ERIM Research Clinic Logistics and Information Systems
Aims
To introduce you to the frontiers of knowledge and of research in LIS and to enable to formulate and evaluate a research proposal.
A second goal is to familiarize the student with the research done by top ERIM researchers (within and outside the LIS programme).
Information
This course familiarizes the student with recent research methodology by investigating several influential research papers in the area. Emphasis is given to how research questions and problems are formulated, how conceptual frameworks and hypotheses are developed an how actual data and methods are used to answer the posed questions and to analyse the impact of important assumptions. Based on the acquired insights, students are expected to formulate their own research project and write a report about it.
As a second part of this course, students will be introduced to the research that is done within ERIM over all programmes. This is done by a series of two-hour seminars given by ERIM members and fellows. In each seminar, recent research is presented. Attendance of these seminars is obligatory.
Assessment
The assignment (2 ects) involves a literature review, which can be used as a preparation or exercise for your Research Master Thesis (year 2).
The learning objectives of the literature review assignment are:
- To familiarize you with the research topics studied and methods adopted in a selected number of sub-fields within the LIS domain;
- To learn to systematically search, identify, select, analyse and compare academic publications;
- To be able to identify possible inconsistencies, controversies or gaps in existing scientific literature;
- To learn to define an intended contribution to the scientific literature, and to define relevant and feasible research questions and research methods in order to deliver such contribution.
You are expected to work on this literature review assignment in parallel to the research clinic lectures. There are two important milestones:
1. A proposed outline for your literature review (1-2 pages), including:
- Research theme/topic;
- Scope of your literature review (type of publications, which journals, what time period etc.);
- Method for identifying relevant publications;
- Outline of the structure of the final review paper.
2. The final review paper itself.
The length of this paper should be 5000-7000 words.
The outline should be submitted to the Track Coordinators (Wagelmans and Wynstra), and depending on the topic, a reader will be assigned to you to provide feedback and grade your assignment (in most cases one of the four LIS lecturers from the Research Clinic lecture series).
We strongly advise you to submit the outline within four weeks after the start of the lectures; the final paper should be submitted within four weeks after the end of the lectures.
Materials
Articles, to be announced.
