Question about dissertation

Is it appropriate to discuss the topic of a dissertation with others (friends, co-workers, etc) before you discuss it with your advisors or is that like seeing the bride before the wedding?

Do you keep the research info so your PhD committee can review it? (Such as questionnaires, surveys, etc.)

Is it possible to start the research before it is approved?

If you think the outcome of your research will be X and it is Y, can you just present the facts? What if the outcome is not what you thought it would be?

Any comments would be appreciated.

 

Here is a reply, based on my NSU experience as a student and committee member.

Regards - Andy

I can't think of any reason not to bounce around ideas. In some cases, you may actually be talking with potential committee members and have them ask what you are up to.

At NSU, students worked on a "concept paper" before they got deeply into their project as a way of "feeling out" their topic.

Your committee is going to be quite interested in seeing your research design and any instruments (such as surveys) that you plan on using. Also, it ins't uncommon to actually include your data in the thesis. Scientific research should be capable of being replicated.

It depends on your program - but my advice is this. Don't start collecting data until your committee (and any other quality control check points) are cleared. Why? I've seen eager beavers start collecting data - and then have someone (such as a committee member) find an error in a survey or design. Then what? The student had to go through data collection again.

At NSU's SBE, we have a director of doctoral research that had to approve our proposals before we started to collect data. He was absolute about not collecting data until he had approved things.

Other schools may differ on this.

Schools may vary on this - but the point of research is that you let the data tell the story. If the data doesn't support your hypothesis, you report this to be the case. In some respects, failing to support a hypothesis can tell you a lot.

At NSU, we weren't required to support our hypotheses. If we wrote a proposal to test hypothesis X, then we were expected to test the hypothesis and report the result - whatever the outcome may be.

Regards - Andy

 

I agree with Andy. While your committee will, ultimately, decide the direction of your studies (to varying degrees), it doesn't hurt to bounce ideas off others.

 

Collecting data before approval may also place you in an ethical dilema----if you chose collect data before approval make sure you are familiar with the ethics of the institution where you will collect the data and the ethical guidelines of the school for which you are presenting the dissertation. Otherwise, I think Andy is right on target.

 

Andy's advice is well worth considering. Here are the answers to your question based on the graduate programs with which I have been affiliated (both as student and faculty/grad advisor):

Is it appropriate to discuss the topic of a dissertation with others (friends, co-workers, etc) before you discuss it with your advisors or is that like seeing the bride before the wedding?

Yes. If your friends, co-workers, etc. are knowledgeable about your subject, it can help you to eliminate less desirable topics and save you and your advisors some time and hassle.

Do you keep the research info so your PhD committee can review it? (Such as questionnaires, surveys, etc.)

You should include the research info in the appendix section of your dissertation.

Is it possible to start the research before it is approved?

Yes. You can start doing some preliminary work on the rationale and purpose for the study section (usually Chapter 1) and the review of literature section (usually Chapter 2) before it is approved. As you work on these sections, you will get a pretty clear idea whether your topic will be a fruitful area of study and what research exists on the topic. You advisor/committee will want to see that you have done some homework.

If you think the outcome of your research will be X and it is Y, can you just present the facts? What if the outcome is not what you thought it would be?

In many (if not most) dissertations, you would specify your hypotheses (your "X") which are statements specifying what you think that the outcomes will be. Hypotheses are educated guesses--you won't know what the outcomes will be until you run the study, collect and analyze the data. If your outcomes are "Y", rather than "X", you will report that the hypothesis was not supported by the study. There is nothing wrong with that--it happens all the time.

Best wishes,

Tony Pina
Faculty, CSU San Bernardino