Steve Tippins warns graduate students to confirm data access before defending their dissertation proposal. Many students get approval only to discover months later they can't obtain the data they need, forcing them to restart IRB reviews and face major delays.
Writing a dissertation, doing research. You need data, whether it's stock market data or teachers to interview. Do you have access to that data? I've seen too many people have proposals defended and then go see, geez, can I get the data? And then find out after months of delays and months of trying that they don't actually have access to data. And that can cause all kinds of stress. Having to go back to your committee and maybe to the IRB and get different approvals and slows you down and can be kind of defeating. So if you're thinking about things like this ahead of time, the process moves much more quickly.
