master of science in global studies inrl 6000 research ... 6000... · students requiring extensions...

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN GLOBAL STUDIES

INRL 6000

RESEARCH PAPER

Course Outline 2020/2021

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN GLOBAL STUDIES GUIDELINES: INRL 6000 – RESEARCH PAPER

2020/2021

Table of Contents

Procedure for Research Paper .......................................................................................................................... 3 1. Registration: ................................................................................................................................................. 3 2. Submission of Research Paper Proposal: ...................................................................................................... 3 3. Content of Research Paper Proposal (please see below for more detail): ................................................... 3 4. Determination and notification of supervisors: ............................................................................................ 3 5. First Draft of Research Paper ........................................................................................................................ 4 6. Assessment of Research Paper ..................................................................................................................... 4 7. Submission of Research paper ...................................................................................................................... 4 8. Research Papers Grades ............................................................................................................................... 5

Oral Presentation ............................................................................................................................................. 5

Preparing a Research Paper Proposal ................................................................................................................ 8 1. UWI Rules...................................................................................................................................................... 8 2. What is a research paper? ............................................................................................................................ 8 3. How to know what to research? ................................................................................................................... 8 4. The first step: your proposal- things to include ............................................................................................ 9 5. Things to keep in mind as you develop your paper ...................................................................................... 9

SUPERVISORY PROGRESS REPORT MSC RESEARCH PAPER .......................................................................... 12


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Procedure for Research Paper

1. Registration:

Registration for the INRL 6000 - Research Paper Course - Semester III, Academic Year 2019/2020 and in Semester I, Academic Year 2020/2021. Note: Students are required to register every semester until awarded degree.

2. Submission of Research Paper Proposal:

The proposal must be submitted to the Director of the Institute through the Secretariat of the Institute on the Friday of the fifth week of the first Semester of the MSc program.

Research Paper Proposal topics must be related to the subject areas of the courses offered at the Institute and must be approved by the Director of the Institute.

3. Content of Research Paper Proposal (please see below for more detail):

Proposed Topic

Summary of Research Paper Proposal area

Proposed Table of Contents (showing scope and areas of focus)

Initial literature review

Your thoughts on the relevance/usefulness of the study

Suggested timelines to propose to your supervisor for the conduct of your research.

4. Determination and notification of supervisors:

Upon approval of topics (no later than the seventh week of the semester), you shall be notified in writing of the name of your supervisor and date of your first appointment at which a work programme will be agreed upon.

Students are required to meet with their supervisor on a regular basis – at least once a month- to report on the progress of the research paper. Students should have their Supervisory Progress Report Form signed by their supervisor and must submit the same to the Secretariat as evidence of having conferred with your supervisor. (Please see attached Supervisory Progress Report form ).

The Supervisor shall determine the procedure to be followed for preparation of the Research Paper.


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5. First Draft of Research Paper

Students must submit a draft of the research paper to their supervisor by the end of May of the academic year of the submission of your paper.

6. Assessment of Research Paper

• 25% - Oral Presentation Seminars – to be held in the last week in January in the first year of registration for full-time students and the second year of registration for part-time students. See further details below.

Students are encouraged to attend as many of the presentation sessions as possible.

• 75% - Written Paper- due the Friday of the second week in August of the first year of registration for full-time students and the second year of registration for part-time students.

• Students must obtain a minimum of 50% in both the oral presentation and the final research paper to pass the research paper component of the programme.

7. Submission of Research paper

Students must submit 3 hard copies of the final version of their Research Paper to the Secretariat.

Students must simultaneously send a soft copy version to the supervisor and IIR Secretariat [email protected].

The UWI Certificate of Completion of Research Paper/Project Form (see attached) must be completed and signed by both the Student and Supervisor before submission to the Secretariat. Note: Research Papers will not be accepted without this certification.

Students will not be allowed to graduate in that academic year if papers are submitted after this deadline.

The Research Paper shall have a length of 12,000 -15,000 words, exclusive of footnotes, bibliography and appendices.

The Research Paper must be written in accordance with the University’s Regulations.

The papers must be submitted to the anti-plagiarism software used by the University (now Turnitin but please confirm with your supervisor each year in the case where updates may be available). Please note that this must be done in advance so as not to delay the generation of the software’s report for your paper. The first page of the report must be annexed to the Research Paper. A failing grade of 0% will apply to cases of plagiarism.

mailto:[email protected]


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A maximum of one year’s extension may be granted in significant extenuating circumstances. Students requiring extensions will be required to write to the Senior Assistant Registrar for Graduate Studies and Research requesting the extension. This request must reflect the support of the student’s supervisor and Head of Department before being submitted to OGS&R (refer to Regulation 1.52 of the Regulations for Graduate Diplomas and Degrees).

8. Research Papers Grades

The final paper is worth 75% of the overall grade, (25% is allotted to the Oral presentation). The final paper will be graded as follows:

Component of the Project Report Marks assigned

Problem Definition/Objectives of the Study 10

Background (Review of existing knowledge and literature) 10

Theoretical Framework (Review of existing knowledge) 10

Methodology 10

Presentation and Analysis of Data 15

Discussion 20

Conclusions and Recommendations 15

Overall Presentation and Bibliography 10

TOTAL 100

Oral Presentation

1. Students will be required to make an oral presentation of their paper in Semester II.

2. Rationale- these presentations allow students to:

o articulate their area of research, improve their oral presentation skills;

o get guidance and feedback from lecturers and their peers before the first draft of the research paper is submitted to their supervisors;

o discuss, analyse and mature in the understanding of their research area (the seminar requires the student to have a substantial amount of work available for comment).

3. Dates of presentations - Thursday 30th January, 2020 and Friday 31st January, 2020


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4. Format:

o The days will be divided into sessions. Three students will present in each session.

o 10 -15 minutes per presentation

o 10 minutes for questions/discussion at the end of each session –questions/comments may be directed to any of the 3 students presenting.

o Presentations and response to questions will be graded by the supervisor and the second/Independent Examiner at the end of each session.

5. Requirements for presenters:

o Submit a power point presentation and a short paper (10 pages, double-spaced) on your oral presentation - to your supervisor - not later than the week prior to the oral presentation. This should be done in both hard and soft copies.

o Your paper will be graded together with your oral presentation by your supervisor and second/Independent Examiner.

o Both the written and power point submissions should include the:

Research question- rationale for choice and expected findings

Substantive Literature review

Theory of Choice and rationale for your choice

Methodology chosen and rationale

Chapter Plan

Initial findings and initial outline of the chapters

o Your paper and presentation will be graded as follows:

Item %

Presentation and delivery 2.5

Clarity and articulation of Research question 2.5

Literature review 5

Strength of theoretical foundation 5

Methodology chosen and rationale 5

Content/arguments/analysis related to area of the research 5

Total 25


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Preparing a Research Paper Proposal

There are several guides and thesis generators available online. Find one that suits you. Please also consider what follows.

1. UWI Rules

UWI Graduate Studies Guide for Students and Supervisors: The M.A./M.Ed/M.Sc Project Report Or Research Paper

“The M.A./M.Ed./M.Sc. Project Report/Research Paper completed by students in taught Masters’ Programmes should demonstrate:

independent, wide ranging reading in the subject area;

reasonably in-depth analysis of the literature;

familiarity with research methods, data collection and analysis, and design and conduct of experiments, as appropriate to the specialisation;

findings reported in the approved academic style appropriate to the discipline.

It is not expected that the student must necessarily make a contribution to knowledge, but should show a clear understanding of the topic being investigated and its application. The upper limit in terms of length should be 125 pages, exclusive of notes, bibliography, appendices etc.”

2. What is a research paper?

Your research paper is an academic piece of writing that is the result of an investigation or study you have undertaken. You are not required to have the depth, originality or scope of a PhD. However the paper is more than a report that collects information. It is an analytical piece that raises questions and answers them, or at least delimits or identifies issues to be addressed. Your paper must show that you have engaged with the scholarly literature and empirical work on the area and that you know how your work relates to existing knowledge and debates related to your chosen topic.

3. How to know what to research?

Who may benefit: you may or may not have a clear idea what you would like to research. Think about your future, your MSc Paper may be the platform for a further study such as a PhD. It may be on something that can help contribute to the work in your present employment or help you to become specialized in an area that may be useful for a future job. There are many agencies that would be very happy to have research done and your paper may contribute in a very direct way, before choosing your topic- or even while you do your research- consider speaking to them (government departments, NGOs, private companies etc.).

What kind of research will you be contributing to? Spend some time looking at what was


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written in the field and see how your work relates to this. This may help spark an area/focus that you would like to research.

Talk to lecturers, practitioners, PhD students about areas that they think may make good research topics.

What are your interests? Is there any area/course that you would have liked to go into further depth with? This is a good opportunity to do so.

4. The first step: your proposal- things to include

Title: Think, what topic would you like to research

Research Question: what problem do you seek to investigate? What sub-questions arise out of this (remember you only need to do one paper, so ensure your sub-questions are not actually other major questions requiring another paper!)

Conceptual Framework: What concepts underlie that topic? What does the literature say on these? What concepts do you think fundamental to help analyse and report on your issue? What will be your conceptual framework?

Methodology: i. What data will you be using in your study and how do you propose to get it?

ii. What steps will you be using to get from the proposal stage to the end of your work? How does this methodology help answer your research question and sub-questions What is your methodology?

Justification: can you justify: i. Why you chose this topic? ii. Why you are using this conceptual framework?

iii. Why this methodology will best serve your purposes?

Limitations of your study: what are the boundaries of your work? (to go deeper into a point, it means you cannot be too broad- you are limited by time, resources, available information etc. , know the boundaries you plan to set for your work).

Preliminary schedule: what are the steps and give an idea of how the research will progress until August.

5. Things to keep in mind as you develop your paper

Try to keep focused: what is your topic/issue? i. What is your problematique or what thesis are you making, critiquing (see online

thesis builders for help with techniques to create a thesis). What are the sub- questions that flow from your main question?

ii. You cannot research everything so be clear of the limits of your research (time frame, geographic location, subset of a data set, group of persons, part of a concept or


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construct). iii. As you read you may need to refine your research question. Ensure that you speak

with your supervisor. Try to discuss your ideas/research with your fellow classmates.

Have a clear timeline: for your reading for your literature review, for your data collection, for the analysis of the data, for your oral presentation in March, for your first draft etc.

Develop a plan with your supervisor: for meetings, to send draft chapters and the mechanisms for feedback. Always go well prepared to your supervision meetings after giving your supervisor some your work to review.

literature review: i. Having developed your conceptual framework, find out what the academic writing (go

first to peer reviewed journals and publications) says about these concepts. ii. Be sure to use the UWILinc, Google Scholar and any of the many databases available

through UWI Library. Ask the Librarian for help to do effective searches for journals and books and to find the literature needed for your particular topic. Stay initially within work published in the last five years. The literature changes quickly especially in Global Studies and you want your work to be up to date and relevant.

iii. Find a bibliographic manager that suits you. Again your librarian can be of help here. Consider using Endnote, Zotero or another similar program, that helps you compile, archive and search the sources you have read.

iv. Be selective in your reading. Sift interesting sources by reading initially just the abstract. This gives you a good indication of the focus of the article.

v. Remember your readings can help you: find data, find a methodology that you may find useful, get ideas for good analytical and conceptual frameworks, help you find or refine your theoretical framework etc. As you read the article, think: what does the piece have to offer you? why would you want to include this article in your literature review. Make notes so that you remember why you find the article useful.

vi. A good article is often cited by many other articles, pay attention to those especially. Again your librarian can help you here to refine your search.

Data Collection i. Ensure your efforts really help you answer your question and sub-questions. ii. Be ready to justify your chosen method of data collection.

Parts of your paper (Just guidelines. Depending on your focus these may vary)

i. Title ii. Abstract

iii. Contents page iv. Introduction v. Literature Review, Theoretical Framework, conceptual framework


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vi. Methodology vii. Background chapter viii. Findings

ix. Analysis and discussion and implications of your study x. Conclusion xi. References (ensure you use proper citation and referencing)

xii. Endnotes, appendices (if needed)


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SUPERVISORY PROGRESS REPORT MSC RESEARCH PAPER

1. Name of student

2. MSC

3. Date

4. Time of meeting: from to

5. Matters Discussed (point form):

6. Next steps- agreed with the student:

7. Assessment of Student’s performance by Supervisor (range 1-5 where 1 is excellent, 5 poor):

Item 1 2 3 4 5 N/A

Quality of work submitted in writing for review prior to this meeting

Has the student been doing required reading

Initiative in research

Fidelity to timelines for research

Has the student followed advice from last meetings or has good reasons for not doing so


8. Additional comments from Supervisor:

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9. Comments from student:

Signature of Supervisor Signature of Student

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