Journal Quality

Dr. Z spent a lot of time yesterday on my article selection and short-version proposal.  He said that version 2 was better, but I wasn't working with the best articles.  So far in my literature search, I've found 317 different pieces of literature - and have felt overwhelmed by that number.

So I asked him what "best articles" meant.  He sent me the "Academic Journal Quality Guide, version 4" by the Association of Business Schools (UK).  It grades all the academic journals from Grade 4 (the best) to Grade 1 (the not-as-good).

Last night and continued this morning, I went through my list of 317 and put the ABS's grades next to each journal in my EndNote library.  Then I saved a copy of my EndNote library and deleted all non-graded articles.  

The result?  I had only 112 graded articles in my library - much more manageable than 317 (duh!).  


Next steps:

1. Start version 3 of the proposal.
2. Review the better articles for this next version.
3. Revisit title and purpose statement - which will probably mean adjusting/tweaking research problems and hypotheses, but probably not too much (at least, I hope so!).
4. Then, do another literature search.

It's moving along.

Justification of the Study...again

Going back almost four months now (my, this is taking a while), I review my March 31 post on Justification of the Study.  Dr. S told me that I really needed to beef this up.  Naturally, I see that the proposal assignment requires a full page of text for this justification (and I didn't take this to heart the first time around why?) - I only wrote about three paragraphs in version 1.  

Dr. S explained that this is the "so what?" of the research proposal.  Leedy and Ormrod, page 57 (2005) ask "Of what use is it? What practical value does the study have?"  From How to Write a Research Proposal (cited in the 31 March post), I get the following:

• Concise and clear outline of the objectives I want to achieve through the dissertation.
• Show why the intended research is important.
• Show why the research justifies the search effort.
• Outline the significance/relevance of the topic.  The justification can be either:

1. empirical in nature, i.e., what I hope to add to an existing body of knowledge, or
2. theoretical in nature, i.e., what I hope to make easier to understand by giving more information on contentious areas in a body of knowledge or provide new conceptual insights into that knowledge.

"All research is part of a larger scholarly enterprise."  I "should be able to argue for the value and positioning of [my] work."  

In The Importance of Research by a group called "Unite for Sight" (a global health delivery organization that supports eye clinics worldwide) - with my adaptations in black:

The purpose of research is to inform action.  Thus, my study should seek to contextualize its findings within the larger body of research.  Research must always be high quality in order to produce knowledge that is applicable outside of the research setting with implications that go beyond the group/sample that I targeted in my research.  Furthermore, the results of my study should have implications for policy and project implementation.  

Light at the End of a Tunnel

When I get/make the time, I continue to work on the second version of the proposal.  This morning, I was able to rewrite my study Limitations/Delimitations section and pared down my Operational Definitions of Key Terms.

This dissertation almost seems doable now.  Let's hope that this light at the end of the tunnel isn't the headlight of an oncoming train! 

Title, Purpose, Research Problems and Hypotheses - Away!

After a lot of work over the 3-day holiday weekend, I finally got the first four sections of my proposal out to Dr. Z for his review:

1. Title
2. Purpose Statement
3. Research Problems
4. Hypotheses

Things are finally seeming to come together, and I'm not so overwhelmed as I once was.  

As I mentioned in a previous post, I mapped out the problems, subproblems, and hypotheses using Inspiration software.  My map looks like this:

I know it looks complicated, but better to have a map in order to get this thing done and convert myself from ABD to PhD!

Needing that Vacation

All of the energy from last week's morning of inspiration was lost due to house guests for the weekend.  Don't get me wrong; balance in life has to happen and I do appreciate my friends!

Just having difficulty finding a way to tap into that vein from last Saturday.  It was priceless.

Two weeks' vacation is coming up.  I'll be taking a holiday not only from my real job but also from this process.  In order to truly "rest" from it all, I need to get my proposal rework to Dr. Z and then blessed by Dr. S.  Tall order in the next three weeks.