How to do a Research Project: A Guide for Undergraduate Students

Table of Contents:
Preface ix Acknowledgements xiii Introduction 1 Part I – Making Preparations 5 1 Preliminaries 9 Recognizing Realities 9 A serious warning 10 Making it Worthwhile 10 Considering Your Audience(s) 11 Individual or Group Research? 12 Types of group research 12 Support groups 13 Planning Your Project 14 Doing it 15 The Structure of the Book 15 End of Chapter Tasks 16 Further Reading 17 Chapter 1 Tasks 17 2 Using Social Research Methods 19 A Concern for the Truth 19 Different Purposes of Research 20 Description 21 Exploration 21 Explanation 21 Emancipation 21 Research Design 22 Flexible designs 23 Fixed designs 23 Qualitative and quantitative data collection 23 Demands on Researchers 23 Different Approaches to Doing Social Research 24 ‘Library’ studies 32 Examples from Undergraduate Projects 32 Methods of Collecting Data 32 Examples from Undergraduate Projects 46 Using More Than One Method 53 Mixed Method Designs 53 Data Collection Methods Used in Different Approaches 54 Trustworthiness and Credibility 54 Reliability 54 Validity 56 Research Arguments 56 Further Reading 57 Chapter 2 Tasks 57 3 Developing Your Ideas 59 Selecting a Topic 59 Researching internet topics 62 Research topics to avoid 62 Replication research 62 From a Topic to Research Questions 63 From Research Questions to a Research Design 63 One research question or several? 65 Do I really need research questions? 65 Hypotheses 66 Developing the Design 67 Finding and Using Sources 67 Planning the search for sources 68 Key word searching 68 Internet searching 69 Library searching 70 Dealing with the sources 71 Getting an Overall Picture 73 Ethical Considerations 74 Formal ethical approval 75 Ethical committees 75 Avoiding the unethical 76 Moving beyond box-ticking 77 Confirming Your Choices 77 Further Reading 78 Chapter 3 Tasks 78 Part II – Doing It 81 4 Practicalities of Data Collection 83 Sampling and Sample Sizes 83 Representative samples 84 Non-probability samples 85 Laboratory Research 86 ‘Subjects’ or ‘participants’? 86 Informed Consent 86 Gaining Access 89 Finding the place to carry out your project 90 Making the contact 90 Formal approval isn’t enough 91 Formal and informal contracts 93 Approaching participants 93 Getting on and getting out 95 Insider research 96 Pilots 97 Collecting the Data 98 What to Do if You Run into Difficulties or Out of Time 98 Further Reading 100 Chapter 4 Tasks 101 Part III – Making Something of It 105 5 Analysing and Interpreting Your Findings 107 What This Chapter Tries to Do 107 Preparing for Analysis 108 Quantitative (Numerical) Data 109 Categorical variables 109 Ordered categorical variables 110 Summarizing and displaying categorical data 111 Continuous variables 114 Calculating summary statistics with continuous variables 115 Calculating variability 116 Displaying continuous variables 117 Statistical tests and statistical significance 118 Effect sizes 118 Clinical significance 119 What test do I use? 119 Do I really need to use statistical tests? 121 Qualitative Data 122 Data reduction and organization 123 An example – the grounded theory approach to analysis 124 Using specialist computer packages for qualitative data analysis 125 Summary of qualitative data analysis 126 Interpretation – What is Going on Here? 126 Further Reading 129 Chapter 5 Tasks 130 6 Reporting the Findings 131 Planning and Drafting 132 Research Arguments 134 Claims 134 Reasons and evidence 135 Considering Your Audience(s) – Again 136 Avoiding Plagiarism 137 Professional Standards 138 Language matters 138 References 139 Abstracts and executive summaries 139 The First Full Draft 140 Revising and Polishing 140 The Final Version 141 Disseminating Your Findings 142 Oral presentations 142 Other types of publication 143 A Final Thought 143 Further Reading 144 Chapter 6 Tasks 144 References and Author Index 145 Subject Index 153

About the Author :
Colin Robson is Emeritus Professor of the School of Human and Health Sciences, Huddersfield University.  From 1996–2007 he was chief consultant to the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation project on the development of statistics and indicators on the performance of national systems for the education of children with disabilities, learning and behaviour difficulties, and social disadvantages.  He has recently completed a consultancy to a follow-up project funded by Eurostat. He is the author of the best-selling Real World Research.