Reva

Informative reply. Thank you.

Hello, I'm an MA graduate and future PhD applicant from a non-European, non-American country. I read empirical journal articles in sociology and nearby fields, but I always notice only a description of data collection and analysis and usually no appendices. Please, how do high-quality publishers verify the claims made in sections dedicated to methods description? Does it happen in the background? How can it happen if the article is produced by international authors? Is the description enough? And in the case of ethical issues, how do they verify the ethics of the research, especially if the researcher is independent? Are the anonymity and no-harm principles enough in social science? Thank you.

I found the "mostly irrelevant," independent five-year interesting. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Hello, Please have a look at my profile page for more information "about me." I want to include details there to delete later. Building on what's on the "about me" page, I'm half-way through my gap year, which I've split into three main goals: refining my research agenda, learning German from zero to C1, and preparing for PhD applications (GRE, LOR, etc.). The decision to learn German (which I formulated one and a half years ago and never questioned) made this transitional experience (M.A. at home to PhD abroad) more challenging. Students from similar backgrounds (non-native English speakers) should normally be certifying their English skills, while my aim is to certify both German and English before starting the PhD phase. My English is native-like (I hope so ?), so it is just a matter of familiarizing myself with the test. My first motivation to learn German is personal, not necessarily to study in German and Swiss universities; though these are still my fourth option after the American, Canadian, and British. German will always be part of me even if I settle in a non-German country. As you can see from my 'about me' page, I'm not at all interested in any non-academic work. I'm worried whether this reclusive gap year and lack of work experience could have a negative impact on my application to North American universities; unlike these, German universities could easily see the point of spending much of the gap year learning German. I'm also worried that allocating so much time to learning German could be seen by North American universities as irrelevant to their main endeavour (sociological research and teaching in English). My (sincere) justification is that, being a cosmopolitan sociologist, I'm committed to maintaining a relationship with the German sociological community and media (as well as the Arab and the French). Assuming that I managed to convince the selection committee of the robustness and originality of my research agenda, and that I managed to get the highest certificate in German language, good TOEFL and GRE scores, would the reclusive gap year negatively impact my application to North American universities? In light of the information I shared, including the positive scenarios mentioned, how competitive is my application in North America? Thank you for your time.