Dear Colleagues,

Allan Reese asks interesting questions about research skills. Two are
particularly important to this list.

First, he asks how much time should be devoted to training in search
skills. Second, he asks about specific training in bibliographic
search software. I consider the first issue significant for the
field, the second a local decision. Because bibliographic search
software is a specific matter, I will not discuss it. I am not sure
that bibliographic software makes a great difference. While my search
work might go better with dedicated software, I seem to manage swift,
effective searches with old-fashioned skills and a few new techniques
made possible by the Web.

In the matter of search skills, Alan's main question has five implicit parts

(1) Who should learn search skills and other research skills?
(2) What specific search skills should they learn?
(3) Who is responsible for teaching general search and research skills?
(4) Who is responsible for ensuring that doctoral graduates have these skills?
(5) How much time should be devoted to training in search skills?


(1) Who should learn search skills and other research skills?

Search skills are a subset of general research skills. They form part
of the basic skills set required for university study. All university
students today require basic research skills. This is a central
distinction between university study and study at a vocational
school, technical college, art academies, or any of the other kinds
of schools where one may study.

The kind, scope, level, and degree of expertise in any range of
research skills depends on the course and the student.

Search and research skills are obvious requirements for research
students. They are also required for any university-based program of
professional education.

All professionals today require basic research skills, and many
require advanced research skills. They sometimes need them to conduct
or supervise research and they often need them to work effectively in
teams where they must evaluate and make use of research.


(2) What specific search skills should they learn?

The specific skills that any research student requires depend on his
or her goals.

All university students need a range of common skills. These include
literature search skills with and without software. The kinds of
search skills required are comprehensively summarized and outlined in
the four books noted yesterday. The depth and level of these skills
depends on the student's stage in university education. Many of these
skills should be learned at one level, practiced, coached, and
reinforced, then learned again in greater depth for the next stage.

Supporting these skills and linked to them are the ability to write a
research paper fully supported by proper references and citations.
Related to these skills are the ability to use analysis, rhetoric,
logic, and critical thinking.

A Ph.D. graduate is expected to demonstrate a high level of
performance in all these skills.


(3) Who is responsible for teaching general search and research skills?

Ultimately, each university is responsible for all its students. It
is the responsibility of deans, departments, chairs and program heads
to ensure that the programs for which they are responsible help
students to develop these skills.

It is the responsibility of course leaders, teachers, and professors
to ensure that their classes develop these skills and it is their
responsibility to help students develop these skills.

Many universities offer supplementary training and practice sessions
with expert staff. At the Norwegian School of Management, library
staff offers specialized sessions in search skills followed by
opportunities for individual training and guidance. A session with
the librarians is part of the first-year course in organization and
leadership where we also teach basic research skills. In addition,
teaching assistants provide intensive coaching and mentoring in
search and research skills.


(4) Who is responsible for ensuring that doctoral graduates have these skills?

The supervisor is responsible for ensuring that doctoral graduates
have these skills.

Alan writes, "It is further assumed in many places that this training
will be provided by 'the supervisor', while many supervisors assume
that the student 'can already use a library' and hence is already
trained."

Alan's description of the situation in many doctoral programs is
correct, but he is describing an unacceptable situation. Any
supervisor who makes such an assumption is unqualified to supervise.

Students SHOULD have many skills before they reach the level of
supervised research. It is the supervisor's responsibility to ensure
that this is the case.

My approach to research supervision is an intensive editorial
response cycle. In addition to individual meetings and dialogue, I
read thesis drafts carefully in a developmental cycle. In the early
stages, I read for structural and conceptual development, and I coach
for improvement of problem areas and deficiencies. This brings the
research student forward to the point of careful word-by-word reading
and editorial advice.

Research education is highly individual. Good supervision involves
discovering what the individual student needs to know. We must then
translate the tacit knowledge of experience into the explicit
information that a student can use to go further.

Ultimately, the supervisor must be responsible for the research
student. If students shift interest to a subject where another
supervisor is better suited to advise, it is our responsibility to
suggest a transfer. If students need methods work where we are
unqualified to supervise, it is our responsibility to bring in added
help or, again, to suggest a transfer.

If a student completes with us, we are responsible for his or her
deficiencies. A supervisor has a special relationship to a thesis.
The creativity and original research is the student's work. Even when
the student draws on our experience and knowledge, he or she takes it
forward in new directions to make an original contribution. It is our
job to support and coach this work.

We are also responsible for fundamental skills. When a research
student graduates with deficiencies, the student is not responsible.
The supervisor is.

No research project is ever complete or perfect. Even so, a
supervisor must distinguish between an acceptable project and a
project that should not be accepted. A thesis submitted for a
research degree must be good or outstanding. Anything less should not
be accepted at all. A supervisor should know the difference and
ensure that every research student receives the foundation he or she
requires to graduate as a competent researcher.

This is more than a pedagogical responsibility. It is an ethical
responsibility. When we agree to supervise a research student, we
have a responsibility both to the student and to the larger community
that will employ that student based on the degree he or she earns.
Our research graduates do not simply leave us as graduates of a
school. They leave us as our personal graduates, and we must be
prepared to support and endorse them.

Most of us have a workload higher than we can actually manage, with
greater demand for supervising than we can give. In some schools, the
supervision load is apportioned in an almost mechanical way. In those
schools, it is admittedly difficult to do more than meet basic
minimum standards. I am fortunate to be in a school where we
emphasize research-based teaching. Students come to me fairly well
prepared and I am free to accept or decline research students. While
I am not paid for all the hours serious supervision requires, I am
not obliged to accept projects unless they interest me. I select
thesis students carefully. I give each student as much attention as
he or she needs, and all the coaching and support that seems
appropriate. I do my best to ensure that each student is prepared to
graduate. I am prepared to recommend and stand behind every student
who completes a thesis with me. This is my personal standard on
research supervision. Because the work exceeds the pay, I take fewer
thesis projects than I once did.

It is obvious that one can do less and get by with less, especially
since many of us are paid for less. Because thesis supervision
entails ethical responsibilities irrespective of pay, I accept only
projects that deserve attention readdress of pay.

While Alan was not asking about high-level supervision, the basics
set a platform. This involves a basic minimum standard of search and
research skills. Too many doctoral candidates are graduating without
these.

A supervisor must accept responsibility for ensuring that doctoral
candidates meet a basic minimum standard. Anyone who is unwilling or
unable to do so should not supervise research students.


(5) How much time should be devoted to training in search skills?

When we are discussing Ph.D. students, we should devote as much time
to this training as any student needs to excel. A student who lacks
these skills is not as research student. A Ph.D. graduate without
thee skills is unable to do the work implicitly and explicitly
required of anyone who holds the Ph.D.

Ken Friedman



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Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Leadership and Organization
Norwegian School of Management

Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
School of Art and Design
Staffordshire University