Research: Theory, Method, Practice - drtmp12
Assignments
The emphasis in this course will be to expose you to ideas and thoughts about how to perform scientific
research and to make you reflect on your own research. To help you in these tasks
Perparations for each lecture
Before each lecture
- Read the pre-assigned paper and/or book chapter and
- Write your response.
- Bring a print out of your response to the lecture.
What should be in your response
- One paragraph summarizing the paper and
- Make two or more key points that reveal the relevancy of the
paper to you or doing research. Devote at least one short paragraph to each point.
If you are writing a response to a lecture for which you did not attend. The two short paragraphs
must be bulked out into two good length paragraphs (~200 words in total).
Final Assignments
To pass the course you must complete two of the following assignments. For the
essay submissions (~2000 words) remember you will have to support your claims with relevant references etc.
Also these essays will be made available to other members of the course. Remember the intended
audience for your reports is to the other students in the class who probably have not had exposure
to your research field.
The deadline for the submission of these assignments is before you graduate ! But I will set the
initial due date of Januaury the 13th if you would like to get your points before Febuary.
Who should fund my research? -- Private or public sources
The man in the street makes the comment "I'm paying for you to spend your days
in an ivory towers twiddling your thumbs". Write a reasoned response motivating why his
tax money should be spent to fund your research. Please report on an idea(s) you have
with regard to how research funding could be awarded and
evaluated to encourage high quality research. for instance do you agree with
the thoughts of John Ioannidis in More time for research: Fund
people not projects?
The future of your research field
During the course we have come across this quote I skate to where the puck is going to be,
not where it has been by the ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. Describe an area within your
field which you think will be important in the coming years. Motivate why you think this is the case.
What research tools could you acquire and feasible research projects could you suggest to prepare
for this new dawn? Or what experiments could you perform now to indicate whether this intuition is
correct or not?
Reproducibility and your research field
Write an essay describing what reproducibility would mean for you given your research area. Do you
agree it would be a good idea to pursue this approach ? Would you revolt if your supervisor
forced you to adopt such an approach?...
Publishing and refereeing in the internet age
Describe the publishing and reviewing tradition in your research field. Comment on the
weaknesses and strengths of this tradition. Describe your idea(s) on how these processes
could be altered/tweaked to promote better science especially considering we are in
the age of the internet and digital communications.
Perspective on my research area
Write an essay describing a pivotal discovery/concept/algorithm in your field from
the last 15-30 years. Elaborate on how this idea has influenced and pervaded the current
research performed in the field. Do you think it will continue to influence the field?
As a researcher you are an editor
Take one of your papers or one from your research field which is not an easy read
and re-write it to improve its readability. Please submit the original version
of the paper and your updated version. If the original paper had a page limit
constraint then you have the same constraint as well.
Exercies in Clarity and Grace
In the final lecture we touched upon the topic of clarity in writing and that if you adhere
to certain principles then you can immeasurably help your readers understand the ideas in your text.
The book Style - Lessons in Clarity and Grace by Joseph M. Williams is designed to aid
self-study and contains many exercises. This assignment is to complete the even-numbered
questions in the following exercises from Lessons 3 & 4:
- Exercise 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7
- Exercise 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 4.6
Suggested solutions to the odd numbered questions are given at the back of the book. You
can use these to help you get into the swing of things !
Elective
If you would like to define your own assignment, let me know before you start and
I'm sure we can make it out.