Research Methods (Doctoral Engineering)

Course Description

EGN6457 – Research Methods is a 3-credit-hour doctoral-level engineering course that develops competency in the methods, conventions, and professional practice of engineering research. The course addresses the practical foundations of doctoral engineering research — research question formulation, literature engagement at scholarly depth, research design and methodology, scholarly writing and publication conventions, the dissertation arc (proposal through defense), research ethics (including IRB processes for human-subjects research, animal research considerations, research integrity), professional development (advisor relationships, conference presentations, peer review participation), and the engineering research career landscape (academic, industry, government, national laboratories).

EGN6457 is foundational for doctoral engineering students preparing for substantial dissertation research and research careers. The course typically combines lecture and discussion-based instruction with substantial student work products including literature reviews, research proposals, draft manuscripts, conference abstracts, and presentations. Some institutional implementations include direct engagement with faculty research mentors and integration with dissertation milestone requirements.

EGN6457 is a Florida common course offered at approximately 2 Florida institutions. The course transfers as the equivalent course at Florida public postsecondary institutions per SCNS articulation policy where the receiving doctoral program accepts the course; doctoral course transfer is typically more restrictive than master's-level course transfer.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Apply research question formulation, including the identification of research gaps; the formulation of testable research questions; the differentiation between research questions and engineering problems; the iterative refinement of research questions through scholarly engagement.
• Apply scholarly literature engagement at doctoral level, including comprehensive literature search strategies; the evaluation of source quality; the synthesis of literature; the identification of methodological precedents; the management of large literature collections.
• Apply research design and methodology, including the matching of methodology to research question; experimental research; observational research; computational research; theoretical research; mixed-methods research; the appropriate selection for engineering research questions.
• Apply research ethics, including responsible conduct of research (RCR); plagiarism and self-plagiarism; authorship and intellectual contribution; conflicts of interest; data integrity; research misconduct.
• Apply human subjects research considerations, including the role of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs); the development of IRB protocols; the levels of review (exempt, expedited, full board); the special considerations for vulnerable populations.
• Apply animal research considerations (where relevant), including the role of Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs); the 3Rs principle (replacement, reduction, refinement).
• Apply scholarly writing conventions for engineering research, including the conventions of engineering journal articles; the structure of research papers (introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion — IMRAD); the conventions of figures, tables, and citations; the engineering writing style.
• Apply scholarly publication processes, including the identification of appropriate journals; the manuscript preparation; the submission process; the peer review process; the response to reviewer comments; the role of preprints (arXiv, engRxiv); open access considerations.
• Apply conference presentation conventions, including the preparation of conference abstracts; the design of conference posters; the preparation of conference oral presentations; the engagement at engineering conferences.
• Apply the dissertation arc, including dissertation proposal (qualifying exam, candidacy exam — varies by institution); dissertation execution; dissertation writing; dissertation defense; the management of doctoral milestones.
• Apply advisor and committee relationships, including the role of the dissertation advisor; the role of the dissertation committee; the management of advisor-student relationships through challenges; the navigation of institutional doctoral processes.
• Apply peer review participation at introductory level, including the conventions of peer review; the development of constructive review; the engineering value of participating in peer review.
• Engage with engineering research career planning, including academic career paths (faculty positions, postdoctoral positions); industry research careers; government and national laboratory careers; the appropriate preparation for each path.
• Apply research project management, including the planning of multi-year doctoral research; milestone management; the integration with funding agency requirements (for funded research).
• Develop substantive doctoral research artifacts, including comprehensive literature review; research proposal; draft manuscript or conference abstract; the integration with the student's dissertation work.

Optional Outcomes

• Apply research funding at introductory level, including the major funding agencies (NSF, NIH, DOE, DOD, NASA, USDA, others); the conventions of funding proposals; the role of funding in doctoral research.
• Apply collaborative research practices, including multi-investigator research; cross-institutional collaboration; international collaboration considerations.
• Apply data management for engineering research, including data management plans (required by NSF and other funders); research data archiving; reproducibility considerations.
• Apply introductory grantsmanship, including NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) preparation; NIH F31/F32 fellowship considerations; agency-specific funding opportunities.
• Engage with specific research domain conventions reflecting the student's research area.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• The Engineering Research Profession: The role of doctoral engineering research in academia, industry, government, and national laboratories; the engineering research career landscape; the relationship between engineering research and engineering practice.
• Research Question Formulation: The identification of research gaps; the differentiation between research questions and engineering problems (engineering problems have known frameworks; research questions explore unknown territory); the formulation of testable research questions; iterative refinement.
• Scholarly Literature Engagement at Doctoral Level: Comprehensive literature search strategies; the use of databases (IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science); citation tracking (forward and backward); reference management (Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote); the evaluation of source quality (impact factor, peer review status, recency); the management of large literature collections at scale.
• Literature Review Writing: The role of literature review in dissertation work; comprehensive vs. focused literature reviews; the synthesis of literature (not just summary); the identification of methodological precedents; the engineering writing style for literature reviews.
• Research Design — Foundations: The matching of methodology to research question; the categories of engineering research (experimental, observational, computational, theoretical, mixed-methods); the appropriate selection.
• Experimental Research: Hypothesis-driven research; experimental design (DOE foundations); statistical analysis of experimental data; the engineering applications.
• Observational Research: Field studies; survey research; case studies; the appropriate use in engineering contexts.
• Computational Research: Simulation-based research; computational experiments; reproducibility considerations.
• Theoretical Research: The development of theory; the integration with experimental and computational verification.
• Mixed-Methods Research: The integration of multiple methodologies; the engineering applications.
• Research Ethics — Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR): The principles of research integrity; the federal RCR training requirements (CITI, ORI training); the institutional research integrity policies.
• Research Ethics — Plagiarism and Authorship: The avoidance of plagiarism (including self-plagiarism); the conventions of citation; the conventions of authorship (the engineer's contribution standards); the management of conflicts.
• Research Ethics — Data Integrity: The integrity of data collection, analysis, and reporting; the management of data; the recognition of research misconduct (fabrication, falsification, plagiarism — FFP).
• Human Subjects Research: The role of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs); the federal regulations (45 CFR 46); the levels of review (exempt, expedited, full board); the special considerations for vulnerable populations (children, prisoners, pregnant women, cognitively impaired persons); the development of IRB protocols.
• Animal Research Considerations: The role of Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs); the 3Rs principle (replacement, reduction, refinement); the federal regulations.
• Scholarly Writing — Engineering Research Papers: The conventions of engineering journal articles; the IMRAD structure (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion); the abstract; the figure and table conventions; citation management; the engineering writing style.
• Scholarly Writing — Style and Conventions: Active vs. passive voice (engineering writing increasingly accepts first-person "we"); the avoidance of unnecessary jargon; the structure of paragraphs and arguments; the integration of figures and tables with text.
• Scholarly Publication Process: The identification of appropriate journals (impact factor; scope match; review timeline); manuscript preparation; submission process; peer review; the response to reviewer comments; the revision process.
• Open Science Considerations: Preprints (arXiv, engRxiv, SSRN); open access publication models (gold, green); data sharing requirements (NSF data management plans, NIH data sharing); reproducibility movements.
• Conference Presentations: Conference abstract preparation; conference poster design; conference oral presentations; the engagement at engineering conferences (presentation skills, networking, professional development).
• The Dissertation Arc: Dissertation proposal (qualifying exam, candidacy exam — varies by institution); dissertation research execution; dissertation writing (the dissertation as a substantial scholarly work); dissertation defense; institutional doctoral milestones; the typical timeline (4-6 years for engineering doctoral degrees).
• Advisor and Committee Relationships: The role of the dissertation advisor; the role of the dissertation committee; the management of advisor-student relationships; the navigation of institutional doctoral processes; the role of mentoring.
• Peer Review Participation: The conventions of peer review; the development of constructive review; the institutional and disciplinary norms for peer review participation by doctoral students.
• Engineering Research Career Planning: Academic career paths (research-intensive vs. teaching-intensive faculty positions; postdoctoral positions); industry research careers; government research careers (NIST, NIH, NASA, NOAA); national laboratory careers (Sandia, Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge, NREL); the preparation for each path.
• Research Project Management: The planning of multi-year doctoral research; milestone management; the integration with funding agency requirements (where applicable); the management of research timeline alongside coursework, qualifying exams, and life events.
• Doctoral Research Artifacts Project: Substantive student work products including a comprehensive literature review; research proposal; draft manuscript or conference abstract; the integration with the student's dissertation work.

Optional Topics

• Research Funding: The major funding agencies (NSF, NIH, DOE, DOD, NASA, USDA, others); the conventions of funding proposals; the role of funding in doctoral research; the engineering of funding portfolios over an academic career.
• Collaborative Research: Multi-investigator research; cross-institutional collaboration; international collaboration considerations; the management of authorship in collaborative work.
• Data Management: Data management plans (NSF DMP requirement); research data archiving (institutional repositories, domain-specific repositories — figshare, Dryad, Zenodo); reproducibility (data and code sharing for engineering research).
• Grantsmanship: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) preparation (the personal statement; the research proposal); NIH F31/F32 fellowship considerations; agency-specific opportunities.
• Specific Research Domain Conventions: The conventions specific to the student's research area.

Resources & Tools

• Common Texts: The Craft of Research (Booth/Colomb/Williams — comprehensive research methods); Research Design (Creswell/Creswell — qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods); How to Write a Better Thesis (Evans/Gruba/Zobel); The Elements of Style (Strunk/White — classic writing style); discipline-specific research methods texts
• Research Resources: The Office of Research Integrity (ORI — ori.hhs.gov); CITI Program (online RCR training); the National Academies (proceedings and reports on research practice); discipline-specific style manuals (IEEE editorial style; ACM editorial style; AMS style for math)
• Software: Citation management (Zotero — free; Mendeley; EndNote); writing tools (LaTeX with citation integration; Microsoft Word with reference management); data management tools; Overleaf (collaborative LaTeX); Git/GitHub for code management
• Reference Resources: The institutional graduate school office (research compliance, IRB, IACUC, conflict of interest); the institutional library research support; engineering professional society resources; doctoral student development programs

Career Pathways

EGN6457 supports career pathways requiring doctoral-level research preparation:

• Academic Career Path — University faculty positions (research-intensive R1 institutions; teaching-intensive institutions); postdoctoral research positions.
• National Laboratory Career Path — Sandia, Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge, NREL, NIST; substantial Florida-relevant research at NASA Kennedy Space Center.
• Industry Research Career Path — Senior R&D roles in major engineering companies; relevant Florida industries include aerospace (Lockheed, Northrop, L3Harris, Boeing), defense, healthcare technology, marine engineering.
• Government Research Career Path — NIH, NIST, NOAA, NASA Headquarters, military research labs (Air Force Research Laboratory, Naval Research Laboratory).
• Engineering Research Software Development — Engineering research software organizations.
• Engineering Consulting — Research-Driven — Senior consulting roles requiring research credentials.
• Engineering Entrepreneurship from Research — Research-based startups; technology commercialization from doctoral research.

Special Information

Doctoral-Level Treatment

EGN6457 is a doctoral-level course (the 6xxx prefix indicates doctoral level in Florida's SCNS). The course is calibrated for doctoral students preparing for substantial research careers, with the depth and pace appropriate for that preparation.

The Critical Role of Research Methods Coursework

Doctoral engineering programs increasingly recognize that explicit research methods preparation provides substantial advantages over the historical model where doctoral students were expected to absorb research methods through advisor mentorship alone. EGN6457 addresses this by providing structured exposure to the methods, conventions, and professional practice of engineering research.

Connection to Dissertation Work

EGN6457 is positioned to directly support dissertation work. The course's substantive student work products — comprehensive literature reviews, research proposals, draft manuscripts — typically integrate directly with the student's dissertation development. Students should expect to use course work products as foundations for subsequent dissertation chapters.

General Education and Transfer

EGN6457 is a Florida common course number that transfers as the equivalent course at Florida public postsecondary institutions per SCNS articulation policy where the receiving doctoral program accepts the course. Doctoral course transfer is more restrictive than master's-level transfer.

Course Format

EGN6457 is offered in face-to-face, hybrid, and online formats. The discussion-based and written work-product nature translates to multiple formats; many doctoral programs offer hybrid or online sections to accommodate doctoral students at various stages of their programs.

Position in the Doctoral Engineering Curriculum

EGN6457 is typically taken in the first or second year of doctoral study, providing foundations for subsequent dissertation work. The course is well-positioned to integrate with qualifying exam preparation and dissertation proposal development.

Working Doctoral Student Considerations

Many doctoral engineering students balance dissertation work with industry employment or teaching responsibilities. The course's content and timing typically support this combined engagement.

Prerequisites

EGN6457 typically requires:

• Master's degree in engineering or related discipline (or equivalent preparation)
• Admission to a doctoral engineering program
• Completion of CITI Program responsible conduct of research training (or equivalent) is often required prior to the course