1. Research Projects “Kick-off meeting” 7 Nov November 2018
Lourens Waldorp
Sanne Bentvelzen

2. Research Projects What do you learn? What is a project? Requirements!
How to find a project?
How to manage your project?
Procedures
Deadlines!
Next …

3. What do you learn? Review current state of affairs
Derive interesting question
Construct a clever design
Present plans convincingly
Discuss your plans, learn from feedback
Gather data
Discuss and analyze data
Write report & present at conferences
Derive theoretically motivated predictions/hypotheses that are feasible to operationalize.
Work in research team with divided roles; you have your own role/responsibility.
(Make sure that you) are aware of your responsibilities

4. What do you learn? Review current state of affairs
Derive interesting question
Construct a clever design
Present plans convincingly
Discuss your plans, learn from feedback
Gather data
Discuss and analyze data
Write report & present at conferences
8) In the proposal you define which hypotheses are part of the confirmative testing in contrast to explorative testing.

5. You should be very FAST

6. 2. What is a project Internship
In the research projects you image the work of an academic researcher. It is very similar to what PhD students are doing.

7. Research Project ≠ Assignment
You are part of a project group
Members have different roles
Meetings are for information exchange, not for testing you
Provide information systematically
Ask questions (but put effort in it first)
Prepare well ! but do not always aim to present a finished product
Project
Example: abstract logical reasoning, which term in literature corresponds to this ability? How would you ask that?
If you read articles; it can never be the case that you do not have any questions. Always try to formulate the relevance of the article to the project, for example

8. Internship:
Should at least comprise a number of different research tasks
Student doesn’t have to formulate own hypotheses and research question
Student does not have final responsibility for answering the research questions
Report = proposal + results + discussion

9. Thesis: Covers the full ‘empirical cycle’; from question to conclusion
Student has final responsibility for answering the research questions
Proposal has to be approved by the Thesis committee
Report in the format of a international journal article (with possible additions)

10. Empirical Cycle
The royal route to knowledge = information + judgment

11. Similarities Second semester Combined with technical courses
Could be conducted abroad
High workload
But… it’s exciting!

12. What’s the difference? Internship Thesis Year 1
18-24ec= hrs= days
Starts in February
3-4 months full time workload
Mostly conducted part-time
At least 3 stages empirical cycle
Report=proposal+results +discussion
Second assessor not required
Proposal not graded
Thesis
Year 2
26-32ec= hrs= days
Starts in January
5-6 months full time workload
Mostly conducted full-time
All stages of empirical cycle
Report format of an international journal article (with possible additions)
Second assessor required
Graded proposal (4 EC)

13. 3. Requirements Internship and Thesis are: carried out by one student
in major and minor (preferably)
on different topics
supervised by different researchers
two different projects

14. Who can be supervisor Primary supervisor Staff member UvA Psychology
Research appointment
Member national research school
Daily supervisor (possible addition):
PhD student / other staff
Other staff at other university (external)

15. External research project
ResMas and external supervisor
ResMas supervisor is always first assessor: approves proposal and awards grade & credits
Thesis: External supervisor cannot be second assessor because he/she is involved in the research project.
Student + ResMas + Resmas supervisor should have at least five meetings

16. External research project
Student + UvA ResMas supervisor have at least 5 meetings. If necessary feedback to local supervisor.
Initial meeting
first draft of the proposal is discussed
Proposal meeting
approve the proposal
Midterm meeting:
1.5 months after proposal to check progress
Report setup meeting
before you start writing the report
Final meeting
product and process are discussed & graded

17. 4. How to find a project
Package deals on ResMas website:

18. How to find a supervisor
Approach staff member / (psyres.uva.nl)
Course assignment / lab presentation
Package deal
‘Cold’ contact
External project
Choose a project where you can learn a lot!

19. How to approach supervisors
Plan orientation meeting(s)
Announce goal
Prepare for the meeting
15-20 min
Chemistry?

20. 5. How to manage your project?
Avoid delay

21. 5. How to manage your project?
Carefully make time-schedule

22. 5. How to manage your project?
Carefully make time-schedule
What is the timeframe?
1 hour supervision per EC
Plan meth & stat courses too
Plan extra hours to make up for delays
Plan vacations and days off
Consider what could be optional
Also, dare to say what is less or more important. Are there elements that you could skip or shorten to make up for disappointments

23. 5. How to manage your project?
Carefully make time-schedule
List your tasks and duties

24. 5. How to manage your project?
Carefully make time-schedule
List your tasks and duties
Read assessment form before the start
Ask your supervisor for help
Formulate goals clearly
Keep your interests in mind
Publication is not part of the project

25. 5. How to manage your project?
Carefully make time-schedule
List your tasks and duties
Make S.M.A.R.T. agreements

26. 5. How to manage your project?
Carefully make time-schedule
List your tasks and duties
Make agreements S.M.A.R.T.
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Results-oriented
Timebound

27. 5. How to manage your project?
Carefully make time-schedule
List your tasks and duties
Make agreements S.M.A.R.T. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound
Prepare for every meeting
Send (work+questions) before meetings
Make notes at meetings
Send (notes+actions) after meetings
You may ask anything, as long as you have invested in the answer
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound

28. 5. How to manage your project?
Carefully make time-schedule
List your tasks and duties
Make S.M.A.R.T. agreements
Talk about content and process

29. 5. How to manage your project?
Carefully make time-schedule
List your tasks and duties
Make S.M.A.R.T. agreements
Talk about content and process
Regular maintenance
(Risks for) delay?
Do expectations still match?

30. 5. How to manage your project?
Carefully make time-schedule
List your tasks and duties
Make S.M.A.R.T. agreements
Talk about content and process
Be constructive and pragmatic

31. 6. Procedures Before the research starts: Research Proposal
Peer Review
Ethics code
Thesis committee
Gather Data
After the research work
Final report
Poster presentation at Graduate Conference
Individual oral defense (Thesis only)

32. 6. Procedures Contract Names supervisor(s) & student
Name of second assessor *
Title and Keywords
Start date – End Date
Hours per week EC
Frequency of meetings
Signatures
Apart from the Research Master’s supervisor, a second assessor is involved to check the quality of the Thesis. The second assessor does not take part in the actual research.
The thesis proposal is assessed and graded by the second assessor as the thesis report. The supervisor and student approach a second assessor for the project. The Research Master’s supervisor has the final say in who will be approached as second assessor.

33. Internship contract

34. Thesis contract

35. 6. Procedures Proposal Who and where Title, summary, keywords
Project description
Procedure
Work plan
References
Signatures

37. Documents Where to find contract & proposal format:
research projects
Latest version of all relevant documents

38. Peer Reviews (2) Two fellow students
Don’t need to be experts on the topic
Adjust proposal upon comments
Hand in peer reviews with proposal

39. Ethics Review Board Checks each proposal
Website Reference code is enough for proposal
Supervisor carries responsibility
External project? Adhere to local ethics procedure

41. Hand in internship proposal
Internship proposals signed by supervisor(s) and student;
Sent to Thesis Committee;
Internship research may start while the proposal is written

42. Hand in Thesis proposal
Thesis proposals signed by supervisor(s) and student;
Sent to the Thesis Committee;
Thesis proposals are reviewed and graded;
Thesis proposals have to be approved before starting the research

43. Hand in the proposals thesis-researchmaster-psy@uva.nl
in PDF to:
Research proposal
Two peer reviews
Include signatures in PDF or send signed copy to ResMas coordinator

44. Thursday 24 Januari 2019 Thursday 20 December 2018
7. Deadline Contract
Internship
Thursday 24 Januari 2019
Thesis
Thursday 20 December 2018

45. 7. Deadline Proposal Thursday 28 March 2019 Thursday 28 February 2019
Internship
Thursday 28 March 2019
Thesis
Thursday 28 February 2019

46. Procedure Before the research starts: Research Proposal Peer Review
Ethics code
Thesis committee
Gather Data
After the research work
Final report
Poster presentation at Graduate Conference
Individual oral defense (Thesis only)

47. Final Report Internship report:
Research proposal with results and discussion section added
Thesis report:
Report in the format of a international journal article (with possible additions)

48. Poster presentation at Graduate Conference
Second week of October on Friday
Both internship and thesis research

49. Individual oral defense
Only for Thesis
1 hour presentation
in English
in attendance of supervisor
part of your assessment

50. 7. Deadline Final Report
Internship & Thesis
1 July 2019

51. 7. After the Deadline ….
this could influence your grade (time planning is essential part of doing research)
Internship: You will also be assigned to fellow students who did not make the deadline and will need to come together once a week to inform each other about your study plan
It is NOT possible to follow 2 courses next to your Internship in September

52. 7. Deadlines Internship Overview Internship Deadlines Wed 31 Oct 2018
Kickoff Meeting
Thu 24 Jan 2019
Hand in Internship Contract
Mon 4 Feb 2019
Start Internship
Tue 5 March 2019
Proposal meeting; present intented Internship project
Thu 28 March 2019
Submit internship proposal + 2
peer reviews
End June 2019
End of project. Hand in Final report and Assessment form
10/11 Oct 2019
Poster presentation graduate conference
P 106

53. 7. Deadlines Thesis Overview Thesis Deadlines Wed 7 Nov 2018
Kickoff Meeting
Thu 20 dec 2018
Contract Thesis
Mon 7 Jan 2019
Start Thesis project
Thu 31 Jan
Proposal meeting; present intended Thesis project
Thu 28 Feb 2019
Submit Thesis proposal + 2 peer reviews
Thu 14 March 2019
Thesis proposal will be reviewed by Thesis Committee within two weeks
Thu 28 March 2019
If required: hand in proposal revision
1 July 2019
End of project
10/11 Oct 2019
Poster presentation at the Graduate Conference
P 107

54. 8. Next
Next action = contract
Next meeting = proposal meeting

55. Proposal meeting Present in 5 minutes to a small group:
state of the art
gap
research question
importance

56. Any questions?

57. Good Luck!

58. +/- time plan Internship
Project
Courses?
Jan
Look for a project
Programming R/Presentation
Feb
Hand in contract
Work on proposal
Statistics 1
Meta Analysis
March
Data collection + learning programs
Statistics 2
EEG
Modern Test Theory
April
Data collection + learning programs
Sem 1
Neuroimaging Pat An
AT movp
May
Collect data, cleaning data analyse
Sem 2
June
Handing in first draft + adjusting + oral presentation
Bayesian
Multilevel

59. +/- time plan Thesis Project Courses? Dec
Find Project + sign Contract (16 dec)
Specialisation courses
Jan
Write thesis proposal -
Feb
Hand in proposal at supervisor get feedback and approval
Hand in thesis prop at theses committee (26 feb)
March
Rewrite thesis proposal
after revision start data collection
Stat2
EEG
April
Data collection + learning analysis / programs
SEM1 NeuroImaging Pattern An
Meta Analysis
May
Collect data, cleaning data analyse
SEM2
Progr Next step
June
Hand in first draft
final version
oral presentation
Bayasian
Multilevel