you would identify the sources of your data and how you intend to collect them. Under the sub-heading of Methodology, you are expected to outline the overall approach to developing constructs, that is, variables not directly observable, and the types of statistical techniques you intend to use.

Determining where you are going to collect the data needed will depend on your topic and the variables to be investigated. For example, if you need demographic data, it is possible to purchase customised data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. On the other hand, if you need firm-specific data, then your first hurdle would be to negotiate access to the firm's records.

The key to successfully negotiating access to private data is to highlight how your research proposal will benefit the firm. Be prepared to sign a Confidentially Deed that will restrict the dissemination of raw data. This should not be a problem for you as long as you clearly explain to the firm that your reward will be the thesis at the end of the project, rather than any commercial gains. Once you are in and have established your credibility, most firms may relax the interpretation of the Confidentiality Deed to allow papers to be published while you are working on your project. Whether they agree to be acknowledged in your publication is subject to further negotiation.

Another data related issue is that of sample size. The sample size you decide to target will have resource implications, as well as influence the validity of your findings. The rule of thumb is to be resource-effective in your research activities without sacrificing the validity of results inferred from the data collected.

Also bear in mind that the more variability there is in your population, that is the group to be sampled, the larger would be the sample you will need. Fortunately, there are formulas you can use to guide the determination of sample size (see Krejcie and Morgan 1970; Monette 1990). Furthermore, different types of statistical techniques have expected minimum case-to-variable ratios. For example, in multiple linear regression, this ratio is 20. In factor analysis, it is 5 (Tabachnick and Fidell 1989, pp.128-129).

In providing an overview of your methodology, you need to mention whether your research approach would be a survey, a case study, a content analysis, a field experiment, a laboratory experiment and so on. For example, if you are developing scales of measurement through surveys, it is customary to plan three separate stages, namely, pretesting, piloting, and the main stage. In the pretesting stage, you start identifying the items to be included on your questionnaire from the domain of research interest. You explore different ways of ordering your questions or statements, develop rating scales, and convert open-ended questions to closed-ended questions.

In the pilot stage, you can begin the initial quantitative assessment of validity and reliability of your proposed variables by such techniques as factor analysis and coefficient alpha respectively. The desired outcome is to reduce the number of items on your questionnaire to a more manageable size, while making the emerging factors more discriminating. In the main stage, you repeat the text of the pilot stage to further probe validity and reliability of your scale. Wherever possible, you triangulate the data collection methods to gather more supportive evidence for instrument validity. For example, you can administer the same questionnaire through the mail, over the telephone, or by exit interviews.

Planned Thesis Chapters, as the name suggests, is the section where you think about the number and nature of the chapters you intend to write up in the final thesis. There is no one formula I can recite here that will suit every field of research. Instead, as an example, I will list the chapter headings from my Ph.D., which can best be described as traditional research emphasising analytic survey and quantitative testing:

• The Study and Its Setting
• The Review of the Related Literature
• The Proposed Model of...
• The Research Design
• Scaling the Variables
• Testing the Model
• The Conclusion
• Appendices
• Bibliography
• Further References

A more generic structure outlined by Phillips and Pugh (1995, p.63) is as follows:

• Introduction (including Aims)
• Literature survey
• Method
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusions

Phillips and Pugh (1995) suggest that you use the above structure as a guide to come up with your own chapter headings suitable to your topic. For example, in the case of my Ph.D. chapter headings, `The Research Design' and `Scaling the Variables' fall under the section heading `Method'.

Timeline for the Project, that is, plan of action, is your estimate of how long each stage of the project will take. Going through this exercise forces you to visualise what needs to be done to reach your final goal, which is to submit your thesis for examination. For example, if you know that you will have to sit in research methods or statistics classes to build up your knowledge in these areas, make sure you specify it in your timeline. If on the other hand, you need to organise a large mailed questionnaire survey, once again you should clearly estimate the required time.

A timeline for the project is not an option on your research proposal. It is one of the components the university's Research and Postgraduate Studies Committee will want to scrutinise when you submit an application for candidature. The Committee will evaluate how feasible your timeline is compared with the resources you cite in your application and whether you are enrolling part-time or full-time. The best approach is to put forward a realistic timeline rather than trying to impress the Committee by claiming that you can finish your research degree in half the minimum time required by the university.
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DEVELOPING YOUR THESIS

Let us assume that your application for candidature has been successful and you have begun implementing the research proposal. There are a number of ways you can proceed. For example, you can undertake your research in a piecemeal fashion and hope that at the end you will be able to convert your notes from various activities into the thesis. This is probably the high risk road to take unless you have an outstanding memory or your project was completed, say, within a space of one year. A more realistic approach would be to write up your findings in the thesis format when you complete each section. In other words, the research proposal becomes your blueprint and the proposed timeline becomes your plan of action. As you make progress, you will be able to incorporate each written-up section into the general outline proposed under the Planned Thesis Chapters. Be prepared to make multiple drafts of the thesis until completion of the project.

Periodically, stand back and see whether the transition from proposal to thesis is progressing as anticipated. If you notice any major deviations from the research proposal, you should discuss the matter with your supervisor. It is common practice for the university to require that the candidate submits semi-annual progress reports. A progress report would have a section for your assessment of where you are in relation to the research proposal, as well as a section for your supervisor's views. Such reports should be used as an opportunity to gauge your progress and address any problems that might arise. The report also forces you to ascertain your working relationship with your supervisor.

It is a worthwhile exercise to seek outsiders' opinions about what you think is your final draft of the thesis. Both you and your supervisor are likely to be too close to the project and miss certain potential amendments. This means finding two or three key academics who are willing to read your thesis. It is yet another time consuming exercise and you will have to make sure that the person you nominate will give your thesis more than a cursory reading. Once the thesis is received back, you need to discuss comments made with your supervisor. The safe assumption to make is that there will be many changes, in particular, to the expression.

When listing your references, pay attention to consistency and providing as full a citation as possible. It is a sensible practice to decide the format and style of your writing at the beginning. Making changes after you are half-way through completion of the thesis is a cumbersome exercise. Remember to check your university's thesis style guidelines.
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SUBMITTING YOUR THESIS

Finally, after many months and years of hard work, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Your thesis is in its final draft form and once your supervisor gives you the "all clear", you will submit it for examination. Be warned! This seemingly uncomplicated situation can take up another six months.

A potential source of delay is selection of the examiners. The supervisor is often asked to suggest a list of, say, five names, three of which are then selected by the Research and Postgraduate Studies Committee. When you are only a few months from completing the thesis, you should remind your supervisor to compile such a list where the potential examiners would be required to send in expressions of interest. Normally, the identity of examiners would not be revealed to the candidate.

Furthermore, various university committees would ask to see a temporarily bound copy of your thesis before the thesis is mailed to the external examiners for assessment. Such committees normally meet once a month and simply make a recommendation for the next committee. This means you cannot simultaneously submit your thesis to all the committees involved.

Before you duplicate your thesis for examiners, work through the following checklist:

• Has spelling being checked?
• Is the style of your thesis consistent throughout the manuscript?
• Are chapters collated in the order indicated in the contents?
• Are all the pages accounted for? You will need to physically count the pages again in the copies of the thesis. Even the most modern photocopiers can skip pages in the duplication process.
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WILL I SUCCEED?

There are certain personal qualities that will hold you in good stead as you tackle your research project. These can be listed as initiative, ambition, perseverance, an analytical mind, and a strong desire to learn. Always remember that this is your research and you bear the ultimate responsibility for its success or failure. The extent of your determination will ultimately guarantee your success.

A question often asked by students is "What do examiners look for?". The following listing covers the main points of thesis assessment:

• Originality and contribution to knowledge;
• Sound methodology;
• Appropriate data analysis;
• Conclusions that follow from results;
• Clear writing style that uses plain English and avoids long sentences, long paragraphs, and redundant adjectives; and
• A well documented thesis.

A final word of advice...Enjoy the road of discovery! If learning does not excite you without a dollar sign at the end, you are probably wasting your time.
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SOME USEFUL REFERENCES

Torgerson, W S (1967) Theory and Methods of Scaling, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York.
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