Overview
The GSR program changed the format of GSR 719 Research Report Seminar as of Spring 2001. Formerly students wrote a Research Report/Thesis based on and using data from their internship, working closely with an individual faculty member. In 2001 the course was changed and the senior “research report” was substituted for the previous academic thesis requirement. The course format of GSR719 was changed to be a seminar.
The purpose of this seminar is to offer structure, support and guidance for completing an intensive research project and writing a report. GSR719 should be taken after the internship and required courses have been completed. Students may still use data from their internship or other dataset with sufficient sample size and number of questions for an in-depth quantitative analysis.
Research Report Guidelines
You may use just about any survey dataset if a) there are sufficient cases and a “rich” set of variables; and b) there is some relevant theoretical/research question that can be asked and answered with the data. Data from an internship may satisfy these requirements. If you do not have such a dataset because the data from your internship were proprietary, or the project is ongoing, you may substitute an alternate dataset. This would include datasets available from the ICPSR, Roper Center, U.S. Government and Agencies, or other available data.
The format of the research report itself has been revised: from an academic-style Master's Thesis with in-depth literature review etc., to something closer to an applied research report to a client (i.e. an ‘analytical report’ with a detailed ‘technical appendix’). We recommend that you aim to produce a report that could be used as a writing sample for prospective employers in your area of specialization, and that will demonstrate your research methodological competencies. For those of you who are aiming at career solely in qualitative research, a qualitative study is acceptable. Be advised that, despite the gulf between “qualitative” and “quantitative” research in academic circles, these two are closely interwoven in applied research. The career prospects for focus group moderators who only moderate groups are more limited than for those who can cover all aspects of research methodology.
The research report should contain:
- An overview and introduction to the problem
- A literature review
- Conceptual model
- Research questions and objectives
- Methodology
The methodology section should include:
- An overall description of the dataset
- Sampling procedure
- Item wording and coding
- A brief explanation of quantitative methodology if necessary (e.g. confirmatory factor analysis or relatively new techniques)
- Results
- Conclusions/discussion
The aim of the data analysis is a multivariate technique such as regression or logistic regression. As you know from your statistics courses, data analysis using multivariate techniques hold many advantages over data analysis limited to two variable tables. Regression, especially logistic regression, should be within the skill repertoire of most of you who have completed 708 and 709. As a less preferred alternative, two variable tables with appropriate “controls” for third variables will be acceptable for data analysis. Given that the project is an exercise in secondary data analysis, a purely descriptive data analysis will not be appropriate.
Students may still opt to submit a Master's Thesis of the traditional type. However, know that if you opt to use the more formal style, you will be responsible for that format with survey of the literature, discussion of relevant theories, etc. This may be appropriate if you are planning to use the report in conjunction with application to a Ph.D. program.
For further information, download the complete syllabus from GSR 719, or contact Professor Wood.
