Assisting a limited number of graduate students in social sciences in designing their research as a first but essential step to high-quality research papers or dissertations.

The workshop focuses on building an effective research design, in other words, a research design that would clearly indicate the research question(s) and the main hypotheses, the unit of analysis, the properties or variables of interest, the measures of these variables and the choice of categories, the cases that are selected and the methods to gather the information to test the hypotheses and to answer the research question(s). 

The series is therefore dedicated to the stage that precedes the field work and will not address issues related to various methods of data collection, will not delve into data coding and analysis and will only marginally touch upon the issue of reporting on the research findings.

Structure

• Brief introduction of the main concepts and a description of the research stages;
• Examples that accompany the introductory discussion;
• Detailed reading of carefully selected research papers published in major journals with the aim of unveiling the research design;
• Established Romanian scholars introduce the participants to the research design that provided the backbone for their own past or present research;
• Participants gradually refine their initial research design that is constantly adjusted during open discussions throughout the sessions of the workshop.

Dr. Mihail Chiru, Dr. Irina Ionescu, Dr. Silvia Marton, Dr. Aurelian Muntean, Dr. Oana-Valentina Suciu (IDC), Dr. Claudiu Tufiş (IDC), Dr. Andreea Zamfira. 

All sessions take place at the New Europe College - Institute for Advanced Studies Bucharest (21, Plantelor st.)

Project supported by the New Europe College - Institute for Advanced Studies Bucharest and the Centre Régionale Francophone de Recherches Avancées en Sciences Sociales (CEREFREA).