Article Planning & Development
Interests: Human Resources
In this week’s assignment you will start to work on the summative assignment due in Week 6. Be sure to review the full requirements for the assignment, which has you develop a substantial draft of an article that you may wish to continue working on after the course is completed with the goal of submission to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. You will be demonstrating in-depth knowledge of the current literature in your chosen field. A selection of current topics has been developed throughout the weekly assignments in this course.
The specific area you choose should reflect your interests and your passion for making a difference. The focus of the paper can be one of the following: the area of your dissertation; an area in which you want to become an expert, complementing your dissertation research; or an area in which you want to develop specific expertise for offering consulting solutions to organizational and industrial problems. Focus on a topic that has significance for global organizations and the application of IO psychology theories.
While much of the article draft in Week 6 should read like a completed work, it will not be complete in all sections — a few sections may need to be sketched. In those instances, a plan for completion of those sections and appropriate rationale should be provided.
You must select from two types of articles, A or B, for this assignment:
Critical Review of and Contribution to the Literature on a current and global issue. This normally will include a focus on critique or expansion or new application of theory.
Contribution to Gathering and Understanding of Data on a current and global issue. A great deal of your review of the literature will be completed in this course. You will select a research design and methodology during this course, but will not be able to complete any gathering of primary data during this course nor will you able to apply statistical analysis to any data. Our six week time frame does not make this possible.
Both options focus on a current issue or trend in IO psychology important to you. You may be contributing a critique of theory, a proposal of theory, a critical analysis of data gathered by others, a proposal to better explain data that has been gathered, or a proposal that there are gaps in the data on an important or interesting issue. There are other possibilities as well.
For this week, Week 3, you will need to submit the following items:
Reference List. This week, you should have a large part of your reference list completed. Provide annotations. Provide at least one paragraph of notes on each of at least six to eight articles and other sources that you will include in your Week 6 article draft. Obviously, research grows research, so by Week 6 you will have more sources to include. And, if you continue to work on this for publication after the course is over, you will likely find yet more important sources.
Topic Selection and Rationale. This week you should also write at least one full page (330 words) on the topic you have selected and why it is important to you. Give sound reasons why your work will be a contribution to this field (and to application of IO psychology). Focus on a topic that has significance for global organizations.
Your Position.
In at least one full page, articulate the gaps, shortfalls, omissions you found in several articles that inspire you to correct or critique the positions held by the authors. Or, in at least one full page, articulate the interest you have found in the work of several authors of articles that inspire you to expand or build on their work. (Or, you can do both.)
Journal. In a brief paragraph or two, discuss which journals you think will be appropriate targets for your article. This is just a preliminary statement, since as the work builds, it will become clearer as to which journals would be more likely to accept your work. The purpose of this section is to get you thinking in earnest of the types of journals and the types of materials each journal selects. You may wish to explore the Chronicle of Higher Education, which often publishes “calls for articles by journals.” Their website is http://chronicle.com/section/Home/5 (Links to an external site.)
Opportunity for Direction. Take the opportunity to add a plan of your work as you see it now, so that you can get some meaningful comments, feedback, suggestions, and direction from your instructor.
Note that in order to get some meaningful direction from your instructor, you will need to explain your ideas as well as you can at this stage. This section can be one page or several pages in length. This part of the assignment is not given a score. Your instructor will provide comments, suggestions and recommendations.
