GenBus 965: Beginning a Research Career (Fall 14)

Instructor:Russ Coff

Email:hone: (608) 263-6437

Office Hrs:by appointment in 4259 GraingerFax: (608) 265-5031

Class: Tuesdays 5-7pm in5115 Grainger (Weinert Center)

Course Overview and Objectives

This one credit course is required of incoming students in the Wisconsin School of Business PhD program. Students are often overwhelmed and do not absorb material when offered all at once before they begin their regular courses. This format offers fundamental content about conducting research and academic life that is not specific to a given department in the business school but will help to frame and motivate other studies. This format gives students more time to absorb the content at a point when they can better see how it applies to them.

Also, this seminar will give students a chance to interact with each other, create more of a cohort effect, and draw on each other as resources to propel themselves forward in the program. It is an opportunity to network with other PhD students at different stages in the program who can highlight critical resources and knowledge to help chart a path through the program.

Learning Objectives/KDBIN

Our ultimate goal is to help students come up to speed more quickly to become productive researchers who can eventually be placed in excellent research positions. Specific objectives include:

Knowing

  1. Resources/tools: Learn what resources we have available to support researchers (data, software, financial resources, etc.) that are critical to success in the program;
  2. Academic careers: Understand the bigger picture of what is required to be a successful academic (tenure process, networking, preparation for the job market …);
  3. Research process: Understand the basics of how research is conducted (generating ideas, framing a contribution, responding to reviewers…);
  4. PhD Program steps: Understands how to chart a path through PhD program requirements.

Doing

  1. Resources/tools: Be able to find and utilize resources we have available as well as the right people to answer key questions;
  2. Academic careers: Demonstrated ability to network within the PhD program and among faculty in the students’ departments;

Being

  1. Exercises and discussion help students to make the transformation between student life and being an academic.

Inspiring

  1. By exposing students to the hurdles of an academic career, it seeks to inspire them to conduct publishable and impactful research.

Networking

  1. Students will begin to create networks within (and even beyond) the school to serve as a springboard for their careers.

Assignments and Evaluation

Since this is only a one-credit course, we will keep the workload to a minimum. There will be supplementary readings that go into deeper detail on the resources or topics. However, evaluation will generally be based on attendance and participation in the discussion. The objective here is to provide a set of tools that help students align their efforts to perform better throughout the program. Grades are on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

Resources

Most of the readings and resources will be kept in a dropbox folder that is accessible to all students and will remain so after the course concludes.

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Outline of Session Topics

# / Topic / Date / Instructor1
1 / Welcome: Coordination, Q&A, Life balance, and suggestions for International Students / 9/2 / Meredith Thomas (AIS)
Kyeonghee Kim (ASRMI)
2 / Academic careers:Tenure Process – What does it look like and implications for your time management & development of a research program / 9/9 / Stacie Laplante (AIS)
Hart Posen (MHR)
3 / PhD Program: What is a dissertation? One big study? Three papers? Other models? Framing an overarching contribution and creating a springboard for a research program… / 9/16 / Ella Mae Matsumura (AIS)
Jed Frees (ASRMI)
4 / Academic careers: Preparing for the job market.Job market paper; teaching/research statements, giving a job talk, preparing a vita, preparing for job interviews / 9/23
SMS* / Joan Schmit (ASRMI)
Dereck Barr (AIS)
5 / PhD Program: Making it through the hoops (Miners, Comprehensive exams, Proposing,committee composition, finding resources) and your representatives on the PhD committee / 9/30 / Belle Heberling/Phil Miller
PhD Committee Student Representatives
6 / Research Process: Strategies for generating research ideas. Research creativity in designing studies and framing a contribution / 10/7 / Jihae Shin (MHR)
Page Moreau (Mkt)
7 / Resources/Tools:Financial databases.Accessing WRDS, CRSP, Compustat, IBES, Thompson Reuters, SDC, SEC EDGAR, UW Data and Info Services Center (DISC), BLS, etc. / 10/14 / Michael Enyart (Library)
Kris Allee (AIS)
Tiffany Trzebiatowski (MHR)
8 / Resources/Tools:Financial databases.Accessing WRDS, CRSP, Compustat, IBES, Thompson Reuters, SDC, SEC EDGAR, UW Data and Info Services Center (DISC), BLS, etc. / 10/21 / Eric Condie (AIS)
Amanda Convery (AIS)
9 / Resources/Tools:Statistical and data analysis software such as SAS, Stata, R, LaTeX, MatLab (etc.): where and how to access, what each is good for, where to find more information… / 10/28 / Amanda Convery (AIS)- SAS/STATA
Gee Y. Lee (ASRMI)-R/Latex
10 / Research Process: Publication process. Submitting articles; possible decisions; Responding to reviewer feedback. / 11/4 / Dean Corbae (Fin/Econ)
Brian Mayhew (Acct)
Joe Raffiee (MHR)
Andrea Webb (MKT)
11 / Resources/Tools:Productivity tools for PhD StudentsCitation management: Introduction to Zotero, Evernote, Mendeley, Endnote, OneNote, etc. / 11/11 / Peggy Smith (Library)
Michael Venner (Library)
Joe Raffiee (MHR)
Shannon Younger (MHR)
12 / Academic careers: Ethics and Research. Dealing with conflicts of interest, authorship, academic integrity… / 11/18 / Heather McFadden, Grad School
Karla Johnstone (AIS)
13 / Research Process: Presenting research / 11/25 / Rob Tanner (MKT)
Stacie Laplante (AIS)
14 / Academic careers: Networking & presenting yourself.Preparing vitae, web pages, digital measures, social networking (FB/LinkedIn/Twitter), conferences, approachingkey faculty / 12/2 / Emily Griffith (AIS)
Anita Mukherjee (ASRMI)
15 / Academic careers: Creating a research culture. @ UW and in your career / 12/9

*Russ will be attending the annual Strategic Management Society conference and we will have a guest facilitator.

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Session Detail

  1. 9/2: Welcome: Coordination, Q&A, Life balance, and suggestions for International Students

This opening session will introduce students to the seminar and the outline of topics for the semester. We will dive into several topics in greater depth including:

  • Work/family balance as a PhD student and, ultimately, as a faculty member
  • A special focus on how international students can better integrate and resources that are available to assist in this process
  • Networking with faculty and students within and across departments – what you should be doing now.

Guests:

  • Meredith Thomas (AIS)
  • Kyeonghee Kim (ASRMI)

Resources to review:

  • Information and resources for international students (in the seminar dropbox)
  • Family leave,University policies and the tenure clock
  1. 9/9: Academic careers: Tenure Process – What does it look like and implications for your time management & development of a research program

Our guests will discuss their experiences with the tenure process and what the implications are for the incoming PhD students. Of course, in most respects, this is very early to be worried about tenure. The seminar will emphasize the following points:

•The publication process takes a long time and you should have a plan to develop a tenurable record well before starting your first job.

•Life will go on even if you don’t get tenure at your first job.

•Consider your portfolio of projects carefully as a PhD student and treat every seminar paper as an option on a more significant project (e.g., work hard on seminar papers since they can become something bigger).

•What does a tenure packet look like?

Guests:

  • Stacie Laplante (AIS)
  • Hart Posen (MHR)

Resources to review:

  • Tenure guidelines from the Social Studies Divisional Committee
  1. 9/16: PhD Program: What is a dissertation? One big study?Three papers?Other models? Framing an overarching contribution and creating a springboard for a research program…

Guests:

  • Ella Mae Matsumura (AIS)
  • Jed Frees (ASRMI)

Resources to review:

  • Sample dissertations in your area
  1. 9/23: Academic careers: Preparing for the job market. Job market paper; teaching/research statements, giving a job talk, preparing a vita, preparing for job interviews

This session will cover the timing, process, and materials related to preparing for the academic job market. Again, while students are a long way from preparing for the job market, it is important to understand the process so you are well prepared. This is a companion to the later session that goes into networking before one is on the market.

Guests:

  • Joan Schmit (ASRMI)
  • Dereck Barr (AIS)

Resources to review:

  • Dropbox: Job market Tips from Kris Allee (cv tips, cover letter, research/teaching statements, etc.)
  1. 9/30: PhD Program: Making it through the hoops (Miners, Comprehensive exams, Proposing, committee composition, finding resources) and your representatives on the PhD committee

Since the four of you have served as representatives on the PhD committee, you are well-positioned to give them a feel for the issues we have dealt with. I also want them to see you as people they can approach for information or to raise issues that the committee should consider.

Relatedly, I have a longer-run objective of creating a PhD student organization. This might enhance information flows, tips and offer a base of social support (since most departments have a relatively small number of students). I don’t want to force it – I recognize that everyone is busy. Perhaps we can talk as a group and get a sense whether there is interest.

Again, we will be talking about the various stages of the PhD program (classes, minors, spreadsheet for feedback on non-WSB courses) and I want you to describe your impressions on how to navigate these. I also want to introduce you again as reps and ask for input (perhaps to our next PhD committee meeting).

Guests:

  • Belle Heberling/Phil Miller
  • PhD Committee Student Representatives

Resources to review:

  • PhD Program Student Handbook
  1. 10/7: Research Process: Strategies for generating research ideas. Research creativity in designing studies and framing a contribution

The topic is “strategies for generating research ideas.” It is fair to say that students spend quite a bit of time casting about for ideas (in seminars, when seeking a dissertation topic…). You are all in your first seminars now and are being asked to develop term paper topics. This is quite salient at the moment. Our guests will provide insights on search process; telling a storiesabout how they got to topics. How can you draw on prior experience (work, etc.) or teaching to develop research ideas?

As with all creative tasks, the ideas must be novel and useful. In terms of framing a contribution, just because one is interested in a topic doesn’t mean reviewers will be as well. How do you use this to sift through ideas to select the ones to spend time on? How do you creatively frame ideas so reviewers will consider them to be novel?

Guests:

  • Jihae Shin (MHR)
  • Page Moreau (Mkt)

Resources to review:

  • Dropbox: Research process – Paper writing tips
  1. 10/14: Resources/Tools: Financial databases.Accessing WRDS, CRSP, Compustat, IBES, Thompson Reuters, SDC, SEC EDGAR, UW Data and Info Services Center (DISC), BLS, etc.

This is the first part of a session designed to introduce data resources and illustrate how they are used in research. The guests will present their own research and, in the process, give special attention to the data sources and how they are accessed and used. This includes:

  • An understanding of why/how the research is expected to contribute to the literature
  • Variables and measures that are drawn from the data set or created.
  • Idiosyncrasies in accessing, cleaning, or merging the data to prepare it for analysis
  • Demonstrate how to access the data (pull down a sample for students to play with)

Guests:

  • Michael Enyart (Library)
  • Kris Allee (AIS) – SDC & IBES Datasets
  • Tiffany Trzebiatowski (MHR) -- Risk Metrics

Resources to review:

  • See Research database page in the business library:
  • See especially Wharton Research Data Services:
  1. 10/21: Resources/Tools: Financial databases.Accessing WRDS, CRSP, Compustat, IBES, Thompson Reuters, SDC, SEC EDGAR, UW Data and Info Services Center (DISC), BLS, etc.

This is the second part of a session designed to introduce data resources and illustrate how they are used in research. The guests will present their own research and, in the process, give special attention to the data sources and how they are accessed and used. This includes:

  • An understanding of why/how the research is expected to contribute to the literature
  • Variables and measures that are drawn from the data set or created.
  • Idiosyncrasies in accessing, cleaning, or merging the data to prepare it for analysis
  • Demonstrate how to access the data (pull down a sample for students to play with)

Guests:

  • Eric Condie (AIS) – Compustat
  • Amanda Convery (AIS) – CRSP, Audit Analytics

Resources to review:

  • Dropbox: Research resources – Data (Convery)
  • See Research database page in the business library:
  • See especially Wharton Research Data Services:
  1. 10/28: Resources/Tools: Statistical and data analysis software such as SAS, Stata, R, LaTeX, MatLab (etc.): where and how to access, what each is good for, where to find more information…

This session will introduce some core statistical packages that our PhD students typically use. We will break into smaller groups to discuss and demonstrate SAS/STATA as opposed to R/Latex.

Guests:

  • Amanda Convery (AIS)- SAS/STATA
  • Gee Y. Lee (ASRMI)- R/Latex

Resources to review:

  • Dropbox: Research Process SAS & Stata tips –Convery
  • Dropbox: Stat Package Resources (Convery, Jin, Raffiee, and Gee)
  1. 11/4: Research Process: Publication process. Submitting articles; possible decisions; Responding to reviewer feedback.

The topic for this session is the publication process. Each guest will begin by telling the story of a paper that eventually was accepted. In the process, they will explore:

•Paper topic and contribution

•Path to publication (where sent initially, number of rounds, approximate time in each stage)

•A few of the key issues raised and how you addressed them (no time for all of them)

•In some cases reviews and/or a response to the reviewers

•Any tips on getting through the process.

Guests:

  • Dean Corbae (Fin/Econ)
  • Brian Mayhew (Acct)
  • Joe Raffiee (MHR)
  • Andrea Webb (MKT)

Resources to review:

  • Dropbox: Agarwal et. al. 2006.Reaping Rewards from Reviewer Comments.Academy of Management Journal
  • Dropbox: Grant & Pollock.2011. Setting the Hook.Academy of Management Journal.
  • Dropbox: Rynes.2006. Anatomy of an R&R. Academy of Management Journal.
  • Dropbox: Reviewer response – Mayhew
  1. 11/11: Resources/Tools: Productivity tools for PhD Students (Evernote, Mendeley, Endnote, OneNote, etc.)

Time may be the most important scarce resource. This session will present productivity tools for researchers. We will focus on citation managers (Endnote, Mendeley, etc.) and spend a little time on text based research tools (like Factiva)as well as text handling resources/shortcuts (OneNote, Evernote, or anything else that is especially valuable). We will cover:

•Value Proposition for reference managers. We will clarify why students should care about reference managers and how they can save huge amounts of time. We will demonstrate this in the context of a specific paper.

•Choosing between reference managers. Michael’s crew from the library will offer some tips on choosing among reference managers. Rebecca Payne from Memorial (Mendeley and Zotero) and Michael Venner from Ebling (Endnote) will provide overviews with some strengths and limitations of each. Which system might work best with certain databases and where one might get further training.

•Other research productivity tools & tips. I have attached an initial list of other tools that Shannon provided. She plans to pick a couple of these to demonstrate quickly but will provide the broader list for them to explore. Joe please coordinate – I’m guessing you have other tips that could also be helpful. If so, please chime in.

Guests:

  • Peggy Smith (Library)
  • Michael Venner (Library)
  • Joe Raffiee (MHR)
  • Shannon Younger (MHR)

Resources to review:

  • Dropbox: Read the citation manager tips for each tool
  • Dropbox: Productivity Tools - Younger
  1. 11/18: Academic careers: Ethics and Research.Dealing with conflicts of interest, authorship, academic integrity…

Our guests will kick off the session by describing some high profile ethical violations that have recently shaken our fields. This short BusinessWeek article describes the Ulrich Lichtenthaler fraud that has now resulted in 16 retractions – many of which were from top management journals. The main reasons for the retractions were: 1) the data were reused while obscuring the links to prior work, and 2) findings were incorrectly labeled as significant.We will also describe some ethical issues that have emerged involving PhD students in the past. Then Heather McFadden will lead us in discussion of some mini cases she has prepared. These will cover issues like:

  • Disputed authorship
  • Plagiarism
  • Fabrication
  • Human subjects

Guests:

  • Heather McFadden, Grad School
  • Karla Johnstone (AIS)

Resources to review:

  • Dropbox: Research ethics Hunton report; Self Plagiarism policy; Twenty questions
  • Dropbox: ShamooResnik. Principles for Ethical Conduct
  1. 11/25: Research Process: Presenting research

The topic is presenting research. Each guest will present a paper on two levels: 1) what is the research about and 2) what is the best way to tell the story in a presentation. This will be based on a 12-15 minute conference presentation as opposed to a 90 minute seminar so we can get it all in. Some things that will be emphasized include: