Research is Possible
Bulletin of Applied Computing and Information Technology Vol 1, Issue 1 (November 2003). ISSN
1176-4120.
Dr R.H. Barbour
UNITEC Institute of Technology, New Zealand
bbarbour@unitec.ac.nz
Abstract
Aspects of
the research process are considered from the points of view of supervisors,
students and researchers. The sequence of developing research
capability is described in relation to conventional preparation though
course work. The process of managing research is discussed in
relation to the tasks that the people concerned complete. Successful
strategies are outlined and problems identified.
Key words:
Research supervision, postgraduate research, research strategies,
research process management
1.
INTRODUCTION
People
become involved in the research process for many reasons. The motivation
required to persist in individual research at a publishable level over an
extended period can be sustained by working with peers in a collaborative
way. Few people engage in individual research. Introductions to research
are part of the course work for a higher degree requiring the completion of
a research methods course and an individual project or a directed study.
Research methods courses are usually taught by active researchers and
require a grasp of research as an academic activity and knowledge of the
tools and techniques appropriate for the discipline. The research methods
courses should also draw attention to the questions currently of pressing
interest in the discipline as well as those of perennial interest.
The subsequent directed study
following a research methods course involves the student in an individual
piece of work that is closely supervised on a one-to-one basis by an active
researcher. Early research takes many different forms. Among these are a
survey of a topic in the literature, or the replication of a published study
in the discipline, or an application of a well known technique to a local
area or as a case study, or the development of a software tool meeting a
specific research specification or the setting up of testing tools or
schedules for evaluating competing software products in relation to a common
task. For the supervisor and the independent researcher, selecting a topic
for research should reflect a particular interest or competence. An
outstanding grade in a particular subject suggests that further work in the
discipline is likely to be of interest and therefore rewarding. The
satisfactory outcome would be the completion of the tasks set within the
time and the write-up of the research in a suitable and acceptable form.
2.
SCHEDULING
The supervisor and student or
collaborating colleagues should arrange to meet on a regular basis, perhaps
once a week, more often when the task is being planed and less often during
the research period with again more frequent meetings as the research period
ends. Whatever the frequency of meetings the people involved should agree on
the tasks for the next work period. It is important to have clear agreement
on what the next expected deliverable will be within the overall plan. An
independent researcher could be expected to have a carefully prepared
schedule of tasks and completion dates for the various elements of the
research process. Expecting to complete drafts of proposals, literature
reviews, methods, tools, data collection and results chapters, as the work
moves through the various stages, reduces the pressure on the other people.
More importantly, it lets those people involved share in the developing work
so that, when completed, the form and substance can be agreed. Revisions
become expected as a matter of course and both accept that research is a
work in progress. Students and researchers get to see the work shape up over
the period. Supervisors and collaborators ensure progress is steady and
deviations are reduced to a minimum.
A similar process is followed
at subsequent levels where the independence required of the researcher is
increased as the intellectual performance expectation increases. At masters’
level, the criteria for success are usually demonstrated competence in
carrying out supervised research within a discipline. At doctoral level the
criteria of success are demonstrated competence in contributing to
developments of the discipline, the expansion of knowledge in the discipline
and communicating to peers in the discipline. An independent researcher
could be expected to choose tasks and projects that have a select audience.
Writing for that audience is a highly focussed task and the skills required
take several years to develop (Alley, 1996).
3.
PERFORMANCE AGAINST QUALITY
Other measures of quality
research are outputs that are communicated to a wider audience through
poster sessions, short papers and full papers at Conferences. Later,
acceptances of papers derived from research achieve wider audiences through
publication in Journals and as chapters in books.
4.
PERFORMANCE AGAINST BUDGET
Research costs time and money.
Research proposals should present realistic costs for completing research
proposals. There should be no surprises to the student/researcher in terms
of the time required or the supervisor/manager in relation to the budget.
Research should not begin unless budgeted costs have corresponding amounts
of money available for carrying out the work. Full time dissertations can
take 20 hours per week over a six-month period. Full time theses take about
the same commitment of time for a whole year at masters level and that level
of commitment is doubled per week and extends over three or more years.
Realistically most doctoral work takes six or more years as a part time
exercise.
Papers written out of research
reports and theses take various amounts of time but rarely does average
output exceed one page of text 300-400 words per hour for a rough draft.
Taken over all a 4000 word paper may require anywhere from 10 to 100 hours
work. A one hundred page research report represents over 100 to 300 hours
writing to create a draft so will require at least a further 50 hours to edit
into an acceptable form. That amount of work cannot be completed without
careful planning and extended effort.
5. IS
RESEARCH POSSIBLE ?
Research planning is
fundamental today when most students fit their research work around
employment and raising a family and having something resembling a life
outside of books and writing. On a day-to-day basis planning should include
two or more hours each day set aside to research work. Some people find
early morning best other find late evening better, but adopting the same
time each day helps establish the research habit and assists flatmates or
family to learn the selected time is not to be disturbed. One day per week
should be left free so that catch-up activities can be managed. Within that
time the research plan should include significant tasks and completion dates
that will be agreed as assisting in getting the work done. Research plans
are very individual agreements. What works for one person may not work for
another person whose interests and circumstances are different. Sickness and
other changes in circumstances alter productivity, can be expected and
should be factored into any research plan in the form of an early completion
date allowing at least a week for contingencies. As a rough estimate, a
conference in a field a researcher is working in is generally announced
three to six months before hand. At two hours per day over a period of 12
to 25 weeks there is some 120 to 250 hours available in potential
preparation time for a research paper.
The plan should
also clearly identify the tools and skills required to complete all the
identified tasks. Should there be special software or other resources then
the plan should identify those items at an early stage and the research
should not proceed until they are located or substitutes found. In similar
fashion the plan should identify particular people required for their
particular skills or if the skills are to be acquired during the course of
the research then the plan should show how getting the skills is to be
accomplished. Perhaps the most important aspect of the planning process is
to ensure that the research is at appropriate level of difficulty and can be
completed in the time available by the person. There should also be clear
fallback positions should any aspect of the research not come to completion
for unforeseen reasons. A common strategy would be to require beginning
researchers to form a draft research proposal that identified a research
problem and then suggested several ways of forming research questions
related to the problem. Parallel ways of solving the problem employing
different types of methods should also be suggested drawing from prior
experience in a research methods course.
These expedient
measures help the beginning researcher avoid the trap of ‘stuckness’ in a
particular approach and provide the supervisor/collaborators with ways of
moving a stalled project forward to completion within what the student
already has suggested. These strategies help enable people carry out the
difficult tasks of research in the available time and using personal
resources that are within the capabilities of most people.
6.
RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT
Identifying and solving
technical problems can often make the difference between research coming to
completion and languishing unfinished. A significant and potentially easily
solved problem for beginning researchers is that of locating a suitable
computer, software and workspace. Most institutions have equipment
available but a wise student could be expected to have an agreement as to
work environment clarified before any research was begun. It is no longer
reasonable to expect completed research without an appropriate word
processing technology and an integrated software package. For a number a
years my standard question of a research student was ‘do you own your own
computer?’. A positive answer indicated a commitment to the technology and
the knowledge that should the work machines fail, the home machine was
available to support continued research.
7. WEB SOURCES
Proposals to conduct a
particular piece of research may take up to a year to prepare and the work
they describe almost never looks the same when the research comes to
completion. In part the relationship between what is proposed and what is
completed reflects the learning that the research process involves. In part
also the world will have changed. In the present Web based publication
environment, web pages come and go with increasing rapidity. It is good
practice to keep hard copy of web-sourced data so as to ensure that if
required you can provide referencing sources.
8.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Research activities like many
other human endeavours must first feel right to the person carrying them
out. On the one hand, busy work or research that fails to meet personal
standards disappoints and drives people away from what should be especially
rewarding activity. On the other hand, most science and other research has
been described as ‘carrying water and gathering sticks’, it is hard and
demanding work. The reward is in completion, in the sense of making a
contribution, in knowing that other people could build on the work when it
is reported. Acceptance for publication is a second step in evaluating
research output. It is assumed that reports will be ‘blind reviewed’ by
peers. A process that ensures that the reviewer is not known to the person
reading and evaluating the paper. Researchers can have more confidence in
acceptance for publication under blind review. Rejection of papers is a
common experience for all writers. Almost all papers written are publishable
with more or less, and in some cases no, editing. Matching the research
paper with the appropriate conference or journal publication ensures that acceptance
rates rise.
9. KEY
LESSONS
What helps things go well for
researchers: suitable supervision, adequate resources, suitable time to
prepare, think about and write up research. Meeting with a mentor or
supervisor helps research come to completion by assisting the researcher
with motivation, scheduling of activities and evaluating progress. A post
graduate course in research methods gives perspective on what is involved
and ensures that research goals are appropriate. Methods, tools and
techniques must be suitable for the research questions or problems.
Get help with the form of
writing up reports from a specialist editor or and English language scholar
or a disciplinary expert. Lots of things can go wrong with research. By far
the biggest problem is missing meetings with mentors or supervisors, and
deviating from the research plan.
10.
COMMON RESPONSES TO PROBLEMS
People are often tempted to
miss meetings, blame themselves for lack of progress or engage in
displacement activities, such as filing CDs, sharpening pencils, web
surfing, planning a holiday, and gathering around the water cooler. It takes
researchers a while to develop the self-discipline to adopt a Carpe Diem
attitude to research. Developing a close network of support people with
shared research interests helps solve day-to-day problems. Contributing to
other people’s research also helps to appreciate the various tasks that
have to be completed. Reading and commenting other people’s text helps them
and develops the critical eye required for editing personal research
contributions. Research Centres exist for most research disciplines at
tertiary institutions around New Zealand. Volunteers are always welcome and
useful training in research can be gained from such associations.
11. OTHER RESOURCES
There
are a multitude of web pages dealing with the research process and the craft
of writing. Many good books also exist on the subject (Day, 1994) and
(Alley, 1996) are useful guides to the research and writing processes in
Science and are applicable to Information and Computing systems writing.
12. CONCLUSION
Pragmatically, research is difficult work requiring attention to detail,
careful planning, and a long-term view. Carrying out research as a part of
full time academic work requires balancing a number of demands. Academic
employers make provision for research in employment contracts. Teaching
responsibilities will fill all the hours of the day and night, if you let
them. Extra fortitude is required to complete research under such
circumstances. Some suggestions have been made as to how to advance research
that, it is hoped, will encourage research and contribute to a better
understanding of the research process.
13. REFERENCES
Alley, M. (1996). The Craft
of Scientific Writing (Third ed.). New York: Springer.
Day, R. A. (1994). How
to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper (Fourth ed.). Phoenix: The Oryx
Press.
Copyright
Ó
[2003] R.H. Barbour.
The author(s) assign to NACCQ and educational non-profit institutions a
non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses
of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this
copyright statement is reproduced. The author(s) also grant a
non-exclusive licence to NACCQ to publish this document in full on the
World Wide Web (prime sites and mirrors) and in printed form within the
Bulletin of Applied Computing and Information Technology. Any other usage
is prohibited without the express permission of the author(s). |
