GenBus 965: Beginning a Research Career (Fall 13)

Instructor:Russ Coff

Email:hone: (608) 263-6437

Office Hrs:by appointment in 4259 GraingerFax: (608) 265-5031

Class:Tuesdays 5-7pm in4423 Grainger (Weinert center)

Course Overview and Objectives

This one credit course is required of incoming students in the Wisconsin School of Business PhD program. Students are often overwhelmed and do not absorb material when offered all at once before they begin their regular courses. This format offers fundamental content about conducting research and academic life that is not specific to a given department in the business school but will help to frame and motivate other studies. This format gives students more time to absorb the content at a point when they can better see how it applies to them.

Also, this seminar will give students a chance to interact with each other, create more of a cohort effect, and draw on each other as resources to propel themselves forward in the program. It is an opportunity to network with other PhD students at different stages in the program who can highlight critical resources and knowledge to help chart a path through the program.

Learning Objectives

Our ultimate goal is to help students come up to speed more quickly to become productive researchers who can eventually be placed in excellent research positions. Specific objectives include:

  1. Resources/tools: Be able to find and utilize resources (data, software, financial resources, etc.) that are critical to success in the program;
  2. Academic careers: Understand the bigger picture of what is required to be a successful academic (tenure process, networking, preparation for the job market …);
  3. Research process: Understand the basics of how research is conducted (generating ideas, framing a contribution, responding to reviewers…);
  4. PhD Program steps: Chart a path through the requirements of the PhD program

Assignments and Evaluation

Since this is only a one-credit course, we will keep the workload to a minimum. There will be supplementary readings that go into deeper detail on the resources or topics. However, evaluation will generally be based on attendance and participation in the discussion. The objective here is to provide a set of tools that help students align their efforts to perform better throughout the program.

Outline of Session Topics

# / Topic / Date / Instructor1
1 / Welcome: Coordination, Q&A, Life balance, and suggestions for International Students / 9/3 / Russ Coff
Abbie Daly (Acct)
Liang Ma (Fin)
2 / Academic careers: Tenure Process – What does it look like and implications for your time management & development of a research program / 9/10 / Russ Coff
Stacie Laplante (Acct)
Hart Posen (MHR)
3 / Resources/Tools:Navigating library resources (Proquest, MadCAT, tour, Bloomberg terminal...) / 9/17 / Peggy Smith (Library)
Jocelyn Leitzinger (MHR)
Shannon Younger (MHR)
4 / Research Process: Strategies for generating research ideas; Framing a contribution / 9/24 / Noah Lim (Mkt)
Oliver Levine (Fin)
Evan Polman (Mkt)
5 / Financial databases: Accessing WRDS, CRSP, Compustat, IBES, Thompson Reuters, Wisconsin longitudinal study, SEC EDGAR, UW Data and Info Services Center (DISC), Survey of Consumer Finances, BLS, etc. / 10/1 / Dean Corbae (Fin/Econ)
Michael Enyart (Library)
Wolfgang Schoepf (Fin)
6 / Statistical and data analysis software (such as SAS, Stata, R, LaTeX, MatLab and others): where and how to access each, what each is good for, where to find more information… / 10/8 / Amanda Convery (Acct)
Xiaoli Jin (ASRMI)
Joe Raffiee (MHR)
7 / Resources/Tools: Citation management: Introduction to Zotero, Evernote, Mendeley, Endnote, OneNote, etc. / 10/15 / Michael Venner(Library)
Marc Ragin (ASRMI)
8 / Research Process: Responding to reviewer feedback / 10/22 / Brian Mayhew (Acct)
Mingxiang Li (MHR)
Tiffany Trzebiatowski (MHR)
9 / PhD Program: Making it through the hoops (Proposing/dissertating,committee composition, finding resources) and your representatives on the PhD committee / 10/29 / Belle Heberling/Phil Miller
PhD Committee Student Representatives
10 / Academic Careers: Teachingand Research – “Turning the Wheel” / 11/5 / Erika Paulson (Mkt)
Justin Sydnor (ASRMI)
11 / Academic careers: Ethics and Research (conflicts of interest, authorship, academic integrity…) / 11/12 / Heather McFadden, Grad School
12 / Research Process: Writing and communication of research / 11/19 / David Ward
13 / Academic careers: Networking in academia: researching people you know will be at conferences, small talk for academics, and how to approach top faculty in the field. / 11/26 / Cass Hausserman (Acct)
Andrea Webb (Mkt)
14 / Academic careers: Preparing for the job market (teaching and research statements, giving a job talk, preparing a vita, preparing for job interviews) / 12/3 / KristianAllee (Acct)
Joan Schmidt (ASRMI)
15 / Academic careers: Creating a research culture / 12/10