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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 March 2020

Kasorn Muijeen, Puangpaka Kongvattananon and Chomchuen Somprasert

This study aimed to discuss the key success factors in focus group discussions among the elderly as a means of supporting novice researchers and also to share the experiences of…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to discuss the key success factors in focus group discussions among the elderly as a means of supporting novice researchers and also to share the experiences of novice researchers with focus group discussions.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used a literature review of previous studies that revealed three themes regarding the key success of focus group discussions with the elderly. Focusing on issues published between 2009 and 2019, four health-related databases, namely the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), ScienceDirect, PsycARTICLES and Thaijo were investigated using keyword searches, both individually and in combination, and the inclusion criteria used in selecting relevant articles as primary sources included research written in the English and Thai languages.

Findings

The literature review involved eight published articles related to this topic in the nursing field. Three themes for key successes were identified as follows: good planning and convenient organization, being accepting and flexible concerning their opinions and good management.

Originality/value

Focus group discussions with the elderly are complex and challenging for novice researchers. It is necessary that a novice researcher in the nursing field builds up the skills of a moderator in conducting focus group interviews if he or she wishes to obtain rigorous data.

Details

Journal of Health Research, vol. 34 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0857-4421

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 23 December 2020

Sumeth Suebtrakul, Pornpimon Adams, Pitchapa Vutikes, Boosaree Titapiwatanakun, Paul Adams and Jaranit Kaewkungwal

The main purpose of the study was to identify the key elements that characterize successful grant proposals and the relative importance of issues that constitute difficulties and…

Abstract

Purpose

The main purpose of the study was to identify the key elements that characterize successful grant proposals and the relative importance of issues that constitute difficulties and concerns in preparing the proposals. The study aimed, in particular, to explore grantsmanship perceptions based on the experiences of researchers in Thailand who had, or had not yet, successfully been awarded domestic and/or international research funding.

Design/methodology/approach

Anonymous online questionnaires were distributed to researchers in biomedical and public health fields in Thai academic institutes. The online survey asked the anonymous participants to complete a questionnaire comprising both multiple-choice and open-ended questions.

Findings

About 19% of 300 respondents had received both domestic and international research grants, and 60% of domestic research grants. The top 5 issues in grant applications were: (1) choosing a topic that matched the grant opportunity, (2) feasibility of research design and methods, (3) suitable research design and methodology, (4) model and theoretical justification, and (5) ethical considerations. Significant differences in perceptions among researchers were found for the feasibility of research design and methods and proposing a reasonable and justifiable budget.

Originality/value

The information derived from this analysis reflected the perceptions of the researchers and may or may not correlate with those of grant agency reviewers. The results of this study may be insightful and instructive for other researchers and form the basis for training and mentoring researchers in informed and effective grantsmanship, particularly novice researchers with limited or no experience in grant proposal writing. This study particularly reflected grantsmanship perceptions among researchers in Thailand. It may also serve to exemplify lessons learned for researchers in other low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC) exposed to similar settings and situations applying for research grants.

Details

Journal of Health Research, vol. 35 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0857-4421

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 October 2022

Carly Dearborn and Michael Flierl

This paper begins to construct a theoretical foundation for using a diplomatic-informed pedagogy that specifically addresses common concerns in archival instruction in a higher…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper begins to construct a theoretical foundation for using a diplomatic-informed pedagogy that specifically addresses common concerns in archival instruction in a higher education environment. The authors utilize self-determination theory (SDT) to define student-centeredness and provide empirical guidance for creating a learning environment supporting student motivation, persistence and academic achievement. The proposed framework provides both structure and theoretical grounding for the archivist while also cultivating a learning environment which effectively motivates novice researchers.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw on diplomatics and archival instructional literature to propose an instructional framework utilizing SDT.

Findings

A diplomatic-informed pedagogy is a new, theoretically viable approach to archival instruction for novice researchers intending to replace common archival orientation and competency-based instruction. This pedagogical approach also provides a reproducible structure to the instructional archivist, helping to organize classroom learning outcomes, assessments and activities in alignment with evidence-based research and well-established archival theory.

Research limitations/implications

This is a conceptual paper and based on subjective analysis of existing literature and theory. The proposed framework has not been tested in a practical application, but it is based in the pedagogical foundations of diplomatics and SDT's focus on student perceptions and motivations.

Originality/value

Diplomatics, the foundation of archival science and legal theory, can be applied pedagogically to provide concrete guidance to teach students to use archives in more intentional, creative and disciplinary authentic ways. Diplomatics gives the instructional archivist a pedagogical foundation, structure and guiding methodology to approaching novice researchers in the archives, while SDT presents how to implement such an approach.

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2011

Anita Walsh

The purpose of this paper is to explore the contrast between the approach to research taken by academic ethnographers and that taken by work‐based researchers. Van Manen claims…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the contrast between the approach to research taken by academic ethnographers and that taken by work‐based researchers. Van Manen claims that “a good ethnographer describes a cultural reality in such a way that a non‐member of the culture could ‘pass as an insider’ if he or she had internalized the cultural features of the particular setting”. In order to achieve this level of familiarity with a context, ethnographers spend considerable amounts of time embedded in the culture which they are studying – “being there” is seen as fundamental to effective research.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides a reflection and deliberation on personal experience.

Findings

The dominance of the academic disciplines and the model of research in higher education which considers the doctoral student as a novice researcher problematises the role of the work‐based researcher. It calls into question the extent to which valid research can be undertaken by practitioners in the workplace.

Research limitations/implications

Practitioner researchers, research their practice and/or context. These researchers are not novices – they are usually senior practising professionals who are very familiar with the organisational and occupational culture in their workplace. However, in contrast to academic researchers, usually their intention is not to provide an ethnographic account of it. They are concerned to address issues and/or achieve changes/developments in practice in order to improve the functioning of their organisation.

Originality/value

The paper reviews the function of insider researchers.

Details

Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, vol. 1 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 November 2009

Jean Adams, Sandra Steele, Alyson Kettles, Helen Walker, Ian Brown, Mick Collins, Susan Sookoo and Phil Woods

The aim of the paper is to share the experience of multi‐national, funded research practice and to explore some of the issues related to conducting such studies in forensic…

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to share the experience of multi‐national, funded research practice and to explore some of the issues related to conducting such studies in forensic practice. The BEST Index is a normative forensic risk assessment instrument that can be implemented through the different levels of security. It benefits the patient as it is a structured assessment instrument for assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating care in the context of risk assessment. A large‐scale, five‐country EU‐funded study was conducted to validate the instrument and to develop educational tools. Some published description of research experience exists but does not cover the issues for people new to high‐level research studies or the partnership working that is required to make multi‐national, multi‐lingual studies work to the benefit of the patient. Many issues arose during the study and those considered important to deal with, and the actions taken, are described, including ethical issues, management and organisational issues, and ‘the long haul’. Being new to research and coming straight in to this kind of large‐scale clinical research requires preparation and thought.

Details

The British Journal of Forensic Practice, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6646

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2017

Aravind Sesagiri Raamkumar, Schubert Foo and Natalie Pang

Although many interventional approaches have been proposed to address the apparent gap between novices and experts for literature review (LR) search tasks, there have been very…

Abstract

Purpose

Although many interventional approaches have been proposed to address the apparent gap between novices and experts for literature review (LR) search tasks, there have been very few approaches proposed for manuscript preparation (MP) related tasks. The purpose of this paper is to describe a task and an incumbent technique for shortlisting important and unique papers from the reading list (RL) of researchers, meant for citation in a manuscript.

Design/methodology/approach

A user evaluation study was conducted on the prototype system which was built for supporting the shortlisting papers (SP) task along with two other LR search tasks. A total of 119 researchers who had experience in authoring research papers participated in this study. An online questionnaire was provided to the participants for evaluating the task. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed on the collected evaluation data.

Findings

Graduate research students prefer this task more than research and academic staff. The evaluation measures relevance, usefulness and certainty were identified as predictors for the output quality measure “good list”. The shortlisting feature and information cues were the preferred aspects while limited data set and rote steps in the study were ascertained as critical aspects from the qualitative feedback of the participants.

Originality/value

Findings point out that researchers are clearly interested in this novel task of SP from the final RL prepared during LR. This has implications for digital library, academic databases and reference management software where this task can be included to benefit researchers at the manuscript preparatory stage of the research lifecycle.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 69 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2021

Hossein Bakhshi, Hiwa Weisi and Nouroddin Yousofi

This paper explores the challenges of conducting qualitative research from ELT (English Language Teaching) Ph.D. candidates' perspectives.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper explores the challenges of conducting qualitative research from ELT (English Language Teaching) Ph.D. candidates' perspectives.

Design/methodology/approach

The participants of the study consisted of 30 Iranian Ph.D. students majoring in ELT. The semi-structured interview was employed to investigate the heart of experiences, issues and concerns of participants with regard to conducting qualitative research (QLR) challenges. To analyze the collected data, the recorded interviews were transcribed, and then the grounded theory approach was employed (Charmaz, 2006).

Findings

The results revealed that the major challenges of the participants consist of the credibility of QLR in ELT contexts, hermeneutic and fuzzy nature of QLR, qualitative data analysis and interpretation, publishing qualitative findings and the system of measuring professors' productivity.

Originality/value

The findings may help professors, mainly EFL ones, in research mentoring and developing research syllabi for graduate students. In addition, it may motivate Ph.D. candidates to employ QLR methods in their research studies. The pedagogical and theoretical implications of the study are discussed at the end of the paper.

Details

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-7003

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 30 April 2021

Lakshmi Balachandran Nair

Many management scholars view templates as rigid rulebooks suffocating qualitative research. This viewpoint article recommends that, instead, templates should be viewed through…

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Abstract

Purpose

Many management scholars view templates as rigid rulebooks suffocating qualitative research. This viewpoint article recommends that, instead, templates should be viewed through the lens of organizational routines.

Design/methodology/approach

To facilitate this viewpoint, this article first clarifies the confusions surrounding templates. It points out that how using templates, like following routines in an organization, constitutes three parts - the artifact, the ostensive and the performative; the latter two being often neglected by template critics. The use of templates is encouraged by discussing the learning advantages for novice researchers, through an autoethnographic note narrating the author’s own research and teaching experiences.

Findings

This article deliberates upon the criticisms against templates. It then discusses templates using a perspective offered by organizational routines. Thereafter, the use of templates in qualitative management research is discussed, with the help of examples from published reports. Finally, the article explains a way of reflexively using templates through an autoethnographic note detailing the author’s own research and teaching experiences.

Originality/value

In its entirety, the article submits that the artifacts offered by the templates and the ostensive and performative engagements of the template-users must co-exist for co-creating excellent qualitative research.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2005

Sajjad M. Jasimuddin, Con Connell and Jonathan H. Klein

Exploring a researchable topic and narrowing it down sufficiently to make it workable is a first task in any scientific research. This is particularly difficult when the researcher

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Abstract

Exploring a researchable topic and narrowing it down sufficiently to make it workable is a first task in any scientific research. This is particularly difficult when the researcher is a novice, because s(he) is unlikely to be properly aware of what the essential issues and the research question(s) in the field are. This article addresses the question of how to navigate a research topic for an academic project. The article is potentially of interest to novice researchers and researchers new to a field. Illustrating its argument by means of an example in the area of knowledge management, the article proposes a set of guidelines for narrowing down a research topic to workable size. A number of recommendations are made; by utilizing these recommendations to construct a navigation map, it is hoped that a researcher can use fully formulate research question(s). It can be argued that drawing such a navigation map is an art in which prospective researchers need to be trained.

Details

Management Research News, vol. 28 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0140-9174

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 August 2007

Sarah Kuhn and Judith Davidson

In this article, two experienced QR instructors argue that reflective attention to the tools and materials used by researchers and instructors can help to enhance student…

Abstract

In this article, two experienced QR instructors argue that reflective attention to the tools and materials used by researchers and instructors can help to enhance student learning. Identifying three sorts of things in QR those on which research is conducted (texts, images, etc.); the technologies used by the researcher, from software to notebooks; and the objects of the culture under study the authors discuss three examples of their use of things in the context of QR. A detailed case discussion based on the authors’ experience with flip chart paper, NVivo software and Tinkertoy concept maps reveals some of the benefits of attention to things. Based on their analysis, the authors conclude that there are four ways in which a focus on things can support learning and teaching: by scaffolding student understanding, by providing transparency in the learning and research process, by representing and supporting multiple views and perspectives, and by promoting reflexivity and reflection.

Details

Qualitative Research Journal, vol. 7 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1443-9883

Keywords

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