*NEW* L9ZJ MPhil/PhD Computational Social Science

After the first year you'll spend more time on independent study under the guidance of your supervisor(s). This will involve the collection, organisation and analysis of data, and writing up the results. During your second year of registration, you'll typically submit three (minimum) draft chapters of your thesis plus a short introduction and a detailed plan for its completion. The three draft chapters will typically include a detailed literature review, specification of research problem(s) and two empirical chapters. If you're pursuing a paper-based thesis, your upgrading documents will typically include a short introduction, a literature review and at least two empirical papers. Whether a traditional or paper-based thesis, the material will be evaluated by an upgrading committee (two academics, not necessarily of the MI or even LSE) who will recommend transferral to PhD registration if your work is judged to be of sufficient quality and quantity.

Written and oral work will be assessed by two academics (not on the supervisory team), normally members of Department of Methodology staff. This work has to reach an acceptable standard to enable you to progress to the second year. It's particularly important that the first year review clearly states the objectives of the doctoral research and indicates how the empirical work will be carried out.