TIMELINES AND SUPERVISION

This page contains an Exercise required for LAW 994

The process of researching and writing a research thesis seems, at the beginning, to stretch out for years ahead. That period rapidly diminishes as the months go by. To avoid being overtaken by time limits, and the natural period over which interest can be sustained, it is essential to prepare a timetable at the beginning of postgraduate research. Even though this timetable will probably be varied as time goes by, it is ncessary to have it there as a point of reference, and as a reminder of the tasks yet to be completed.

The starting point for a timeline is the anticipated time that it will take to submit the thesis. This is generally between 1- 2 years for a Masters and 2-4 years for a PhD. Minimum and maximum periods for full time and part time candidates are set out in Duration of Candidature. Start your timeline with today's date at the top of the page, and the submission date at the bottom.

It is then necessary to fill in all the tasks to be completed in that period. Many of these will vary from one thesis to another. However, there are certain requirements common to all research students, and a number of points that should be considered by everyone.

Formal requirements

In addition to the minimum and maximum times to submission, there are intermediate milestones. First, there is the research proposal, to be submitted within the first year of enrolment. (This site includes guidance on preparation of a research proposal. The University policy on research proposals is at 2.9 of the Code of Practice - Supervision.)

Then there are annual progress reports, usually due with your supervisor in about November, for return via the Faculty's Head of Postgraduate Studies to the university administration by the end of the year. Completion of these reports is a prerequisite for re-enrolment the following year.

Supervision

Supervision is an essential and integral part of the postgraduate research experience. Students must gain advice and feedback from their supervisors at each stage of their work. It is therefore essential to factor into your timeline your supervisor's availability and time to turn around drafts or other material for comment. This is nowhere more critical than in the final stages, when your supervisor must agree that your thesis to ready to submit before it will be accepted.

There are more details about the mutual expectations and obligations of the student-supervisor relationship in the Code of Practice - Supervision. All new research students should be familiar with this code of practice (CoP).

The CoP (3.2, 4.2) requires an agreement, or contract, between student and supervisor on work to be done and schedules to be adhered to, and which is to be reviewed regularly. Your timeline is the first step in that process.

The checklist (see appendix A of the CoP - Supervision) for the first meeting between supervisor and student contains some important cues for preparation of a timeline.

In 'FAQ: Initial Questions about Thesis Supervision in Law', Desmond Manderson begins with four 'bad' questions about supervision, and transposes them into 'good' questions.

Reading
Manderson, Desmond. “FAQ: Initial Questions about Thesis Supervision in Law.” Legal Education Review 8, no. 2 (1997): 121-139.

Research considerations

In your research proposal you will need to take account of the time and cost of any research required. Factor the time into the timeline. Some important issues must be dealt with in the time leading up to any period of actual research:

Determination of appropriate research methods required to answer research questions. (See the Overview ofResearch.)

Human Research Ethics Committee clearance as required. Any direct research with human participants generally requires approval of the ethics committee prior to commencement. (See Human research ethics.) This research includes research which involves:
interviewing
collecting data or samples
observing
reviewing private records
conducting experimental procedures
comparing clinical procedures or interventions
surveying groups of people (including small groups and students).

Although some research, such as consultation with professionals in areas of their professional expertise, may be exempted from the requirement for ethics committee clearance, if you are going to to any of the types of research listed above you should consult the University's ethics policies, discuss it with your supervisor, and be aware of the timelines for the Ethics Committee, including dates of meetings and deadlines for proposals to be received.

Pilot research. Before carrying out your full empirical or field research you should do a pilot project, from beginning to end. This is a limited amount of research, perhaps with a small sample or just a few participants. It is designed to highlight any difficulties with your research methods: from contacting participants to recording, coding, interpreting and reporting the data. By doing a pilot, and learning from any difficulties, you should be bale to avoid reaching the end of your avialable time for research, only to find that parts of it have to be done again.

While this advice comes from the field of empirical research, there may be analogies in purely conceptual, library or legal research: there is no point spending six months in a library, taking pages (or megbytes) of notes if the material you collect is not going to answer your research questions or add up to a coherent argument or 'thesis'. (See the resources on Questions and Arguments.)

Of course, it is necessary to factor this pilot phase into your timelines.

How much time?

At the top of this web page, I suggested putting today's date at the top of a sheet of paper, and your anticipated submission date at the bottom. It is quite likely that by now you will have more than filled up all the space in between, and have started on another page!

While it is essential to plan for all the tasks you will need to do, it is still necessary to fit them into a manageable time frame.

In Do It Yourself Social Research Yoland Wadsworth suggests that it will take roughly the same amount of time (a) to plan the research, (b) to actually collect the information you need, and (c) to analyse the information and write it up.

Research students in law often design a timeline in terms of chapters, writing, say, one chapter a month for six months.

Depending on the nature of your research, you may find that your sort of time line falls somewhere between these two models. Because legal research is usually fairly conceptual, it often requires more lead time, and because arguments need to be carefully crafted, it may take longer to write up. Sometimes legal researchers do not do anything that they would recognise as 'data collection' in Wadsworth's sense. However, there is usually a substantial amount of information to collect, from libraries and legal sources if not from interviews and case studies, before an argument starts to take shape.

Reading
Sharp, J. and K. Howard. The Management of a Student Research Project. (Gower, 1996). Chapter 3
'Planning the Research Project' pp 50-71.

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EXERCISE

Prepare a timeline covering all the main tasks you need to carry out your research and write up your thesis. Write dates in the left hand column, starting with today, and ending at your submission date.

Include all of the following tasks which may be relevant to your research:
(be specific, relate tasks to your own research questions and methods)

• Refine topic (include time to consult supervisor)
• Develop research questions
• Prepare research proposal
• Present research proposal
• Complete initial literature search (include time to consult supervisor)
• Finalise research methods and plan (include time to consult supervisor)
• Submit proposal to Ethics Committee (include time to consult supervisor)
• Plan and organise travel, contacts, budget for research
• Receive clearance from Ethics Committee
• Carry out pilot research (include time to write up findings and consult supervisor)
• Revise research methods in light of pilot (include time to consult supervisor)
• Carry out research (specify where, when)
• Analyse findings and map out presentation and argument (include time to consult supervisor)
• Write first draft (include time to consult supervisor)
• Write second draft
• Consult on examiners (allow time for the supervisor, HPS and Office of Research to consult examiners)
• Prepare thesis for submission (include time for supervisor to assess readiness for submission)
• Submit thesis.

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Reference

Wadsworth, Yoland. Do It Yourself Social Research. 2nd ed. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1997. pages 22-23 [return to text]

Luke McNamara, 17 February 2005