Building your research proposal

Introduction

Key terms: research design, normative empirical concepts, introductory course, relevant for students in the beginning of their PhD trajectory.

ECTS: 2.5
Number of sessions: 5
Hours per session: 3

You are going to start working on a PhD! But where to start? 

A PhD journey begins with diverse research design challenges. For example, you need to decide on the focus of your research project, and make sure that your research has clear boundaries so that you can finish in time. Theoretically and methodologically, your plan needs to be coherent and purposeful, helping you with achieving your research objectives in an efficient way. 

This course is aimed at helping you with dealing with such challenges. Through a combination of lectures, peer-to-peer interaction and presentation, we will collaboratively work towards kick-starting your research plan. 

The course comprises five sessions. The first four sessions are dedicated to building up the main components of your research design. Every session, the lecturing, peer to peer interaction and group work will assist you in developing these components. You will work towards a final presentation of the developments you have made throughout the course, which you will present in the final session. 

In the final, fifth session we will delve deeper into the topic of normativity in choosing empirical concepts.

Entry level and relevance

This is an introductory course. No prior knowledge or research experience is required.

The course is primarily relevant for starting PhD candidates who are in the first stages of exploring and designing their research project.

In the course many examples are used from social science research, but the explanations and exercises offer a proper learning experience for PhD candidates from other fields as well.

Relations with other courses

This course is specifically focused on the very beginning stages of the PhD trajectory. By the end of the course, you will hopefully have gained a clearer understanding of your research design.

After this course you can further develop your research design by learning how more specific empirical methods should be designed and executed in the wide range of methodology courses that are offered by the EGSH.

Sessions and preparations

Session 1: Introduction and conceptual design
In this session we introduce the topic of research in social science in general, the empirical cycle and the use of conceptualisations. We will discuss the main components of a research proposal, look into objectives and research questions as well as other component related to the conceptual design of the research proposal.
Preparations: bring your initial ideas on your topic and research questions, as far as they are developed.

Session 2: From conceptual to technical design
In this session we will delve deeper into the steps from conceptualising toward the technical design of your proposal. We will therefore shed light on the issue of operationalisation specifically. 
Preparation: You can further develop the first part of your proposal that you have already worked on in class, working on goals, research questions and an indication of main concepts.

Session 3: Methodology, planning and presentation
Here we delve into the technical design of your proposal, look into the choices for methodologies related to your research focus and discuss the planning of your PhD project.
Preparations: You can further develop the next part of your proposal that you have already worked on in class, with particular attention to conceptualising and operationalisation. Additionally, prepare some discussion topics for this session.

Session 4: Presenting and reflecting on the work
This session is dedicated to presenting your work and discussing the work of others. Peer-to-peer interactions that will have happened throughout the other sessions in combination with individual developments will culminate into a (more or less) complete set-up of a research proposal.
Preparations: Prepare a 10-minute presentation of your research proposal.

Session 5: How to ethically choose or construct empirical concepts?
This module critically discusses the use of (implicitly) normative empirical concepts in research. These are concepts that have both a descriptive and an evaluative dimension. They can relate to quantitative research questions or methods (for example ‘Gross Domestic Product’ or ‘economic growth’) or to qualitative research questions or methods (for example ‘identity’ or ‘integration’). The module combines a short preparatory reflective essay, a lecture with class discussion and group work.
Preparations: Write a short reflective essay.