Dear Colleagues,

Among the recent issues to come up on the PhD-Design list is the
issue of research requests. Research requests are an important aspect
of any scholarly communication network. An email discussion list
permits the broad and rapid distribution of requests.

Using a research request to acquire ideas, leads, tips, primary data,
organized information, and structured or published material is a
legitimate part of scholarship.

Using a list to publish a research request also implies responsibilities.

On many lists, it is the custom to post a request together with a
promise to publish the results to the list.

Once material is gathered, the requester summarizes the results of
the request, posting them back to the list with a compendium of the
material received.

This can be a short essay followed by a collection of the accumulated
responses. It can also be a well-structured bibliographic essay
followed by an annotated bibliography and a series of prefaced
excerpts from the material.

Research requests, bibliographic essays, annotated bibliographies,
and other such documents constitute an important part of the
foundation in any field.

At one point, someone responded to one research request by suggesting
that scholars should do their own research without troubling the
community. Since the request was not well structured, the form may
have given rise to a misunderstanding that took shape in a sharp
response. I disagreed with the response on principle, noting that the
research request is part of a scholar's work. This form of
interaction helps to build a genuine research community.

I would like to encourage list members to post requests and to
respond. In doing so, I ask member to be responsible on BOTH sides of
the research request process.

The following research request protocol is common on many lists.
Adopting a similar set of behaviors here will increase the usefulness
and value of PhD-Design.

This is a normative proposal for a useful research request culture
based on descriptive observation of successful lists. It is not a set
of rules.

I observe that lists where people follow these kinds of customs
generate more requests, responses, and reports than lists that do
not. This is partly because of the fact that published reports
demonstrate to people that the information they provide is put to
good use. It is also because the example and results of successful
research requests suggests new ideas and approaches for research that
lead to further requests and reports in a virtuous cycle.

If we are serious in our effort to build a research culture for
design, our ability to generate a healthy culture of research
requests and follow-up reports can make a great difference.

A suggested research request protocol for PhD-Design:

1) Subscribers should be welcome to post research requests to PhD-Design.

2) Those who post a research request should attempt to structure the
inquiry as well as possible.

3) It often happens that an inquiry is vague because the research
project is in an early stage. Even if this is the case, researchers
should post the request. It helps if the request is clear about the
stage of inquiry. This clarity will, in itself, elicit helpful
information on appropriate methods of inquiry and it may spur people
to look more deeply for the kinds of data and information that are
most helpful at an early stage.

4) Research requests are best answered off-list. Answers should be
sent to the researcher and NOT to the list. This saves time, effort,
and redundancy. A research request is not a thread, though it
sometimes happens that a research requests opens an issue from which
a thread follows.

5) Those who post a research request should state clearly their
willingness to summarize the response and post a report with the
summary and the collected corpus of material.

6) Once the material is gathered, it is important to post it.

I will look forward to reports on some of the research requests
posted here during the past month or two.

Best regards,

--

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