As far as academic purpose and academic value are concerned, the same is true of social science graduate dissertations (hereinafter referred to as "dissertations"). However, should every dissertation have policy suggestions? What kind of policy suggestions should be made? How to make policy suggestions? This is a common problem in the guidance, evaluation and defense of dissertations.
Do dissertations have to have "policy suggestions"? This is a great difference between tutors, and it is also a problem that easily leads to contradictions between graduate students and teachers. Some dissertations have no policy suggestions, or some policy suggestions are short, which are often criticized by reviewers and defense members, and the evaluation is very low; Graduate students often have different views on this and disagree with the teacher's evaluation. Whether there are "policy suggestions" and whether the policy suggestions are feasible are listed as one of the criteria for judging the quality of dissertations by most colleges and universities. This may be too absolute and needs to be clarified and corrected. There is no need for policy suggestions in the paper.
Although "managing the world and helping people" is the ultimate goal of social science research, the direct goal of social science research is to reveal social laws. Social science research is divided into basic research and applied research. Basic research focuses on the discussion of basic theories, research methods and research technologies in a certain field or aspect, and studies abstract theories, methods and technologies. Applied research is based on the practical application of theory, focusing on solving practical social problems and seeking countermeasures to solve them. Whether basic research must have corresponding countermeasures to solve practical problems depends on the problems and conclusions of the research. Some basic research may be directly related to specific social problems, and the research conclusions have direct policy implications, while some research results have no direct actual policy implications. Some research work only provides new evidence or proof for previous research conclusions, and the policy suggestions of these research conclusions have been put forward by others. In this case, if the paper does not put forward new policy suggestions, it still meets the requirements and has important academic value.
For example, the techniques and methods of inequality measurement are extremely important. If the paper improves or puts forward new metrics and proves their good characteristics, even proves the new characteristics of the metrics proposed by predecessors, it is an important theoretical achievement with high theoretical and methodological value. However, this achievement does not necessarily have direct policy value. If we want to apply this kind of results to policy research and produce policy implications, we need further specific research, which is the content of another study. This kind of paper has no policy suggestions, which is not the shortcoming of the paper. Whether a dissertation should have policy suggestions depends on specific problems, and we can't generalize or criticize the lack of policy suggestions indiscriminately.
For applied research and basic research that can put forward policy suggestions, "policy suggestions" are an important part of dissertation. Fully exploring the policy implications of the research conclusions can not only provide ideas and solutions for practical problems, but also have important academic value. To concretize a general and broad proposal and put forward detailed and feasible implementation steps may need more detailed theory and causality as support. In-depth discussion of policy recommendations is helpful to recognize the limitations of completed theoretical research. Sometimes, in the process of exploring policy suggestions, researchers will find that theoretical research can be further deepened and refined, so as to clarify the direction of deepening theoretical research.
Besides academic purposes and values, dissertations also have educational values and functions. Completing the research of "policy suggestions" is an important link to cultivate graduate students' ability to solve social problems. Many famous scholars attach great importance to the "policy suggestions" of dissertations. When commenting on a doctoral thesis directed by Professor Lin Yifu, he pointed out: Although it is a good doctoral thesis and the empirical research is very solid, the policy implications of the thesis have not been fully discussed. This shows that Professor Lin Yifu attaches great importance to the "policy suggestions" part of his doctoral thesis. The main part of the paper is theoretical research and empirical research. However, policy suggestions are also an indispensable part of the dissertation that can put forward policy suggestions.
"Policy suggestions" are based on the theoretical research and empirical research conclusions of dissertations, and put forward countermeasures to solve real social problems. This kind of countermeasure is a natural and direct extension of the research conclusion of the paper, and it is the result inferred when the theoretical research conclusion is applied to specific problems, which is in the same strain as the theoretical research conclusion of the paper in logic. Policy suggestions must be put forward according to the theoretical research and empirical research conclusions of the paper.
Some graduate students have thought about policy suggestions before conducting systematic theoretical research and empirical research, and put forward several or even nearly 20 policy suggestions in the thesis opening report. We haven't studied this problem yet, how can we make suggestions to solve it? This obviously violates the logic of academic research. There are also some tutors who already have their own policy ideas in their minds, hoping that their graduate students will make papers to demonstrate. No matter whether this proposition is reasonable or not, students have preconceived that this policy proposal is correct, and then they will do the research work of the thesis, which actually distorts academic research.
We often find that there are problems in the logical reasoning of policy suggestions for dissertations. Many graduate students look for policy suggestions without their own research results and theoretical research, so the whole dissertation can't keep logical consistency. Give a common example. In economic research, the general assumption is that "man is rational", and almost all social science research with the help of economic analysis methods takes this assumption as the basic premise. The "rational man hypothesis" holds that human rationality is equal and unchangeable. In this kind of research, the investigation of people's inner world is omitted, and factors such as emotion and morality are not investigated. Based on the research of "rational man hypothesis", people's "preference" is considered to be stable, and people's behavior is considered to be the result of rational choice. The difference and change of human behavior are caused by the difference and change of external constraints. The range of policy suggestions that this kind of research can put forward is limited to changing the constraints of system, material and technology, and cannot put forward suggestions to change people's subjective understanding, ideological understanding and moral level. However, some graduate students use economic analysis methods to conduct research, but they put forward countermeasures such as "changing people's ideas" and "improving their ideological understanding". Perhaps some suggestions may be correct and feasible, but logically speaking, this suggestion cannot be deduced from the research conclusion of the paper, so it should not appear in the paper.
Dissertation must be based on the laws found in the research and the causal relationship established in the paper, and find the methods and countermeasures to solve practical problems. However, not all social science studies can draw the conclusion of causality, and all studies have really confirmed the existence of laws. Social science research includes exploratory research, descriptive research and explanatory methods; Both quantitative and qualitative methods can be used. Quantitative research includes causality research and correlation research, and the corresponding conclusions are causality and correlation respectively. The study of correlation can't confirm the existence of causality. Exploratory research is only a preliminary exploration of the laws behind social phenomena, and it has not reached an accurate understanding of the laws. Case analysis can not be used as a means of causality test, and a positive causality conclusion can not be drawn only by case analysis. Therefore, using different research methods and techniques, the types of conclusions are different, and the types and affirmations of corresponding policy suggestions are also different. This point should be accurately distinguished and explained in the paper. For example, according to the conclusion of exploratory research, only "possible" solutions are proposed. These methods may also be inappropriate. What needs to be explained in detail is that the paper only gives "possible" and "potential" countermeasures to solve the problem.
Only by accurately understanding the "policy suggestions" part of the paper and treating the research of policy suggestions with a scientific attitude can we do a good job in the research of "policy suggestions". There are two extreme situations in graduate students' attitude and understanding of policy suggestions in their dissertations, which need to be corrected by tutors.
In an extreme case, some graduate students despise the "policy suggestions" part, think that policy suggestions are a dispensable part of the dissertation, regard policy suggestions as an embellishment of the main content of the thesis, and even think that it is not the responsibility of academic researchers to make policy suggestions. Some of them are graduate students with a solid foundation in theoretical and empirical research. The research quality of the main part of the paper is high, the research conclusion is correct and reliable, and it has the basic conditions for putting forward reasonable policy suggestions. However, due to the deviation of these graduate students' ideological understanding, they were only satisfied with drawing theoretical conclusions, did not work hard to explore policy suggestions, did not carefully scrutinize the logic of policy suggestions, and rashly wrote policy suggestions without rigorous reasoning, which undermined the scientific, rigorous and internal logic consistency of the paper and reduced the overall quality of the paper.
Some dissertations are often criticized by reviewers and defense teachers because they fail to dig out policy suggestions well, or the policy suggestions put forward lack originality and pertinence. Some teachers don't understand quantitative research methods, and often go directly to the policy suggestion part of the paper. Because they can't see new and feasible policy suggestions, they will think that these theoretical studies are meaningless and that these complicated quantitative studies are redundant, so they have low evaluation of the papers and even fundamentally deny the theoretical research results of graduate students. As far as teachers are concerned, this understanding is wrong and this practice is inappropriate; However, there are also reasons for graduate students themselves. Because the research part of policy suggestions is not done well, teachers misunderstand the research results. Most teachers and readers, even researchers in the same professional field, are very concerned about the policy implications of the research conclusions, and fail to see novel, reasonable and targeted policy suggestions, which may easily lead to misunderstanding of the research results.
The second extreme situation is that some graduate students attach too much importance to policy suggestions, and think that the ideas and ideas of "how to reform" and "how to develop" are the whole content of the paper, and the main research work is to write policy suggestions. The "policy suggestions" part of this kind of graduate degree thesis is very large, even more than one third of the thesis, which is another misunderstanding. This kind of situation is more common in the dissertations of doctoral students who are studying for a degree on the job and those of people with the same degree who are applying for a master's degree on the job.
Because the research paradigm, academic system and academic norms of social science research in China are in the process of transformation and perfection, many papers published in academic journals of social science research are not papers in the strict sense. These papers only express the author's thoughts and views on a social reform. The theoretical basis of these ideas and suggestions has not been discussed in depth in the paper, and even many suggestions and opinions have no theoretical basis. Many academic journals are also official journals of government departments, and often publish speeches or political articles by leaders. After reading the articles in these journals, graduate students will misunderstand that such articles are academic research papers; Writing such an article and talking about the idea of "how to reform" is academic research; To publish such an article is to publish academic achievements. Many universities require or encourage graduate students to publish papers while in school, but they have not defined what kind of articles are "academic papers". They often regard all articles published in such journals as papers and reward graduate students accordingly. Many graduate students do not seriously study how to do research, but spend most of their time writing and publishing articles such as policy suggestions. When writing a dissertation, graduate students still adopt this approach and attitude, taking the step of making policy suggestions as all or the main research work of the dissertation, and equating the research process with making policy suggestions. Tutors must give timely guidance and correction, so that graduate students can understand that this is a misunderstanding of "policy suggestions" and dissertation research.
"If a worker wants to do a good job, he must sharpen his tools first", and graduate students must master modern policy analysis methods and techniques. Some dissertations are devoted to policy analysis and research, judging the actual effect of policies that have been or are being implemented, and finding out the shortcomings and problems in policies; Then, put forward suggestions for reforming and perfecting the policy. Graduate students must master modern policy analysis methods and techniques in order to complete this kind of dissertation with policy analysis as the research theme. For more than half a century, social science research has accelerated the absorption of modern mathematics research and computer technology research results, and through the cooperative efforts of mathematicians and social scientists, many powerful quantitative research methods have been excavated. Some of these methods and techniques are specially used for causal analysis of counterfactual problems. In the past thirty years, these technologies and methods have been gradually refined, processed and perfected, which are very mature and convenient to apply. The application of these technologies and methods greatly improves the accuracy and reliability of policy evaluation results. The evaluation of policy effect involves the problem of counterfactual, which is skillfully overcome by modern causal analysis method. However, the postgraduate education in China is slow to respond to these new methods and technologies. Although many graduate students majoring in social sciences have special policy analysis courses in their training programs; Unfortunately, many policy analysis course teachers turn a deaf ear to these mature policy analysis methods, do not actively learn, absorb and use them, continue to be confined to speculative research, and are used to "patting their heads" to evaluate the implementation effect of policies. Individual tutors even make wrong comments on these methods and technologies that they don't understand at all, and deliberately guide graduate students not to learn these new methods and technologies. Due to the lack of analytical methods and techniques, many graduate students only rely on their own subjective imagination to evaluate the effects of implemented and ongoing policies and find out "existing problems". Many of these "policy analysis" ideas look novel, but they may not be in line with the actual situation. Such policy analysis and research are contrary to scientific principles, and the policy reform suggestions put forward based on these unreliable policy evaluations are also absurd.
Many scholars and graduate students emphasize the use of qualitative research methods and qualitative research methods in their own research, and only do qualitative research. These statements reflect some researchers' misunderstanding of qualitative research methods and qualitative research methods. In fact, quantitative research methods and qualitative research methods in social sciences are unified, consistent and complementary (excluding qualitative research methods in humanities). However, the reliability and accuracy of qualitative research methods are limited, especially in causal analysis. If we don't deeply understand the principles of quantitative research methods in social science research, we can't really understand qualitative research methods. It is difficult to infer causality reliably in case analysis, and it is also difficult for people who do not know quantitative research methods to understand this, so they do not know the function and role of case analysis. Policy effect analysis is causal analysis, but many people use case analysis to infer policy effect. The policy analysis results obtained only through case analysis may be seriously biased or even completely wrong. As long as conditions permit, the tutor should try his best to guide graduate students to learn quantitative research methods, help graduate students to obtain reliable data, conduct quantitative analysis, and make a comprehensive and accurate judgment on the effect of policy implementation.
To put forward correct policy suggestions, we must accurately and carefully grasp the actual social situation. Most graduate students are young people, who have no social work experience, lack direct feelings about the actual social situation and are not familiar with the actual situation. When doing some research on policy suggestions, tutors should guide graduate students to consult relevant materials again, get familiar with the actual situation of relevant departments and industries, and even need to conduct targeted actual investigations again in order to really prescribe the right medicine.
Graduate students should seek truth from facts when making policy suggestions. Academic research is not a complaint of "fenqing". Don't blindly criticize and blame the current policy without scientific research. The policies being implemented by the government may be incomplete or unscientific in all aspects. It is necessary to conduct scientific analysis and demonstration. Policy research should not deliberately cater to the needs and preferences of individual government departments and some government officials, let alone blindly make far-fetched comments and excuses on existing policies, let alone talk about policies divorced from the actual situation and sing high-profile politics. Graduate students should make objective judgments through their own solid scientific research.
The scope of "policy suggestion" is very wide, which can be a complete method or scheme, or a specific practice of a certain aspect or step of a scheme; It can be to put forward more specific implementation rules and steps for the existing scheme and clarify the implementation order of various measures, or it can be to deny and question the suggestions put forward by predecessors; It can be the setting of specific social development goals, or the establishment of conditions and time to achieve a certain goal. Put forward policy suggestions with the style and attitude of "don't do good things or do bad things". Policy measures seem to be small differences, and the consequences after implementation may be very different, and small policy suggestions are not insignificant. Therefore, we should pay attention to the details of the proposal, and the content of the proposal should be as detailed and specific as possible, and not be greedy for perfection. In a dissertation, policy suggestions don't occupy a lot of space, and sometimes one or two sentences, or even just a few words, can make the suggestions clear.
In addition, any specific policy recommendations are based on a certain value orientation. In the research of policy suggestions, graduate students must clearly adhere to Marxist values.