Week 12:

Hi Everyone,

Every lecture of the course has helped me develop my research question and design. My research project has evolved from simply analyzing existing publicly available databases to gathering information with survey, interview and site visits. I am not only designing the research to reach optimal result, but also enhancing the quality of my research from the reviewers’ perspective.

Since I am treating my research topic as a pilot project to fit the scope of the course, there are some sub-questions can be explored further. For example, how can broadband technology help Aboriginal communities to preserve their language and cultural heritage? how can broadband technology narrow the knowledge gap between Aboriginal people and the rest of Canadians?

After learning various research methods in this course, I decide to use survey, interview, and site visit to gather data. I believe using combination of different methods can enhance data quality and research result.

After all, the most challenging part in my research project is to gain access and trust of Aboriginal community members and authorities. I would be greatly appreciated if you guys can give me some tips and advice on how to approach Aboriginal people.

Thank you.

Liz

Academic Career & Scholarly Publication

Hi Everyone,

After the lecture on peer-review, I learned that a successful academic career depends heavily on the amount of research publication in the leading and reputable academic journals. Taking the peer-review process into consideration, whether people get promoted or not really comes down to what their colleagues think about their work and approaches. Perhaps the relationship between the author and the reviewer could play a role in the process. Particularly, in the nonblind review. This makes me wonder if corruption or bribery may occur when the identity of the reviewers could be identified over time.

What do you guys think?

Thank you.

Liz

Week 11: Peer Review

Hi Everyone,

First of all, I really enjoy reading the article of Lovejoy et al. (2011), it provides a great overview of the peer-review process. It not only helps me better understand the process, but also improves my writing by knowing what the reviewers will be looking for in my writing.

There is no doubt that peer review is a very valuable process in the scholarly publishing practice. It can improve the quality of the research and maintain high standards of the journal. However, the process, particularly the traditional one described by Lovejoy et al. (2011), causes much delay to the publishing and does not offer any opportunities to the researchers to respond to the comments.

With the help of the advance information and communication technology, the peer review process could have the potential to be more interactive, which would allow both the researcher and reviewer to communication with each other in real-time and allow them the opportunity to express their view and reach consensus. Consequently, this will speed up the peer review process.

Liz

Reference:

Lovejoy, T.I., et al. (2011). Reviewing manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals: A primer for novice and seasoned reviewers. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 42(1), 1-13.

Sample Size

Hi Everyone,

While working on the final proposal, I find myself struggling to decide how big my sample size is appropriate for my project. If it is too big, it will be costly. If it is too small, the result will not be representative to the population. What complicate matters is that I must take into account the potential low response rate. According to Knight (2002), choosing sample size is really a judgment call, which depends on the population size, confidence level and confidence interval.

Do you guys have any input on this?

Thank you.

Liz

Reference:

Knight, P.T. (2002). Small-Scale Research: Pragmatic Inquiry in Social Science and the Caring Professions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Week 10: Record Preservation

Hi Everyone,

The blogging question this week is challenging because it is almost impossible to find a way that can preserve my research records into the far future. Particularly, the rapid changes in technologies make preservation even harder. For example, if people have records stored in floppy disks and even if they can preserve the disks perfectly, it could be very difficult to find a computer that can read the information today. This same situation will happen to all the new technologies today as they become obsolete. Despite the unreliability of technology, I will still post my research records online and store them in different formats with regular updates as a backup strategy.

Some traditional approaches could be more dependable. For example, I would print out plenty of hard copies, develop photos, make audio and video recordings, share the information and knowledge with others, such as friends and family, and make them aware of the importance of preserving information and knowledge.

Thank you.

Liz

Interview Transcription

Hi Everyone,

The lecture and Hammersely’s article (2010) have led me think of the following questions:

• If the transcript includes all the details, such as silences, gestures, in the interview, will it be too much and difficult for the reader to digest and extract the important points from the conversation?
• While it is not always possible to video record the interview, the only person who has the first hand information about the participant’s gestures, silences, pauses, facial expression, etc. is the interviewer. Is it possible for an interviewer to conduct an interview while capturing all these little details?
• How to train someone to accurately transcribe the interview with sufficient details?
• What if the participants have limited language ability, should the transcriber correct the language or put in his/her own words according to his/her understanding to make it understandable?

Other than putting spoken words onto paper, I now realize the complexity of interview transcription. A good transcriber can make all the difference in the outcome of the research.

What do you guys think?

Thank you.

Liz

Reference:

Hammersely, M. (2010). Reproducing or construction: some questions about transcription in social research. Qualitative Research, 10(5), 553-569.

Week 10: Terracotta Warriors and Horses

Hi Everyone,

If I have to focus my study on a particular artifact, I would choose to study the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in China to determine why they were built.

When I first learned about the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in the history class, I was amazed by the advance skills and technologies that China had back in the day (over 2200 years ago). I believe the study can bring insights to the culture, technology, history, quality of life, and stories behind the creation.

This research may have to involve wide variety of specialists from different disciplines, such as archaeologist, historian, scientist, etc., in order to fully understand different aspects of the results. Given the historic value of these artifacts, it is highly unlikely that physical tests can be conducted to gather information, which may prevent me from obtaining a comprehensive result.

My research may lead to a bigger question of whether Qin Shi Huang Di was doing a good thing or bad thing to the people in China by building the Terracotta Warriors and horses. Although he employed massive resources to build these artifacts during his time, people are enjoying the economic benefits from tourism today.

Thank you.

Liz

Research Concerns: Outdated Data

Hi Everyone,

When I am working on my research methods, I am quite concern that the available data from the existing sources and databases, such as Statistics Canada, are so outdated (e.g. collected in 2006). The results arise from these data may not be consistent with the current real situation. It may give me wrong results and lead to wrong interpretations.

Can you guys suggest some solutions for me to overcome this problem?

Thank you.

Liz

Week 9: Discussion on Ethical Issues

Hi Everyone,

Although it is reasonable to assume that research subjects will not behave or react naturally if they know the purpose of certain researches, is it acceptable for the researchers to engage in various types of deception? For example, install hidden cameras to observe the research subjects without advance notice, word the instructions in such a way that hides the research goals, or avoid identifying themselves to the research subjects that they are researchers. Is there any ethical concern?

Thank you.

 

Liz

 

 

 

Week 8: Statistics

Hi Everyone,

People say a picture is worth a thousand words. I think statistical data can also help us make sense of this imperfect world. From my statistics classes, I was fascinated by the concept of false positive and false negative. Particularly, I was surprised to find out that the steroid test for athletes has a false negative rate of 24% and a false positive rate of 13%. Such high error rate makes me wonder how many Olympic medalists used performance enhancing drugs and did not get caught.

I really like the Minard flow map of Napoleon’s march on Moscow that was presented in class. It really bring the data to life. It is even more amazing when it was produced in the 18th century by hand without any help of computer technology. Fortunately, we can use various statistical and data analysis tools, such as Stata, SAS, SPSS, and R, to generate graphs, tables and charts, which would help the audience to understand and visualize the meaning of the data.

I attach this beautiful map of the Internet as an example of data visualization. This partial map of the Internet was based on the January 15, 2005 data found on opte.org. Lines are colour coded as follow:

• Dark blue: net, ca, us
• Green: com, org
• Red: mil, gov, edu
• Yellow: jp, cn, tw, au, de
• Magenta: uk, it, pl, fr
• Gold: br, kr, nl
• White: unknown

Thank you.

Liz

Reference:

Wikipedia. (2013). Internet map. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_map_1024.jpg