LFU:online

The Research Seminar 1 aims at supporting and preparing doctoral students for the mandatory literature review. Specifically, students will be able

• to understand the logic of scientific problems and scholarly discourse, as opposed to practical problems and discourses;
• to identify research gaps in he extant literature in their field;
• to problematize basic assumptions of extant research in their field;
• to systematically analyze the relevant literature in their field of research;
• to work on the literature reviews for their own doctoral research projects.

The seminar covers the following topics:

• working with scientific literature;
• delimiting the field of research;
• critically analyzing scientific publications;
• gap spotting;
• problematizing basic assumptions.

Additionally, PhD students will start working on the literature reviews for their own doctoral research projects.

Short inputs with discussions; systematic analyses of journal publications; student presentations; essays; diary of work on literature review.

Ongoing assessment: presentations; journal publication analyses

Final essay

Essential reading:

Sandberg, J. & Alvesson, M. (2011). Ways of constructing research questions: Gap-spotting or problematization? Organization, 18(1). 23–44.

The following book might be helpful for newcomers in academic research:
O'Leary, Z. (2007). The essential guide to doing research. Los Angeles: Sage.

A focused research topic is a prerequisite. A strong commitment to academic research is assumed.

Participation in all classes is mandatory.