| Word Count |
8000 Words |
| Assessment Title |
Student Handbook |
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Summer Project Modules
4.0 The Role of the Supervisor
5.0 The Role of the Student and the Supervisory Process
- 5.1 Choice of topic
- 5.2 Regularity of meetings
- 5.3 How long does the supervision process last
- 5.5 Further information
6.0 What are the requirements of the Individual Research Project?
7.0 Structure of the Individual Research Project write-up
8.0 Ethical Approval
9.0 Submission dates
9.0 Marking the Individual Research Project
Appendix 1: Illustrative Structure for a Structured Literature Review
Appendix 2: Illustrative Structure for an Analysis of Secondary Data Study
Appendix 3: Illustrative Structure for a Primary Data Collection and Analysis Study
Appendix 4 Ethical Approval Documentation
Introduction
This guide is designed to provide students with a background to the PGT Individual Research Project (IRP) and information as to what is required from the students as well as supervisors.
Summer Project Modules
All students on the PGT suite undertake a summer project module. There are three student project module routes: Individual Research Project, Group Consultancy Project and Launch a Venture. This guide focuses on the Individual Research Project (BMO0114), the module that you are doing.
Depending on which course you are studying, you will take one of the following preparation modules before the IRP Summer Project begins:
BMO0112 Research Methods
BMA0092 Quantitative Financial Analysis (BMA0092)
BME0046 Quantitative Economic Methods
The Role of the Supervisor
Once you have completed the preparation module, you should have the basic skills, competencies and knowledge to undertake the work required for the individual research project. The individual research project is a 45-credit module with a maximum 8000-word assessment, and each supervisor is allocated 9 hours of supervision support for each student they supervise. This includes both face-to-face (or virtual) contact and time for reviewing student-written work (i.e. a chapter or section) and providing feedback.
The role of the supervisor is to guide students through the process of undertaking the individual project and offer advice and direction as required. It is not the role of the supervisor to teach students skills and knowledge that should have been delivered in the preparation module. The supervisor will be the first marker for the individual research project. All submissions will be second-marked. The marking criteria can be found in the BMO0114 assessment brief on Brightspace.
Your supervisor is allocated to you by the school, and you will be notified of the name and contact details of your supervisor following the BMO0114 Launch Day.
The Role of the Student and the Supervisory Process
The individual research project has been designed to allow students to demonstrate a wide range of skills that build on their course content through an independently driven and supervisory-based process. This allows for a scope of flexibility in how the supervision process is undertaken.
Choice of topic
It is the responsibility of the student to decide on a research topic, with guidance from the supervisor. The student’s assessment for the preparation module they undertake before the individual research project (please see figure 2) should ideally be based on what the student is planning to undertake in their research project.
Some students will have a very clearly defined research topic and working title and may require very little guidance at this stage, whereas some will start the IRP process with very little. At either end of the spectrum, it is important that you discuss this with your supervisor as this underpins your Individual Research Project, and it is of vital importance that you have focus.
You must select a topic that is within the scope of your course. For example, a student taking MSc Management with Marketing is not advised to pursue a project on Finance. Where students take a course that contains a topic ‘with’ (such as Management with xxx, or International Business with xxx), it may make sense for the student to focus on the ‘with’ if this is what they see as useful for the future.
Regularity of meetings
You have been allocated 9 hours for supervision support, and the time includes meetings as well as time taken to review student work and provide feedback. It is the responsibility of the student to initiate this process.
How long does the supervision process last
The supervision process may begin as soon as supervisors are allocated. All students are expected to work on their project over the summer months and use their supervisor's support during this time. Please be aware that these months will also include periods of staff annual leave and related research commitments such as conferences. Students should be mindful of and plan for the periods of their work schedule when their supervisor may be away on leave and unavailable. This should be discussed with your supervisor at the beginning of your Individual Research Project.
Further information
For further information regarding the roles and responsibilities for supervisors and students, please refer to the Supervisor-Student Agreement document on Brightspace.
What are the requirements of the Individual Research Project?
The Individual Research project is a small-scale project that is undertaken within a 2-3-month period. It is not a PhD: a contribution to knowledge is not a requirement for this project, and students are not expected to demonstrate a high level of philosophical or methodological understanding. However, a formulated and justified methodological approach is important.
The Individual Research Project has been validated to accommodate a range of different research approaches, ranging from a 1) structured literature review; 2) secondary data analysis; and 3) empirical-based study. However, the validated document makes clear that the approach adopted should take into consideration the resources, time and skill-set available to the student.
Generally speaking, primary data collection should only be permitted where it is:
- Feasible within the limited timescale of the summer project period.
- Likely to produce high-quality data that cannot be collected via other means
- Supported by your supervisor as an appropriate and achievable project
Any student wishing to collect primary data must explain the reasons as to why this is necessary to their supervisor and must obtain explicit confirmation from the supervisor that they can collect primary data. Primary data collection will also require ethics approval using an E1 form (see section 11). Permission to undertake primary data collection must be approved by your supervisor via email (and likewise, if rejecting the request, this should be formalised through an e-mail).
All other students should adopt an approach using literature-based or secondary sources only. This could include secondary analysis of data or a structured literature review. This approach will also require the completion of an ethics form signed by your supervisor before you commence your research.
Structure of the Individual Research Project write-up
The exact structure of write-up of the Individual Research Project will depend on the nature of the study undertaken. However, all IRP project reports should illustrate clearly the process of research conceptualisation, design & methods, findings and discussion. Illustrative structures are shown in the appendices.
Appendix 1-3 shows the structures for the three different variations of the Individual Project. Please familiarise yourselves as students with these and in discussion with your supervisor, you can identify the IRP approach most suitable for you.
Ethical Approval
Students must receive ethical approval from supervisors before starting their research. Depending on the approach taken for the IRP, students will either complete an E0 form or an E1 form. E0 forms are usually for projects that do not involve any primary or secondary data (i.e. literature-based research). E1 forms are usually for projects that involve the gathering of primary data (i.e. surveys, interviews, focus groups, or other methods of data gathering involving human participants). E1 forms may also be required for some secondary data projects involving data not already in the public domain or where there may be issues of consent or risks around anonymity/confidentiality (e.g. in the use of social media posts that identify individuals or organisations).
Discuss which form (E0 or E1) you need to complete with your supervisor.
Approved and signed ethics forms must be completed before research takes place, and a copy of the signed form must be submitted to the BMO0114 unassessed submission point by 3 pm Friday, 26th July.
A second copy of this signed form must also be included as an appendix item in your final IRP report submission.
Submission Dates
Signed Ethical Approval Form (unassessed): 3 pm Friday 26th July 2024
Final IRP submission deadline: 3pm Friday 6th September 2024
Students must submit all work via the Brightspace submission point on the BMO0114 module page. Submissions must be made as a single file (MS Word or PDF). For the final IRP report, this single file must also include all required documentation - incl. the main report, signed ethical approval forms E0 or E1, and any related appendix items.
Marking the Individual Research Project
A first and second marking arrangement is in place where the supervisor will first mark the students they are supervising. The first marker then liaises with the second marker to agree on a final mark and to confirm the feedback offered based on the assessment criteria.
Appendix 1: Illustrative Structure for a Structured Literature Review
A structured literature review involves critically reviewing existing literature in an academic field of study and highlighting the key findings, discussing and providing recommendations based on these key findings taken from the literature.
- Title
- Abstract
- Introduction/background/rationale, including a formal statement of research aims/objectives
- Methodology for organising your structured review
- Structured literature review applying your methodology to organise and analyse selected published academic literature
- Findings emerging from a critical analysis and evaluation of your academic literature
- Discussion
- Conclusions, implications and recommendations
- References
- Appendix (include your approved ethics form in the appendix)
See below for more information and guidance regarding each section.
Abstract
This should be succinct. In essence, the abstract is a snapshot of the entire work. Unlike a fictional style of writing, academics reveal the conclusions, the most important facts at the start, and the abstract should cover this. It should include a summary of your research design, any methods used, contributions, findings and context and be in the region of 250 words.
Introduction/background/rationale
This section should include the background justifying the reason for undertaking this research and highlighting key research that supports this. As this is secondary research only (i.e. literature-based), you should include a brief overview of the field of study you are investigating. This might include a short literature review to summarise and capture the key themes and developments in your chosen field, but you would not identify gaps in the literature at this stage of the report, as this would emerge in your structured analysis of sources and findings in the sections that follow.
Research aim
This should be in the form of a statement that captures the essence of the research focus. You may have one single larger aim or several smaller aims, but this should provide the reader with a clear sense of why this topic is important and how you are planning to investigate it.
Research objectives
Research objectives are more specific destinations that need to be reached. They should be couched in terms of destinations (to…establish, provide an understanding of, report on the causal links between, measure, provide results of a test into…etc) rather than in terms of a journey (investigate, explore, research, etc.). These should be in the form of bullet point statements and could be around 3-5 max.
You may not need additional research questions as this is a structured literature review. Please consult your supervisor if you have questions regarding this and whether they feel that a separate research question (or questions) might also be beneficial. However, it would be unusual to have a hypothesis for a structured literature review study.
Methodology
Students undertaking this type of Individual Research Project must have a methodology that covers in detail the steps/stages undertaken for the study based on the identification, selection and analysis of the articles and/or sources. The focus needs to be on a well-structured, formulated and justified methodological approach to the study that covers the main methodological elements outlined in most good-quality literature review/structured literature review guidance texts. This method section should be as substantive in content and application as those undertaking secondary or primary data collection and analysis.
You should also include a section dedicated to discussing the principles of ethics, sustainability and responsibility (ESR) that is relevant to your research area. You are expected to evaluate, compare, and contrast relevant principles and propose solutions. You should also discuss how the principles of ethics, sustainability and responsibility inform your professional practice when carrying out your structured review of your chosen topic and its published academic research.
Structured Literature Review
The literature review needs to be structured, in-depth, critical and address your set research aims and objectives. It should apply the methodological principles you have introduced in the previous section and use these to organise and analyse your selected samples of published academic literature. Remember that this is more than a traditional review; to be structured, your review must demonstrate the ability to organise and analyse your selected literature in a way that produces specific findings and insights into the current state of the academic field you have selected.
Findings/discussion
This section can be combined with your structured literature review or separated as an independent chapter. This section must be addressed based on the set research aims and objectives and must be substantive. The findings should address the key highlights and findings from the structured literature review, followed by a discussion of these findings in a critical manner.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The conclusions must be undertaken based on the set aims and objectives and the recommendations must be substantive and rational. You should discuss/recommend any future research directions based on your findings. This could include the wider implications your project has for research, practitioner, and stakeholder agendas surrounding ethics, sustainability and responsibility. You are also encouraged to reflect on the limitations of your study and how future research can take your findings and build upon them.
References
A list of all sources used following APA 7th formatting guidelines.
Appendix
You should include your signed ethical approval form in your appendix. You must receive Ethics Approval from your supervisor before you begin your structured literature review to ensure that your project design and methodology is appropriate and achievable.
Appendix 2 Illustrative Structure for an Analysis of Secondary Data study
The analysis of secondary data approach to the Individual Research Project is where the student undertakes the analysis of existing secondary data. This may particularly be the case for students on the Accounting, Finance and Economics (AFE) programmes who may undertake secondary data analysis using econometrics (collecting data from financial data sources provided by the University of Huddersfield Library or from publicly available sources) or Accountancy students who may undertake analysis of company reports.
- Title
- Abstract
- Introduction/background/rationale, including formal statement of research aims/objectives and research questions
- Literature review
- Methodology / Research design and Data
- Findings and Discussion
- Conclusions & Recommendations
- References
- Appendix (include your approved ethics form in the appendix)
See below for more information and guidance regarding each section.
Abstract
This should be succinct. In essence, the abstract is a snapshot of the entire work. Unlike a fictional style of writing, academics reveal the conclusions, the most important facts at the start, and the abstract should cover this. It should include a brief discussion of methods, contributions, findings and context and be in the region of 250 words.
Introduction/background/rationale
This section should include the background justifying the reason for undertaking this research and highlighting key research that supports this. You may or may not identify gaps in the literature, but it is not expected at this level. You may choose to replicate previously published academic studies using different sets of secondary data (such as new time-period, new countries, new industry, etc.), which would be one of the suitable ways to conduct the Individual Research Project in the AFE subject areas.
Research aim
This should be in the form of a statement that captures the essence of the research focus. You may have one single larger aim or several smaller aims, but this should provide the reader with a clear sense of why this topic is important and how you are planning to investigate it.
Research objectives and questions
Research objectives are more specific destinations that need to be reached. They should be couched in terms of destinations (to…establish, provide an understanding of, report on the causal links between, measure, provide results of a test into…etc) rather than in terms of a journey (investigate, explore, research, etc.). These should be in the form of bullet point statements and could be around 3-5 max.
Literature review
The literature review needs to be structured, in-depth, critical in nature and connected to the research objectives and questions of the research.
There are different approaches to literature review. A traditional literature view is subjective and involves the judgment of the author; a structured review involves a specific bibliographic methodology and may involve counts of occurrences of certain terms, in certain journals, etc. The traditional review is more common, particularly in a secondary data analysis study. A literature review should be concise, and most importantly, set boundaries that allow you to review a significant amount of the literature within the word count. Put another way, if you try to cover too broad an area, you will end up covering very little in limited depth and therefore not demonstrate a grasp of what has been said in a body of work. Try and select a narrow area that you can review in-depth and present within the word count. Also, the principle is that all’ literature you use in your findings should be reviewed in the literature section. Don’t introduce literature into the findings that you haven’t reviewed.
You may or may not choose to develop a hypothesis (especially related to the directional link between each independent variable and the dependent variable).
Methodology and Data
Students undertaking this type of Individual Research Project must have a methodology that covers in detail the steps/stages undertaken for the study based on the identification, selection and analysis of the existing data. If they are using econometric (statistical) techniques, then this section should include the justification of the selection of the particular technique, the models, and the dependent and independent variables, supported by the literature. If they are using a qualitative methodology, this section should cover the main methodological elements outlined in most good research methods texts/guides for undertaking analysis of existing secondary data using qualitative research. Overall, the focus needs to be on a well-structured, formulated and justified methodological approach to the study.
The data sources, sample selection process and the steps followed to arrive at the final sample should also be explained in detail in this section. The methodology and data section should be as substantive in content and application as those undertaking primary data.
You should include a section dedicated to discussing the principles of ethics, sustainability and responsibility (ESR) that is relevant to your research area. You are expected to evaluate, compare and contrast relevant principles and propose solutions. You should also discuss how the principles of ethics, sustainability and responsibility inform your professional practice when carrying out this particular piece of research.
Results/findings/discussion
This section can be done as one section or separated into shorter, separate sections. Section(s) must be addressed based on the set research aims and objectives and be substantive. The findings should address the key results and findings from the analysis of the secondary data, as well as findings from the literature review, followed by a discussion of these findings in a critical manner.
Conclusions and Recommendations
A good way to focus on your conclusions is to go back to your aims and objectives and give an account of how your research has met these objectives. While not expected at this level, any theoretical contributions made by you should be spelt out in this section. More likely are practical contributions, and this section should spell these out, and these may be couched in terms of practice recommendations. You could also discuss the potential impact on your target stakeholders of the implementation of these findings. This section could also include the implications your project has for wider research, practitioner, and stakeholder agendas surrounding ethics, sustainability, and responsibility. To ensure you get a sense of the limits or fallibility of findings, you are encouraged to reflect on the limitations of your study and how future research can take your findings and build upon them.
References
A list of all sources used in APA 7th formatting.
Appendix
You should include your signed ethics form in your appendix. You must receive Ethics Approval from your supervisor before you begin your data collection (both primary and secondary data collection).
Appendix 3: Illustrative Structure for a Primary Data Collection and Analysis Study
*** This is a high-risk approach to the IRP and should only be attempted following explicit permission by your supervisor and their agreement that they can provide the expertise and guidance necessary to support your project. Please make sure to receive supervisor approval via email so that you have evidence that approval was given for this type of IRP before you begin ***
An empirical study involving the collection and analysis of primary data. The following is an illustrative structure for this type of research:
- Title
- Abstract
- Introduction/background/rationale, including formal statement of research aims, objectives and possible contribution to knowledge
- Literature review
- Methodology detailing fieldwork and data analysis methods, and ethical considerations
- Results/findings
- Discussion (In qualitative research, results and findings might be combined)
- Conclusions, recommendations and limitations
- References
- Appendix (include your approved ethics form in the appendix)
See below for more information and guidance regarding each section.
Abstract
This should be succinct. In essence, the abstract is a snapshot of the entire work. Unlike a fictional style of writing, academics reveal the conclusions, the most important facts at the start, and the abstract should cover this. It should include a summary of methods, contributions, findings and context and be in the region of 250 words.
Introduction/background/rationale
This section should include the background justifying the reason for undertaking this research and highlighting key research that supports the contributions in the literature that this research addresses. Equally as valid are contributions to practice that might be made. Here, you may focus on an area of practical concern and draw on literature to make a contribution to practice instead of, or in addition to, a theoretical contribution.
Research Aim
There should be a statement of the aim (or aims) of the research, which can be framed as a statement that captures the research intent or purpose. Aims tend to be broader in scope than objectives and not couched in measurable terms.
Research objectives
Research objectives are more specific destinations that need to be reached. They should be couched in terms of destinations (to…establish, provide an understanding of, report on the causal links between, measure, provide results of a test into…etc) rather than in terms of a journey (investigate, explore, research, etc.). They are typically captured in the form of numbered bullet points and generally are hierarchical, with the most important first. Normally, 3-5 related is appropriate. It is not conventional to position research hypotheses in the opening sections where the research is quantitative. Research questions differ from objectives by the use of…. where, when, how, and what. and why… as opposed to objectives starting with ‘to’. Different styles of related questions to objectives can be used, and you should explore how they are combined and use your judgment as to the best fit in your work.
Literature review
In the context of an empirical study, the literature review should provide a review of relevant prior studies in the area. It should be related to the research aim. There are different approaches to literature reviews. A traditional literature view is subjective and involves the judgment of the author; a structured review involves a specific bibliographic methodology and may involve counts of occurrences of certain terms in certain journals, etc. The traditional review is more common. A literature review should be concise, and most importantly, set boundaries that allow you to review a significant amount of the literature within the word count. Put another way, if you try to cover too broad an area, you will end up covering very little in limited depth and therefore not demonstrate a grasp of what has been said in a body of work. Try and select a narrow area that you can review in-depth and present within the word count. Also, the principle is that all’ literature you use in your findings should be reviewed in the literature section. Don’t introduce literature into the findings that you haven’t reviewed.
Methods and Methodology
Students undertaking this type of Individual Research Project must have a methodology that covers the primary data elements of their research. You should discuss the philosophical element of the methodology, although this is not expected to be substantive in nature at this level of study. The focus needs to be on a well-structured, formulated and justified methodical approach to the study that covers the main procedural elements and specific research methods employed as outlined in most good research methods texts.
You should include a section dedicated to discussing the principles of ethics, sustainability and responsibility (ESR) that is relevant to your research area. You are expected to evaluate, compare and contrast relevant principles and propose solutions. You should also discuss how the principles of ethics, sustainability and responsibility inform your professional practice when carrying out this particular piece of research.
Results/findings
In quantitative research, the results should be presented as a section using conventional data presentation techniques according to the methods adopted. In essence, the results section may be significantly presented in tables reporting numerical analysis of some form and some brief explanation of the tools and techniques used (see below for qualitative research). You are encouraged to use standard statistical tools like SPSS and qualitative tools such as NVIVO.
In qualitative research, which is by nature ‘interpretive’, data is likely to be in the form of words (but may also be in terms of pictures or other media, etc.), and it is thus difficult to provide examples of respondent quotations without attaching the author’s interpretation of what was said. A useful formula for presenting qualitative data is setup-quote-comment. Set up… who is saying it… Quote’’’’ the verbatim comment from the research participant and comment….. the author’s interpretation of what this means in the context of the argument they are trying to advance. Through this approach, you ensure authenticity in the analysis by showing both what was said by participants and the author’s interpretation of it. Here, you may find it useful to emulate the approach taken in published academic research articles that use a qualitative research methodology. With the guidance of your supervisor, you can select relevant sources and decide how you might follow a similar approach for analysing and presenting your qualitative data.
Discussion
A discussion of the data analysis will be presented here, and the implications discussed. In this section, you must establish what you have found is important. why is it important? And to whom is it important? This section can be done as one section or separated into shorter, separate sections. Section(s) must be addressed based on the set research aims and objectives and be substantive. The findings should address the key results and findings from the analysis of primary data, as well as findings from the literature review, followed by a discussion of these findings in a critical manner.
Conclusions/recommendations/limitations
A good way to focus on your conclusions is to go back to your objectives and give an account of how your research has met these aims and objectives. While not expected at this level, any theoretical contributions made by you should be spelt out in this section. More likely are practical contributions, and this section should spell these out, and these may be couched in terms of practice recommendations. You could also discuss the potential impact on your target stakeholders by the implementation of these findings. This could include the implications your project has for wider research, practitioner, and stakeholder agendas surrounding ethics, sustainability, and responsibility. To ensure you get a sense of the fallibility of findings, you are encouraged to reflect on the limitations of your study and how future research can take your findings and build upon them.
References
A list of all sources used in APA 7th formatting.
Appendix
You should include your signed ethics form in your appendix. You must receive Ethics Approval from your supervisor before you begin your data collection (both primary and secondary data collection).
Appendix 4 Ethical Approval Documentation
Ethical approval must be received for any research you undertake during your Individual Research Project. Ethical approval is provided by your supervisor on completion of the correct ethical approval form E0 or E1 – see copies of the documents on the BMO0114 Brightspace page.
Students cannot begin literature-based work, secondary data analysis, or fieldwork/primary data collection until ethical approval has been received by your supervisor.
E0 form is for those projects that DO NOT have:
- direct contact with human/animal participants
- access to identifiable personal data for living individuals not already in the public domain
- increased danger of physical or psychological harm for researcher(s) or subject(s)
- research into potentially sensitive areas
- joint responsibility for the project with researchers external to the University.
E1 form is for those projects that DO have:
- direct contact with human/animal participants
- access to identifiable personal data for living individuals not already in the public domain
- increased danger of physical or psychological harm for researcher(s) or subject(s)
- research into potentially sensitive areas
- joint responsibility for the project with researchers external to the University.
