Grad Student 101 Workshop

Instructor: Heidi Lyons

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Finding a Topic

Look at the Articles in the Syllabus Initial Exploration– Academic Search Premier– Google Scholar

Talk to Your Professor!

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Research Question

Narrow your Focus– What Relationship do you Want to Look

at?

Is the Question Clear?Does your Question fit into Previous Work?Is the Study Possible?

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Is the Study Possible?

ICPSR– www.icpsr.umich.edu

CFDR Data Holdings

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Doing Research

BGSU University Libraries– SocINDEX– Social Science Citation Index

• Subject Index• Source Index• Citation Index

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Other Databases

Sociological AbstractsGenderWatchEthnic NewsWatchOhio Link

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Finding Major Journals

BGSU University Libraries– Journal of Marriage and the Family

• Browse • Search

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Searching Hints

And, Or, NotUsing “#” or “*”– Adopt*– Wom*n

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Record-Keeping for your Sources

Index Cards/ExcelTopicMethodsSignificant FindingsOther Comments

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Record-Keeping for your Sources

– Authors Full Names in Order– Journals : journal name, date, volume

number, and page number

– Books : book name, city of publication, publisher’s name, publication

date

Example: Adolescence References

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Introduction

Outline the Research QuestionWhy is this Important?What are you Going to do?

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Literature Review

The Relationship Between Your Study and Previous WorkHow Your Paper is Different Do Not Make it a Laundry List

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Literature Review

Start Broad and End NarrowOnly Report what Directly Relates to Your Question

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Lit Review Structure

Look at Peer Review JournalsElaborate on your TheoryDiscuss Previous Research Statement of the Problem

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Stating you Hypotheses

Formal Relational Statement– Clear– Type (Casual or Correlational)– Direction (Positive or Negative)– Imply that it is Testable

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Stating you Hypotheses

Bad: Attitudes and Union Type is Associated with Infidelity.

Good: H1: Controlling for sexual values, attending

religious services more frequently is associated with lower likelihood of infidelity.

H2: Cohabiting is associated with a greater likelihood of infidelity.

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Methods

SampleMeasuresProcedures/Data Analysis

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Sample

Data– Sample Size– How were Subjects/Recruited?– Nonresponse– Any Oversampling – General Sample Selection

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Measures

Operationalize Variables– Open VS Close-ended Questions– Range of Response – Scales

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Procedures

How are you Going to do it?What Statistics are you Using?

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CFDR Help!

Ask Meredith for Programming Help – Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 1-2 p.m.

CFDR Webpage– Annoted Output– SAS/SPSS/STATA Questions