Are you hush-hush about your research?

Is it ever wise to post questions on various discussion boards about the topic you are researching for a proposal or thesis?

Back when I worked as a reporter, it was common practice to be silent about the story I was investigating for fear of giving something to the competition. Even when I was deep in research, I had nightmares about another reporter "beating" me on the story.

Should this be a concern when doing research for academic purposes? Is there a chance that another student or scholar will catch wind of your project and launch it into with their own research?

Roscoe

 

I would be somewhat reserved about displaying the whole guts of a proposed thesis/dissertation. No, I don't think regular posters here would swipe it or anything like that, but too much display before too much done can be too much if you have difficulties along the way. If there's a specific problem you're stuck on, ask away, but that's not the same as laying out a ready-made proposal for all the world to see. Having had a diss trashed at Torquemada U., I'm perhaps more cautious than I should be on protocol issues, but that's how I see it. Best of luck.

 

No. Next question? (But seriously, folks...)

I agree with Jank'. The Learning Agreement for my Ph.D. at The Union Institute was plagiarized by another student word for word; she had her secretary type out the entire thing, then substituted Religion and Law with her field, neuropsychology. She proceeded to make adjustments in course content to fit her major and bibliographies, but the basic design duplicated mine down to pages that matched each other totally.

She was also caught and survived in the program only because I was gracious enough to keep it under wraps except for sharing it with a few key faculty and my own committee to cover my own ass. (She was also dumb as hell - the way I found out about it was that she had asked me to sit on her doctoral committee. Of course, I immediatey turned her down after I read the draft of her Learning Agreement. And you can bet that as I read through the first two pages, the sense of deja vu was overwhelming. When I realized I was reading my own words, I couldn't stop laughing.)

So yes, there are people who will try to usurp your work and make it their own - either because they are doing it intentionally, or because they don't have a freakin' clue. (I tend to think my plagiarist was the latter; after all, who would plagiarize someone's work and give it to the originator to read except for someone who was whacked out?)

The fact is this: You should have no reason to post research-based questions on an Internet forum - you should be able to do the research yourself in the first place. But if you do post something on the 'net, you do take the risk that someone will see your idea as unique enough that they might beat you to the punch. You will also, hopefully, get sufficient feedback from your own academic committee and your peers, with whom you can share as much or as little as you wish. But post it on the web? Nope.

 

No problem with this board

Thanks Uncle J,

I'm thinking more about other boads that deal with my subject matter. I'd like to know if it's usually a good idea to take a survey, so to speak, or to inquire about topics you're researching, in the different boards.

Judging from your response, one has to be careful. Good point.

Has anyone here posted questions to gather info for pre-proposal work?

Again, thanks.

Roscoe

 

Levicoff to rescue!

Thanks Levicoff,

That's exactly what I was concerned about.

Roscoe

 

ie, 'harpagmon'

 

Bill,

I knew I could count on you. (hehehe)

Roscoe

 

As a matter of fact, I did get a personal note from a friend with helpful info, so there.

 

One reason to disseminate a research proposal (or notion) is to invite feedback on whether it has ever been done.

When I hung out for a while with John Lilly (during his dolphin, pre-LSD years), he was trying to generate interest in what he called a series of Journals of Negative Results, one in each of a dozen major fields. He pointed out that research that does not find significant results often goes unpublished -- which means that others may waste much time and money trying the same thing with the same negative results.

At Michigan State, I mailed a copy of my research proposal to several hundred faculty, and posted it on bulletin boards (the old-fashioned cork sort) -- partly for feedback, and partly searching for committee members who were really interested in my topic. That led to a quite amazing committee, including Erich Fromm, the campus police chief*, and a retired professor of Scandinavian literature who just happened to have a passion for my intended area (which related to invasion of privacy**).
__________
* No, serial comma purists, Erich Fromm was not the campus police chief.

** Elsewhere I've written about how that all
fell apart when my chairman died at an early
age (44), and there was no one else in the
department willing or able to take me on.
When I returned three years later to finish
the degree, it was with a different topic and
committee.