Research Methods COSC2148/COSC2149/COSC2150 (formerly known as CS700) ‏

..be considerate to others – switch off mobile phones during lectures and seminars, or put them into silent mode. Please…

Welcome to Research Methods! Teaches you the skills and practices of research Reading Experimenting Analysing Writing Presenting Critical thinking! Directly relevant to your thesis. Likely to be relevant to your future activities (research or otherwise…) ‏

Staff Course Leader: James Harland, Lecturers: Vic Ciesielski James Harland James Thom Falk Scholer Andrew Turpin Lin Padgham

Resources Course home page: Methods/ Methods/ Includes official timetable and assignment deadlines Course newsgroup: rmit.cs.ResearchMethods You should read this regularly; all course-related announcements will be made there. Course notes are available in the RMIT bookshop.

Course Structure Lectures: Weekly 2 hours Labs: Held in some weeks (check course home page for current information) ‏ Unsupervised Relate to assignments Exam: There is no exam

Lecture Topics WeekDateLecturerTopic 125/7James Harland; Vic Ciesielski Introduction; What is Research? (a) 21/8Vic CiesielskiWhat is Research? (b) 38/8James Harland Falk Scholer Research Literature Information Resources 415/8James ThomWriting a Research Proposal

Lecture Topics WeekDateLecturerTopic 522/8James HarlandTechnical Writing 629/8Falk ScholerLaboratory Skills 712/9Lin PadghamEthics in Research 819/9Falk ScholerEmpirical Research Note: no lecture on 5 th September for mid-semester break ‏

Lecture Topics WeekDateLecturerTopic 926/9Falk ScholerEmpirical Research 103/10TBCManaging and Planning Research 1110/10Andrew TurpinResearch Presentations 1217/10You!Student Presentations

Assignments #DescriptionDue by 9.30pm on: 1What is research?1/8 2Supervisor8/8 3Lab Skills5/9 4Research Paper - First submission12/9 5Research Paper - Reviews of two student papers19/9 6Empirical Research3/10 7Presentations (nothing to be submitted) ‏ 17/10 8Research Paper - Final version17/10

Assignments… Assignments are due by 9:30pm on Thursday evenings (before the next RM lecture). Except for lab skills, due Friday night because no lecture that week A penalty of 10% per day will be applied for late submissions. Note that this course has many assignments – plan your time carefully.

Labs (Unsupervised) ‏ #DescriptionDate 1Generating PDFWeek 1 (25/7, today) 2Finding papersWeek 3 (8/8) 3LaTexWeek 4 (15/8) 4Lab SkillsMid-semester break (5/9) 5Presentation ToolsWeek 10 (3/10)

Expected Work You are expected to make progress on your thesis as part of doing this course. In particular, if you don’t already have a supervisor and a topic – now would be a good time to start talking to potential supervisors … For a list of possible projects/supervisors, see: Failing RM will prevent you from enrolling in a thesis subject!

Plagiarism: Submitting an assignment that contains other people's work. Helping other students to plagiarise. All submitted work must be your own. The only exception is where the assignment has explicit instructions to do so. All copied work (from the Internet, other students, or staff) must be fully identified. Plagiarism is an offence…

Students are responsible for ensuring that their work is kept in a secure place. It is also a disciplinary offence for students to allow their work to be plagiarised by another student. Students should be aware of their rights and responsibilities regarding the use of copyright material. Plagiarism is an offence…

A student who submits copied work receives no marks for that assignment. Partial marks will not be given. Even if only part of the assignment was copied, the student will get no marks. If this means that a hurdle is not reached, then the student fails the subject. A student who plagiarises a second time will be sent to the disciplinary committee. Penalties include failure, fines, and expulsion from the university. For more information, see “Plagiarism" under: Plagiarism is an offence…

Turnitin Software For Research Methods, assignments are checked using turnitin. Turnitin is a software package that is used to detect plagiarism. It checks submissions against other assignments, material from the Web, and so on. See: cintegrity cintegrity

Other Aspects of Doing Research Being part of a community (mailing lists, news groups, conferences, … ) ‏ Seeking papers Reading both within and outside your area Attending seminars RMIT School seminars are held on Fridays, 11:30-12:30 / / Your group may have their own meetings – ask your supervisor

Your Supervisor Is expected to be involved: Weekly meetings Feedback on drafts of paper (but you need to give them time) ‏ If your supervisor tries to tell you that they aren’t meant to be involved, or that the research doesn’t start until next semester then they are WRONG and you need to talk with James Harland (RM coordinator).