Experiences of a PhD candidate and author of journal articles

Stephen Wilkins

The topic and research question(s)

• Your interests• Need for the research• Gap in the literature• Accessibility to data• Likely outcomes

Read for inspiration and information

• Academic journals• Practitioner journals and

newspapers• Books• Web resources• Research publications• Institutional publications

Failure to plan is planning to fail

• Suitable research question(s)?• Inductive or deductive?• Type of data to be used• Use of theory• Analysis of data• Possible findings

Common problems with literature search• Knowing the appropriate

journals for your topic• Access to journals• The “grey” literature• Knowing about other resources• International searches and

language issues

Primary research

• Own organisation, or not?• Gaining access to data and

respondents• Planning the data collection• The Pre-Study – a trial run

Obtaining data

• Contingency planning is useful

• Time planning and management

• Careful storage and manipulation of data

Data analysis

• Approach to data analysis (suitability for audience)

• Appropriate methods – SPSS/PASW (Predictive Analytics SoftWare), NVivo

• Is your research question(s) answered?

• Recognise your limitations and weaknesses

Resources I have used• Journal of Studies in International Education• Research in International Education• Globalisation, Societies, Education• Compare / Comparative Review• Education, Business, Society: Contemporary Middle

Eastern Issues• Learning & Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf

Perspectives (Zayed U)• International Higher Education (Boston College CIHE)• Comparative & International Higher Education (newsletter

of HE SIG, Comparative and International Education Society)

• Sage Handbook of Research on International Education• Insidehighered.com / globalhighered.org• The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education• OECD publications• International and comparative: education websites (IoE

library guide)