1. Revised research proposal

2. “Design is concerned with turning research questions into projects.”
–Chapter 4 'General Design Issues' in Colin Robson's 'Real World Research', (2011), 3rd ed.
NB you can obtain copies of this book in the GSMD library

4. Purpose Impact questions: Who’s it for? Yourself and...
Communities of practice?
Policy?
Social justice?
Why now?

5. Conceptual framework What is your lens? Methodologies
E.g. ethnography/ practitioner research/ action research/ grounded theory (etc, etc, etc)
And/ or
Theories
E.g. Phenomenology/ discourse analysis/ gender theory/

6. Methods Doing the artistic practice/ cycles of practice
Recording and reflecting on this practice, focus on process, journey
HOW? E.g. Practice journal/ recording practice sessions
Social science methods
Interviews, observations, questionnaires
Your role: “invasive”? Non-invasive?

7. Sampling strategy
Intrinsically bound up with methods (‘research is the art of the possible’ Sue Hallam)
Who are you including in your study as participants?
Case study? Representative sample of population?
How do you get to them?
Access, recruitment?
Sampling methods: gatekeeper, open advert, ‘snowballing’

8. A note about validity and reliability
Validity: are your methods to answer your RQs plausible? Are your findings plausible?
Reliability: are your results replicable?
All research has to demonstrate validity, but not all research has to demonstrate reliability
If you cannot / are not aiming for your research to be reliable, you must adjust your claims.

10. Doctoral research
originality
rigour
significance

11. Originality of study I
You will need to refer to other literature/ practice to argue your study is original in:
Empirical setting/ context (e.g. these research questions have been asked before in a secondary school context, but never in a Conservatoire....)
Research questions (e.g. there is existing research in this setting, but these questions have not been asked)
Methodological lens (e.g. these questions have been asked before in this setting, but my use of narrative research aims to show specifically how international students experience one-to-one instrumental tuition in a post-graduate Conservatoire context)

12. Originality of study II
You will need to refer to other literature/ practice to argue your study is original in:
Your particular artistic context/ in terms of your own practice (e.g. these research questions have been asked before by pianist-researchers, but not by violinists.)
Research questions (e.g. there is existing research on composing in community contexts, but these questions have only been asked of informal collaborative devised work, not of composer written pieces commissioned for public events.)
Methodological lens (e.g. these questions have been asked before by music psychologists, but my use of practice research/auto-ethnography aims to document a performer’s perspective on the string quartet rehearsal process.)

13. Rigour Systematic study (not the same as exhaustive...)
Critical evaluation (not just assembling facts, hagiography)
Knowledge and application of methods sufficient to carry out the study (beware of using too many methods hoping to answer your RQs from ‘all’ angles)
Demonstrate that different parts of your research are coherent/ share a common thread

14. Significance I
Contribution to knowledge for a particular community (e.g. particular discipline, type of person, group of people)
Transferable knowledge (can arise from new context/empirical setting which reveals new insights, a new set of research or artistic tools that others can apply to their own work/practice, new theory which can be tested/applied in different contexts) Or
Significant insights into artistic processes
Impact - Dissemination strategy if it shapes your final submission

15. Significance II
NB: significance is rarely stated *for doctoral research* solely in terms of a new artistic product
Please don’t say ‘my work is original because no one has recorded these pieces before....’ Instead, say ‘these recordings offer significant insight into how [your RQ] a performer today might present an alternative performance style of virtuoso nineteenth century etude-caprices’