Dissertation seminar: or how to acquire research skills and abilities

Dissertation seminar

This is a master level seminar dedicated to the discussion of student's projects, research and papers. The purpose of this seminar is to familiarize students with the rules and methods of scientific research.

Format: 4 hrs/week seminar (Tuesday 16-20) plus online collaboration on this web-page.

First meeting: Tuesday 5 March, 16-20. (By then, however, you will have to do a couple of things, so read the following carefully).

 

General presentation of the course/seminar:

Most present-day jobs are research-oriented. One is expected to be able to put together research proposals, projects, and to take part in open, research-oriented competitions. In order to do this, one needs all sorts of skills: planning efficiently, being able to collaborate and work in a team, being able to respect deadlines, being able to go through a lot of reading in an optimal time, being able to write, re-write and re-re-re write until the result is convincing and competitive.

The purpose of this seminar is to teach basic research skills and abilities (such as: how to choose a research topic, how to write a project proposal, how to discuss a project proposal, how to re-write and collaborate for improving a project proposal). The subsidiary purpose of this seminar is to teach students how to write an academic research proposal and how to develop a research project. More precisely, to learn what a research proposal, research application and research project are and how one can develop, starting from them, papers and dissertations.

In order to pursue an academic career you need to learn to write and publish. Academic activity in philosophy is highly specialized and quite ‘technical’. It has its own jargon and requires precisely defined ‘skills’. Often, books on ‘how-to-do’ begin by saying: “Most students and beginning researchers do not fully understand what a research
proposal means, nor do they understand its importance. To put it bluntly, one’s research is only as a good as one’s proposal.”

British Library, London (curtea interioara). Si o celebra statuie (inspirata dintr-o si mai celebra gravura a lui Blake) reprezentandu-l pe Isaac Newton in rolul 'demiurgului geometru'

 
The purpose of this “Dissertation seminar” is to teach some of the skills required for ‘survival’ in the present-day, project-oriented, world (irrespective whether you want to pursue an academic career or a non-academic career). Here are some of them:

1. Learning and understanding: understanding the nature and structure of a research project, developing the abilities necessary for picking a research topic and developing a research project. Learning and understanding the way in which research hypotheses are formulated and demonstrated.
2. Explanation and interpretation: forming the abilities necessary to explain and develop a research project and to transform it into a dissertation plan
3. Instrumental: learning how to put together a bibliography in an efficient and time-saving way, learning to use online resources, data bases, learning the basics of the scientific evaluation and project evaluation.
4. Atitudes: The seminar will attempt to form in the students the essential attitudes and values of the profession: respect for intellectual work, understanding and developing values essential for research, learning the rules of research, collaboration and community.

ATTENDANCE

This seminar is an MA level research seminar, but undergraduate students can also attend (without receiving credits). It is a compulsory course/seminar for the MA students in Analytic Philosophy (second year).
NB: For all level students willing to take part in the seminar: you need to register via email to dana.jalobeanu@gmail.com

General topics:
1. What is a research project? How do I choose a research topic? What does it mean to have a research project? (When do we have a research project?)
2. How do I pursue a research project? What are the steps in developing a research project?
More specific topics:

1. Living in a project-oriented, project-dependent-kind-of world. Financing, organizations, requirements, structures.
2. Research proposals, research projects, research topics.
3. What is a research topic? How do I choose a research topic?
4. Bibliographical search 1: how do I select my bibliography? (practical exercise) Bibliographical databases and research libraries (including online libraries)
5. Discussion on examples of good and bad research topics – on examples provided by the professor
6. From the research topic to the research questions. How do I formulate the research questions? Estimating the extent and time-length necessary for answering a research question.
7. Bibliographical search 2: rapid reading, annotated bibliography, review papers. Collaboration and asking for help. In what way can I ask for help from the academic community? Lists of discussions and forms of collaboration.
8. Steps towards writing the research project: writing an abstract, applying to a conference, taking part on discussions (Why is is important to discuss your ideas?).
9. Critical discussions of the research projects. Presentation of the research projects of all the students involved in the seminar. Peer-review procedures (what are the peer review procedures? How do they work?).
10. Issues of plagiarism. Types of plagiarism and related ethical issues. How do plagiarism distroy a career (examples).
11. From the research project to the work plan. How do I write a work plan?
12. Developing the work-plan.
13. Presenting the work-plan: practical exercise for all the students registered in the seminar
14. Writing the dissertation
15. Presenting the dissertation
16. Academic evaluation and methods of evaluation. How is research being evaluated?

Format:
The seminar will have two components:
1. Regular meetings (4 hours discussions on assigned tasks and topics). In these meetings students will have to do presentations of various things: projects, papers and dissertations of others and two presentations of their own research topic. They will have to discuss and interact. Participation in the seminar is compulsory.
2. Online colaboration: this blog will form an important part of our collaboration. On it we will post texts and questions, we will distribute tasks and topics and we will collaborate in writing research projects in common. The active participation in writing on this blog is also compulsory.


Course materials and seminar tasks:

All students in this course will share a common drop-box folder where I will assemble quite a large range of materials necessary for our discussions. We will have a data-base of reasearch projects, papers, dissertations which each of you will have to read and evaluate. Learning how to do research is learning by doing.
A good place to start is by having a look at the financing mechanisms and organization, at the top places where research is planned, organized, directed, measured and rewarded. Here is where the future of European reserach is planned: http://ec.europa.eu/research/horizon2020/index_en.cfm. Compare this with the Romanian Research Council plans and organization: http://www.cncs-nrc.ro/.

Seminar tasks:

Task 1: Create a research profile on Academia.edu. Each student will be require to create his/her own research profile on the Academia.edu network. Visit Academia.edu, register there are start building your research profile there by uploading a picture, a field/fields of interest, CV, and your reserch topic(s). By the end of the course/seminar each student will have to have a complete research profile on Academia.edu.
Task 2: Find people woking on similar things. Using Academia.edu, finding appropriate email lists etc., find 5 people working on your field and get in touch with them. You can write a specialist in your field and you can ask for bibliography, bibliographical advice and even more pointed/practical help.
Task 3: Read two theses/dissertations in your field – in topics similar to your research topic and evaluate them (in writing). Use http://ethos.bl.uk/Home.do;jsessionid=DD5E7CB163D912C75E3DEE0658599329
Each student will have to present in a seminar meeting the evaluation of the two teses chosen. Deadline for finding the two theses: 5th March.