Mixed methods : a research design for management doctoral dissertations

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine two management doctoral research projects to highlight the advantages in mixed methods as the primary research design.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper summarises the methods of data collection and analysis which were used by two doctoral students in their management research. The researchers used mixed methods approaches (quantitative and qualitative) to explore different areas of management.
Findings – The paper supports the view that triangulation of research methods strengthens the findings and inferences made for understanding social phenomena in more depth, compared to using a single method.
Research limitations/implications – The paper relies excessively on two doctoral research projects which utilise sequential mixed methods. Therefore, arguments made in the paper are specific because other doctoral projects that have used different methods from those employed in the two projects were not considered.
Practical implications – Early researchers, in particular students commencing doctorate studies, should apply mixed methods research because it develops skills in the two most dominant data collection methods used in management research. This paper is a practical guide on how this could be done effectively.
Originality/value – The paper is drawn from two unique doctoral research projects. The paper’s originality and value is in providing experiences and practical insights on how mixed methods research is undertaken.

Disciplinary differences in Australian PhD theses 1987-2006 and the implications for future research capacity

The paper, which draws on data previously presented at the 2010 World Universities Forum in Davos, Switzerland (Evans & Macauley, 2010), presents and tabulates a variety of trends from the Database of Australian Doctorates, in particular, those relating to the ebb and flow of PhDs in particular selected ‘academic’ and ‘professional’ disciplines in Australia. The paper commences with an overview of the research methods and outcomes. Four academic disciplines (astronomy, chemistry, cultural studies and demography) and four professional disciplines (architecture and building, education, librarianship and nursing) are selected for analysis of their 1987–2006 PhD thesis records. These selections were made to reflect a range of academic and professional disciplines in Australia and to illustrate the changes that have occurred over the past two decades. The period 1987-2006 covers several major changes in Australian university education and PhD education.

Research capacity implications for government, universities and disciplines from research into Australian PhD theses and their graduates’ scholarly, professional and community impacts

The authors (with colleagues) have conducted research into Australian doctoral education for over a decade. Two recent projects have produced as part of their outcomes: a database coded by discipline of all Australian PhD theses (dissertations) from 1987–2006. This paper commences with an overview of this work in terms of its purposes, research methods and outcomes. It is contextualized in terms of the current Australian and international debates about the nature, substance and impact of doctoral education on nations, societies, communities and economies. The paper presents some analyses of trends in the 1987–2006 Australian PhD theses. The period 1987-2006 covers several major changes in university education in Australia from the impact of the establishment of the Unified National System in the early 1990s, through the implementation of the Research Training Scheme (RTS) from 2001, the deliberations and demise of the Research Quality Framework (RQF), the rise of Excellence in Research Australia (ERA), through to the review of research training and the research workforce in Australian universities by the House of Representatives. The paper presents and tabulates a variety of trends from the bibliometric and bibliographic data, in particular those relating to the ebb and flow of PhDs in particular disciplines. The implications for national, institutional and disciplinary planners and policymakers with interests in the development and sustainability of research capacity are discussed.

Classifying Australian PhD theses : linking research and library practices

This paper draws on the findings from, and the methods and approach used, in the provision of a database of Australian PhD thesis records for the period 1987 to 2006, coded by Research Fields, Courses and Disciplines (RFCD) fields of study. The project was funded by the Research Excellence Branch of the Australian Research Council. Importantly, the project was not merely the creation of yet another database but constitutes a valuable research resource in its own right. It provides an alternative source of data about research training with a focus on research output and research capacity building rather than input as does data on enrolment. The database is significant as it can be used to track knowledge production in Australia over a twenty year period and contains approximately 54,000 bibliographic records. The database of Australian PhDs has been constructed from downloaded bibliographic records from Libraries Australia. Recommendations for practice relate to university libraries, doctoral candidates, and the coded database. We suggest that libraries are more consistent with cataloguing procedures, including the thesis ‘publication’ date, and that they are more timely in uploading their thesis records to Libraries Australia or, alternatively, Australian Research Online. We also suggest that PhD candidates code their own theses using the new ANZSRC scheme (which replaced the RFCD classification in 2008), and also use clear and communicative thesis titles and thesis abstracts. With regard to the coded database, we suggest it becomes a requirement for universities to provide the ANZSRC coding of submitted theses

Classifying Australian PhD theses: linking research and library practices

This article draws on the findings from, and the methods and approach used in the provision of a database of Australian PhD thesis records for the period 1987 to 2006, coded by Research Fields, Courses and Disciplines (RFCD) fields of study. Importantly, the project was not merely the creation of yet another database but constitutes a valuable research resource in its own right. The database is significant as it can be used to track knowledge production in Australia over a twenty year period and contains approximately 54,000 bibliographic records. Recommendations for practice relate to university libraries, doctoral candidates, and the coded database.

Australian PhD theses in selected professional and academic disciplines 1987–2006 and the implications for future research capacity

This commences with an overview the research methods and outcomes. It is contextualised in terms of the current Australian and international debates about the nature, substance and impact of doctoral education on nations, societies, communities and economies. Four professional disciplines (architecture and building, education, librarianship and nursing) and four academic disciplines (astronomy, chemistry, cultural studies and demography) are selected for analysis of their 1987–2006 PhD thesis records. These selections were made to reflect a range of professional and academic disciplines in Australia and to illustrate the changes that have occurred over the past two decades. The period 1987-2006 covers several major changes in Australian university education and PhD education in particular.

Mutations in the kissing-loop hairpin of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reduce viral infectivity as well as genomic RNA packaging and dimerization

A stem-loop termed the kissing-loop hairpin is one of the most highly conserved structures within the leader of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and chimpanzee immunodeficiency virus genomic RNA. Because it plays a key role in the in vitro dimerization of short HIV-1 RNA transcripts (M. Laughrea and L. Jette, Biochemistry 35:1589-1598, 1996, and references therein; M. Laughrea and L. Jette, Biochemistry 35:9366-9374, 1996, and references therein) and because dimeric RNAs may be preferably encapsidated into the HIV-1 virus, alterations of the kissing-loop hairpin might affect the in vivo dimerization and encapsidation processes. Accordingly, substitution and deletion mutations were introduced into the kissing-loop hairpin of an infectious HIV-1 molecular clone in order to produce viruses by transfection methods. The infectivity of the resulting viruses was decreased by at least 99%, the amount of genomic RNA packaged per virus was decreased by 50 to 75%, and the proportion of dimeric genomic RNA was reduced from >80 to 40 to 50%, but the dissociation temperature of the genomic RNA was unchanged. There is evidence suggesting that the deletion mutations moderately inhibited CAp24 production but had no significant effect on RNA splicing. These results are consistent with the kissing-loop model of HIV-1 RNA dimerization. In fact, because intracellular viral RNAs are probably more concentrated in transfected cells than in cells infected by one virus and because the dimerization and encapsidation processes are concentration dependent, it is likely that much larger dimerization and encapsidation defects would have been manifested within cells infected by no more than one virus.