Handbook for Doctoral Students in Education/Research basics

Research Basics

All candidates are required to complete a research core and actively pursue research and publication. If you have never taken a graduate level statistics class or if the class(es) you have taken do not transfer to UNC, you will need to take SRM 600 in addition to the courses required in your chosen research core. Don’t worry if you’ve never taken statistics or done any research! The courses required in the research core are designed to prepare candidates to be active researchers in their chosen fields.

All research conducted at UNC involving human participants must be preceded by approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB). More information about the IRB process and accompanying forms

Once you receive IRB approval, you can begin collecting your data. IRB requires that all human subjects be fully informed about the research in which they are participating, and any participant may withdraw from research at any time. All data involving human participants must be kept in locked file cabinets or password secure computers. Once audio/video recordings are transcribed, they should be destroyed unless otherwise stated in the final IRB. Also, all consent forms must be kept for three years in the case that research may come under review by IRB. If any part of one’s research deviates from the initial IRB, an amendment must be submitted to IRB for approval before proceeding with further research. More specifics about the IRB can be found in the IRB Handbook

Working to publish your research is an important part of your academic process. There are a few things to keep in mind as you write about and attempt to publish your research. Confidentiality of all participants must be maintained in all writing unless otherwise stated in the final IRB. Writing should be submitted to scholarly journals based on each journal’s submission guidelines. While an article is under review by a journal, it cannot be submitted to another journal.

Take advantage of every opportunity to publish. Remember, one research project can be used for multiple research purposes. For instance, from one data set (and research experience), you could report traditional results, your methodological process, an in-depth study of one particular aspect, an alternative representation of the data, and so on. It's helpful if you can tie your small studies to the topic you plan to pursue for a dissertation. Given the number of articles you might get from one small data set, it's easy to see that the dissertation data set and experience will yield far more potential for publication.

The Graduate Student Association (GSA) is a great resource for graduate students looking for support with their research. GSA provides equipment that you may check out for your research and can help students find research participants. Additionally, the GSA has grant opportunities. GSA grants are awarded for the following:research,conference presentation of research, and conference attendance. Click on this link to go to their website http://www.unco.edu/gsa/index.html