Quest for Answers: Intro to Research Methods
COLQ 2010-01
Fall 2015
127 Gibson Hall
Adam Beauchamp
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library
Office Hours by appointment
504.247.1785
abeaucha@tulane.edu
Goals
Develop an understanding of the research process as it is carried out within and across scholarly
disciplines.
Recognize the broad ethical implications of research
Identify areas of personal interest for future research
Become familiar with campus resources that facilitate undergraduate research
Objectives
After completing this course, students will be able to:
Explain the purpose and processes of academic research.
Communicate research to a variety of audiences.
Describe the ethical issues related to the conduct and communication of research.
Draft a research proposal that addresses an unanswered question relevant to a field of study.
Honors Program Outcomes
This course continues the presentation of research methods in Tulane Scholars’ major(s), teaching
students how to develop a research question, and introducing them to researching literature
relevant to their question. Students also have the opportunity to meet other Tulane Scholars in
their majors and professors in their academic department. Tulane Scholars enroll in this course in
Fall or Spring of their second year.
Readings
The following are available for purchase at the Tulane Bookstore:


Eco, Umberto. (1977) 2015. How to Write a Thesis. Translated by Caterina Mongiat Farina
and Geoff Farina. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1962) 2012. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 4th edition. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Other required readings will be made available for download from MyTulane (Blackboard), or can
be downloaded from the online collections of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library.
Evaluation & Grading
This course is based on the premise that a diversity of perspectives leads to greater understanding
and an increased likelihood of discovering truth. Your participation in class discussions and
activities is critical in this endeavor. We all have a contribution to make, and if you withhold yours
from the group through excessive absences or silence, we are all the poorer.
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Grade Breakdown
Class participation in discussions & activities
Interview assignment
Communicating research
First draft, research proposal
Writing for the public
Writing for funding
Class presentation & participation
Final research proposal (Final exam)
50%
10%
5%
5%
5%
10%
15%
Due Date
10/6
10/13
10/29
11/12
11/17 – 11/24
12/15
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for Students with Special Needs
Any students with disabilities or other special needs, who need special accommodations in this
course, are invited to share these concerns or requests with the instructor and contact Goldman
Center for Disability Services: http://tulane.edu/studentaffairs/disability.
Code of Academic Conduct
The Code of Academic Conduct applies to all undergraduate students, full-time, and part-time, in
Tulane University. Tulane University expects and requires behavior compatible with its high
standards of scholarship. By accepting admission to the university, a student accepts its regulations
(i.e., Code of Academic Conduct: http://tulane.edu/college/code.cfm, Code of Student Conduct:
http://tulane.edu/studentaffairs/conduct/code.cfm) and acknowledges the right of the university
to take disciplinary action, including suspension or expulsion, for conduct judged unsatisfactory or
disruptive.
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COLQ 2010-01
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Class Outline: Subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.
Unit 1: What is Research?
Week 1
8/25: Intro to Research
8/27: Intro to Research and the Scientific Method
Read and be ready to discuss:
Eco, Introductions, Chapters 1 & 7;
Schwartz, “The importance of stupidity in scientific research.”
Optional: Wikipedia, “Scientific Method” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method)
Week 2
9/1: Paradigms and Normal Science
Read: Kuhn, Chapters 1-3.
Optional reading: Kuhn, Chapters 4-5.
9/3: Discovery as Collective Endeavor
Read: Kuhn, Chapter 6 (pp. 52-65);
Restall, Chapter 1 (pp. 1-26)
Unit 2: Disciplines & Scholarly Communities
Week 3
9/8: Definitions of Discipline
Read: Aldrich, Part 1 (Chapters 2-4, pp. 11-73)
Assignment (due next class):
1. Identify a major scholarly association for your field of study/major. Explore their website. How is
the association organized? Do they meet regularly? What happens at their meetings?
2. Identify a major scholarly journal for your discipline, perhaps published by the association you
found. Browse the most recent issue. How is it organized? What kinds of studies are being
published? Are there other types of content besides study articles?
9/10: Scholarly communities
Read: Eco, Chapter 2
Assignment (due 10/6): Interview a professor. Details provided on handout.
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Week 4: At the Library
9/15: Meet at Howard-Tilton, room 309
Read: Eco, Chapter 3
Assignment (due 9/24): Put together a preliminary bibliography of sources you have found. Instead
of listing them alphabetically, group them in whatever way makes most sense to you. Try to map
out specific debates surrounding your topic (e.g. areas of theoretical disagreement, methodological
diversity). Label groups and annotate individual sources in whatever way helps you to organize and
understand them.
9/17: Meet at Howard-Tilton, room 308
Read: Eco, Chapter 4
Bring laptop if you have one. Download Zotero plugins/connectors as needed.
Assignment (due next class):
Bring a print copy of a scholarly article (an original study—no review essays or book reviews) from
your bibliography to class next time for an in-class activity.
Week 5
9/22: Connecting the Dots
Read: Hyland, “Academic attribution”
9/24: Developing a Research Question
Due: Preliminary bibliography
Review: Kuhn’s concept of Normal Science (Chapter 3), and Eco’s advice on choosing a topic
(Chapter 2)
Assignment (due 10/13): First draft of research proposal. Details provided on handout.
Read: Eco, Chapter 5 “Writing the Thesis” to help you write you first draft.
Unit 3: Methods & Ethics
Week 6
9/29: What is Methodology? What are Methods?
Read: Symonds and Gorard, “Death of Mixed Methods?”; Wallace, Chapter 1
Assignment: Consider the methods commonly used by the authors in your bibliography. Select the
best methodology for the research question you’re working on, and be ready to discuss it next class.
10/1: Matching Methods to Research Questions
Week 7
10/6: Interactive Methods: Interview, Focus Group, Survey, Participant Observation
Due: Interview a professor write-up
Read: Krosnick, et al., “The Future of Survey Research”; Seltzer, “The Myers-Brigg Personality Test
is Bunk”; Grant, “Goodbye to MBTI”
10/8: Hazards of Statistical Methods
Read: TBA
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Week 8
10/13: No class meeting.
Due: First draft of research proposal
Upload to myTulane (Blackboard) by 6:00pm
10/15: Fall Break
Week 9
10/20: Science & Society
Read: Feyerabend, Part Two, §1-10
Assignment (due 10/29): Writing for the public
10/22: Researchers Face the Public
Read: TBA
Week 10
10/27: Ethics of Research with Human & Animal Subjects
Read: Milgram, “Behavioral study of obedience”; Kramer et al., “Experimental evidence of massivescale emotional contagion through social networks”; Goel, “Facebook tinkers with users’ emotions
in news feed experiment, stirring outcry.”
10/29: Ethics of Research continued
Due: Writing for the public
Read: Aschwanden, “Science Isn’t Broken”
Week 11
11/3: TBA
11/5: Funding Research
Guest instructor: Charlotte Maheu Vail (Honors Program) shares grant and scholarship
opportunities, and leads discussion on how to write for funding organizations.
Week 12
11/10: Supported research and publishing opportunities at Tulane
Guest speaker: Gary Talarchek (CELT)
11/12: Best practices for presentations
Due: Writing for grant funding
Week 13
11/17: Conference presentations 1-4
11/19: Conference presentations 5-8
Week 14
11/24: Conference presentations 9-12
11/26: Thanksgiving Break
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Week 15
12/1: Conference presentations 13-16
12/3: Class Debrief
What is Research? Where do we go from here?
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Course Bibliography
Aldrich, John H., editor. 2014. Interdisciplinarity : Its Role in a Discipline-Based Academy : A Report.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Aschwanden, Christie. 2015. “Science Isn’t Broken.” FiveThirtyEight. August 19.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/science-isnt-broken/.
Goel, Vindu. 2014. “Facebook Tinkers With Users’ Emotions in News Feed Experiment, Stirring
Outcry.” The New York Times, June 29.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/technology/facebook-tinkers-with-usersemotions-in-news-feed-experiment-stirring-outcry.html.
Eco, Umberto. (1977) 2015. How to Write a Thesis. Translated by Caterina Mongiat Farina and
Geoff Farina. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Feyerabend, Paul. 1978. Science in a Free Society. London: NLB.
Grant, Adam. 2013. “Goodbye to MBTI, the Fad That Won’t Die.” Psychology Today. September 18.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/give-and-take/201309/goodbye-mbti-the-fadwon-t-die.
Hyland, Ken. 2004. Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press.
Kramer, Adam D. I., Jamie E. Guillory, and Jeffrey T. Hancock. 2014. “Experimental Evidence of
Massive-Scale Emotional Contagion through Social Networks.” Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences 111 (24): 8788–90. doi:10.1073/pnas.1320040111.
Krosnick, Jon A., Stanley Presser, Kaye Husbands Fealing, and Steven Ruggles. 2015. “The Future of
Survey Research: Challenges and Opportunities.” National Science Foundation.
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/AC_Materials/The_Future_of_Survey_Research.pdf.
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1962) 2012. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 4th edition. Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
Milgram, Stanley. 1963. “Behavioral Study of Obedience.” The Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology 67 (4): 371–78. doi:10.1037/h0040525.
Reardon, Sara. 2015. “US Vaccine Researcher Sentenced to Prison for Fraud.” Nature 523 (7559):
138–39. doi:10.1038/nature.2015.17660.
Restall, Matthew. 2003. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. New York: Oxford University Press.
Schwartz, Martin A. 2008. “The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research.” Journal of Cell
Science 121 (11): 1771–1771. doi:10.1242/jcs.033340.
Seltzer, Sarah. 2015. “The Myers-Briggs Personality Test Is Bunk But I Don’t Care.” WIRED. May 30.
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/the-myers-brigg-personality-test-is-bunk-but-i-dontcare/.
Wallace, Walter L. 1971. The Logic of Science in Sociology. Chicago, Aldine Atherton.
Wikipedia. (n.d.). “Scientific Method.” Available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method.
Accessed 8 August 2015.
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Tear off this page.
Name: ______________________________________________________________________________
In the space below, respond to the following:
What is research?
Based on any past experience, describe your experience with the research process (e.g. how you
felt, how you managed it, etc.).