For most doctoral candidates who are just getting started with their dissertations, the realm of academic research is uncharted territory filled with unknowns. If you are taking your own initial steps into this terrain, you are sure to face a multitude of unfamiliar challenges. How do you write a literature review? How do you choose between quantitative and qualitative research methods? How do you prepare for the IRB application? The seemingly endless parade of questions illustrates an obvious but important point: Completing a dissertation is really hard work, which is why it is vital to receive help from your committee throughout your journey.
In our work with our dissertation consulting clients, however, we have definitely found that the quality and thoroughness of support from dissertation committees can vary drastically—some committees have your back every step of the way, while some leave you feeling chronically clueless and unprepared. Many of our dissertation assistance clients have shared that lack of support from their committees is a major source of stress in their lives, and we are always happy to help out where committees fall short. Toward this end, our dissertation consultants have compiled a list of frequently asked questions about the dissertation process, and we hope that their responses help as you learn the ropes of academic research.
Question: What is alignment?
When your dissertation is in alignment, this means that all of the key elements fit together logically and consistently. We find that it helps to think about alignment in two distinct areas: (a) research topic, and (b) methodology. Your research topic should be threaded consistently throughout your problem, purpose, research questions, and theoretical framework (Bloomberg & Volpe, 2018). For example, if your purpose statement indicates that you will be exploring corporate leaders’ experiences with promoting workforce diversity, but your research questions indicate an intent to explore perceptions of gender discrimination, then your purpose and research questions are misaligned. Although diversity and gender discrimination are related topics, they are not the same. This type of misalignment can crop up if you’ve revised your dissertation prospectus or introduction chapter repeatedly; editing thoroughly to ensure that you present your topic consistently will help to alleviate this type of misalignment.
Often when our dissertation assistance clients are having trouble with alignment, they have aspects of their methodologies that are not quite right. Sometimes the issue is merely a matter of word choice, as phrasing for purpose statements and research questions varies based on research method. For example, phrases such as “explore perspectives” or “explore lived experiences” are aligned with qualitative research methods and would be misaligned with a quantitative method. Similarly, phrases like “examine differences between” or “investigate relationships between” are distinctly quantitative, as they refer to questions that only statistical analysis can answer.
In other cases, methodological misalignment may involve a misfit between your research method and/or design and your intended data collection and analysis approach. For example, narrative analysis is a form of qualitative research that involves examination of the structure and content of participants’ life stories. If you indicate that you will pursue a qualitative narrative analysis approach, but your data collection will consist of an online questionnaire with 15 short answer questions, your data collection approach would be out of alignment with your research design. This is because this form of data cannot provide the level of depth required for narrative analysis.
Question: Can I create my own data collection instrument?
The answer to this question depends upon which research method you are using. For qualitative research, it is acceptable and actually common for doctoral candidates to create their own data collection instruments. Most of our dissertation consulting clients who are using qualitative research methods conduct semi-structured interviews to collect their data, and creating a semi-structured interview protocol is almost always a part of that process. Fortunately, getting the green light to use your own instrument for qualitative research is pretty painless. Most dissertation committees require a subject matter expert review followed by a small pilot test of new instruments. Afterward, your instrument may need a bit of editing to fine-tune the phrasing of your questions, but after that it should be in suitable shape to use for data collection.
If you are using quantitative methods, on the other hand, you should plan to use an existing survey instrument rather than make your own. This is because the procedures you would need to complete to validate a new survey are extensive and typically require statistical analysis skills that doctoral candidates do not possess. For example, an article by Vigoda-Gadot et al. (2007) describes their efforts to validate a group-level organizational citizenship behavior instrument. This process included extensive literature review, development of items, and assessment of content and face validity. And this was just the start of the validation process! Next they collected data from 206 teachers, which they used to complete statistical analysis procedures to evaluate the factor structure, internal consistency, and construct validity of the scale.
You’re probably starting to see why using an existing instrument is the better choice. The processes of validating a new quantitative instrument are extensive and complex—even experienced researchers often rely on statistical consulting to navigate instrument validation. In addition to the expertise required, creation and validation of a new quantitative instrument is a lengthy process. Most doctoral candidates are not interested in spending the time and tuition dollars to complete a whole separate study just to create an instrument for their dissertation. If you’re finding that existing instruments do not seem to adequately capture your specific research population or setting, it may help to note that minor editing of items on existing instruments is usually acceptable with your chair’s permission.
Question: Which method is easier—quantitative or qualitative?
To start, we should emphasize that neither research method is easy. But, we have found that, among our dissertation assistance clients, qualitative research seems to be the more accessible option. As we discussed previously, doctoral candidates are free to develop their own interview guides for qualitative research studies, which saves you the time and effort required to search for and obtain permission to use existing data collection instruments. Also, sample sizes in qualitative studies are much smaller than in quantitative studies, usually requiring around 10-15 individuals. Qualitative analysis is usually perceived as more straightforward than statistical analysis, although it is certainly more time-consuming. We have found that many of our dissertation consulting clients find language-based findings (i.e., themes developed during qualitative analysis) more intuitive to interpret than statistical analysis results.
In spite of this, many of our clients prefer quantitative methods over qualitative. For those who have a knack for statistical analysis, there are some definite perks to using a quantitative method. For one, data collection is less labor-intensive on an individual participant basis, as most doctoral candidates use online data collection platforms like SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics, which participants can access independently. Another perk of quantitative studies is that statistical analysis is much quicker than qualitative analysis. These distinct benefits of quantitative methods are what propel many doctoral candidates to contact us regarding statistical consulting, and we’re always happy to help our clients move through these challenging technical steps of their dissertations.
Question: Can I focus my dissertation research on my own workplace?
Doctoral candidates are often inspired to conduct research based on their professional experiences, and so naturally, many of our dissertation assistance clients are curious whether it is acceptable to conduct research in one’s own workplace. The good news is that, in most cases, this is perfectly acceptable, provided that you attend to certain ethical considerations. One such consideration is conflict of interest. If the potential for financial or non-financial benefit may impact your judgment as a researcher, this would be a conflict of interest (Mecca et al., 2015).
Another consideration is your relationship with those who ultimately participate in your study. If you are in a position of power over your potential participants (e.g., their supervisor, their teacher), this creates an ethical problem because they might feel coerced to participate. This conflicts with the imperative of voluntariness of research participation. Particularly in qualitative research, power relationships also increase the likelihood that participants will respond in socially desirable ways to make a positive impression on the researcher or to avoid retaliation for expressing negative viewpoints.
These conditions degrade the ethicality of your study, which can result in the IRB rejecting your application. What we recommend to our dissertation consulting clients in such situations is that they instead recruit from departments or divisions of their workplace where they have no authority or influence. This can help to reduce the appearance of conflict of interest, and it also eliminates the power imbalance between you and your participants. If your workplace is too small to allow for recruitment outside of your immediate sphere, it is probably best to look around for another recruitment site.
Question: How do I find participants?
There are different strategies for recruiting participants, and the optimal approach often depends upon the size and composition of the sample that is needed. For many of our dissertation assistance clients who require smaller samples—often for qualitative research—they find it practical to recruit through their own professional or personal networks. Qualitative research usually involves use of small, purposive samples, which are made up of people with similar attributes or backgrounds (Robinson, 2014). Because of this, it is often easy to recruit a sufficient number of individuals for qualitative samples through personal or professional connections. We should note that if you work for a large company, it may be practical to gather a larger sample through your employer as well. In fact, our statistical consultants have assisted many clients with quantitative studies in which recruiting through their own professional or personal networks was feasible.
To recruit participants through your professional or personal connections, you would start with obtaining permission to conduct research at the site—this may be your workplace, professional associations, groups, clubs, etc. Next you need to let potential participants know about your study and how to initiate participation if they are interested. Common approaches are to post flyers or to ask a site administrator to distribute the flyers via email to potential participants. Some of our dissertation consulting clients have also been successful with setting up short presentations during scheduled meetings, where they were able to personally explain the focus of their studies.
In some situations, however, recruiting from outside of your own personal or professional networks may be necessary. For example, if you need a large number of participants, a geographically diverse sample, a sample that includes employees from a variety of industries, etc., our dissertation consultants recommend recruiting through online platforms (e.g., SurveyMonkey, social media sites). Similarly, if the specific attributes you are seeking in participants are rare, it may help to expand your reach by going through online recruiting platforms.
Question: How does NVivo work—does it do the analysis for you?
Qualitative analysis software like NVivo provides invaluable organizational support for your data analysis, but unfortunately, the software does not complete the qualitative analysis for you. This is an extremely common question from our dissertation assistance clients, probably because the corresponding software for quantitative studies (e.g., SPSS) does complete the statistical analysis for you. But, qualitative analysis is by its very nature a distinctly human, interpretive process that current technologies cannot replicate.
This should not discourage you from using qualitative analysis software if you’re choosing a qualitative method for your dissertation, as it definitely helps to make the process more manageable. Qualitative studies typically have voluminous data, and using qualitative analysis software allows you to code and analyze the data digitally rather than in hard copy. Once your interviews are transcribed, you simply import the transcripts into NVivo and begin coding. Rather than applying color codes to pages and pages of hard copy data and then physically organizing segments of data into categories, when using software like NVivo, you digitally apply codes to selected excerpts of text, which you can then organize within the program into higher-order themes. It is natural for coding to evolve over the course of qualitative analysis, and the software allows for editing and reorganization of specific elements while retaining your overall analysis schema. So, even though it doesn’t do the analysis for you, we still strongly recommend use of software like NVivo or MAXQDA if you’re planning to conduct qualitative research for your dissertation.
Question: What should I expect at my oral defense session?
The oral defense is typically the last step in obtaining approval of your dissertation at both proposal and final stages. Our dissertation consultants often help our clients to prepare for their defense sessions, and these most commonly include two segments: (a) your presentation of your study in its current stage, accompanied by a PowerPoint slide show; and (b) questions from your committee, which call upon you to demonstrate understanding of your study and its methods.
During the proposal defense, committees often ask questions about the research topic and methods, so be ready to discuss the need for the study and why you made various methodological decisions (e.g., why you chose a qualitative research method, why you chose this particular population, etc.). During the final defense, be ready to talk about your analysis results—what you found, what your findings mean in laypersons’ terms, what the implications of your findings are, and so on. For a more thorough discussion of how to prepare for your oral defense, it might help to check out this previous blog post on the topic.
Conclusion
These are just a handful of the more common questions our dissertation consultants receive in the course of their work with doctoral candidates, and we hope that you have found some insights in this article that will help you to move along the pathway to your doctoral degree a bit more easily. As any novice researcher knows, there are numerous new concepts and skills to develop at every turn during the dissertation journey, and we hope that you feel more than welcome to reach out with your own questions if you encounter any obstacles. As you move forward through the various stages of your dissertation, our dissertation consultants are here to help in any way you might need. Good luck with your research!
References
Bloomberg, L. D., & Volpe, M. (2018). Completing your qualitative dissertation: A road map from beginning to end. Sage.
Mecca, J. T., Gibson, C., Giorgini, V., Medeiros, K. E., Mumford, M. D., & Connelly, S. (2015). Researcher perspectives on conflicts of interest: A qualitative analysis of views from academia. Science and Engineering Ethics, 21(4), 843-855. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-014-9580-6
Robinson, O. C. (2014). Sampling in interview-based qualitative research: A theoretical and practical guide. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 11(1), 25-41. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2013.801543
Vigoda-Gadot, E., Beeri, I., Birman-Shemesh, T., & Somech, A. (2007). Group-level organizational citizenship behavior in the education system: A scale reconstruction and validation. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43(4), 462-493. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X07299435