Overview of Eskobastion on PostgraduateForum.com

Overview of Eskobastion

Signup date: 05 Jul 2009 at 8:01pm

Last login: 05 May 2012 at 5:52pm

Post count: 100

Recent Posts

What shall I do if no-one answers my on-line questionnaire?!

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

Pay them. I have seen people offering movie tickets or a small amount of cash in return for answering surveys.. There is no such thing as free lunch.. ;-)

Is Zotero any good?

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

My recommendation is Lyx + Jabref + Zotero. Personally I have used mainly Lyx + Jabref but the new version of Zotero has functions which are a MUST for researchers. The most important of them is the "Add Item by Identifier" function. Give it DOIs and it retrieves the citation entries automatically. They can be exported to bibtex format later on and merged with my other bibtex files.

The reason I use Jabref and not only Zotero is that the native database format of Jabref is bibtex which is compatible with lyx.

Zotero could be a good choice if someone wants to use OpenOffice.org for writing because citations and bibliographies can be pushed from Zotero to OO.org (needs installing a plugin for OpenOffice).

Well, this is my two cents...

Drowning in journal articles

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

Quote From Eskobastion:

Please, obtain a decent reference management software and your life will be so much easier in the future..

You might want to try Zotero. It is a reference manager software which is actually a web browser plugin. It includes lots of features but the best ones are:
- possibility to retrieve information regarding journal articles and other references by just typing the DOI (digital object identification number).
- possibility to share data between the program and a word processor (MS Word or OpenOffice.org)
- function include, for example "insert citation" and "insert bibliography" --> No need to format reference entries manually..

Drowning in journal articles

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

Quote From nhr115:

I'm glad you asked this Stephen because I too feel like I'm drowning. Buttercup that idea is fantastic - so much so I'm going to spend the rest of tonight making up my very own spreadsheet.

Thanks so much everyone :-)

Spreadsheet? For storing information? Noooooooo!!!!! :p

Seriously, what if you have to export them in the future for a some strange reason? Maybe you want to share this information with your colleagues or other researhers? Using a spreadsheet program for storing data may sound an easy solution at first but believe me, you will encounter lots of problems in the future. Spreadsheet software are planned for math purposes, not for collecting data. Actually the right program for storing this kind of data (bibliography references) is Access in the MS Office package and Base in the OpenOffice.org package.

Please, obtain a decent reference management software and your life will be so much easier in the future..

Drowning in journal articles

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

======= Date Modified 20 Nov 2009 17:46:50 =======
In addition to Endnote, there are also a lot of other alternatives:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software

About to quit qualitative phd

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

Quote From karl:

Does anyone have any advice
.

I totally agree with Rick.

I really recommend you to read carefully the books I mentioned in the other thread (or othe books dealing with the grounded theory). They explain precisely how you should work with your data. Btw, you will be able to read them partially in books.google.com

You should forget existing theories and preconceptions now and start coding and organising the data and creating concepts. By doing that, the theory arises from the data. At first, do not expect to find anything.

After the analysis, you can link your results to existing theories. It has been even suggested that one should write literature review after the research process in order to prevent existing preconceptions to interfere with the data and results originating from it.

Well, this is only one perception of how a reseach process could work.

qualitative inquiry without theory

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

======= Date Modified 18 Nov 2009 07:22:15 =======
======= Date Modified 18 Nov 2009 07:21:38 =======

Quote From karl:

Hello,

I am currently undertaking an analysis of my qualitative interview data with an approach informed by grounded theory but have no substantive theory to guide me whcih makes me feel very nervous as I noticed that most phd thesis seem to have had a fairly solid theoretical framework to guide their analysis from the outset, even in seemingly inductive qualitative studies. Coincidentally, I originally began thinking I would adopt a narrative (identity) approach but have since changed gears and so I have some very rich life story data but just feel really nervous about approaching it so inductively...granted, I am guided a bit by a more general interest in the concept of identity. Has anyone had similar experiences???

As far as I know, you don't have to have a theory first if your research is based on grounded theory.. (What a strange and paradoxal sentence..) :p

Actually, the strictest and purest form of grounded theory requires that you do not look at other theories first.. The results of your should arise from the data.. In other words, you actually create theory of your own based on the research data. However, it is now accepted that the researchers can and should use prior knowledge during the qualitative analysis based on GT.

Btw,

I have found these books relating to the matter useful:

Charmaz, K. (2009). Constructing Grounded Theory. A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. London: Sage.

Corbin, J., & Strauss, Anselm (2008). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. London: Sage.

a solution to all our writing woes!

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

Quote From chrisrolinski:

======= Date Modified 14 03 2009 13:03:18 =======
I plan to write my thesis due in 3 months using this:

http://writing-program.uchicago.edu/toys/randomsentence/write-sentence.htm

;-)

Well, your thesis will end up to win contests similar to this one:

http://denisdutton.com/bad_writing.htm

:p

Anyone else sick to death of Word?

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

Quote From sneaks:

apple - LaTex does look lovely :-x but the coding bit looks v confusing for me!!

Try LyX (www.lyx.org).. It is an amazing (and free!) Latex editor and suits well for beginners..
Using Latex does not mean using a plain text editor anymore..

No access to papers and standards

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

Quote From Ev:

Hey guys,

Can anybody tell me why my institute has access to certain academic papers and not others? From the 20 papers I've been looking for so far I have been able to access only 4. Surely we don't have to pay the 40 dollars or whatever it is for each paper do we?

As regards standards, I would like to have a look at various American and European standards but how do I get access to these? Again, is it a question of money?

grrr, very frustrating altogether
:-s

How on earth are we supposed to answer these questions? Ask the librarians at the library of your instition. I bet they are able to help you more than we here.

You did not even mention the university you are studying at. If it is a decent one, they should be able to offer you electronic access to ISO, ANSI and BS standards.. for free. Similarly, they should be able to search and buy the articles you need (at least this is how things work at my institution). I presume that you pay tuition fees. If this is the case, you should receive value for the money you have paid.

In conclusion, contact your librarian.

referencing a website - how do you know what year it was created?

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

Ev, You have got private mail..

referencing a website - how do you know what year it was created?

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

I have been told that one should include as much information in the references as possible. Sometimes we have to accept that we are not able to identify the real author and use organisation instead or the year is missing from the document and we have to use n.d.

Hmm.. Could you send me the address of the web page so that I could try to dig the creation date for you?

referencing a website - how do you know what year it was created?

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

You have three alternatives if the date is not shown on the page.

1. View the source code and check if the creation date is included in the comments
2. Email the author and ask
3. Use n.d in the place of year Example: Surname, N. (n.d). Title of the web page. Retrieved Month Day, Year from http://www.website.net

Where to buy cheap Endnote software

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

To see a comparison of reference managers (commercial and __FREE__ open source alternatives), use the link in my previous post:

http://www.postgradforum.com/threadViewer.aspx?TID=12355

You do not necessarily need to buy a reference manager, there is also a lot of free alternatives.

ICRG

Eskobastion 100 posts
15 years ago

Quote From douganator:

I am desperately searching for the researchers dataset of the "international country risk guide" if there is any way to get hold of your help would be much appreciated.

You must be kidding. Did you try to google? I found it here:
http://www.prsgroup.com/icrg.aspx

It seems that you have to pay for it.

Or were you asking that somebody should violate the licence agreement regarding the product?

An extract from the FAQ page:

Q. Can I share the product I purchased?
A. All of our products are protected by copyright laws, and the purchase price of each product, unless specifically stated otherwise in writing or negotiated further, allows use by only one person. We offer reasonable pricing for second copies of print products, or for additional users of our online products, including campus-wide access. If you have any questions about how to use our products, please contact our office.

If you need desperately the data you should ask your university to buy a licence..