Hi all,
I am doing a science based PhD in the area of malware analysis/forensic computing. I am coming up to my Probation/PhD transfer report stage and I have no theoretical basis for my proposed work as there is little established science or formal theory in this field.

I am a bit concerned I have no established body of knowledge upon which to build my ideas.

Anyone else in a similar position or know how to address it?

Cheers

Ian

Anyone?

I'm not sure if it is a good idea or not, considering I know nothing about your field. However, Grounded Theory (read Levi and Strauss going back to the 1960s at the Chicago School of Management) might be a bit of help to your situation. The quick and very dirty version of it is that you start with no theory. All theory is (ideally) grounded in the empirical work. It was designed for social sciences, but you may be able to adapt it some?
Yeah, it is a bit of a shot in the dark, but there might be a target out there.

Thanks WanderingSage.

I had come across this approach before, but was encouraged by my supervisors to discount it as it is more about finding a 'consensus' rather than the 'truth'.