Research Seminar I
Objectives
The Research Seminar has four major objectives:
First, present the major research streams at NOVA-IMS and MagIC (NOVA-IMS research center), so that students may have a proper framework to define their own research work, within the core competencies of the school, and choose with whom they will be working
Second, familiarize the students with the research process (emphasis on problem definition and initial literature review) and the main research paradigms in information management (behavioral science and design science)
Third, develop communication skills, both written and verbal, which are central to any researcher
Finally, assist the student in developing of a coherent, innovative and solid research proposal. During the semester the student should rigorously and clearly define their research area while developing a preliminary literature review. Based on the literature review and their previous knowledge on the subject, the student should be able to write the research proposal
General characterization
Code
300003
Credits
Available soon
Responsible teacher
Available soon
Hours
Weekly - Available soon
Total - 210
Teaching language
EN
Prerequisites
Be a PhD student
Bibliography
Langley, P. (2000, June). Crafting papers on machine learning. In ICML (pp. 1207-1216).
Martha Davies (1997), Scientific Papers and Presentations, Academic Press.
Venkatesh, V. (2011). Road to success: A guide for doctoral students and junior faculty members in the
behavioral and social sciences. Dog Ear Publishing.
Webster, J., and Watson, R. T. (2002). Analyzing the Past to Prepare for the Future: Writing a Literature
Review, MIS Quarterly (26:2), pp. xiii-xxiii
Teaching method
The course works based on a series of seminars held by researchers of the Institute of Statistics and Information Management and from partner institutions that foster in students a comprehensive overview of research.
Evaluation method
Evaluation will be based on:
One pager (one page A4 with your project) and the presentation (10% of final grade), presentation of most important scientific paper (10%), research proposal presentation (20% of the final grade), the written research proposal (50% of the final grade), and participation and discussion (10%).
When completing Research Seminar I, the research proposal should include a very precise, engaging and knowledgeable problem definition, based on the literature review of the research topic, thoughtful suggestions for the methodological tools to be used and precisely defined research objectives should be.
The proposal evaluation criteria will be:
A. Quality of the literature review (20%);
B. Innovative potential and feasibility (proposed methodology) of the proposal (20%);
C. Scientific relevancy of the proposal (20%);
D. Quality of the problem definition (20%);
E. Overall Quality of the Document (organization, writing quality, and understandability 20%).
To each criteria is attributed a one of four possible grades: 3 (excellent), 2 (good), 1 (sufficient) e 0 (insufficient).
The final grade of the proposal will e computed according to the following expression:
Final Grade = A+B+C+D+E+5
The quality of the literature review (A) will take into account completeness but also how it contributes to motivate the research proposal. So it is not just about what have been done in the field of research, but how the current research lead to the research ideas presented, how current research motivates the proposal. Criterion C takes into account the potential scientific impact of the proposed work, with emphasis on the ability to generate new publications.
Subject matter
Research Seminar I begins with presentations by NOVA IMS faculty on the main research areas at the school, offering students an overview of ongoing work. The goal is to support the choice of thesis topic and supervisor. Each faculty member will give a 30-minute presentation on current and future projects. The second part of the seminar introduces key quantitative methodologies in information management research, including problem formulation, data collection, experimental design, and model building. The focus is on the research process and the connection between theory, data, and statistical methods. Students are expected to learn how to translate ideas into testable propositions through the analysis of peer-reviewed articles, data manipulation, and discussion of doctoral projects. By the end, students should feel more confident in using and critically evaluating statistical techniques to answer research questions.