Research Methods

1
Research Methods

• Researching for a Ph.D./D.Phil.

2
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Introduction
• The distinguishing mark of postgraduate graduate
  research is an original and useful contribution
  to knowledge.
• The thesis is a formal document that provides the
  necessary evidence.
• To this end, your thesis must show two important
  things
• you have identified a worthwhile problem or
  question which has not been previously answered,
• you have solved the problem or answered the
  question.
• Your contribution to knowledge generally lies in
  your solution or answer.
• Additionally scientists need to communicate
  discoveries
• the PhD dissertation provides training for
  communication with other scientists.

3
Researching for a Ph.D.

• What your Thesis must demonstrate
• Examiners read your thesis to find the answers to
  the following questions
• what is this student's research question/problem?
  
• is it a good question/problem? (has it been
  answered before?)
• did the student convince me that the
  question/problem was adequately answered?
• has the student made an adequate contribution to
  knowledge?
• A very clear statement of the question is
  essential to proving that you have made an
  original and worthwhile contribution to
  knowledge.
• To prove the originality and value of your
  contribution, you must present a thorough review
  of the existing literature on the subject, and on
  closely related subjects.
• Then, by making direct reference to your
  literature review, you must demonstrate that your
  question (a) has not been previously answered,
  and (b) is worth answering.

4
Researching for a Ph.D.

• The Essence of the Thesis
• In a computing related discipline the research is
  based on the scientific method which means
  starting with a hypothesis and then collecting
  evidence to support or deny it.
• Before you can write a dissertation defending a
  particular thesis, you must collect evidence that
  supports it.
• Thus, the most difficult aspect of writing a
  dissertation consists of organizing the evidence
  and associated discussions into a coherent form.
• The essence of a dissertation is critical
  thinking, not experimental data.
• Analysis and concepts form the heart of the work.
  
• A dissertation concentrates on principles it
  states the lessons learned, and not merely the
  facts behind them.
• In general, every statement in a dissertation
  must be supported either by a reference to
  published scientific literature or by original
  work.
• Moreover, a dissertation does not repeat the
  details of critical thinking and analysis found
  in published sources it uses the results as fact
  and refers the reader to the source for further
  details.

5
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Generic Thesis Outline
• 1. Introduction
• This is a general introduction to what the thesis
  is all about -- it is not just a description of
  the contents of each section.
• Briefly summarize the question (you will be
  stating the question in detail later), some of
  the reasons why it is a worthwhile question, and
  perhaps give an overview of your main results.
• This is a birds-eye view of the answers to the
  main problems addressed
• 2. Background Information
• A brief section giving background information may
  be necessary, especially if your work is
  interdisciplinary
• That means that your readers may not have any
  experience with some of the material needed to
  follow your thesis, so you need to explain the
  context of the research work

6
Researching for a Ph.D.

• 3. Literature Review
• Here you review the literature published in the
  area under consideration
• The idea is to present (critical analysis comes a
  little bit later) the major ideas in the area to
  date.
• You organize this section by idea, and not by
  author or by publication.
• 4. Research Question or Problem Statement
• Engineering theses tend to refer to a "problem"
  to be solved, where other disciplines talk in
  terms of a "question" to be answered. In either
  case, this section has three main parts
• (a) a concise statement of the problem that your
  thesis tackles
• (b) justification, by direct reference to the
  literature review, that your problem has not been
  solved.
• (c) discussion of why it is worthwhile to address
  the problem.

7
Researching for a Ph.D.

• It is in part b (above) is where you analyze the
  information which you presented in the literature
  review
• In your analysis of the current literature you
  would show how current approaches have
  limitations.
• In the last part of this section you would
  explain why/how a new approach would make a
  contribution to the research area.
• 5.Describing How You Solved the Problem or
  Answered the Question
• This part of the thesis is much more free-form.
• Its purpose to convince the examiners that you
  answered the question or solved the problem that
  you set for yourself in Section 4.
• So show what you did that is relevant to
  answering the question or solving the problem if
  there were blind alleys and dead ends, do not
  include these, unless specifically relevant to
  the demonstration that you answered the thesis
  question.

8
Researching for a Ph.D.

• 6. Conclusions
• You generally cover three things in the
  Conclusion
• 1. Conclusions
• Conclusions are short, concise statements of the
  inferences that you have made because of your
  work.
• It helps to organize these as short numbered
  paragraphs, ordered from most to least important.
  All conclusions should be directly related to the
  research question stated in Section 4.
• 2. Summary of Contributions
• Here you list the contributions of new knowledge
  that your thesis makes.
• There is often some overlap with the Conclusions,
  but that's okay.
• Concise numbered paragraphs are again best.
  Organize from most to least important.
• 3. Future Research
• This allows future researchers to have the
  benefit of the ideas that you generated while you
  were working on your research.

9
Researching for a Ph.D.

• 7. References
• The list of references is closely tied to the
  literature review.
• Most examiners scan your list of references
  looking for the important works in the field, so
  make sure they are listed and referred to in the
  literature review.
• All references given must be referred to in the
  main body of the thesis.
• Note the difference from a Bibliography, which
  may include works that are not directly
  referenced in the thesis. Organize the list of
  references either alphabetically by author
  surname, or by order of citation in the thesis.
• 8. Appendices
• Any material which impedes the smooth development
  of your presentation, but which is important to
  justify the results of a thesis goes in the
  appendix.
• Generally it is material that is of too
  nitty-gritty a level of detail for inclusion in
  the main body of the thesis, but which should be
  available for perusal by the examiners to
  convince them sufficiently.
• Examples include program listings, tables of
  data, lengthy mathematical proofs or derivations,
  etc.

10
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Some pitfalls to avoid
• Being too Ambitious
• Many students pick research goals which are far
  too ambitious.
• Obviously the main burden of helping you choose a
  suitable topic will fall on your supervisor.
• In addition you should read the literature and
  talk to fellow workers to find out what the state
  of the art is.
• One good source of ideas is the further work
  sections of papers. Read the literature
  critically.
• Relying on divine inspiration
• You cannot sit back and rely on divine
  inspiration. What you can do is
• Complete an initial electronic literature search
  in your chosen topic/field. Use your librarians
  to help in this search - they have been trained
  to assist in retrieving research publications.

11
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Use electronic sources - papers published on the
  WWW and through subscriptions to relevant News
  Groups.
• Read the literature. Read with a question in
  mind, e.g. What is wrong with this? How can I use
  this? etc
• Talk to people. Do not go away and hide. Do not
  be ashamed of your ideas. Other people are
  probably sillier.
• Tackle a simplified version of your problem. Ask
  your supervisor for exercises, mini-projects.
• Write down your ideas in a working paper. Imagine
  yourself explaining your ideas to someone.
• You will be amazed at how half-baked ideas take
  shape and bugs are exposed.
• Give a seminar to your research group - they may
  come up with helpful suggestions.

12
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Dont get wedded to the computer
• Computers are very seductive so dont get bogged
  down in unnecessary coding detail.
• Your work must be explainable at a higher level
  than code, for it to make a real contribution to
  knowledge.
• Try to plan your program theoretically before
  going to the computer.
• If you must work some of it out at the keyboard
  then you should not be there.
• Dont get involved in writing a system/language
  to support the implementation of your work if one
  already exists.
• You are unlikely to get much credit for it.-
  especially if it is peripheral to the main
  research.
• Better to use existing tools (if suitable) and
  integrate them in a novel way

13
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Gathering/Generating useless data
• Gathering/generating experimental data can be fun
  and gives all the appearance of productive work.
• Make sure that you know what class of result you
  are attempting to establish with your
  experiments.
• Talk to people, about what you think your
  experiments might show.
• Imagine the experiments finished and you have
  the data, what exactly would you do with it.
• Dont keep running experiments in the hope that
  something useful will turn up.
• Talk to other people about their research. Attend
  selected seminars and lectures. Set aside a part
  of the week for reading reviews and abstracts and
  skimming papers this will help you to determine
  and specify the date you need.

14
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Methodology is not everything
• Since Computer Science is a relatively young
  field, and is somewhat interdisciplinary in
  nature, it does not have one perceived framework
  for research, or one well defined methodology.
• One of the (difficult) tasks that you face as a
  research student is the development, consciously
  or unconsciously, of a suitable approach to the
  problem(s) being tackled.
• Give a summary of your methodological
  assumptions, giving references across to existing
  arguments or frameworks where appropriate, and
  confining to yourself the points which are
  essential to the understanding of the substance
  of your thesis.
• The thesis of your research is still the main
  activity to focus on.

15
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Dont lose perspective
• In the course of your project, you will come to
  certain beliefs about technical issues, some of
  which will be novel, and many of which will be
  rediscoveries (or new understandings) of
  established concepts.
• In presenting your thesis, it is important to
  distinguish between the justification (for
  instance, generality, efficiency, practicality)
  for some position or technique, and the route by
  which you happened to come to favour this idea.
• The readers and examiners aren't particularly
  interested in reconstructing how you became
  convinced of an idea.
• They are interested in the general arguments in
  favour of the idea.
• You need to detach yourself sufficiently to write
  a reasoned support for the idea, particularly if
  it is your own idea.

16
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Sidetracks
• You will be tempted from time to time to take
  diversions from your core work because you feel
  that you have made a significant discovery that
  will change the world.
• Beware of the sidetrack - it can consume months
  of fruitless distraction.
• On the other hand, these sidetracks sometimes
  become the basis for significant new directions
  in your work. Present these ideas to your
  supervisor or in a seminar as it might be
  fruitful.
• The Development Trap
• Remember that research is not development,
  although development will be necessary in solving
  your problem dont make development your main
  goal.
• If you stray to far into development , you may
  (not too likely!) end up rich but you may (very
  likely!) not write your thesis.

17
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Suggestions when writing
• Where to begin
• A possible approach in writing the dissertation
  is to begin writing those parts of the
  dissertation that you are most comfortable with.
• Then move about in your writing by completing
  various sections as you think of them.
• At some point you will be able to spread out in
  front of you all of the sections that you have
  written.
• You will be able to sequence them in the best
  order and then see what is missing and should be
  added to the dissertation.
• If you prepared a comprehensive proposal then you
  have already a good start
• Check your proposed research methodology.
• Change the tense from future tense to past tense
  and then make any additions or changes so that
  the methodology section truly reflects what you
  did.
• Move on to the Statement of the Problem and the
  Literature Review in the same manner.

18
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Dissertation writing/presentation Style
• Dissertation-style writing is not designed to be
  entertaining.
• Dissertation writing should be clear and
  unambiguous.
• To do this well you should prepare a list of key
  words/phrases that are important to your research
  and then your writing should use this set of key
  words throughout.
• Dont start substituting alternatives that may
  mean something slightly different
• Review a number of organized and presented
  dissertations.
• Examine their use of headings, overall style,
  typeface and organization. Use them as a model
  for the preparation of your own dissertation.
• If you are presenting information in the form of
  a table or graph make sure you introduce the
  table or graph in your text. And then, following
  the insertion of the table/graph, make sure you
  discuss it.

19
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Use the Table of Contents to help you improve
  your manuscript.
• Develop your Table of Contents early it is easy
  to change
• Use it to see if you
• left something out,
• are presenting your sections in the most logical
  order,
• need to make your wording a bit more clear.
• The Message of your Thesis
• The thesis should provide a coherent single
  message.
• You should carefully consider how each part of
  your thesis contributes to putting over this
  message.
• The thesis message helps ensure that the parts of
  your thesis hang together in a coherent manner.
• It should answer the questions What have I
  done?' and Why does this work make a valid
  research contribution.
• You should know what to emphasize in the
  abstract, introduction, conclusion, title, etc.
  to get the message across.

20
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Suggestions for the Examination
• Prior Preparation for the Viva
• Find opportunities to discuss your research with
  your friends and colleagues.
• Listen carefully to their comments/questions.
• See if you are able to present your research in a
  clear and coherent manner.
• Are there aspects of your research that are
  particularly confusing and need further
  explanation?
• Are there things that you forgot to say?
• Could you change the order of the information
  presented and have it become more understandable?
  
• Prepare a 20-25 minute presentation that reviews
  the entire study.
• Give the presentation to some of your research
  colleagues and refine it using their feedback.

21
Researching for a Ph.D.

• The Viva Process
• The viva is a presentation and/or question answer
  session between you and your examiners, lasting a
  significant period of time.
• Don't be defensive at your viva.
• This is easy to say but sometimes hard to
  fulfill.
• You cannot bludgeon or sweet talk them into
  passing you
• The examiners may ask you questions to try and
  satisfy their doubts.
• Because of time pressure, they often start with
  the most serious and/or most general questions.
• For instance, they might start by asking you to
  summarise in your own words what you consider to
  be the key contributions in the thesis.
• It is worth having a succinct answer ready.
• However dont lose sleep trying to anticipate
  questions.

22
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Do not ramble.
• Pay attention to the examiners questions and
  statements, and respond pertinently and
  succinctly.
• If the examiners can see that you are coherent,
  intelligent and aware of the issues in your
  field, then they may be more prepared to overlook
• minor faults in the thesis.
• Post viva
• The examiners report is a joint one and contains
  a recommended outcome. The outcome is roughly one
  of the following,
• 1. Accept the thesis as it stands.
• 2. Accept with minor alterations.
• 3. Refer the thesis for significant revision.
• 4. Consider the award of a lower degree.
• 5. Failure

23
Researching for a Ph.D.

• Outcome 1 and 5 are very rare.
• Outcome 2 is to allow correction of typographical
  errors, spelling mistakes, minor rewrites, etc.
• Corrections required by examiners should be
  addressed immediately
• Minor corrections should be completed within a
  few months of the candidate being informed of
  what corrections are required.
• Outcome 3 is to allow a major rewrite with or
  without further research.
• You will have to rewrite, rebind and resubmit
  your thesis and go through the whole procedure
  again.
• Revision should be completed within 6-12 months.
  This is your last chance.
• Outcomes 4 and 5 are not available the second
  time around.
• Outcome 4 is for theses which are not considered
  suitable for a Ph.D., but which are considered
  suitable for an M.Sc.