Dr Benjamin Lauderdale COL8.10

This course is compulsory on the MPhil/PhD in Philosophy of the Social Sciences, MRes/PhD in Management (Employment Relations and Human Resources), MRes/PhD in Management (Information Systems and Innovation) and MRes/PhD in Management (Organisational Behaviour). This course is available on the MPhil/PhD in Cities Programme, MPhil/PhD in Economic Geography, MPhil/PhD in Environmental Policy and Development, MPhil/PhD in Health Policy and Health Economics, MPhil/PhD in Human Geography and Urban Studies and MPhil/PhD in Regional and Urban Planning Studies. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The course is available to all research students.

Research design necessitates trade-offs between the strengths and weaknesses of different feasible options.  This course aims to introduce the broad range of design options and to foster an appreciation of these alternatives for particular research objectives.  Drawing on a variety of examples from the social scientific literature, this course will explore design considerations and options across quantitative and qualitative research, including issues of data quality, analysis, reporting and reproducibility.  At the end of the course, students will be able to read a wide variety of empirical social science with a critical and balanced perspective and will be better equipped to implement and make arguments defending the methods they use in their PhD theses.

15 hours of lectures and 12 hours of seminars in the MT.

Week 6 is a Reading Week during which students work independently on their formative assignments.

Robson, Colin and McCartan, Kieran (2015, 4th edition). Real World Research. London: John Wiley.

Research proposal (30%) in the MT.
Other (60%) in the ST.
Class participation (10%).

Research Proposal (1500 words), submitted in week 11 of MT (30%).  Research Design (4000 words), submitted in Week 1 of ST (60%).