Research Basics: Design to Data Analysis in Six Steps offers a fresh and creative approach to the research process based on author James V. Spickard’s decades of teaching experience. Using an intuitive six-step model, readers learn how to craft a research question and then identify a logical process for answering it. Conversational writing and multi-disciplinary examples illuminate the model’s simplicity and power, effectively connecting the “hows” and “whys” behind social science research. Students using this book will learn how to turn their research questions into results.
Research Methods is an introduction to the importance of scientific research in everyday life and uses familiar examples to keep students engaged. The text analyzes controversies in psychology to stimulate student interest while explaining crucial methodological concepts. It presents ethical issues related to research, as well as social and cultural factors that might affect it, and provides a comprehensive introduction to a wide variety of methodologies. Through this book, students will learn how to generate research questions and select appropriate methodology, as well as to write a successful research report.
Research Methods: The Basics is an accessible, user-friendly introduction to the different aspects of research theory, methods and practice. This second edition provides an expanded resource suitable for students and practitioners in a wide range of disciplines including the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. Structured in two parts – the first covering the nature of knowledge and the reasons for research, the second the specific methods used to carry out effective research and how to propose, plan, carry out and write up a research project – this book covers: • Reasons for doing a research project • Structuring and planning a research project • The ethical issues involved in research • Different types of data and how they are measured • Collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative data in order to draw sound conclusions • Mixed methods and interdisciplinary research • Devising a research proposal and writing up the research • Motivation and quality of work. Complete with a glossary of key terms and guides to further reading, this book is an essential text for anyone coming to research for the first time.
The Second Edition of this best-selling textbook continues to offer immensely practical advice and technical expertise that will aid researchers in analyzing and interpreting their collected data, and ultimately build theory from it. The authors provide a step-by-step guide to the research act. Full of definitions and illustrative examples, the book presents criteria for evaluating a study as well as responses to common questions posed by students of qualitative research.
Research Basics: Design to Data Analysis in Six Steps offers a fresh and creative approach to the research process based on author James V. Spickard’s decades of teaching experience. Using an intuitive six-step model, readers learn how to craft a research question and then identify a logical process for answering it. Conversational writing and multi-disciplinary examples illuminate the model’s simplicity and power, effectively connecting the “hows” and “whys” behind social science research. Students using this book will learn how to turn their research questions into results.
"What is caring research and how to conduct it? This book defines the new concept of caring research as a combination of two perspectives. Caring research means research that aims to promote well-being. It is focused on a good quality of life, human strengths and active life, as well as characteristics and positive development in human beings that act as buffers against malaise and help coping with adversities in life. In addition, caring research cares for the researcher well-being. Caring research is conducted by people who share the passion and enthusiasm to influence positively and collaborate. Caring research includes the joy of working and researching together. Thus, caring research is manifested in the relationships between researchers, supervisors, students, and other experts, and their mutual open and respectful interaction. The Basics of Caring Research analyzes these two elements of caring research through several viewpoints that are to illustrate the manifold nature of caring research as positively-focused and positively-conducted research. The book also includes critical analysis of the current requirements and future challenges of caring research. The book serves as a text book in, for example, research studies in psychology and educational and behavioral sciences. Researchers and supervisors find it a useful tool to support their supervision of various academic theses.
This practical guide to the basics of market research takes a clear, concise step-by-step approach. It describes and explains the various tools and techniques available to market researchers. Comparative examples and real-life international case studies help make the basics of market research straightforward and accessible. Market Research in Practice assumes no previous knowledge of the subject and offers guidance for the reader who is either studying or completely new to market research. The book also outlines data protection legislation and details the professional ethics incorporated in the MRS Code of Conduct. Contents include: the role of market research market research design desk research focus groups and in-depth interviews sampling questionnaire design interviewing self-completion questionnaires and e-surveys data analysis report findings Part of the new Market Research in Practice series and published in association with the Market Research Society, Market Research in Practice is an invaluable guide for students, researchers, marketers and users of market research.
Evaluation Methodology Basics introduces evaluation by focusing on the main kinds of 'big picture' questions that evaluations usually need to answer, and how the nature of such questions are linked to evaluation methodology choices. The author: shows how to identify the right criteria for your evaluation; discusses how to objectively figure out which criteria are more important than the others; and, delves into how to combine a mix of qualitative and quantitative data with 'relevant values' (such as needs) to draw explicitly evaluative conclusions.
Using a friendly, nontechnical approach, the Second Edition of Regression Basics introduces readers to the fundamentals of regression. Accessible to anyone with an introductory statistics background, this book builds from a simple two-variable model to a model of greater complexity. Author Leo H. Kahane weaves four engaging examples throughout the text to illustrate not only the techniques of regression but also how this empirical tool can be applied in creative ways to consider a broad array of topics. New to the Second Edition • Offers greater coverage of simple panel-data estimation: Because the availability of panel data has increased over the past decade, this new edition includes coverage of estimation with multiple cross-sections of data across time. • Provides an introductory discussion of omitted variables bias: As a problem that frequently arises, this issue is important for those new to regression analysis to understand. • Includes up-to-date advances: Chapter 7 is expanded to include recent developments in regression. • Uses a diverse selection of examples: Engaging examples illustrate the wide application of regression analysis from baseball salaries to presidential voting to British crime rates to U.S. abortion rates and more. • Includes more end-of-chapter problems: This edition offers new questions at the end of chapters that are based on the new examples woven through the book. • Illustrates examples using software programs: Appendix B now includes screenshots to further aid readers working with Microsoft Excel® and SPSS. Intended Audience This is an ideal core or supplemental text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as Regression and Correlation, Sociological Research Methods, Quantitative Research Methods, and Statistical Methods in the fields of economics, public policy, political science, sociology, public affairs, urban planning, education, and geography.
Combining the time tested classical work of Earl Babbie with the insights of one of the most recognized and respected names in speech communication research, THE BASICS OF COMMUNICATION RESEARCH is THE book for the Communication research methods course. With the authors' collective experience teaching research methods and as active researchers themselves you will find this text to be the authoritative text for your course. The authors frame research as a way of knowing, and provide balanced treatment to both quantitative and qualitative research traditions in communication research and present it in a student friendly and engaging format. It provides in-depth treatment of the role of reasoning in the research enterprise and how this reasoning process plays itself out in planning and writing a research proposal and report.
