BSc ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL POLICY

Preparation of anIndependent Project

2013/14

Independent Project Timetable

Year 2013

*01 October. Preliminary Title: Form A – Provisional Independent Project

Title to Economics & Social Policy Secretary, R717

Between 01 October 30th November

Arrange an initial Meeting with Supervisor

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Year 2014**Monday 27th January Form B – Agreed Title and brief synopsis to ESP Secretary,

Rm717

Monday 24th February Supervisor to complete form recording discussion and

confirm sight of work in progress

Monday 10th March You should target for Preliminary draft

***Friday 09th May Submission date

* Please place FORM A outside Rm717 in the assignment box. The box is emptied every day before the office closes.

** Submission of Form B and Synopsis ON OR BEFORE 27th January 2014 is compulsory. Failure to do so will incur an automatic 5 mark penalty without authorized extension.

*** Submit your project directly to the ESP Secretary. Your work will be date stamped and you will need to sign a form.

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BIRKBECK COLLEGE

B.Sc. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL POLICY

INDEPENDENT PROJECT

The Independent Project (IP) is a full Course Unit within the B.Sc. Economic and Social Policy, undertaken during your fourth year. Under changes in the programme regulations introduced for the 2004/5 session it is now possible to take a tenth course unit instead of an IP. If you choose to enter for the IP as part of your course you should follow the timing of submissions set out in this document. This means that your agreed topic for your independent project must be handed into the Economics Department Office by Monday 27th January 2014 using Form B attached.

1. Aims of the Independent Project

The aims of the IP are two-fold. First, it allows you to undertake a programme of research in an area of your own choice. Second, it provides you with specific training in the formulation of a research programme, in the use of analytical techniques, and in the marshalling and presentation of the resulting findings and arguments. This may require you to put into practice the methods and techniques studied in the data analysis course. On completion of the project you should have acquired skills in the development of a research programme and be aware of the issues involved in the formulation and execution of a research programme.

2. The Nature of the Independent Project

The IP should consist of a single piece of work that falls directly within the scope of one or more of the disciplines included in the Economic and Social Policy degree. The IP should be an ‘original’ piece of work. Originality may mean taking an existing model or argument and applying it to a different country/situation. It does not mean work that has no link to other ideas. The way you put ideas together and match them up may make a piece original. Research for the IP relies on the collection and analysis of data, and, possibly, the development of models based on this analysis. To succeed, the IP must demonstrate that you have collected data that is relevant to your chosen topic and selected appropriate methods for its analysis.

The results of your independent research should be presented in a report of not less than 5,000 words and no more than 8,000 words (except by prior agreement with the IP Co-ordinator and the member of staff supervising the project). The independence of the work should be affirmed by the submission of a signed declaration (see Form C attached).

The project must be typed and bound. The front cover should be in green, with black ringbound spine. This can be done at Print Fast in Rathbone Place or any similar print service.

3. Choice of Topic and Supervision

This is perhaps the most important stage in the IP. No list of suggested subjects will be issued.

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Provisional titles must be handed into the Economics Department office by Wednesday 25th September 2013 so that supervisors can be allocated (see Form A attached). If necessary you may wish to discuss briefly your possible subject area with members of staff before being allocated a supervisor. The staff will be able to discuss topics of interest or to focus your research on a particular aspect of a larger area of enquiry.

The main points to note are that the topic should be intellectually challenging and practically feasible within the period available for study. In addition, it is worth picking a topic that genuinely interests you and will stimulate whilst you are completing the project.

After being allocated a supervisor you should normally expect to see your supervisor twice in both the Christmas and Spring terms. If appropriate, supervisors may read and comment generally on a draft of the IP. The role of the IP Co-ordinator is to monitor the progress of all IPs, and to make sure that no one fails to make adequate progress through lack of advice, facilities or support

The agreed topic must be officially registered with the Economics Department office by (see Form B attached).

4. Procedures

(i) Topic Choice and Problem Formulation

In thinking of your topic, it is generally useful to look for some relevant published articles, these will give you ideas on questions and methods.

Once the topic has been chosen, the particular problem that you wish to address must be clearly expressed. It is vital that you should have a firm understanding of what it is you are trying to show/discover. Only by asking the right kind of questions can one expect to arrive at sensible, instructive answers. Moreover, it will also help you to communicate clearly the nature of the problem/issue you are investigating to prospective readers of your report. A clearly identified problem is the key to a good IP. It does not have to be a large wide ranging problem that you identify. Past projects have ranged from “the Debt Crisis in Africa” to “Church attendance in Peckham”, but the key to success is a well defined and feasible problem to research. Examples of good projects are available in the Short Loan Collection in the library, but these are not to be taken from the library or photocopied.

(ii) Research content and Literature Review

Problem formulation is very closely related to the literature review. It is very important that you use the literature review to justify your choice of topic and problem. You must justify your problem formulation in academic terms. It is not sufficient to say that you are examining a problem because it happens to interest you. You justify your choice of problem by showing that it merits investigation given the previous research and literature in the field. You can do this in a number of ways. You might show that there is a long history of research into your problem and that your research contributes to this. Equally you might show that in the existing literature there is a key argument over a particular problem and you wish to examine this argument further. Alternatively you might argue that the literature and research has neglected a particular problem that you are going to examine.

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It is necessary, therefore, to show in the project that you are aware of what has already been written on the problem. This involves a review of the published literature. Acquiring a comprehensive knowledge of the literature takes time, but conscientious use of reading lists from the appropriate courses, together with the reference lists provided in the papers and books that you read, will help you build a complete picture.

Databases and citation indexes are available in the library. They allow you to search for journal articles by key word and to collate your own personal list of references. Details of using these systems are available in the Library. These are immensely useful and you MUST make use of them. Many students claim they cannot find academic material on their topic but in nearly all cases they have not searched properly using electronic databases.

The World Wide Web is another way of searching for material on your topic but you must be cautious of some material as it is produced by interest groups who support certain perspectives. The World Wide Web is available in the library and all the computer labs. If you want to try and find some recent books on a particular topic you could search the site on the web for the electronic bookseller’s amazon.com. You could then find the books listed in a library. The electronic version of the Financial Times is also available in the library but, whilst useful, remember it is not academic literature. If there is one author in particular whose research you need to read then the BIDS electronic database in the library provides a list of their recent publications and the other publications that reference their work. You must search for academic material on your topic. It is a key element in undertaking a project.

It is, of course, quite possible that you may wish to modify the initial aims and problem formulation of your IP as a result of a greater acquaintance with the appropriate literature. This is a key part of the process of your research programme. You will of course be eager to make progress with your data collection but the literature review is a crucial part of your IP and should guide your data collection process. Once you have identified the key issues they will help guide your project design since you will have to pick up on these issues in both your analysis and discussion. Consequently you will have to ensure that you can collect data on these issues.

For example, if you chose the topic: Assessing the Impact of Urban Policy in the UK, you might identify the impact of policy on community relations as the particular problem you wish to examine. A review of the literature would reveal a number of issues that previous research has identified as being important in determining the effect of policy on community relations e.g. the aims and ideology of urban policy organisations, local political structures, local non-political organisations, the historical development of the local economy, civil society and culture, the role of gender and race. You could then chose an urban area for study which would allow you to examine the role of these issues identified by previous research and your data collection strategy would be devised to reveal the role of these issues in the area of study. In the discussion of your results you would then relate your findings to the conclusions of previous research on this topic.

An economics dissertation should include some statistical analysis. If you chose to undertake a regression analysis then the choice of independent variables should be determined by the theoretical considerations and empirical findings of previous related research. For example, a regression model of wage determination might include firm size and industrial sector variables on the grounds that previous theoretical and empirical research suggests these can be an influence on wage determination.

The literature review in your project, therefore, will outline in some detail the previous research concerned with your problem. It should summarise the views of authors and organisations that have

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researched your problem. The literature review will probably contain many references to previous research. It is essential that you include these references. Do not summarise previous research without the references (see section 6 on plagiarism).

The literature related to your topic could be very large. So it is important to concentrate on the literature concerned with the particular problem you are examining. In the example of urban policy and community relations mentioned above it would not be necessary to review all the literature on urban policy which is huge, instead the review would concentrate on research concerned with the impact of policy specifically on community relations.

When you come to discuss your results you may refer back to the literature review and illustrate how your results contribute to the existing research into your problem. The references in your literature review, therefore, may also appear in you results section as you show how your work relates to previous research. Equally the methodology section may contain some references if you are justifying your choice of methods on the basis of the methods used or not used by previous research.

The literature review is very important and students who rush ahead without reading around the topic often make the worst errors.

(iii) Data

Data takes many different forms. The requirement to analyse data does not necessarily mean you have to make use of statistics. Other forms of data such as government publications or reports from policy organisations might be the basis for your data analysis. Data may be either ‘primary’ or ‘secondary’

Primary data are either those that are collected personally by the individual researcher or those that have already been collected but remain unpublished. Some examples of primary data include quantitative and qualitative questionnaire surveys carried out by the researcher or archive data which comes in many forms such as government records, old newspapers and specialist collections of letters and documents.

Secondary sources are those in which data have already been gathered, and are usually published. Examples include Government statistics, company reports, reports from policy organisations. Such secondary data can be most useful in the preparation of an IP and will quite often be used as the basis of the whole study.

Where it is intended to make statistical inferences from the resultant data, a rigorous sampling framework will have to be designed prior to data collection. Equally, qualitative research must be undertaken in a manner that is rigorous and takes account of current debates over the approach to qualitative research.

It is essential that you discuss your approach to data collection with your supervisor at an early stage to ensure that your sampling and methodology are appropriate.

(iv) Analytical Techniques

On completion of data gathering, the next stage in a project is the analysis of the data and the extraction of useful/meaningful information from such analyses. The analytical techniques which

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one may need to employ will depend on the nature of the topic selected and the characteristics of the data used.

Where the data collected are numerical in nature, statistical techniques may be required. Standard statistical packages are available on the PCs in the college computer rooms. To access these services you will need an up-to-date ITS username (and password).

It is important to note that sensible use of these facilities requires an understanding of the underlying statistical and principles. If you need to make extensive use of the computer facilities, you should consult with the IP co-ordinator in good time to ensure access to the facilities you need.

If you collect qualitative data you should discuss with your supervisor at an early stage the appropriate method for analysing and presenting results. For example, if you had conducted 10 very in-depth tape recorded interviews it might be appropriate to transcribe the interviews into an Appendix. Equally, the use of archive historical policy documents might require an Appendix indicating exactly which documents were used and where they are available.

Other analytical techniques might include the interpretation of company reports and content analysis of newspaper articles. Again you must discuss the presentation of results with your supervisor.

Whichever techniques you intend to employ, it is essential that you familiarise yourself with them and the feasibility of using them, prior to data collection.

(v) Writing-up

Leave plenty of time for writing up.

It is of the utmost importance that the results and discussion of the project be presented in a clear and logical manner. This involves careful integration of text, diagrams and tables into an account which has a sensible and accessible beginning, middle and end. Careful choice of a chapter structure is very important. All projects must include the following as compulsory elements:

REMEMBER: Maximum length 8,000

Title Page: Provided at rear of this Document. You need to type in Name and Project Title.Abstract: Approx. 100 wordsForm C: DeclarationTable of Contents:List of Tables and DiagramsAcknowledgments (if required)Introduction: This first chapter should introduce the subject to the reader, explain the

question(s) you wish to ask. It should contain a review of relevant literature that locates a range of key issues.

Core chaptersConclusions: The final chapter should explain the significance of your discussion and how it

relates to your original question(s). References: List of works cited in the project.

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5. Layout and style

The IP should follow the following style and layout guidelines.

The text of the IP should not normally be less than 5,000 words or exceed 8,000 words without prior agreement from a supervisor. Tables and appendices do not count towards the word limit.

References within the text should be indicated by the author's surname and the date of publication e.g.. (Smith 1980) or 'Jones (1984) has shown....'. The list of references should appear at the end of the text, before any appendices. This list should contain only that literature and those sources referred to explicitly in the text. Other literature should be put in a Bibliography (if relevant), the format of which should be identical to that of the Reference List (see below).

Footnotes may be placed either at the foot of the page on which they are indicated in the text (preferable) or in a list at the end of the relevant chapter. The footnotes should be indicated by small superscript numbers. Wherever possible, footnotes should be avoided and the material incorporated into the text.

The IP may be illustrated by the inclusion of a reasonable number of pages of tables, maps, diagrams and photographs. Illustrative material should be relevant and contribute to your analysis. Do not include such material for the sake of it.

Tables, diagrams, maps and photos can be integrated with the text or on separate pages.If they are integrated with the text make sure it is clear where the text ends and restarts. Donot make illustrative material too small, detailed economic tables and maps are often best atA4 size on a separate sheet.

A short abstract of the study not more than 300 words long should be included (this does not count towards the 8,000 word limit).

TWO bound copies of the IP shall be submitted in 1.5-spaced type-script with a left hand margin of 4cms. The right hand margin should be approximately 3cms. The top and bottom margins should be between 2 and 4cms. The Economics department office will provide covers but students are responsible for the binding, we advise the ULU print unit. In addition you should submit a copy in MS Word format on a CD/DVD to allow automatic checking for plagiarism.

Prior to the start of the main text the IP should include:

(a) A title page with the title of the study, your name, the date of submission and the approximate number of words. [Attached at rear](b) An Abstract(c) Form C(d) A page with the Table of Contents with page references(d) If necessary a page or pages with a list of Illustrative Material (e.g. tables,

diagrams, maps and photos)(e) If necessary acknowledgments

All pages must be numbered in consecutive order including the list of references and any appendices. The title page should be page number one.

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Each chapter should start on a separate page and the references/bibliography/appendices should also start on a separate page.

Tables should be numbered and given a title at the top, e.g.:

Table 2: Employment by skill and gender in London 1981-1991

Where appropriate, give the source or sources of data used in compilation at the bottom of the table.

Diagrams, Maps and Photographs, should also be numbered and given a title which should appear underneath.

The list of References and Bibliography (if relevant) should appear after the main text and prior to any appendices. References should be presented as:

Articles:Goe, W.R. (1990) 'Producer services, trade and the social division of labour', Regional Studies, 24, pp.327-42.

Books:Harvey, D. (1989) The condition of post-modernity, (Blackwell, London).

Edited chapters:Allen, J. (1988) 'Towards a post-industrial economy?', in Allen J. and Massey D.(eds.) The Economy in Question, (Sage/Open University, London), pp.91-135.

Reports:Tate and Lyle Ltd, (1992) Annual Report and Company Accounts (Tate and Lyle Ltd., London)

6. Plagiarism

As you are all aware the independent project must be your own work. You will find in this document a statement summarising the college position on plagiarism and an excerpt from the University of London exam regulations that refer to this issue. A particular concern in relation to this issue is the approach to referencing. The College statement indicates that "if you summarise another person's ideas or judgements, you must refer to that person in your text, and include the work referred to in your bibliography". You must follow this instruction in your independent project and some of the drafts we have read in the past often require more references before submission, especially in the literature review. Some students seem to feel that including references diminishes the value of what they write since it suggests that they are not being original. This is a mistaken view. Referencing is an important academic discipline and you will receive credit from the markers of the independent project for doing it properly. So make sure you include appropriate references in the text and in your bibliography.

In order to submit an IP for assessment, you are required to sign a form asserting the originality of your work and that you accept the right of the Examination Board to carry out checks for plagiarism including the use of appropriate software databases. Plagiarism is a form of fraud and

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any candidate found to be undertaking this activity is liable to face serious penalties, which includes a possible refusal by the College Examination Board to allow completion of the degree.

7. Overlap with course essays.

Obviously your independent project may relate closely to courses you have done and coursework you have completed. It is important, however, that your project does not contain the exact same material that has already appeared in course essays. There may be some similarity between course essays and the independent project in terms of topic but please ensure that there is no significant overlap in terms of content. If in doubt, discuss this issue with your supervisor.

8. Submission

The IP should be submitted in person to The Secretaries in the Economics office. They will have a form for you to sign, which will acknowledge receipt of the project. Please ensure that you complete your IP well before or by this deadline - extensions will not be granted except in exceptional circumstances.

Be sure that Form C is included in the IP.

9. Binding arrangements

When your project is completed, please observe the following arrangements for printing and binding.

Printing and binding services are at the University of London Union Print Centre. Opening times and approximate costs can be found via their website at www.ulu.co.uk. Alternatively, Ryman Stationers at Waterstones, Gower Street, provides binding facilities (0207 637 4074).

The following instructions are to be carried out exactly:

1. Add your name and project title to the front cover [Attached at rear]

2. Read and sign the project submission statement, Form C, which must be included in your project immediately following the Abstract.

3. They will copy the front cover on to emerald green coloured card. The project will be copied on to white paper. The project will be bound using a black spiral binder, a perspex front and a glossy white backing card.

4. In total two copies of the project AND an original CD/DVD copy in MS Word must be submitted to the Economics Department, Rm717.

10. Assessment

The Assessment is based solely on the submitted project. Drafts are not taken into account so do not

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be concerned about showing your supervisor a scruffy draft. A number of the characteristics of the project will be assessed including: the clarity of problem formulation and project design, the appropriateness of the techniques and methodology used, the understanding of the research area, the links between the previous research and the project, the handling of relevant theories, ideas and empirical information, the clarity and logic of the project, the nature of the findings and the conclusions.. The degree of importance attached to each of these elements will vary from project to project.

11. Safety

If you are undertaking any fieldwork, such as interviews, then please read and adhere to the Geography Department Safety Guide. There is a Safety Guide booklet available from the Safety Officer in the Geography Department

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OFFICE USE ONLY

FORM A

INDEPENDENT PROJECT

B.Sc. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL POLICY

My provisional project title is ____________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

To be submitted to Economics Department Office

Name (Block capitals)______________________________________________

Signed_________________________________________________________

Email__________________________________________________________

Date___________________________________________________________

ALLOCATION DATE STAMP

Department Name

Supervisor

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FORM B

INDEPENDENT PROJECT

B.Sc. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL POLICY

My confirmed project title is:

Name (Block capitals)

Signed

Date

Please attach to this sheet a detailed 1 page (minimum) outline of your project. This should indicate:

(i) the problem to be analysed(ii) the key readings relevant to your topic(iii) data sources(iv) methods.

Please also include any other information that you think will be useful.

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FORM C

INDEPENDENT PROJECT

B.Sc. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL POLICY

My project, entitled

is submitted under University of London regulations as part of the examination requirements for the B.Sc Economic and Social Policy Degree. Any quotation or excerpt from the published or unpublished work of other persons is explicitly indicated and in each such instance a full reference to the source of such work is given. I understand that I must include a labelled CD/DVD with the original document file on it (in MS Word) and I accept the right of the Examination Board to carry out checks for originality (including the use of electronic databases) if the Board deems it necessary. I have read and understood the requirements of the Birkbeck College Examinations Instructions to Candidates, including the relevant University of London regulations on Examination Tests, and in accordance with those requirements submit this work as my own.

Name (Block capitals)____________________________

Signed_________________________________________

Date__________________________________________

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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

BIRKBECK COLLEGE

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

LONDON WC1E 7HX

Project submitted towards the completion of BSc Economic and Social Policy

2014

Name:

Project Title:

Number of Words:

Date of Submission:

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