Developing and completing your graduate degree requirements typically centers around the “magnum opus”: the doctoral dissertation or Master’s thesis. Below are some of the key components you will need to address, along with recommended tools for successful completion.
As a seasoned research professional, I can provide solid assistance in your effort to examine and refine your own particular approach to graduate-level research.
My advice for you: Examine the full range of resources below, decide which stage of research you are currently evaluating. Decide on your timelines for completion, and then contact me.
Contents for this page include:
A. Background and Preparation Resources
I. Writing and Literature Review Resources
II. Preparing Your Research Proposal
III. Developing Your Dissertation/Thesis
B. Methodology and Analysis Resources
IV. Quantitative and Statistical Methods
V. Advanced Quantitative Methods
VI. Qualitative Methods
VII. Survey Research
VIII. Using SPSS, SAS, Stata, R
I. Writing and Literature Review Resources
- {NEW} Characteristics of Graduate-Level Writing: What is Academic Writing in Graduate School/PhD? Video by Research Professor David Maslach. Additional resources by Professor Maslach:
- How to Write an Academic Paper in 5 Simple Steps–Writing a Manuscript from the Bottom-Up
- Searching and Using Google Scholar to Find Academic Articles
- How to Become a More Effective Academic Writer: How to Be a Better Researcher
- Academic Rankings, Journal Quality, Publish-or-Perish, and the Academic Treadmill: Intro for Graduate Students
- A Simple Trick to Finding your Research Gap or Niche in Writing Papers: Literature Review and PhD Thesis
- Resources for Writing in the Disciplines
From the University of Maryland Graduate School, a comprehensive guide by specific field - APA Style
Specific APA writing resources guide from Indiana University of Pennsylvania - Writing Annotated Bibliographies
A guide for graduate students from Indiana University of Pennsylvania - The Literature Review: A Few Tips on Conducting It
A concise introduction by Dena Taylor from the University of Toronto Writing Center - Literature Reviews in Detail
This site explains what literature reviews are and offer insights into the form and construction of literature reviews in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center - Guidelines for Writing Literature Reviews
A comprehensive annotated guide by Helen Mongan-Rallis of the University of Minnesota at Duluth - Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students (video)
By Dr. John Klassen at North Carolina State University - Literature Reviews: Common Areas Made when Conducting a Literature Review (video) Sponsored by the Center for Research Quality
II. Preparing for Your Graduate Research Proposal
- How to Write a Research Topic
A reference from George Mason University’s Writing Center - Ten Tips for Writing your Research Proposal
A simple and straightforward guide from McGill University’s Division of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies - Writing a Research Proposal
A popular video introduction by Dr. Shady Attia - Demystifying the Dissertation Proposal
Advice by Leonard Cassuto from the Chronicle of Higher Education - Writing Dissertation Proposals: A Video Model
A dynamic video presentation by Dr. Candace Hastings for the Texas A&M University Writing Center
III. Developing and Completing Your Dissertation or Thesis
- Getting Started with your Thesis or Dissertation
An online guide created by GradMentor Scott Kerlin for the University of British Columbia’s Graduate Game Plan website, also created by Scott Kerlin - The Dissertation Journey: How to Get Started
An essay by Sonja K. Foss and William Waters for Inside Higher Ed - Choosing a Dissertation Topic, from Tomorrow’s Professor
Excerpted from the book, The Dissertation Journey: A Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Writing, and Defending Your Dissertation, by Carol M. Roberts (2010) - Ph.D. Thesis Research: Where Do I Start?
By Don Davis of Columbia University - Dissertation Tips and Tools
Very comprehensive guidance from the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill’s Writing Center - Starting the Dissertation: Experts offer tips on picking a topic, conducting a lit review and narrowing your focus
A guide by Melissa Ditman of the American Psychological Association’s GradPsych Magazine - Dissertation Calculator: Plan Your Completion Date
A detailed online planning guide for reaching the finish line with your dissertation, from the University of Minnesota Libraries - Writing and Presenting Your Thesis or Dissertation
A wonderfully-thorough reference by Dr. Joseph Levine of Michigan State University - Wrap Up your Dissertation with a Writing Plan
Advice by Katie Shives (Ph.D. candidate) for breaking up your dissertation into manageable tasks, from Inside Higher Ed‘s Gradhacker blog
IV. Quantitative and Statistical Methods–Overview
- {NEW} The Doctoral Journey, with Dr. Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw, a tremendous video collection of resources focusing on quantitative research methods in dissertation development. Especially valuable:
- Ten Simple Rules for Effective Statistical Practice
An article by Kass, Caffo, Davidian, Meng, Yu, & Reid (2016) published in the Public Library of Science - Guidelines for Reporting Quantitative Methods and Results in Primary Research
An overview by John M. Norris, Luke Plonsky, Steven J. Ross, and Rob Schoonend published in the journal Language Learning - Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS) E-Lessons–Overview
Carefully-organized online training guide from Columbia University - Introduction to Statistics: What are they, and How do I Know Which Ones to Choose? (video)
This tutorial provides an overview of statistical analyses in the social sciences. It distinguishes between descriptive and inferential statistics, discusses factors for choosing an analysis procedure, and identifies the difference between parametric and nonparametric procedures. - Intro to Statistics: Making Decisions based on Data
A free online course from Udacity - Statsoft: Online Textbook of Quantitative Methods
A reference standard for complete overview of statistical methods and applications - HyperStat Online Statistics Textbook, by David Lane
Another reference standard with clear, well organized and brief lessons - WISE: Web Interface for Statistics Education
An award-winning site containing interactive tutorials, videos, and applets teaching the full range of statistics research
V. Advanced Quantitative and Statistical Methods
- How to Calculate and Understand ANOVA Analysis of Variance Tests (video)
Sponsored by the StatisticsFun Youtube Channel of Awesome Statistics tutorials - Choosing Between a Nonparametric and a Parametric Test
Sponsored by the Minitab Blog devoted to excellence in statistical research - Applied Statistics: One-Way ANOVA Tutorial
A simple guide provided by Universalclass.com - Applied Statistics: Multivariate Data Tutorial
Another guide from Universal Class - How to do Multivariate Regression in Excel 2016: A Video Tutorial
Excellent introductory overview by Professor David Dunanetz of Azusa Pacific University - How to do a Simple Linear Regression (Single Variable) in Excel 2016: Video Tutorial from Professor David Dunanetz
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Multiple Regression: How to Test the Significance of the Coefficients in Excel 2016
Extended video tutorial by David Dunanetz
VI. Qualitative Methods
- Online QDA: Learning Qualitative Data Analysis on the Web
Online QDA is a set of learning materials which address common issues of undertaking qualitative data analysis (QDA) and beginning to use Computer Assisted Qualitative Data AnalysiS (CAQDAS) packages. Especially valuable is the comprehensive resources collection - Duke University Library Reference Guide Qualitative Research: Getting Started
Excellent starting point for exploring methods, approaches, and reference resources - Overview of Qualitative Research Methods (video)
Sponsored by the Center for Research Quality - Introduction to NVivo 11 for Qualitative Analysis
A video by Dr. Philip Adu, Ph.D. from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology - Writing the Methodology Chapter of a Qualitative Study
A video by Dr. Philip Adu, Ph.D. from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology - Writing-up Qualitative Research
A truly valuable resource produced by Dr. Graham R. Gibbs, based on a book of the same title by one of my former professors, Dr. Harry Walcott - Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector’s Field Guide
An excellent training resource from Family Health International - Fundamentals of Qualitative Research Methods: What is Qualitative Research? (video) Presented by Dr. Leslie Curry of Yale University’s School of Public Health, this is the first of 6 modules for full exploration of qualitative research in the health sciences
VII. Survey Research and Survey Methods
- Institute for Social Research Survey Research Center, University of Michigan
The Survey Research Center (SRC), a center within the Institute for Social Research (ISR), is a multi‐ and inter‐disciplinary research organization devoted to the discovery of and insight into major issues within the social and behavioral sciences. SRC is an international leader in research involving the collection and analysis of sample surveys, administrative and other non-survey data - Survey Research Guides for Scholars
Provided by the Colorado State University Writing Center, this somewhat dated guide provides a gentle overview of the strengths and challenges of survey research - Workshop on Survey Methods in Education Research: Facilitator’s Guide and Resources (2017), by Jill Walston, Jeremy Redford, and Monica P. Bhatt, from the American Institutes for Research
- Understanding and Evaluating Survey Research (2015), by Julie Ponto, PhD, published in the Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology
- Good Practice in the Conduct and Reporting of Survey Research(2003), by Kate Kelly, et al, published in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care
- Duke University Initiative on Survey Methodology
Includes a wide variety of survey research “tipsheets” on survey design, administration, software such as Qualtrics, and analysis in advanced social science research - Beginner Qualtrics Training Video (2017), by Dare McNamara. Her additional Qualtrics video is Advanced Qualtrics Training
- Qualtrics Surveys: Directory of Youtube Videos for Self-Tutoring
From California State University at Long Beach - Qualtrics Tips and Tricks (10 Video Tutorials) and Qualtrics Workshop Series (7 videos) from Research Data Services
- Qualtrics Basics for Survey Development (workshop)
Excellent introductory overview powerpoint presentation sponsored by the Occidental College Office of Institutional Research and Planning - Qualtrics Training Videos and Demonstration Guides
Sponsored by Qualtrics.com, you can also create a free account for learning purposes - Creating Surveys Using SurveyMonkey™
An overview of basic applications and techniques. Begin by creating a free account at SurveyMonkey.com
VIII. Using SPSS, SAS, Stata, R, and Similar Statistical Software
Note: For access to high-quality affordable training in these and other related software, you can create a free account at LinkedIn Learning for 30 days.
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- IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25: A Basic Tutorial
This online book is intended for those who want to learn the basics of SPSS. It can be used as a text in a class or by those working independently. - SPSS For the Classroom: The Basics
An easy to use guide provided by the Social Sciences Computing Cooperative of the University of Wisconsin - SAS Tutorials for Beginners/SAS Training/SAS Data Analysis (video)
From the extensive catalog of software training videos from edureka! - Master Catalog of Data Analysis Examples by Software Options
From UCLA’s Institute for Digital Research & Evaluation, this site contains examples (often hypothetical) illustrating the application of different statistical analysis techniques using different statistical packages–SPSS, SAS, Stata, and R. See also the collection of textbook examples for advanced data analysis - Learning Modules from UCLA’s IDRE:
- Stata Overview Videos by Amy Penn of UC San Francisco: (videos)
- Stata Introduction (video): How to Use Stata for a Beginner, Part 1 and Part 2, by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
- Introduction to Data Science Using R: Data Analysis Part 1 (video), Part 2, and Part 3
Provided by Microsoft Programmer David Langer -
R programming for beginners – statistic with R (t-test and linear regression)(video)
Popular video series by Greg Martin - R for Researchers: Introduction
From the Social Science Computing Cooperative of the University of Wisconsin - Using R for Qualitative Analysis (video)
Easy-to-follow introduction by Eren Kavas of the University of Oregon
- IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25: A Basic Tutorial
