Large research project anyone?

At the start of the year I invited people to get involved in a large research project. I wanted a large team (hundreds) to tackle a large project. I floated the idea of offering help and collaborating with groups needing advice. These could be villages in developing countries as an example, or groups anywhere. We have expertise that we do not always put to use and so I thought it might be a way of collaborating, using this knowledge and solving real issues and problems. Is anyone interested?

People Matter

I had wanted to do a PhD for a long time. Bill Black, my supervisor from my Masters, really put the idea into my head when we met a couple of years after doing my Master of Science in computing. I was coming back to Oldham on the train and we bumped into one another. He said, "why don't you take a Masters?" The fees were high but I thought maybe my College could partly sponsor me. As it turned out I came to Australia and enrolled in one here. Geoff Roy became my suprvisor and I was lucky to have such a good mentor. Since then I have collaborated with a large number of people and each one in some way has motivated me. So people matter a lot in research as they give you energy,ideas and make opportunties for you.

Call for Papers

Journal of Systems and Information Technology



Special Issue on Technology, Information Systems and Collaboration: Social Media and Beyond



Special Issue Editor: Helene Delerue




The use of social media is becoming increasingly important. This leads to several research issues: Why do some companies use social media whilst others do not? How are firms using social media? What are the consequences of using social media?
Few scholarly studies have considered how social media may benefit firms and the majority have focused on social media as marketing tools. Nevertheless, social media can have cognitive, strategic, and managerial consequences. Other key issues are: How can we measure the effect of social media on firm and social media effectiveness? How can firms monitor social media? What are the challenges and opportunities of social media in collaborative projects?



The special issue aims to foster information system research in understanding, illustrating, and explaining the business use and consequences of social media.



Target topics that are relevant to this special issue of JoSIT include but are not limited to:


- Social media - and beyond- and business social network;
- Social media - and beyond- effectiveness;
- Social media - and beyond- and innovation;
- Social media - and beyond- and human resources management

- Current approach to and practices of using social media -and beyond- for firm growth

- Social media development among industries
- Information security and social media



Publication Guidelines:
All papers will undergo a blind refereeing process by at least two referees.



Timeline: Submission deadline: 30st Nov 2011

Reviews returned: Jan 15th, 2012

Resubmission of papers: March 1st
Final decision: April 10th, 2012

Publication: 2012



All submissions must be original works which have not appeared elsewhere and which are not being considered for publication with another journal. As the reviewing process will be conducted anonymously, please do not include your name(s) on the submission.

People are encouraged to send their papers in by email to:


Helene Delerue

vidot-delerue.helene@uqam.ca

Taking ownership of your PHD

The most important thing about taking a doctorate is taking ownership of it. Students often feel, especially at the start, that it isn't their project but rather owned by the supervisor or the university. It is important for the candidate to take ownership as early as possible, if not right from the start. Some supervisors may create a dependency culture which inhibits the student from making decisions. Over supervision can also lead to a dependency culture and like most relationships the more one partner does the less the other may do!

The student has to gain a research voice and this will show through in the final thesis but without taking ownership early on they writing may lack confidence. Even worse when they have completed they may lack the confidence to fly solo.

PhD doctorate by publication

It is possible in many universities to complete a doctorate by publications. This usually entails writing a number of academic papers plus tying them together with maybe 80 pages of dicussion and explanation. It seems the preferred method in countries such as Finland for example. In fact I have examined a couple from there and thought they were well constructed.

The problem in many universities is that there are few precise guidelines for the standard and number of publications expected. When left without strong, clear guidelines it can often come down to the wishes of individuals.

To me, there seems to be two models commonly put forward based upon different rationales. One is the validation model where the publications are expected to be very high quality and serve as a form of validation for the quality of the research conducted over time. Because the expectation is of a very high standard, such as A and A+ papers, it is usually reserved for academics who have not completed a doctorate but have conducted research and written papers. For the examiner of such theses it seems a relatively simple task since the work has been heavily peer reviewed.

The second model is more student centered. It takes the view that the person taking a doctorate is going to get into the research and publishing game when they have completed and therefore publishing during their doctorate and making use of these papers for the examination is the way to go. So the emphasis is on skills development and writing papers as a way of developing the key skills. In this model, good papers are needed but it is unrealistic to expect A and A+ from every student, rather a conference paper (peer reviewed) in the first year, and say 3 journal papers of perhaps C, B and perhaps A would be fine. The examiner has to read the papers as well as the thesis text and come to some conclusion about their quality as a whole.

If academics are confused about the model they are adopting then they will be torn in terms of the expectations of a doctorate or phd by publishing and confuse the student too.

www.CompletePhD.com

Twitter

You can now follow what I am thinking about in relation to research and all matters Craig Standing on Twitter - see right column.

Follow @standingcraig

What is your mission in research?

When I started out in research I wanted to complete my PhD. Of course I wanted to make a contribution to knowledge in the area of my doctorate. When I had completed my thesis I wanted to write papers on various topics and write a book or two. When they were all accomplished I sat back back and wondered why I was doing research. Sure each project has an aim that you hope will have beneficial outcomes for practice and also make a contribution to knowledge. But even beyond that, is the desire to help people develop their research experiences and become full or part-time researchers. Really, this is now the main reason I do research so that in some way it can help others develop their profile and skill set. The experiences I have only have meaning if I can pass them on in some way to others. Hence, Phd students are a key part of the mission and so are other members of staff.


www.CompletePhD.com