IS298B Week 3 Class Notes

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Think about where you can present (colloquia, etc.)

Have to write an abstract—you can use your problem statement and justification

Posters are an interesting way to go when you don’t have everything done

In each category can trace the chronology starting with the seminal/classic pieces that everyone knows, and then summarize extension/progress chronologically

 

Have to define the concepts

 

Schedule – want to map out how long for the literature review (need to take IS598 so I can do all this reading!)

What does it cost to do the literature review

Bibliographic style has to be part of your consideration because you will publish articles in journals before you finish

Using management software

Explicitly statement which style you are using – envision publishing in TKTK or envision presenting at TKTK so will need a particular style

Envision turning it into a book, use that publisher’s style

Ask advisor which style

Proposal has to have enough detail so that you could hand it to someone and they could carry it out

Domain in terms of the field of information studies

How do you summarize the categories

Patrick Kelty IS class organized around affect

Have to make it narrow enough to make it doable

Donald Case’s book

Hink of whether case were reading it an he doesn’t get cited

Look at who the major players are who’s likely to read it, who’s likely to cite it

Who are you citing?

Specific application, domain – need to narrow this

 

Kathy

Does a good job of telling you how she’s going to dowhat she’s doing

Very specific, she’s already thinking about how she’s going to do this

However, you can be broader

Will likely start seeing methodological works in the lit review

May be looking at other fields because they have advanced that method well

If the questions don’t follow from the previous sections, causes problems

Can’t do everything – you will see a lot of related questions in the literature

 

RP research problem

TS theoretical structure

OB objectives

RQ research question

T thesis/hypothesis

M methodology

 

Case study but there are objections—generalizability unless you do a really good job of how you selected that case

Reliability and validity

She’s more interested in describing

Ethnographic/qualitative work is usually used when there’s no theory established

Describe it in some kind of rich detail and need some method of how you’re going to do that

Which method would get you the most bang for your buck

What would most rapidly open the topic

 

Journals ask for keywords: JOST journal online tracking system. You will get reviewers based on your key words

Is the list of readers available? Is you see a call for readers, volunteer

Send resume now

If a refereed journal, the editor

Editorial board members have to read as well as bring articles from others or self

Look at the masthead

You also give them a list because your article has references

The editor chooses from among them

Then if they don’t have someone, they look at the database to find someone

So there are 3 sources of referees right away: masthead, volunteer readers for the journal, database

They’re going to look at the methods

What did you do to mitigate disadvantages of the selected method?

Theoretically, that’s how stuff gets into print

 

Beginning to suggest a structure by stating lit review themes

Sample review

 

(take furner’s bibliometrics class?) talks about citation indexes – Seth

 

the sample needs to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the piece

refer to: 9 points on how to read close analysis of the literature

what was the problem, T, framework, OB, RQ, M

need more detail – more analytical

use the structure we’re using to evaluate each piece

 

[then I’m assuming we can group by gaps/weaknesses and address them with my own thoughts]

need to persuade: 1. I know the literature, 2. Make a case

why do you get awarded a phd? because you have become an independent scholar. You’ve thought about potentially anything that can come up

advance to candidacy, they leave you alone for a couple months

[he will teach us a basic hierarchy of objectives—most rsch is descriptive—the lowest level]

 

Oxford strategy – they just don’t respond if it doesn’t merit their time

When you have sthg and you get a response, that’s good

Or the methodology is flawed

(inadequate sample)

 

quantitative – is more straightforward; you know you need

Bates—the perfect 30-item search – how do you defend against not be generalizable

“just an exploratory study” pls don’t hold e to this standard

 

Kathy is multimethod

How artists using archive

What archivists are doing

Then looking at records – there are all sorts of interesting ways – can make a quant person happy

 

Who do put on your committee? That will be the standard to which you work

Pick people who will be tough but also have authority

They will write letters for you, etc.

Intellectual tradition from which they come

Should Donald Case be on my committee?

 

 

Known

Unknown

Theoretical bridge

 

Three functions: selecting, operationalizing ,validating

List of key words – concepts

There are other definitions for your concepts, so you need to TK

 

Problems and frameworks

A framework or structure is a clarifying and exclusionary step in the research process

 

MT: I want to create a model/framework that can be applied across disciplines—ask Richardson how I can do this

 

Formalized structive “point of view is worth 80 IQ points” Alan Kay

It can be logical or theoretical

The theory that connects these two is really important

Define the concepts – define all the nouns/phrases

Can do it at the textual level or in the footnote

 

Operational definitions

Concepts (undefined) versus variables (defined)

Variables are dependent (outcome) vs. independent variables (manipulated)

Factors (manifest vs. latent)

Theory (set of relationships)

Quants will definitely use these terms, but quals will have objections to the terms

 

Correlations have dependent variables

Are income and education related? These are concepts. Need to define earned, invested, TKTK operationally define; high school diploma, BA, PhD?

 

Intervening variables

Satisfaction

How would you measure happiness?

Happiness index

Dimishing returns  $75,000 is as happy as people get

Happy is a concept until it is defined

 

Intervening variables

Factors go into predicting other factors?

Legislation, policy, social norms

 

Something in between what we know and what we don’t know

Theory – don’t get bent out of shape a model that explains

 

Epistemological orientation: qual or quant?

The cause must precede the effect

 

Modes of causality

Reductionist vs. integrative

 

Variables that come first in a temporal sense in hypotheses are variable? Check slide

 

Factor = variable

See the latent things that are varied and hidden

 

Underlying disciplines

Looking at latent and manifest things

Bio is to the practice of medicine as _____ is to the practice of librarianship

Depends on the problem

Blank is history, sociology, psychology, social epistemology, infor science, linguistics, what else?

 

What is theory – the bridge from where we are to where we want to go

Set of relationships among several variables; objective can be to develop a theory (exploratory)

Deductively connected set of laws, in the logical form of an explanation and with all statements as generalizations

Quals: logical framework to come up with a theory

Quants: posit a theory

 

Theory as tentative logical explanation Herb Goldhor

A technique for establishing relationships (not a quant or a qual)

 

What’s a model? model is a theory

Models can be simple (bivariate) or complex (multivariate)

Model-builder model – I could do this for curiosity!

“Family Tree of Model Builders”

 

box helps determine the limits of your study

 

lit review helps you find all the terms for your concepts (jargon)

connecting work with a tradition, a line of inquiry

define the key words for your literature review. “here’s how other researchers have defined these concepts”

then you may have to define it yourself

you must – you have to operationalize that

this is what we know, here is how we know it

Known

Unknown (interrogative)

Theory

Research

Conclusion

 

Could I be developing a model for testing other variables and their impacts on dec opt?

 

Can do the defs in a footnote if it interrupts the flow of the proposal

 

By the time you finish this section, everything in the problem statement is defined

 

 

MT: is there a theoretical conflict between the different fields and how they think about curiosity, farsighted thinking and information quality on decision optimization? How would I determine this and identify it?

 

Trying to persuade the reader that it is doable, not vague, abstract concepts

 

Take your stance—declare how you’re going to do it

If you want to compare your findings to theirs, then you have to use the same definitions or have a way to relate them

 

Accuracy – typical questions weren’t typical

 

 

Underline the nouns in the problem statement and then pull the definitions from the lit review

ALA Glossary is helpful to define your jargon

Find the dictionary for the field in which the term is used

 

 

What is the advantage or disadvantage of this structure? Why do you go with what you’ve selected

 

Known

Unknown

Theory

Advantages/disadvantages (saxon and TKTK proposals Richardson will provide)

 

How to begin the framing

Note key terms

Define jargon

Look for logical classification schemes or taxonomies

Look for theories in the literature

Draw the 3 dimensions of the study

 

Common criticism is that there are not 3 dimensions “the study is flat”

More than 3 dimensions? Is it possible?

He’s looking for three

 

Questions abt the frame:

At least 3 dimensions?

All structural elements operationally defined and expounded?

Is the structure validated in terms of its advantages of disadvantages? Scope

 

“limitations of studies” Richardson doesn’t like because defining theoretical framework, etc., don’t need to state limitations. Must be substantiated, of course.

 

Tell why: more efficient, safer, because this is how the lit talks abt it and want to compare and contrast

Even though the field looks at it one way, but more interesting looking at it this way instead because of certain advantages

 

Affective? how to do that methodologically??

 

Dictionary of Theories (Bothamley)

World of Ideas (Rohmann)

 

This section will be longer

For my definitions: Broader term, narrower term, related term

 

By next time, we will see the framework (lit rev is an ongoing process)

Time is best spent on lit rev because will feed you citations on definitions and theories

 

Send him a section this week so we can see how he scores it so you can see what needs to be strengthened, etc.

 

Final grade comes from what you turn in at the end

He will read as many iterations as we give him

 

Will feel really concrete when this section is done

Then all other sections will be easy

RQ comes out of your unknown

 

Say the same thing in diff ways and persuading the committee that they can find what they’re looking for

 

This will cover it

You will be able to defend and pass the first time