no positive result to be included in my final thesis...
Hi all,
something I wish to have suggestions on...
I am now starting to write my thesis and, the more I write the more I worry about it. This is mainly because All my experiments did not achieve even a slightly positive result (i.e. certain result that would satisfy a publication criterion). I have now given up the desire of publishing my research since so... but my primary concern now is it would be very much troublesome when an examiner reads such a 'disappointing' thesis. I am at the third year and do not see a chance to have enough time refining any of those studies ... plus .. my supervisor had indicated that he would be leaving for another uni soon. I think this means I have to solely rely on all negative results at hand ...
Does anyone have any suggestion on such a case? Any comment would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thanks!
Terry
Hey Terry! What exactly do you mean by 'positive' and 'negative' results? Do you mean that you didn't find anything that was statistically significant in one way or another? If this is the case then it doesn't necessarily matter- if your studies are sound then don't worry about not finding anything 'new'- even finding nothing can be a new finding if it disproves existing theories or contradicts previous studies etc. I've got a whole chapter where I don't find anything (i.e. no associations between variables or significant differences between two groups) but because this flies in the face of every piece of theoretical literature out there I'm still going to submit it for publication because in finding 'nothing' it potentially disproves a lot of theoretical work. So if that is the case then don't worry about it. If you haven't found anything because your experiments were flawed in some way then that would be different, but I don't think this is what you're suggesting. It might help if you could elaborate a little! What field are you in? Best, KB
Negative results are still results so I would not be too overly worried about them. They are probably not as satisfying as positive results but as long as you can explain them it shouldn't be too much of a problem. PhD research just states that you need to have some original ideas and new contribution to knowledge but doesn't say whether they have to be positive/negative! I would still try to get the results published especially as you put so much effort in. I was at a meeting once where they said that it was good that are people were willing to publish negative results as that saves other people from going down the same road.
As for your supervisor moving uni there should be arrangements made for your supervision as he shouldn't just abandon you especially at this stage when you need to write up. Have you discussed the matter - is he willing to do long distance supervision if you e-mail him work to look at? Or will your dept allocate you a substitute supervisor who preferably knows your work?
Good luck
(up)
I think it depends how you write it up. My hubs had a middle chapter where he had a negative result (in his case, it was that the model he'd built didn't work under a certain circumstance). He passed his viva, but one comment he did have was that he'd kind of built the study up, saying how important it was to investigate and then there was a sudden surprise negative result - in hindsight it would have been better to signpost at the beginning that it was a negative result or something, so the examiners weren't waiting for a nice juicy result, only to find it to be negative (if that makes sense?)
So maybe position the entire thesis around the fact you are disproving ideas rather than proving them?
Have you tried to publish your negative results in The All Results Journals? It may help you to have something published and they focus on negative results ;)
Check it at: http://www.arjournals.com
Good luck!
Lewis
Hey Terry! What exactly do you mean by 'positive' and 'negative' results? Do you mean that you didn't find anything that was statistically significant in one way or another? If this is the case then it doesn't necessarily matter- if your studies are sound then don't worry about not finding anything 'new'- even finding nothing can be a new finding if it disproves existing theories or contradicts previous studies etc. I've got a whole chapter where I don't find anything (i.e. no associations between variables or significant differences between two groups) but because this flies in the face of every piece of theoretical literature out there I'm still going to submit it for publication because in finding 'nothing' it potentially disproves a lot of theoretical work. So if that is the case then don't worry about it. If you haven't found anything because your experiments were flawed in some way then that would be different, but I don't think this is what you're suggesting. It might help if you could elaborate a little! What field are you in? Best, KB
Hi Keenbean, Thanks for your kind reply and encouraging suggestion! You are right that by 'negative result' I meant result that's non-significant in statistical term. I think I've got kind of frustrated not only because there is no 'significant' result, but more because there is always a trend ... that is, something in between ... this let me worry that it might be due to certain flawed method... Also, my supervisor is not the expert of the topic of my research. Initially he thought my idea was very interesting and encouraged me to pursue it. But given that both of us are new to my topic, we always face a dilemma of continuing or stop one experiment when some 'trend' appeared...
Something I feel indefensible ... along the course, my supervisor is definitely not someone to be complained. He did tried to help me (could not say 'tried his best', which is however understandable because my project is not his main) especially considering that he nearly had no idea about this research area. I am his first student actually and I think he was over-optimistic at the beginning. gradually I just find he is optimistic about nearly everything. According to him, PhD is a course of learning and that's the aim. Alas, examiner committee would not think the same!
Hey Terry! What exactly do you mean by 'positive' and 'negative' results? Do you mean that you didn't find anything that was statistically significant in one way or another? If this is the case then it doesn't necessarily matter- if your studies are sound then don't worry about not finding anything 'new'- even finding nothing can be a new finding if it disproves existing theories or contradicts previous studies etc. I've got a whole chapter where I don't find anything (i.e. no associations between variables or significant differences between two groups) but because this flies in the face of every piece of theoretical literature out there I'm still going to submit it for publication because in finding 'nothing' it potentially disproves a lot of theoretical work. So if that is the case then don't worry about it. If you haven't found anything because your experiments were flawed in some way then that would be different, but I don't think this is what you're suggesting. It might help if you could elaborate a little! What field are you in? Best, KB
oh, just to reply you for the last question .. I am studying Psychology
Negative results are still results so I would not be too overly worried about them. They are probably not as satisfying as positive results but as long as you can explain them it shouldn't be too much of a problem. PhD research just states that you need to have some original ideas and new contribution to knowledge but doesn't say whether they have to be positive/negative! I would still try to get the results published especially as you put so much effort in. I was at a meeting once where they said that it was good that are people were willing to publish negative results as that saves other people from going down the same road.
As for your supervisor moving uni there should be arrangements made for your supervision as he shouldn't just abandon you especially at this stage when you need to write up. Have you discussed the matter - is he willing to do long distance supervision if you e-mail him work to look at? Or will your dept allocate you a substitute supervisor who preferably knows your work?
Thanks for your suggestion! My supervisor and I had discussed this and we decide to finish the main body of the thesis before he leaves. But I think I will still talk with people in the school afterward about the lack of supervision.
Good luck
(up)
I think it depends how you write it up. My hubs had a middle chapter where he had a negative result (in his case, it was that the model he'd built didn't work under a certain circumstance). He passed his viva, but one comment he did have was that he'd kind of built the study up, saying how important it was to investigate and then there was a sudden surprise negative result - in hindsight it would have been better to signpost at the beginning that it was a negative result or something, so the examiners weren't waiting for a nice juicy result, only to find it to be negative (if that makes sense?)
So maybe position the entire thesis around the fact you are disproving ideas rather than proving them?
Hi, that makes sense! Thanks!
Indeed I need to think a lot regarding how to present these result to examiners in the (not long) future viva. Someone also said that when giving the presentation, it is better to give a general idea about your research and then introduce each study in the way that how they fit the general picture.
