Human Subjects Approval

Hello Everyone! I hope you're enjoying your holiday season. 

I just discovered how easy it was to "register" for the Rutgers Human Subjects Approval course. For those of you who don't know what it is: There are federal regulations regarding how you can treat humans. This course is to make sure you know how to treat human subjects while doing your research. In other words, if you are going to interact with people at all to get information for your thesis, including interviews, meetings, getting human blood samples, etc., you need to get human subjects approval (regardless of your major). So, if you are a Rutgers student and you want to write a thesis, I strongly suggest you get this approval, even if you don't think you need it, just to be safe.

How to do it:

If you are a Rutgers student, it is super simple to get. First, go to: http://orsp.rutgers.edu/Humans/hscp.php . Then, read over the information on the page. Once you're ready to sign up for the sakai course, scroll down to where it says "What is the format of the program?" and click on where it says "to go to the Human Subjects Certification Program on Sakai, click here." Once you click on the link, enter your netid and password, and click "login." After you click "login," you will be registered for the course.

Advice Tidbit:

I just registered for the sakai course today, and saw that there was a LOT of reading material. I strongly recommend getting your approval as soon as possible if you plan on writing a thesis, and on top of that, I strongly recommend doing the course during winter break, spring break, or summer vacation, when you have time to sit and read through all of the material. 

Enjoy the rest of your holidays!

-Aakruti

To do:

1. Add 5 sources to the literature review from Thesis seminar

2. Set up a concrete question

3. Start a rough outline about subtopics within the main topic

4. Research professors in France who can be secondary thesis advisors (may not be able to do this until I actually get to Paris)

5. Talk to Professor Lehne about a fellowship I'm applying to (that may change my thesis topic)

6. Apply for the fellowship

7. Get human subjects approval

8. Set up thesis blog

Books

Hello everyone! I know I've been missing for a while, but finals can make even the people with the most time into busy bees (sorry I couldn't think of a less cheesy way to say that lolz). Anyway, I went to Alexander and Kilmer libraries soon after my previous post, and checked out a bunch of books related to my thesis topic. As I am dong my thesis topic on BNP, and I don't know much about banking to begin with, my first essential is a dictionary of banking and finance terms. I found two of these: 

-Dictionary of Finance and Banking (Oxford Edition) (KIL HG151.D54 1997)

-Dictionary of Banking and Finance (Peter Collin Edition) (KIL HG151.C655 1999)

With dictionaries in hand, I am now ready to explore the rest of the literature I checked out of the libraries:

-"European Monetary Integration & Domestic Politics" By: Walsh (ALEX HG3943.W34 2000)

-"Comparative Financial Systems" By: Smith (KIL HG171.S59 1982)

-"London and Paris as International Financial Centres in the Twentieth Century" By: Cassis and Bussiere (ALEX HG3944.L66 2005)

-"Fundamentals of Development Finance" By: Richards (ALEX HG.4027.7.R5 1983)

-"Financial Innovation in the Banking Industry" By: Garland (ALEX HG4028.A84.02 2000)

-"Economics of Financial Institutions and Markets" By: Smith (KIL HG153.S53)

Looking at my schedule between now and when I leave for France, there is no way that I will be able to sit down and read all of these books. For that reason, I put up the call numbers of all the books I checked out. If I want to check these books out of the libraries again after I return, I can always check this page for the call number, and then check it out of the library again without searching too hard ^_^

Anecdote: 

Before I go to the library to check out books, I always write the call number of the books I want down on a little post-it. This way, when I get to the library, I can just go to the stacks and grab my book. The day I went to get my books, I went from my dorm to Alexander to Kilmer. When I finished up at Alexander, I could have sworn that I put my post-it back into my wallet, but when I got to Kilmer, it was nowhere to be found. Knowing a little bit about the Dewey Decimal System, I checked the numbers on the back of the books I got from Alexander, and went to the same numbers at Kilmer, and found books that I could use. This anecdote leads me to advice I would like to share:

Advice Tidbit:

Whenever I go to the stacks at the library, I always have the call number with me, but when I get to the location of my book, I don't just grab my book and leave. I look at the other books on the same shelf, sometimes looking at the shelves above and below where I got my book. This is a great way to check if there are any relevant books that you did not find via the library's catalog search. 

To do:

1. Add 5 sources to the literature review from Thesis seminar

2. Set up a concrete question

3. Start a rough outline about subtopics within the main topic

4. Research professors in France who can be secondary thesis advisors (may not be able to do this until I actually get to Paris)

5. Talk to Professor Lehne about a fellowship I'm applying to (that may change my thesis topic)

6. Apply for the fellowship

7. Get human subjects approval

8. Set up thesis blog

Goals before Paris

I will be studying abroad in paris next term, and I will be leaving in January. This works out well because my tentative thesis topic, which I have already begun to research, is a case study on the BNP. I don't have my actual question down yet, but I know I want it to have something to do with either the current banking reform or the economic crisis, or hopefully, both. While in Paris, I will do some research but before I go, I have several goals to accomplish (I will strike them out as they get done):

1. Add 5 sources to the literature review from Thesis seminar

2. Set up a concrete question

3. Start a rough outline about subtopics within the main topic

4. Research professors in France who can be secondary thesis advisors (may not be able to do this until I actually get to Paris)

5. Talk to Professor Lehne about a fellowship I'm applying to (that may change my thesis topic)

6. Apply for the fellowship

7. Get human subjects approval

8. Set up thesis blog

I may not be able to accomplish all of these seeing as my time between the end of the semester and Paris is limited, but I will still try to get all of them done. 

Advice tidbit: Making these types of short-term goals can be really helpful in getting stuff done. Set a deadline for yourself and meet the deadline. Assign yourself little things, such as get 5 sources by x date. So far, it has kept me on track with my thesis after the class has ended. I also found that this blog puts me under pressure to meet my goals because if I know people are keeping up with me, then I feel like I am obligated to complete the tasks. Furthermore, I love making to-do lists because it feels so good to be able to cross things off of the list ^_^ This approach may or may not work for everyone, but it definitely works for me. 

Thesis Blog: Intro

Hello, this is my thesis blog, which was created specifically for the purpose of writing about my thesis: the research, the process and other ideas. 

Advice Tidbit: If you haven't taken it already, take an Intro to the Thesis class. At Rutgers, it's taught by Dean Levine. It's a great course because it teaches you how to go about researching, writing, finding an advisor, financing your thesis, etc. I strongly recommend this course for anyone who is writing a Thesis. 

Next time: My near-future goals