Each Student will be required to write a Research Paper, which will consist of a complete manuscript with introduction (a research question/motivation), literature review (a discussion of the importance of the issue and a review of the relevant literature), method section, results or analysis strategy section, discussion section, and a complete list of references. If you do an excellent job on the paper, you will have a viable research project that may be suitable for conference submission. Your paper for this class must be unique and differ substantial from any papers you have completed or are working on for other classes. In the required paper, students will select and explore a current topic/trend in Strategic Information Systems for a specific (student selected) industry. It will consist of at least ten (A really good paper will have that or more!) double spaced pages (not including title page, table of contents, bibliography, appendixes, etc.) in length with 1 5 margins formatted in APA style, using 11 (Arial) or 12 (Times Roman or Calibri) point font. This is a professional paper do not use informal language. Do not over quote your references, instead summarize what they say in your own words, and provide reference to the article. Every claim you make in the paper should have a peer-reviewed academic reference. Wikipedia is NOT academic and should not be used unless it is unavoidable. The paper must be submitted in MS Word format (.rtf, .doc, .docx). All parts of the paper will have varying points, but the total for all parts will be 500 points (50% of your grade). See calendar/Canvas for deadline details. As this is the primary focus of this course, the homework assignments will be applying the chapters to your paper. You will also have a presentation!

Each Student will be required to write a Research Paper, which will consist of a complete manuscript with introduction (a research question/motivation), literature review (a discussion of the importance of the issue and a review of the relevant literature), method section, results or analysis strategy section, discussion section, and a complete list of references. If you do an excellent job on the paper, you will have a viable research project that may be suitable for conference submission. Your paper for this class must be unique and differ substantially from any papers you have completed or are working on for other classes. In the required paper, students will select and explore a specific (student selected) industry.

It will consist of at least ten (A really good paper may have twice that or more!) double spaced pages (not including title page, table of contents, bibliography, appendixes, etc.) in length with 1 margins formatted in APA style, using 11 (Arial) or 12 (Times Roman or Calibri) point font. This is a professional paper do not use informal language. Do not over quote your references, instead summarize what they say in your own words, and provide references/citations to the articles. Every claim you make in the paper should have a peer-reviewed academic reference. Wikipedia is NOT academic and should not be used unless it is unavoidable. The paper must be submitted in MS Word format (.rtf, .doc, .docx). All parts of the paper will have varying points, but the total for all parts will be 500 points (50% of your grade). See calendar/Canvas for deadline details. As this is the primary focus of this course, the homework assignments will be applying the chapters to your paper. You will also have a presentation!

The length of time required to do research is often dependent upon the type of data you are planning to use.  If youre using secondary data you could complete the ENTIRE research this semester.  If youre capturing your own new/unique data, the research process will (probably) take you well past the end of this semester.  So  The length of your paper will vary with choice of data used as the collecting and analysis portions may not be possible during this semester.  HOWEVER, you should still discuss what your next steps are for conducting your research and data gathering.

The above paragraphs probably raise some questions

1.    What are primary and secondary data?

a.    Primary data is new data collected by the current researcher (you) and for the current project (this research project)

b.    Secondary data has already been collected by someone else (or by the current researcher, but for a different project)

c.      There are numerous sources of publicly available secondary data the TAMUCT library has access to several.

d.    Secondary data is NOT someone elses paper, but COULD BE an analysis of ALL papers written about a specific topic.  While this is normally what we would call a Literature Review, it can be much more than that by using various statistics and methods.  You MUST include a Literature Review in this research paper, but it is not recommended to base your entire research on this type of research.

2.    Why would a project using primary data require more than this semester to complete?

a.    Most research in business (and in academia, too) uses human reactions to stimuli to gather data.  This may be an experiment such as drug treatments by pharmaceuticals, a survey questionnaire, an interview, etc.  To protect the rights, privacy, health, etc. of human subjects, approval by some official entity is required.  Here at ______, that entity is the Institutional Research Board (IRB).  This approval could take several months to complete.

b.    Using primary data requires the development of a new data gathering instrument.  This can be quite time consuming and often required additional work to verify the validity of the instrument.  Validity is making sure the instrument is measuring what its supposed to be measuring and that the measurements are correct and accurate.  A big validity problem with surveys and interviews is bias.  The way a question is worded can influence the way people respond to it

c.      You also have to be careful when doing research involving animals you should make sure you follow any legal guidance regarding animal experimentation/study.  I dont know all the rules, so (if youre doing animal studies) you should probably get with me so we can make sure were following the rules.

3.    When could a project using primary data be finish in this semester?

a.    The project does not require human (or animal) subjects

b.    You are duplicating an experiment someone else already did.  While this is not obviously new it CAN be new by validating (or invalidating) the previous research or if youre changing one or more factors.  Make sure you have permission from the original researcher!

4.      If Im using primary data (or secondary – maybe) and unable to complete the entire project this semester can I continue it after the semester is over?

a.    YES!!!!!!

b.    Students are encouraged to complete their research. Whether you complete it in one semester or several years, we can take it to conferences or publish in journals.  Many conferences have student competitions and some give monetary rewards for the best student works.

c.      If you want to continue your research next semester (or some other future semester) you may or may not be able to use it for a different course.  To use it in a different course, you MUST obtain the instructors permission and meet any other requirements they may set.  This will usually require a substantial revision and (much) additional sections and content.

5.    What are the differences between sources and citations

a.    Sources are specific works done by other people.

b.    Sources should be Academic, Peer-Reviewed Journal articles rather than web sources.

c.      Sources are listed at the back of the document in either a References list or Works Cited list

d.    Citations are notations within the body of your paper that refer to one or more sources they should be formatted according to the rules specified (in this case, APA Style)

e.    A source can be cited multiple times throughout the document

6.    How many sources do I need to include?

a.    As many as feasible.  Kind of vague, I know, but you need enough to justify the facts presented in your paper, but not so many that your reference list is longer than your paper!

b.    An interesting rule of thumb is to have at least as many references as pages.  So, if your paper is 10 pages, so you should try to have at least 10 sources PEER REVIEWED, ACADEMIC SOURCES!!!

7.    How many citations do I need

a.    As many as necessary!

b.    Every time you present a fact in your paper, you should include a citation with at least one source.

c.      Every time you refer to someone elses work, you should cite that work.

d.    Any direct quotes should include a citation.  NOTE: I recommend not using ANY quotes unless absolutely necessary, which is VERY rare!