This practical, down-to-earth guide is written for those new to research and it assumes no prior knowledge of the subject. The author has worked as a researcher since the mid 1980s and has written and taught courses on research methodology at the university level.
"Mastering Research Methodology: A Practical Guide" assists professionals, scholars, and students in attaining a comprehensive understanding of the art and science of research. This all-encompassing manual provides explicitand exhaustive guidance on a wide range of research methodologies, encompassing qualitative and quantitative approaches. The book commences by providing readers with an introduction to fundamental concepts, including the significance of ethical considerations, hypothesis formulation, and research design principles. The subsequent section explores distinct research methodologies, such as mixed-methods, experimental, survey, case study, and ethnographic approaches. Every chapter of the book offers precise instructions on how to execute these methods, beginning with data collection and concluding with analysis, thereby guaranteeing that readers are capable of effectively applying these techniques to their own projects. The practical orientation of "Mastering Research Methodology" is one of its defining characteristics. Practical advice, real-world illustrations, and case studies serve to reconcile the divide between theoretical concepts and their real-world implementation. This practical methodology enables readers to comprehend the intricacies of scientific inquiry, arrive at well-informed methodological decisions, and confront prevalent obstacles. The book places significant emphasis on the essential significance of data integrity and research ethics, in addition to methodological instruction. This resource offers approaches to guaranteeing the integrity of data, preserving openness, and adhering to ethical principles during the entirety of the research endeavour.
Written specifically for students with no previous experience of research and research methodology, the Third Edition of Research Methodology breaks the process of designing and doing a research project into eight manageable steps and provides plenty of examples throughout to link theory to the practice of doing research. The book contains straightforward, practical guidance on: - Formulating a research question - Ethical considerations - Carrying out a literature review - Choosing a research design - Selecting a sample - Collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative data - Writing a research report The third edition has been revised and updated to include extended coverage of qualitative research methods in addition to the existing comprehensive coverage of quantitative methods. There are also brand new learning features such as reflective questions throughout the text to help students consolidate their knowledge. The book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the social sciences embarking on qualitative or quantitative research projects.
There are a plethora of books that aim to teach the research methods needed for political science. Thinking Like a Political Scientist stands out from them in its conviction that students are better served by learning a handful of core lessons well rather than trying to memorize hundreds of often statistical definitions. Short and concise, the book has two main parts, Asking Good Questions and Generating Good Answers. In the first section, one chapter each is devoted to the three fundamental questions in political science: who cares?, what happened?, and why?. These take up, among many other topics, crafting a literature review, creating hypotheses, measuring concepts, and the difference between correlation and causation. The second section of the book has chapters about choosing a research design, choosing cases, working with written documents, and working with numbers. All of these are essential skills for undergraduates to have when reading published work and conducting their own research. Every chapter ends with several exercises where students can read examples from published work and develop their own skills as researchers. Finally, unlike most research methods books, Christopher Howard s sprinkles humor and surprising analogies throughout."
In Template Analysis, Nigel King and Joanna Brookes guide you through the origins of template analysis and its place in qualitative research, its basic components, and the main strengths and limitations of this method. Practical case studies and examples from published research then guide you through how to use it in your own research project. Ideal for Business and Management students reading for a Master’s degree, each book in the series may also serve as a reference book for doctoral students and faculty members interested in the method. Part of SAGE’s Mastering Business Research Methods, conceived and edited by Bill Lee, Mark N. K. Saunders and Vadake K. Narayanan and designed to support researchers by providing in-depth and practical guidance on using a chosen method of data collection or analysis.
You′re about to start your first evaluation project. Where do you begin? Or you′re a practicing evaluator faced with a challenging situation. How do you proceed? How do you handle the interactive components and processes inherent in evaluation practice? Use Interactive Evaluation Practice to bridge the gap between the theory of evaluation and its practice. Taking an applied approach, this book provides readers with specific interactive skills needed in different evaluation settings and contexts. The authors illustrate multiple options for developing skills and choosing strategies, systematically highlighting the evaluator′s three roles as decision maker, actor, and reflective practitioner. Case studies and interactive examples stimulate thinking about how to apply interactive skills across a variety of evaluation situations. "From beginning to end, this book is an indispensable resource for those responsible for the evaluation process. In essence, here′s a chance to learn from masters about acquiring mastery. What could be more useful?" Michael Quinn Patton, Author of Utilization-Focused Evaluation "At long last, a book that explicitly addresses the importance of interpersonal dynamics in evaluation practice!" Hallie Preskill, Executive Director, Strategic Learning and Evaluation Center, FSG "As an evaluator who frequently interacts with a variety of stakeholders and who provides graduate-level evaluation training, I find Interactive Evaluation Practice to be an exceptional addition to the evaluation literature and a useful guide to interacting with various stakeholder groups." Chris L. S. Coryn, Western Michigan University
*Shortlisted for the BPS Book Award 2014 in the Textbook Category* *Winner of the 2014 Distinguished Publication Award (DPA) from the Association for Women in Psychology (AWP)* Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide for Beginners is an accessible, practical textbook. It sidesteps detailed theoretical discussion in favor of providing a comprehensive overview of strategic tips and skills for starting and completing successful qualitative research. Uniquely, the authors provide a "patterns framework" to qualitative data analysis in this book, also known as "thematic analysis." The authors walk students through a basic thematic approach, and compare and contrast this with other approaches. This discussion of commonalities, explaining why and when each method should be used, and in the context of looking at patterns, will provide students with complete confidence for their qualitative research journey. This textbook will be an essential textbook for undergraduates and postgraduates taking a course in qualitative research or using qualitative approaches in a research project.
Part of SAGE′s Mastering Business Research Methods series, conceived and edited by Bill Lee, Mark N. K. Saunders and Vadake K. Narayanan and designed to support students by providing in-depth and practical guidance on using a chosen method of data collection or analysis. Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) is an emerging method of data analysis, based on the idea that research factors can be necessary for an outcome: if the condition is not there, then the result will not occur. These necessary conditions are everywhere, and NCA is an intuitive and straightforward means of finding and testing data, either as a standalone tool or as a complement to other research methods. This book is an invaluable guide to using NCA effectively in business and management dissertations, and offers practical guidance and insight into how to successfully transcribe and analyse data using the NCA approach in research projects. Jan Dul is Professor of Technology and Human Factors at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands.
This is an immensely helpful book for students starting their own research... an excellent introduction to the comparative method giving an authoritative overview over the research process - Klaus Armingeon, University of Bern Doing Research in Political Science is the book for mastering the comparative method in all the social sciences - Jan-Erik Lane, University of Geneva This book has established itself as a concise and well-readable text on comparative methods and statistics in political science I...strongly recommend it. - Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Philipps-University Marburg This thoroughly revised edition of the popular textbook offers an accessible but comprehensive introduction to comparative research methods and statistics for students of political science. Clearly organized around three parts, the text introduces the main theories and methodologies used in the discipline. Part 1 frames the comparative approach within the methodological framework of the political and social sciences. Part 2 introduces basic descriptive and inferential statistical methods as well as more advanced multivariate methods used in quantitative political analysis. Part 3 applies the methods and techniques of Parts 1 & 2 to research questions drawn from contemporary themes and issues in political science. Incorporating practice exercises, ideas for further reading and summary questions throughout, Doing Research in Political Science provides an invaluable step-by-step guide for students and researchers in political science, comparative politics and empirical political analysis.