Management of a Student Research Project

by Howard, Keith; Sharp, John A.

• ISBN13: 9780566006135
• ISBN10: 0566006138
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1983-08-01
• Publisher: Gower Pub Co

Author Biography

John A Sharp is Professor of Management in the Canterbury Business School, University of Kent. He has taught in a variety of areas and has long been associated with doctoral student training John Peters is Editorial Director of an academic publishing firm, and a visiting fellow at the Universities of North London and Bradford Keith Howard was Chairman of Doctoral Programmes at the University of Bradford Management Centre and currently holds several company directorships

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	p. ix
Preface to the First Edition	p. xi
Preface to the Second Edition	p. xiii
Preface to the Third Edition	p. xv
Preparation	p. 1
Research and the Research Student	p. 3
The aim of this book	p. 3
The structure of the book	p. 5
What is research?	p. 7
Some features of student research	p. 10
Classifying research	p. 13
The process of research	p. 16
The successful completion of student research	p. 18
Types of research and this book	p. 20
The requirements to be satisfied	p. 21
Chapter Summary	p. 25
Selecting and Justifying a Research Project	p. 26
Personal value of the topic	p. 26
Selecting a project topic	p. 27
Research degree topic selection in outline	p. 27
Appointing the supervisor	p. 29
Initial selection of a topic	p. 31
Techniques for generating research topics	p. 34
Feasibility of the research proposed	p. 39
Social value of the research	p. 42
Research symmetry	p. 43
Scope for research	p. 44
Developing a research proposal	p. 45
Chapter Summary	p. 50
Planning the Research Project	p. 51
The need to plan	p. 51
Network planning	p. 53
An example of network planning in student research	p. 53
Rendering progress explicit: research milestones	p. 68
The role of network analysis during the execution stage	p. 69
Planning part-time research	p. 70
Chapter Summary	p. 72
Literature Searching	p. 73
The academic library	p. 74
Major primary, secondary and tertiary sources	p. 74
Why scan the literature?	p. 82
Literature searches and relevance trees	p. 83
Citation indexes	p. 87
Carrying out a literature search electronically	p. 90
An example of an electronic literature search	p. 91
The web of science search	p. 91
Using a search engine	p. 98
Setting up one's own bibliography	p. 102
Serendipity in literature searching	p. 105
The roles of supervisor and librarian	p. 105
Using the references	p. 106
Chapter Summary	p. 107
Data Analysis and Gathering	p. 109
Analysing the Data	p. 111
The role of analysis	p. 111
Definition of analysis	p. 113
Types of data and their place in analysis	p. 114
The purpose of analysis	p. 116
Proper argument and analysis	p. 117
A review of some common purposes of analysis and applicable techniques	p. 120
Testing a quantitative analysis	p. 132
The use of the computer in analysis	p. 135
Ensuring the analysis is of an appropriate standard	p. 136
Chapter summary	p. 138
Gathering the Data	p. 139
Activities involved in data gathering	p. 140
Access to data	p. 141
Gathering data to an adequate standard	p. 141
Preparing for data gathering	p. 151
Organising the data	p. 152
Collecting primary data	p. 153
Secondary data sources	p. 159
Chapter summary	p. 165
Producing the Research Results	p. 167
Executing the Research	p. 169
The research plan	p. 170
Overcommitment	p. 171
Individual problems	p. 172
Threats to the continuation of the study	p. 174
Serious delay	p. 179
General support problems	p. 180
Harassment and intimidation	p. 182
Problems and issues in working with a supervisor	p. 183
Conclusion	p. 191
Chapter summary	p. 192
Presentation of the Research Findings	p. 193
Introduction	p. 193
Institutional guidelines	p. 194
Style	p. 197
Citation	p. 200
Chapters and sections	p. 207
Editing and proofreading	p. 214
Copying, printing and binding	p. 217
Preparing for a viva voce or oral examination	p. 219
Publishing the research	p. 224
Conclusion	p. 227
Chapter summary	p. 228
Appendices	p. 231
An Example of Topic Analysis	p. 233
A Select Bibliography on Student Research	p. 241
Books and Articles Cited in the Main Text	p. 251
Index	p. 255
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.