Research Designs

Course manual 2024/2025

Course content

The Research Designs course aims to provide you with the knowledge, skills and experience to be able to independently execute a research, starting with your Bachelor Project that runs parallel to this course. And it offers the necessary scaffolding to help you compose, firstly, a research proposal and, ultimately, a final research report. More specifically, it supports you in writing your thesis which you will complete immediately following the Research Design course.  

Each step of the course will be a workgroup guide to executing a research project and will allow you to develop further as scientific researcher, or as investigative professional in general. Given the large range of topics that you, as a group of Future Planet Students, are pursuing, we aim to provide material that is relevant to you, whether you go on to study

During the eight workgroups, you will work together with – within the same subject - and you will support each other in working out, first, a draft research proposal and, ultimately, a draft research report. The workgroups include a brief introduction, guided exercises, and peer assessment of each other’s work. To be able to get the most out of it, there are preparatory assignments that form the input for some of the workgroup’s exercises. If you utilize them wisely, the workgroups will allow you to successfully complete a well-structured draft proposal and research report which can form the basis for the thesis that you individually have to write for the Bachelor Project.

Study materials

Literature

• Mandatory Literature on your topic - available on Canvas.

• Buenz, Eric J. "Essential elements for high-impact scientific writing." Nature, 2019.

• Gewin, Virginia. "How to write a first-class paper." Nature, vol. 555, pp. 129-130, 2018.

• Patten, Mildred L., and Michelle Newhart. Understanding research methods: An overview of the essentials. Pp. 22-28, 84-86, Taylor & Francis, 2018.

• Pontius, Jennifer, and Alan McIntosh. Critical Skills for Environmental Professionals. Pp. 23-44, Springer, Cham, 2020.

• Van Loon, Emiel. Do well with your data: An instruction for data management during the BSc thesis project. 2019.

• Bryman, Alan. Social research methods. Pp. 8-17, 160-179,384-413, Oxford university press. 2012.

Other

• In the Research Design course we only provide you with a minimum amount of required reading on your problem topic, and this will be limited to the start of the course. Main reason being that in this course we aim to provide you with the necessary methodological knowledge to enable you to successfully execute your Bachelor Project and write a good research report (your thesis). Your supervisor and guiding teachers in the Bachelor Project will provide you with additional literature on your topic, to help you lay a good basis for your thesis. After the first weeks, you can tailor the papers and resources that you read to your particular research question and your individual needs as a researcher. Please consult the Additional Resources compiled for you in Canvas under Modules for a good place to start.

Objectives

• Understand what the various elements of a research proposal entail.
• Assess a Research Proposal or Research Report, using a standard set of criteria (i.e. rubrics).
• Assess the accuracy of a formulated research problem, including the objectives and relevance of a proposed research question.
• Assess the accuracy of the used literature and theoretical insights in relation to the proposed research question.
• Assess the accuracy of methods involved in relevant data identification, collection, processing, analysis, visualization, and management.
• Set up a Data Management Plan, including strategies for data collection, analysis & management.
• Assess the accuracy of a results section, conclusions, and discussion section, given the gathered data.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Self-study
• Supervision/feedback meeting
• Working independently on e.g. a project or thesis
• Seminar

During the lectures, you will learn and review topics that will help you to understand how research is designed, including how to navigate through relevant scientific literature, how to select appropriate methods, how to adequately handle, analyse and manage data, and how to properly write a scientific research report.

During the workgroups, you will receive support to help you develop and write your thesis by taking you through all the steps that every research project entails (see for further explanation the section on Assessment).

Learning activities

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• Participation in fieldwork is compulsory and cannot be replaced by assignments or other courses.
• In case of practical sessions, the student is obliged to attend at least of 90% of the sessions and to prepare himself adequately, unless indicated otherwise in the course manual. In case the student attends less than 90%, the practical sessions should be redone entirely.
• In case of tutorials/seminars with assignments, the student is obliged to attend at least 7 out of 8 seminars and to prepare thoroughly for these meetings, unless indicated otherwise in the course manual. If the course has more than 8 seminars, the student can miss up to 1 extra meeting for every (part of) 8 tutorials/seminars. If the students attends less than the mandatory tutorials/seminars, the course cannot be completed.

Additional requirements for this course:

In this course, the main focus of each class session will involve continuing discussions with your peers. Therefore, attendance in the workgroups is mandatory. We will be doing many in-class activities as well as peer reviewing during class time, so a missed workgroup is an inconvenience to your fellow classmates. If you have special circumstances (e.g. illness, family emergency), please email  your workgroup lecturer (“werkgroepdocent”). If you miss more than two workgroups (out of 8 total), you will be excluded from further participation and will not be able to complete the course.

Attendance in the lecture is not mandatory, but just as important to your success in the course. We work hard to make this course as useful for you as possible, so please respect our time by attending both the workgroups and lectures - they are ultimately for your benefit. Lectures will be recorded and uploaded to Canvas the day of the lecture. These will be available to view until the end of the course.

Assessment

Within Research Design we will first focus on how to write a research proposal, which entails:

• Problem definition, including research question and aim & relevance of the research
• Theoretical framework
• Research design & methods
• Expected results.

Later, we will cover all the components of a full thesis, i.e.:

• Abstract
• Problem definition, including the research question and aim & relevance of the research
• Theoretical framework
• Research design, methods & data handling (i.e. Data Management Plan)
• Data collection & analysis
• Conclusion, including reflection on the limitations of the research
• Discussion, including reflection on societal impact & recommendations.

In the rubrics for the Research Design and Bachelor Thesis, you can find the criteria related to these components that together comprise your thesis. You need to familiarize yourself with these criteria, as you will be tested on both your theoretical knowledge about them and your skills to apply them.

The table below gives an overview of the various components of the Assessment, the deadlines and further details.

Table: Assessment, deadlines and exam dates

* In case it is not possible to review your peer’s final Bachelor Report, you will be given a Bachelor Report to assess, selected by your teacher. There will be a checklist available with minimum requirements. If your peer's proposal or thesis does not have all the checks, please contact your instructor.

Assessment diagram

Students that were enrolled in the course in previous years

Students that were enrolled in the course in previous years and did not get a passing grade, will need to re-do the full course.
Students that were enrolled in the course in previous years with a passing grade, but who will conduct their BSc thesis this year are encouraged to participate in the working groups, as these are supporting the proposal and thesis writing of the BSc thesis project. Please contact Rosa van Schaick (r.vanschaick@uva.nl) for more information.

Inspection of assessed work

You will have a second chance to submit an improved peer assessment within 2 weeks after receiving the final grade with a maximum grade of 6.0. The deadline for resubmission will be communicated to you once we have completed grading. 

Assignments

The assessment will happen in a threefold way:

1. You will be tested on your theoretical knowledge about the research components in an exam, which counts for 40% of your grade.
2. And you need to be able to show that you can work with these criteria yourself when you use the rubrics to assess the draft proposal and thesis of your peer, which counts for 60% of your grade. This assignment is based on our expectation and experience that this ability will also benefit you in writing your own proposal and thesis.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Additional information

We vinden het belangrijk dat je je op de UvA en bij Future Planet Studies veilig voelt. Krijg je onverhoopt te maken met ongewenst gedrag of voel je je onveilig, dan kun je terecht bij verschillende personen. Je melding wordt altijd vertrouwelijk behandeld. Kijk op onze website voor meer informatie over waar en bij wie je terecht kunt.

It is important that everyone feels safe at the UvA and Future Planet Studies. We are committed to provide social safety and we offer various forms of support for people experiencing inappropriate or unsafe situations. Consult the UvA website or Future Planet Studies Canvas page for more information and contact info.

Last year's student feedback

Vanaf 2013-2014 hebben we ervoor gekozen om d.m.v. onderstaande tabel de studenten meer inzicht te geven in de kwaliteitszorg. Daarom nemen we een korte weergave van de studentenevaluatie op en de daaruit voortvloeiende acties ter verbetering van het vak.

Contact information

Coordinator

• A.G. Uilhoorn MSc

Docenten

• Daniël Kooij/Anne Uilhoorn
• Kavel Ozturk
• Lieke Mulder
• Jaap Rothuizen
• Jordy Willems