Goldberg, P. (2010). \"A Comparison

Goldberg, P. (2010). "A Comparison of BMI Percentiles and Predictor Variables for Two Head Start Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs." Ph.D. Dissertation: George Mason University

This study provides a quantitative analysis of a specific program ("I'm Moving, I'm Learning") used at Head Start facilities in terms of its efficacy at reducing Body Mass Index (BMI) as a means of ascertaining general health levels. The research methods are fairly straightforward and described at length -- sometimes at greater length than is truly necessary, but the author's explanations provide for a solid understanding of the precise research methods employed and their rationales. Both the quantity and the quality of the information presented in terms of these research methods, as well as the tenor of its presentation by the author, demonstrate the level of care and precision that was undertaken in this endeavor. This also contributes to the level of significance and degree of meaning that can be attributed to the data by the reader, and thus also strengthens the author's conclusions.

The presentation of the data analysis is equally extensive and specific, if somewhat more dense than the explanation of research methods and rationales. Careful and at times seemingly redundant statistical analysis, in the form of t-square, regression, and Chi-square analysis, was performed on the data to yield what were very clear and obviously well-founded results. The author remained highly objective and clinical in the determination that the program ultimately had no effect on the BMI of the groups in the "I'm Moving, I'm Learning" program whatsoever, linking these conclusions directly to the results of the research through what was again highly detailed and extensive explanations. There is very little fault that can be found with the author's research methods or the presentation of this research and its findings; brevity is often not the soul of Ph.D. dissertations, so the length and careful redundancies of this article is perhaps not as a major a fault as it would be were this simply a publishing of research findings.

Review: Ogut, H. (2006). "Information technology security risk management." Ph.D. Dissertation: University of Texas at Dallas

The research that was conducted and presented here was almost entirely of a qualitative rather than a quantitative nature. The author attempts to quantify a great deal of information that is ultimately more complex, varied, and based on human decision-making factors than he truly accounts for, and this creates certain questions in many different areas and levels of his research and presentation. The fact that this dissertation is comprised of several wholly independent research projects and essays while still put forth by the author as a unified project with consistent findings and a coherent theme is another major weakness of the presentation. In many simple and direct regards, there is little doubt that the author's efforts yielded some solid findings through careful observations; the specific research questions asked are matched by the tools used to collect data (or at least so it seems to a reader not wholly familiar with the concepts described yet not entirely defined by the author or his field), but the larger conclusions that the author reaches seem at times vague and in all circumstances based on an element of qualitative data that is not explicitly recognized in the dissertation.