What support can students get in the data-collecting process?

by Juerong Qiu

Data collection is a time-consuming and complex process. It starts from applying for human ethics approvals for your research projects to implementing your chosen methods to measure the variables you are interested in. The Faculty of Arts and the School of Languages and Linguistics (SOLL) provide you with support in all aspects.

Human ethics approval is a must for all research conducted with or about people, or their data or tissue. The University of Melbourne provides a step-by-step guide to give you more information about how to make a human ethics application and the process of getting approved. A new application will go through a two-stage review process, so planning ahead based on the meeting schedule of the Human Research Ethics Committees would help to smooth your data-collecting process. If you hope to make minor changes to your research projects, such as instruments, project dates or participants, don’t forget to submit a request for amendment.

There are plenty of ways to find the participant pools you need, such as using specialized or social media, and contacting persons you know. If you are looking for participants at UoM, Notices on My Unimelb Student Portal is a great place to circulate your recruitment information. Before posting your own notice, you can choose your target audience groups and publication period. Be aware that it takes at least one working day to make the notice visible to your target audience. Depending on your target audience, there are also a few other newsletters in the Faculty and University that could be contacted to pass on the details.

To increase the likelihood of successful recruitment, you might want to set an appropriate incentive, especially monetary incentives, to show your respect for the participants’ time. SOLL provides funds to support your research data collection costs, including out of pocket expenses associated with research participants. The Research Funding Scheme is open to PhD students with $2000 in total, and MA (Research) students with $1000.

Close-up photo of survey spreadsheet. Photo by Lukas from Pexels.

Last but not least, graduate researchers can access statistical consulting services to better plan and analyse quantitative projects. You have a maximum of 10-hour free one-on-one advice. Do remember to submit the Melbourne Statistical Consulting Platform before the first consultation.