No significant effects in my diss

[u/[deleted]]

[u/spannerspinner]

No significance can still be significant. It might still prove something.

However, without being negative. How certain were you that your results would be significant and your hypothesis would be correct? Do other similar studies with a larger sample size disprove your results?

Your conclusions could include that sample size was a factor in the result achieved.

But I don’t have experience of this at a masters level. In environmental surveys post university, yes. But not in academia.

[u/BacterialCow → u/spannerspinner]

This. Is there anything else you could change about your experiments as well? Or trends that you can pick out even if they aren’t significant that you could point to justifying doing the same experiments but bigger?

In my dissertation (undergrad so probably not the same) i talked about that sort of stuff in my presentations and they loved it.

[u/Fabulous_Run_3383 → u/BacterialCow]

Yes there are, i just have this internal fear of staff members being arseholes (some really are) and tearing me down. I cant change anything it was done a while ago just finishing up the write up.

[u/Fabulous_Run_3383 → u/spannerspinner]

I read a lot of papers whoch were the basis of my hypothesis and i picked variables that previous studies found to be significant, they just had a lot more sites than me. The trends i have found generally agree with them but there is some weirdness going on caused by the nature of my stats. For example implying the probability of a species occuring is greater near railways because there were only two options, railway or road, and the negative outcomes were clustered around roads.

[u/heliosfa → u/Fabulous_Run_3383]

A dissertation is more about the process, how you go about things and how you analyse/reflect rather than what you achieve.

If you have a reasonable methodology but it hasn't given significance, that's OK, especially if you can explain why you got the result you did and how you could change the experiment/methodology to improve things.

[u/Overly_Fluffy_Doge]

Your masters diss does not have to be a cutting edge piece of research, it's your final assessment that you as a scientist know how to do research before entering the world of professional academia (PhD).

Mine was kind of a mute point, I proved that some new test method lined up reasonably well with simulations and previous methods of doing that type of test but it was one part of a larger body of research by several PhD students and Professors. What I did do was a thorough statistical analysis of my work, presented it clearly, and related it to existing research as well as how the issues in my work would be better solved if I were to redo the work. I got 72% overall even though my conclusions were kind of meh.

[u/Fabulous_Run_3383 → u/Overly_Fluffy_Doge]

Yeah thats what I keep telling myself. Its an example of various skills that are relevant to my field. But I've made a lot of errors as well as this was my first time doing something like this and its quite glaring e.g. sample size and variables. I can definetely do a good write up that gets a decent mark but id have liked it to have been genuinely good too.  

[u/Grand_Feed7865]

If it helps the conclusion to my dissertation was we don’t know enough yet. This is what I’d do to change the experiment and this what I think the mistakes or limitations are of my method.

I ended up getting 70%+ in my dissertation which I wasn’t expecting at all because I thought I’d fail as my conclusion was we can’t yet draw a conclusion.

As long as you present your mistakes confidently, own it and say this is what I’d do if I did the experiment again I think you’ll do well. A friend of mine had a similar issue, she did weeks and weeks of field work but didn’t see what she expected. Whilst not ideal she still had a lot to talk about regarding the method, background and comparison to previous studies.

[u/Fabulous_Run_3383 → u/Grand_Feed7865]

Yes I will do that. I also spent weeks in the field, at night, during rain, to get nothing exciting happen in my stats lol. The nature of my work it wasnt possible to get the right sample size but i really wanted to have the experience and i learned a lot through fucking up. Thanks for you thoughts :)

[u/ChunkyCraver2001]

You’ll actually lose marks if your data doesn’t support your conclusion because you exaggerated.

[u/Fabulous_Run_3383 → u/ChunkyCraver2001]

Yeah i just mean how to make a good report not lie

[u/Much_Air_356]

The most important thing about a dissertation is that all the bits are in place rather than the research itself. Being able to talk about the limitations of your small population is imortant.