Devlina Chatterjee
Associate Professor
Industrial and Management Engineering
IIT Kanpur, 208016
devlina@iitk.ac.in
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IME700
Research Methods
First Course Handout
Semester: 2021 Spring Semester
Timings: M, W: 15:35 – 16:50
Classroom: Online
Instructor: Dr. Devlina Chatterjee, Room 211, IME Building
Ph: 259 6960 (Office)
Email: devlina@iitk.ac.in
Objective of the course:
The objective of this course is to provide an introduction to research methods in social sciences.
 
 
Syllabus:
Introduction to Social Science Research Perspective, Different Approaches to Social Research, Approaches to Theory Building, Sampling, Measurement Issues & Scale Construction, Research Design, Qualitative Research, Experimental Research, Survey Research, Quantitative Data Analysis Techniques, Research Writing and Presentation, Research Evaluation and Critique, Issues in Current Research Practice.
 
Text Book:
John W. Creswell - Research Design - Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (2009, SAGE Publications, Inc)

Additional resources
Booth, W., Colomb, G., & Williams, J. (1995). The craft of research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nicholas Walliman - Research Methods - the Basics
 
Evaluation scheme:
Attendance - 10%
Assignments - 20%
Presentations (3) - 30%
Final research proposal - 20%
End semester exam - 20%
Learning in this course is critically dependent on attendance and participation in class. If your pre-midsem attendance is less than 50%, you will be automatically deregistered from the course.
 
Research Diary:
You have to maintain a research diary through the course. You can jot down your thoughts and course related activity through the course. Summaries of papers you review. Data sources that you uncover. This will be reviewed during the course as well at the end of the course.
 
Academic Integrity:
Academic integrity is of utmost importance. You have to submit turn-it-in reports for all written assignments. Any similarity beyond 10% will be considered to constitute plagiarism. This will result in penalties starting from no marks awarded to that assignment to a failure grade.
 
Tentative Class Plan
Lecture Lecture Topic
1 Introduction to the Course
2 Planning a research project and formulating research questions
3 How to conduct a literature review, how to read a research paper
4 How to organize literature – annotated bibliography vs. literature review
5 Presentations of annotated bibliography of an assigned topic (group activity)
6 Presentations of annotated bibliography of an assigned topic (group activity)
7 Research design Qualitative Research - approaches to theory building, mixed methods
8 Research design Quantitative Research – surveys, experiments, cross-sectional data
9 How does one look at data – descriptive statistics, ANOVA, MANOVA
10 Causal analysis – testing of hypotheses, simple regression
11 Causal relationships – omitted variables, multivariate regression, panel data
12 Finding underlying patterns in the data - factor analysis, cluster analysis
Midsem week
13 Presentations on research topic along with literature review, gaps in research
14 Presentations on research topic along with literature review, gaps in research
15 Critically evaluating papers – in class (qualitative paper)
16 Academic writing
Mid-sem break
17 Critique of a research paper in your area of interest (group activity)
18 Critique of a research paper in your area of interest (group activity)
19 Writing - planning and drafting, presenting your results, organizing your argument
20 How to write the literature review, cite and incorporate sources
21 Writing the introduction, abstract and conclusions
22 Criteria of good writing
23 Time management, being organized, things that are within your control and not, etc.
24 Final Presentation of research proposal
25 Final Presentation of research proposal
26 Final Presentation of research proposal