PhD Research Methodology

Outline of Research Process

Phase 1: essential first steps Phase 2: data collection Phase 3: analysis and interpretation

Phase 1
Clarify the issue to be researched and select research method(s). Essential because a question that is unclear or too broad cannot be answered. he research method allows the research to be conducted accordin! to a plan or desi!n.

Phase 1 cont.
Clarifyin! the question and method enables the researcher to be clearer about the data that is needed herefore to ma"e a decision about what sample si#e$ or the amount of data$ is needed.

Cyborgs:
%nter&iews : % identified four cate!ories of people to inter&iew:
performers wor"in! in the field of cybor! performance art' disabled people whose bodies had been modified' scientists ma"in! prosthetics' and the main funders of technolo!ical research ( the military.

Performers
he first cate!ory was relati&ely easy ( % "new people who could put me in touch with these performers$ and % quic"ly secured inter&iews with two of the leadin! fi!ures in the field ( )telarc Eduardo *ac.

Disabled People
he second cate!ory was the most difficult$ in many ways$ not least because of the ethical dimension of underta"in! such inter&iews. +s it turned out$ approaches to the prosthetic department in the uni&ersity for assistance in identifyin! potential inter&iewees went unanswered. ,owe&er$ one disabled person$ -u .oslin!$ author of the website /0y 1ot )o )ecret 2ife as a Cybor!3$ attendin! a Performance 4esearch conference and !i&in! a paper about her e5periences$ !ladly a!reed to !i&e me an inter&iew$ and from her e5perience and awareness of the issues !a&e me probably a far more insi!htful inter&iew than % mi!ht otherwise ha&e been able to achie&e.

Scientists
6or the third cate!ory % simply made a search on the internet. 0ost of the cuttin! ed!e prostheticians seemed to be based in the 7). 8f particular interest were the &ery small number of neuro9prostheticians$ and the celebrated 7tah +rray ( a tiny chipset that$ once implanted in the brain$ can both read and transmit si!nals between brain and computer. 6ascinated$ % wrote to its in&entor$ Professor 4ichard 1orman$ in )alt 2a"e City$ and he a!reed to !i&e me an inter&iew.

The Military
1one of the other scientists % approached was able to !rant me an inter&iew at the time but one of them wrote to me to tell me about the forthcomin! conference$ in :ashin!ton ;C$ run by the 7) ;epartment of ;efence$ entitled /E5os"eletons for ,uman Performance +u!mentation.3 his would be perfect for the fourth cate!ory. ,a&in! read <allard=s /Crash3 (<allard 1>>?) % was already interested in how the car forms an inor!anic s"in to a specific and &ery modern role played out by hu!e numbers of us in the west e&ery time we sit behind the wheel. ,ow much more so would the inor!anic s"in of a military e5os"eleton ( a hi!h tech suit of armour 9 ma"e its impact upon our personalities@A

Phase
Collectin! the data
sur&eys$ inter&iews$ literature re&iew$ participant obser&ation$ etcB.. % undertoo" the inter&iews % had arran!ed$ recordin! them$ then transcribin! the recordin!s % attended the E,P+ conference and made copious notes throu!hout

)ummarisin! and or!anisin! the data

E5cerpts from and summaries of transcripts hou!hts arisin! from notes on conference

Phase !
+nalysis$ interpretation 4elatin! the data to the research question ;rawin! conclusions +ssessin! the limitations of the study

Reporting and "riting up

:ritin! up occurs after the research is done 1ot e&erythin! that is done is reported ,a&e to lea&e some stuff out@@ he research report summarises the acti&ities in such a way that they are clear to the reader$ and so the reader could repeat the research.

# Research Report
+ 4esearch 4eport should generally include: )tatement of problem re&iew of rele&ant literature statement of hypothesis or research obCecti&es description of research desi!n selection and operationali#ation of &ariables description of sample selection procedure description of how data was collected data presented and summarised in words conclusion$ limitations$ and implications biblio!raphy or references cited appendices

Cyborgs Research Report

he Cybor!s 4esearch 4eport included: )tatement of problem statement of research obCecti&es description of research desi!n description of how data was collected re&iew of rele&ant literature collected data$ presented and summarised in words conclusion$ limitations$ and implications biblio!raphy and references cited appendices 9 the inter&iew transcripts and the complete notes from the E,P+ conference