Presented to: AMA Doc. Sig

 

August 2002

 

 

*Talk based on published article: The Doctoral Supervisor-Student Relationships: Some American Advice for Success, by Sharon Beatty, Marketing Review, 2001, 2, 205-217.

 

1. Topic selection

2. Stages of research

3. The study and getting closure

4. Moving from dissertation to journal article(s)

5. Dealing with submission and review process

6. What’s next?

Topic selection—

Be aggressive in topic selection

Topic should be centered on early

Topic Selection Factors

Can I love the topic?

Does it "fit" with potential supervisor?

Ask its relevancy and potential shelf life

Ask how it capitalizes on current strengths and background.

Topic should be relevant—students should ask:

Who cares about knowing the answer to this question?

Does it make a contribution to theory and to practice? How?

Is it a unique contribution?

Is the contribution enough or too much?

Too broad or too narrow?

Too focused or too unfocused?

Is it actually doable?

Will methodology actually address it?

All dissertations are multi-stage—lay them out

Most classic approach:

Literature review and theory development/hypotheses

Qualitative research

Smaller exploratory studies

Hypothesis refined

Prestudies to fully develop measures

Pretests to verify methodological issues

The main study or studies

Data analysis and write-up

The extensiveness of the above is where we achieve rigor and relevance

The student is the "worker"

The more they have previously engaged in research, the easier this step is

Again they interact closely with supervisor and others -- a safety net

At some point they achieve closure

Defense process is similar to proposal defense

Finally the supervisor/committee decides when closure has been achieved

Voila – a newly-minted PhD is upon us!

Planning it:

I suggest writing with the chair for the most part

An overall game plan should be decided

number of articles

targeted where

focus of each

authorship of each

Each article needs to be self-contained, but not overwhelm the reader; positioning is critical

Targeting correct journals is also critical

aim high but not unrealistically high

know the journal well before submitting there

Doing It:

The student writes, runs analyses, and the chair critiques—over and over

Often new analyses are necessary to tell the story

Often new data collection is necessary (if only…)

Also, if needed, the student may draw in other

co-authors

Writing it:

Communicate clearly

Give the reviewers a reason to want to read the paper in the first three paragraphs

Think about who might be reviewing it and how their work is treated

Always ask what is the contribution of this work? And to whom?

Ask what can I tell the audience that they don’t already know? What is the neat twist?

Submitting

The shorter the length of time between data collection, defending the dissertation, and writing article(s) from it, the easier the process will be

Achieving closure is critical

It is often helpful to get others involved in critiquing the work

After the rejection/request for revision

A request for a revision is good—not bad

Turn the revision or rejection around quickly

If new data is required—do it

Recognize that reviewers put much time and emotion into the reviews—they are insulted if the authors don’t respond adequately

Address all reviewer concerns carefully and civilly.

Don’t turn it around with no changes to another journal!

Do persevere!!!

The chair lets go at some point!

Some advice for the new PhD:

Be programmatic

Streamlines knowledge base

Can tackle more important questions

Can develop stronger base of co-authors

Can establish a reputation quicker

Allow chunks of time for research

Work on multiple pieces but…

Guard against overload

Guard against not achieving closure

Cultivate relationships locally and globally

Develop strong co-author relationships

Be involved in cutting edge research

Find high-caliber individuals to critique work

Finally:

Do research that is fun to do

And do it because it is fun!

My advice for success today has covered:

Topic selection

Dissertation chair selection

Working together during the process

Getting those first articles out

Getting them published

The new PhD now standing alone in the research arena

Having some fun doing all this!