Making Data Make Sense- data cleaning

What do I mean by data cleaning? There are many definitions, but I am talking about a two-step process. First, double-checking that all cells are filled, you will probably discover some are not and decisions will need to be made on this.  The second step is carefully checking the statistical assumptions of your variables and looking for extreme scores.

Why are these steps necessary? Because the results of your study will only be as accurate as the data you analyze. Therefore, it is very important to take the time to check your data carefully, so that you know that your results are valid and accurate.

I want to refer you to a great book that much of my advice over the next few posts will be based:

Osborn, J. W. (2013). Best practices in data cleaning. DC: Sage.

Next time I will posted an updated blog index.  Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Can you help?

You are invited to take part in a study on the experiences of older online graduate students. The object of this study is to explore how being an older online graduate student affects relationships. I am looking for participants who are Walden University students over the age of 30 who are currently enrolled in a graduate program. You may contact me through my e-mail  shirley.losiewicz@waldenu.edu or call/text me at 720-207-4405 if you would like to participate.

Welcome to Spring Quarter!

Spring feels far away in Montana, we have had many below zero days and lots of snow. What are your plans for the summer quarter related to your dissertation? It can be hard to set aside time for writing when there are so many other things clamoring for attention. My suggestion is to carefully make out a weekly plan, leading to your final quarter goal. Write in any family plans or commitments and realistically set weekly goals for yourself.

Another suggestion, if you have not yet done it, is to get my book on Amazon, Finding Your Way to a Ph.D.: Advice from the Dissertation Mentor, that guides you through the dissertation process. It discusses dealing with committee members, tips on writing each chapter and getting through the IRB process. I also include many motivational sections for those times when you need a little extra encouragement.

Make this quarter the one in which you make great progress and move ahead! Next time, we will begin a discussion on data cleaning. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Chapter 5 Issues

Chapter 5 is the final chapter and discussion of your dissertation. One question that students ask me is "can I introduce new literature in chapter 5?" This is not a straightforward question in that any new literature should only be related to new topics that have arisen through the analyses of the data. I will use as an example, a recent study of mine (Stadtlander et al., 2013). We found that people over 85 who had escorts when they visited their physician, tended to indicate they liked their physician more and considered them more kind than people who went alone. Assuming that this had not been previously discussed in the literature review, in chapter 5 it would be appropriate to report any research related to this finding.

Also in chapter 5, you will need to relate your findings to your theories that you discussed in your proposal. Questions to ask yourself are: What does the theory predict should happen in the study? How are my results similar or different from the predictions? If your findings are different from the theory's predictions, why do you think that might be the case? If there a way to modify the theory to incorporate your results?

You must also think through the implications of your results. Given that the findings are correct, what does this mean for the population? How could such findings be explained? Here's an example from one of my papers. We found that people over 85 who had escorts when they visited their physician, tended to indicate they liked their physician more and considered them more kind than people who went alone. What are the implications of such a finding? Some that we suggested are: it may be that escorts encourage patients to change physicians if they do not approve of them. On the other hand, having someone else approve of the physician may cause a halo effect (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995), improving the oldest-olds' perception of the physician. An alternative, is those who like their physician may be more motivated to get treatment, and thus more likely to secure an escort. Are there further ideas that you have thought of?

Notice that the reference given (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995) has probably not been previously discussed in the literature review. There would have been no reason to discuss halo effects before we had the results from the study.

Next time, we will welcome spring. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Greenwald, A. & Banaji, M.R. (1995). Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Psychological Review, 102(1), 4-27.

Stadtlander, L., Giles, M., Sickel, A., Brooks, E., Brown, C., Cormell, M., Ewing, L., Hart, D., Koons, D., Olson, C., Parker, P., Semenova, V., & Stoneking, S. (2013). Independent Living Oldest-Old and Their Primary Health Provider: A Mixed Method Examination of the Influence of Patient Personality Characteristics. Journal of Applied Gerontology. (Available in Walden Library's Psychology/ Sage database)

Who is impressed?

I love this cartoon because I think it reflects the feeling that so many students have with their dissertations. I have been asked "why all the fuss about a dissertation? It is just another paper." But the reality is that it is not "just another paper." I have talked previously about the reasons for doing a dissertation, today I want to talk about whom at Walden sees your paper (and is hopefully impressed).

First, of course, is your chair. He or she is responsible for monitoring the quality of your paper. Your chair is not an unbiased reader: others will evaluate him or her as to your performance. Also, your chair will read your drafts many times, after a while they probably will no long see the details. Ideally, you can impress him or her with your writing skills, research knowledge, and persistence.

Second, is your committee member. This person also checks the quality of your paper but has more distance from you and has a less biased perspective. He or she reviews the paper fresh, and has less personal investment in it. They will also be impressed with your writing ability and knowledge of the subject.

Third, the University Research Reviewer (URR) reviews your paper for consistency and accuracy. He or she will have totally fresh eyes and be able to offer an unbiased opinion. Clear, concise writing, with a clear relationship between your research questions and research methods will impress them, as well as inclusion of the required elements on the dissertation checklist.

Fourth, is the Institutional Review Board (IRB). This committee reviews your project from an ethical viewpoint. They will be impressed if you have clearly stated your research questions, and have clearly outlined your research method. Be sure to check their web site for info on common ethical concerns.

Fifth, is the CAO when your final abstract is reviewed. Make sure that you follow the template guidelines and include the necessary elements.

Finally, future students and researchers will read your paper through the Dissertation databases and be impressed with your final paper's careful attention to detail and complete literature review!

Next time, we will take a look at some issues that arise in Chapter 5. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

The Research Journal

What will you write in your research journal? Anything you do on the project each day. To whom did you talk about the project, what did they say? What articles did you read, what are the important points from them? What ideas do you want to consider later? You can even get fancy and color code such things. You need to be able track the evolution of your thinking on the project and keep track of the day-to-day info that will cross your desk/ computer/ mind.

There are many ways to approach this- both high and low tech; the main thing is to be consistent with using it. You can certainly use a paper notebook and write things in it. Another alternative is to use Word or One Note (for Microsoft fans). Again more important is consistency of use. I have recently discovered some software that I have been recommending: The Journal <http://www.davidrm.com/> (costs about $50). It is not the easiest software to set up but is great once you do. It has a daily journal as well what it calls notebooks, in which you can easily document your progress. You can set up multiple notebooks and diaries for different topics/projects. You can also copy from other programs into it, allowing you to keep track of emails, citations, etc.

Next time, I will discuss who you need to impress with your writing. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Keeping Organized

One of the toughest parts of doing research is keeping track of the many pieces of information you collect. You not only want to find things the first time, but be able to find them months later. You also want to be able to recall your rationale for making the decisions that you made along the way and a timeline of when things were done.

First, let's think about your computer documents. (A warning- I am a windows person, so all of my software info is based on that). It is a really bad idea to just save everything into a single folder, like My Documents. I can guarantee that before long you won't be able to find anything! Instead, create some folders within My Documents. Personally, I would have one folder called Dissertation, within that folder I would have subfolders for Literature, Paper Drafts; later add IRB, and any other major categories you can think of.  I strongly advise saving every paper draft with the date it was written in the name of the file (don’t overwrite your old file – save the draft as a new file). Yes, that means you will have a huge number of files eventually, but (and here is why it is important) if your chair comes back and says – I think you should put back in that section you had on fish guts (or whatever), you still have it and don’t have to rewrite it. You also have a very nice record of the history of the project, and always know what is the most recent draft.

Always, always back up your files. Get an external hard drive, a flash (or thumb) drive, or a subscription to a cloud backup system and back up your dissertation files at least once a week. You can set your computer to backup automatically. Disasters occur. I have seen several students have their hard drive crash with no backup, losing whatever was on it.

I propose that you need (at least) three separate organizing systems, which I will discuss over the coming posts: 1) A research journal that keeps track of your day-to-day thoughts on your project. 2) Some way to keep track of references. 3) A future research ideas journal where you can keep track of ideas for future studies. Next I will go into more depth on each of these.

Next time, I will discuss keeping a research journal. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

The Dissertation Process

A quick overview of the dissertation process. I suggest printing out this list and putting it near your computer.

Prospectus. This is usually 10-12 pgs. It lays out your study, your chair, committee member, and program director must approve the prospectus. You will work with your chair on the prospectus. Keep in mind the topic of your study must be related to your program (so someone in health psych cannot do one on a clinical topic).

Proposal. This consists of Chapter 1 (Introduction), Chapter 2 (Literature Review), and Chapter 3 (Research Methods and Analyses) of your dissertation; typically, these three chapters together are approximately 75-125 pgs. Your chair will work with you on these three chapters. When he or she approves your proposal, you need to complete the checklist (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods as appropriate; available in Research Center). Your proposal and checklist will be sent to your committee member by your chair. You will need to update and send the checklist with each proposal revision to your committee member. When both your chair and committee member are happy with the proposal, you will need to submit it to MYDR/ taskstream to your University Research Reviewer (URR, faculty member appointed by University to double check the paper) for approval, with the checklist. You will need to update and send the checklist and turnitin report with each proposal revision to your URR.

Oral defense of proposal (1 hr. recorded conference call with chair and committee member), you will need to send a power point presentation of your study to your committee, prior to the call.

Institutional Review Board (ethics board, IRB), you will need to complete the IRB application (with all of the required materials as indicated on IRB website) and receive their approval. You will also need to complete ethics training online, see the IRB site for the application and info on training.

Collect data using the steps approved by IRB. If there are any changes to your methods, you need to get approval from the IRB. Your committee and URR should approve any major changes in methods.

Analyze data, as laid out in chapter 3. Your committee and URR should approve any major changes in analysis.

Chapter 4 (Results) and Chapter 5 (Summary and Recommendations), are typically another 40-50 pgs. with the full dissertation being all 5 chapters. When your chair approves your dissertation, you need to complete the checklist (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods as appropriate; available in Research Center). Your proposal and checklist will be sent to your committee member by your chair. You will need to update and send the checklist with each revision to your committee member. When both your chair and committee member are happy with the dissertation, you need to submit it to MyDR/ taskstream to your University Research Reviewer (URR, faculty member appointed by University to double check the paper) for approval, with the checklist and turnitin report. You will need to update and send the checklist with each revision to your URR.

Form & Style. The full dissertation is sent by the Research Center to Form & Style review (in Writing Center). Since the dissertation will be published, this review makes sure it is in correct publication format and APA formatting is correct.

Oral defense of dissertation (1 hr. recorded conference call with chair and committee member), you will need to send a power point presentation of your study to your committee, prior to the call.

URR. After you make the form & style revisions and they are approved by your committee your paper needs to be submitted to MyDR/ taskstream where it is sent back to the URR for a review of any changes since he/she last saw it.

CAO. When URR approves your paper, it is automatically sent by the Research Center to the Chief Academic Officer (CAO) for approval of just your abstract.

Done!

Next time, I will discuss keeping organized. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@mail.waldenu.edu

Next steps

Something I would like you to think about is that once you have your doctorate (like recent Dr. GiGi Van Ostrand, in the photo on right) you will be in a position to make a difference in your community and profession through service. Like what? You could be on the Board of Directors for a nonprofit you like. These are typically unpaid positions, where you get to influence the direction the group will go in the future. You may also be asked to do fundraising, so check on that before you agree; know what is involved. Also, ask about "fiduciary responsibility" (being responsible for money problems) and if the board has some type of liability insurance for its members (they should!).

Another type of service is using your skills that you have learned in your doctoral program as a volunteer in a nonprofit. Here is an example that I am currently doing. My local no-kill animal shelter collects a great deal of information about each animal and its new adopted owner, but they have not done anything with the data. I am entering all of the data into SPSS and analyzing a year of it for them. They can then use the analyses to better understand their programs and make future changes. I am hoping to publish this data, so I discussed it with the nonprofit's administrators in advance and got IRB approval from Walden. This way I have cleared any obstacles for future publication opportunities.

As a researcher and doctoral scholar, you will have opportunities to make a difference in your community. I hope that you will step up and create change on this local level! You may also want to consider being an officer/ member of the board of directors for state and national professional organizations. Use your expertise for things beyond your own advancement, help your profession and community.

Next time, I will review the dissertation process. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Searching

One question I am frequently asked "is how do I know that I have found all relevant articles in the library?" You really don't know- new literature is added every day. So searching should continue even after you have written the literature review.

However, I can give you some additional suggestions. Check the keywords on relevant articles that you find – and use those for additional searches. Check the references on all relevant articles and look for ones that you may not be aware of yet. Look at those articles' references and keywords. Think of it as being a detective- you are searching for that elusive clue!

Try searching without "full text" turned on – you may pull up articles that you have not seen before. You can request up to 20 articles (total at Walden) from the library's document delivery service – see the library home page for info on this.

Keep track in your research notebook all the searches you conduct, the database used, and the keywords used. You will need this info in c. 2; it also cuts down on the time for future searches.

There are a number of special features in the Walden library that I want to mention, that can help your search. When you have found an abstract that appears relevant, look to the left of it and you will see a green box labeled: "Find Similar Results using SmartText Searching." It is worth checking this to see if it gives you any help. Another resource is to look right above the green box at "Times cited in this database." This shows you every article that cited the one you are looking at. Often they will be related in topic.

Also a hint, if you find a reference you want to use – look at the right side of the screen and click "Cite." It will provide the full reference in APA format, this can be copied into your reference section.

Finally, if you are having a great deal of difficulty finding literature, contact the librarian. They are able to come up with many ideas for keywords and search terms that you have probably not considered.

Next time, I will discuss service. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

The Final Dissertation- from a Faculty View

In my inbox I have received all five chapters of the dissertation from a student, what am I looking for? First, I will carefully read the abstract; this is all that the CAO (Chief Academic Officer) will see, so it has to be written as well and as complete as possible. I will make sure that the student mentions the theory used, details about participants, analysis, some results, and ends with social change.

I will review c. 1-3 to make sure anything about the study is now in the past tense. I will carefully read c. 3 the methods and then read c.4, the results. First, I double-check the consistency between what they said they would do in c. 3 and what they actually did in c. 4. Any changes must be detailed and explained.

Chapter 4 should review the methods actually used and any problems that arose. It should also fully explain the analyses, and the results. Chapter 5 should explain the results by linking them back to the literature and to theory. This is where the student should show that they understand what they found and that they understand the implications. They also should discuss what the next steps should be in research in this area and the social change implications.

Of course, there should be no misspellings and the APA should be correct throughout.

Next time, we will take a look at searching for articles. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu