Doing Publishable Research with Undergraduate Students

Abstract:     
This paper addresses the challenges associated with conducting research with undergraduates - limited time and resources, limited skills, the tedious nature of data gathering, etc. We discuss four models of effective research approaches. One is to identify a topic and a workable approach, such as competitive balance in sports, and apply it in different contexts - football, basketball, soccer, etc., with different students working on different sports. The second is to develop a huge data set, in this case patents, and then set students to work on problems involving some aspect of the data set. The third is to divide a related problem into distinct parts and have students work on each part. This approach is applied to research on recreation values for the Arkansas River a quantitative problem while the fourth approach shows its application to a qualitative problem, the role of corporate boards.

Keywords: student research, senior thesis

JEL Classifications: A22, L83, O34, Q26, G34

Working Paper Series