288ACC: RESEARCH
SKILLS
2
Lecture Structure
1.Structure of the module
2.Possible Topic Areas
3.The structure of a Dissertation
4.An Example of research Structure: An
Earnings Management paper
3
Introduction to the module
• The module(s) will run for 10 weeks; 2 parts:
Part A: Research Skills (weeks 1-8)
Part B: Employability Skills (weeks 9-10)
• See moodle section Teaching Plan … for details of course
• Module team:
Research skills: Dr. Timothy Rodgers and Rizwan Ahmed
•Structure: 1hour Lecture per week and 2 hour Workshop every
second week.
•Material will be posted on Moodle.
• We will also need access to the internet in both the lecture
and seminars so please bring along laptops or smart phones.
5
Assessments
Research proposal
• Up to 2500 words.
• Hand-in-Date: 23/04/2018.
• This will be looked at in detail next week.
• See moodle Lecture 2 for details
• You may not submit a dissertation in year 3 until you
have passed this module.
5
Assessments
Research proposal
• You will need to choose a dissertation topic by 17th
March. This will then be used to allocate you to a
proposal supervisor.
• The choice is made on moodle- in the section: teaching
Plan and Choosing a Dissertation topic.
• DONOT choose your topic yet! Wait until we have
given you some ideas of topic areas and also what we
expect from your proposal.
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The Research Process
• The research proposal is the most important part
of the dissertation process.
• Once you understand the research process and
produce your research proposal the dissertation
should be easy!
• Although your dissertation is not until year 3 the
proposal is the key part of the dissertation process.
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The Research Process
• The research process essentially follows the same structure
whether you are doing:
• undergraduate dissertation (7000 words)
• Masters dissertation (12-15,000 words)
• PhD dissertation (70-80,000 words)
• Academic journal article (4 -8000 words)
• If you lean how to structure a research paper properly in this module
you will be able to use this knowledge to whatever level you take
your academic career.
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Possible Topic areas in Finance
• E.g. capital markets, market efficiency, capital structure, assets
pricing, corporate governance, event studies, dividend policy,
earnings management, …...
• See Moodle for details (Lecture 1)
• You will be able to do much of the work related to writing your
proposal during the final workshop. It is therefore essential that
you pick your research topic area before mid March.
• If you don’t attend Workshop 5 your tutor will not be there to
help you.
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Possible Proposal Topics
• The full list and details are given on Moodle. This is not a definitive
list but gives you some ideas.
• E.g.
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Possible Topic Areas
• E.g.
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The Structure of a Dissertation
• Research Question and Overview
• Literature Review
• Data Description
• Methodology and Hypothesis tested
• Results and Discussion
• Conclusions
• See outline structure on Moodle (Lecture 1)
9
The Structure of a Dissertation
• An Example: Earnings Management Paper
“Analysis on accrual-based models in detecting
earnings management” by Tianran CHEN
Using the table that follows identify these key elements of the paper
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The Structure of a Dissertation
Some key points
• Earnings management is the manipulation of accounts to show
company performance in a favourable light.
• This is done by manipulating accruals.
• Accruals are expenses and revenues for services received or
goods provided where payments are yet to be made/received.
• Accruals can be discretionary or non discretionary.
• It is the discretionary accruals that are used for earnings
management.
• Researchers therefore want to measure these discretionary
accruals.
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The Structure of a Dissertation: key elements of a research paper
Research Question
Hint: relates to the measurement of
earnings management
Literature Review
The key paper is by Jones – what are her
arguments?
Data Description
Give: Sources, periods, variables
Methodology and Hypothesis
Econometrics based residuals model
(equations 3 & 4 in paper. Identify the key
equations)
Identify the hypothesis tested (are they
trying to test the Jones model?)
Results and Discussion
What are the main findings?
What are the key issues discussed ?
Conclusions
Can the Jones model be used to detect EM
in China?
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Next Week
• In next weeks lecture we will show how we will structure the
research proposal and identify which are the key elements
that we need to focus on.
• In Workshop 1 we will look at a research paper and will
examine how the paper deals the research question.
