When Good Research Goes Bad RPC Brownbag – April 18, 2018

Research Without Regret! From Decision Advancer Missing information. We already know that! You came to that conclusion? Wrong process!

Challenges of International Research Carefully considered the questions to ask. Conferred with Survey Research Lab Translation double-checked in U.S. Sent off and waited, and waited, and waited.

No results Finally in-country discovered the following image was what people were looking at…

Lesson Learned Always have a person in-country test your survey for content, format and more. Drop and pick survey method may work best, but give yourself plenty of time.

Mileage May Vary – Don’t Make Assumptions Make sure your method meets the needs of your subjects Make sure your partnerships understand how sponsored projects work Make sure you are working through the correct agency Be prepared for disappearing partners and changing plans Be aware of the possibility for pre-funding disasters. When writing IRBs, “weasel words” help, especially with interview questions. Semi-structured interviews with possible questions are a good idea. “This survey may take 30 minutes or less to complete.” Non-exempt projects require extra time for approval Leave enough time for interviews (even if some are really, really short).

Some suggested tools Basic Search Tools for Information Sciences Research Research Methodology for the Social Sciences and Health Common Research Methods in IS Survey Research Lab/ Scholarly Commons Savvy Researcher Center for Writing Studies Conferring with colleagues – This links to the Research Consultation Scheduler

Thanks for coming and sharing today!!!!! Research and Publication Committee Members: Lynne Rudasill (Chair) – rudasill@Illinois.edu Merinda Hensley - mhensle1@illinois.edu Shuyong Jiang - shyjiang@illinois.edu David Morris - dmorri9@illinois.edu Carissa Phillips - choller@illinois.edu Angela Waarala - waarala2@illinois.edu