STEP TWO

Learn how the route you adopted affects the next steps

The route that you have adopted affects whether you (a) can adopt the research questions/hypotheses from the main journal article, (b) need to modify these research questions/hypotheses for your dissertation, or (c) have to create new research questions/hypotheses from scratch:

• Route A: Duplication
  ADOPT

  In the case of Route A: Duplication, writing out your research questions/hypotheses should be fairly straightforward since they should be set out in the journal article you are replicating. All you need to do, in most cases, is adopt those research questions/hypotheses from the journal article that you are duplicating. If you do plan to rephrase these research questions/hypotheses in any way, be very careful that you do not change the original meaning that was intended.

• Route B: Generalisation
  MODIFY

  For Route B: Generalisation, you should be able to simply modify those research questions/hypotheses from the main journal article. After all, the main crux of what is being investigated will be the same, with just a few modifications to take into account the different population, setting/context, treatment or time dimension you are investigating. This will be reflected in your research questions/hypotheses. In the example below, we show a basic modification in the research hypothesis between the main journal article and your dissertation, should you be making a population-based generalisation:

  Main journal article:
  Adolescent females will have more negative attitudes towards music piracy than adolescent males

  Your dissertation:
  Adult females will have more negative attitudes towards music piracy than adult males

  As the example illustrates, (a) the crux of the research hypothesis stayed the same (i.e., a comparison of males and females' attitudes towards music piracy), whilst (b) the population being investigated changed, so this part of the research hypothesis was modified (i.e., a change from adolescents to adults).

• Route C: Extension
  CREATE

  When taking on Route C: Extension, there is a good chance that you will have to create research questions/hypotheses from scratch. This is not to say that there will not be certain parts of the research questions/hypotheses from the main journal article that you can draw on (e.g., many of the constructs/variables may be the same), but for the most part, dissertations based on Route C: Extension move further away from the main journal article than those based on Route A: Duplication and Route B: Generalisation. Creating research questions/hypotheses from scratch requires a lot more thought, but we have a number of articles to walk you through this process, which we touch on in STEP FOUR: Adopt, modify or create research questions and/or hypotheses for your dissertation later in this article.

Before thinking about adopting (i.e., Route A: Duplication) or modifying (i.e., Route B: Generalisation) the research questions/hypotheses from your main journal article, or creating new ones (i.e., Route C: Extension), it is important to know how your goals determine the type of research questions/hypotheses you will set. We discuss this in STEP THREE next.