Hi All,
I'm in my second year of an MS program and just figured out my thesis (after hitting many brick walls). My current idea was to do a suitability study on a small location w/in a state. After contacting this state (a gov. agency), asking them if anyone would be interested in my results, I was asked to include the entire state, if I would follow methods used by someone who did a similar study on an adjacent state (since they offered funding, I agreed). The former study synthesized data already in existence, and also created a tool to analyze this information. I really liked their methods and would love to do the same thing, but how ethical is this? Of course I would cite their work, but I feel strange using their thesis as a guideline for my own. Not only that, the student was a former MS student in my department. I would ask my advisor, but he's not available until late next week, and I'm eager to get started.
Thanks.