Public Lecture MPKP FEB UI : The Role of Literature Survey in Writing a Research Proposal
Hatfan Hizriyan Syaidan – International Office Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Indonesia
Master Program in Planning and Development Policy (MPKP) FEB UI on Wednesday, December 4th, 2019 hold a guest lecture about “The Role of Literature Survey for Writing a Research Proposal” at MPKP Building, FEB UI, Salemba Campus. The guest lecturer was Prof Matsuhiko Kataoka, Special Appointed Professor, Rikkyo University, Japan. While the representative of FEB UI was Vid Adrison, Ph.D., Director of MPKP FEB UI. There were also graduate students attended the Guest Lecture.
The guest lecture opened and accompanied by Vid Adrison, Ph.D. In the beginning Prof Matsuhiko outlined the lecture topics which cover what is a master thesis, steps for conducting a literature survey, and tips for a successful start-up for writing proposal. For the first topic, he pointed out the goal of an academic research to present new findings which have been unknown in our research area, however, it is also essential to find out what has already been known in our research area. That’s the role of literature survey, to review the previous study which is relevant to our research area.
After that, he explained steps for conducting a literature survey, starting from choosing a topic and defining research questions, deciding on the scope of our review and selecting databases for out literature survey. He strongly stressed us, researcher, to not cite unreliable sources such as the predatory journal. Since its published with little peer review and the journal title often resembles the high-quality journal. After we have got literature from our search, it is critical to read the articles carefully and if necessary, we can also take note of interesting facts we found while scrutinizing the articles.
The next is about tips for a successful start-up in literature survey. The first tips are to find the originality in the topic and specify the research design. Note that, researchers should be more specific in stating the work or methodology. The rests tips are to consider our constraints such as the level of our analytical skills, by not selecting the advance technique beyond our skills. Other consideration is also related to time, for instance if we don’t have enough time in thesis writing avoid conducting the sample survey or primary data, though we can choose reliable existing data published by well-established institution such as government organizations. To sum up literature survey is an initial and essential process for our research work, the more we study, the better our research.
We hope the lecture can give insight regarding why and how to conduct a good literature survey. Also, we hope that students can reap the lessons well so that they can implement it in their thesis writing.