Does the definition whose URL you quoted (and how much better
a form of debate if you present your own argument rather than seeking
to send your correspondents off somewhere else?) describe how.....
For some reason you appear frightened of researching information, such
as following a url, and integrating the knowledge gained with what you
already know in order to take things into new territory. But this is
how science advances, and the study for a degree of PhD requires that
the current position be adequately researched as a prerequisite to
moving on to one's particular research topic. This is called the
Literature Survey, and it is a fundamental part of the PhD. Fail to
perform this adequately, and your PhD is doomed.
As you will not follow urls, I append a short article to help you, and
as you are prone to ISP failures, I may repost this from time-to-time.
Note particularly the paragraph headed "RESEARCH METHODS".
For the information of other readers, the url is
http://www.itacs.uow.edu.au/research/postgrad/comments.shtml
GENERAL COMMENTS ON RESEARCH
PREAMBLE:
Research, by its very nature, is a step into the unknown and therefore
open-ended; there are no guarantees. As such your supervisor(s) will
not know the answer to your research questions (research is not the
same as coursework). This step is usually guided by the results of
previous researchers in the field. Such previous work "sets the
scene"/points you in the right direction/tells you where to look.
Steady, methodical and persistent effort on your part is then
necessary to reach your research goal, often employing the
scientific/experimental method(s) (e.g. hypothesis testing). Of
itself, this might not be sufficient; genuine insight, serendipity and
unexpected "connections" from seemingly unrelated areas are often
necessary. These can neither be anticipated nor manifested at will.
Many scientific breakthroughs come from the most unexpected sources.
RESEARCH METHODS:
In order to (a) become familiar with your chosen area of research, and
(b) to ensure you don't "reinvent the wheel" and commence working on a
topic which has been previously researched, it is essential to become
familiar with the published literature in the field. A good way of
doing this is to write your own literature survey/review article,
perhaps even presenting a seminar/conference paper on your findings.
This helps you not only to familiarise yourself with previous work,
but also to highlight what has yet to be done/what problems remain to
be solved in your chosen field. It also helps to identify areas in
which you are perhaps weak and need to learn and/or improve your
skills.
The first six months of a 3-year PhD programme should be devoted to a
literature survey; the second six months to replicating previous work.
By the end of the first year, it should become clear as to how the
earlier work can be extended/improved, thus enabling a detailed
research proposal to be formulated. Naturally, the remaining two years
are spent in following these ideas (and periodically backtracking and
revising your research plan in the light of your findings).
NOTE:
For Research Masters (and undergraduate Honours), it is quite valid to
work on a topic which has been researched previously, but from a
different perspective/extending it in some manner. For a PhD, an
original contribution to knowledge is required - establishing what has
been done previously and identifying a substantial problem to tackle
is even more critical here. Successfully applying new/different (and
better) techniques to problems previously solved by other means is
still a valid approach for a PhD however.
In order to conduct a literature survey, you will need to hone your
library skills, specifically: (i) how to track down survey
papers/introductory books, (ii) developing the art of quickly reading
and evaluating abstracts (at least - entire papers if appropriate),
(iii) identification of the classic references in the field, and
subsequently tracking them down (in hard copy form, either within the
UoW Library, or via Inter-Library Loans), (iv) use of the UoW on-line
Library resources, as well as more general searching of the World Wide
Web, & (v) the ability to critically evaluate what's been done
previously. In short, who are the key researchers in the field? What
are the seminal works/books/survey papers? What are the most important
journals in your chosen area?
NOTE:
It is very important to keep abreast of the latest developments in the
field, especially if someone publishes what you are currently working
on. If this happens, you may need to take a significant change of
direction with your work. Thus periodic updates of your literature
survey will be necessary during the course of your study.
