ROUTE #1: Getting Started
ROUTE #1: Process
ROUTE #1: Chapter-by-Chapter
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STAGE 1

Getting to the main article

STAGE 2

Choosing your route

STAGE 3

Setting research questions/
hypotheses

STAGE 4

Assessment point

STAGE 5

Building the theoretical case

STAGE 6

Setting your research strategy

STAGE 7

Assessment point

STAGE 8

Data collection

STAGE 9

Data analysis

STAGE 10

Write up

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STAGE 1

Getting to the main journal article

Stage one of The Route #1 Process is about getting to the main journal article that will act as the platform for your replication-based dissertation. As you should have learnt from the article, Route #1: Getting started, eventually you will choose a particular route to follow in your dissertation (i.e., Route A: Duplication, Route B: Generalisation or Route C: Extension). Whilst you could choose the route that you are interested in first, rather than the main journal article, it can be more difficult to try and find a journal article that fits your chosen route, rather than the other way around. Therefore, in this article, we help you to find the main journal article that will become the platform for your replication-based dissertation.

There are generally two approaches to finding a suitable journal article. The first, and probably the easiest and quickest, is to think of the many journal articles that you may have read during your studies. In some cases, you may have even completed coursework that drew on such an article. Perhaps there was an article that you (a) found interesting, (b) would have liked to see the results applied in a different situation/context or population, (c) wanted to see if it still made sense today, especially if it was published a while ago, or (d) felt that the findings didn't quite sound right. However, it is less common that you will be able to jump straight to the main journal article in this way. More often than not, you'll have to spend a good weekend or longer (but at the very least, a few hours) narrowing down your choices until a suitable journal article emerges. However, it is possible to reduce the time required to get to the main journal article by following the four steps we set out below.

If you already have a strong idea of the topic area you are interest in exploring during your dissertation, you can skip STEP ONE: Choose a possible topic route, and move onto STEP TWO: Generate a list of potential journal articles. However, if you are less sure, or have little or no clue what you want to study at this point, we would recommend starting with STEP ONE.

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