Research Project Karne Ke Liye Avashyak Margdarshan

2. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-93-5150-667-6
Verlag: SAGE Publications

Buch, Englisch, 344 Seiten, Format (B × H): 184 mm x 241 mm

The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project gives students the knowledge and skills they need to get from 'clueless' to 'completed'. This highly readable text guides the reader through each stage of their research project, from getting started to writing up, with each chapter clearly explaining a step along the way.

Based on the author's hugely popular The Essential Guide to Doing Research, this new book retains the warmth, wit and grounded nature of the first, while providing tools to help students through the ins and outs of their own projects, and addressing the key questions students need to tackle, such as:

- What is this thing called research and why do it?

- How can I assure that my research project has integrity?

- How to I develop a researchable question?

- How do I construct a winning proposal?

- What exactly is expected in a literature review?

- What options are there in qualitative, quantitative, mixed and more purposive methodological designs?

- Is it best to work with a sample, key informants, or a case?

- What data collection options are there and how do I choose?

- How should I work with my quantitative data?

- What should I do with my qualitative data?

- How in the world will I capture this on paper?

This is an inspiring book full of down-to-earth advice, illuminating figures and diagrams and engaging real life examples. With this book as your personal mentor, a successfully completed research project is well within reach.

Autoren/Hrsg.

O'Leary, Zina

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Forschung und Information Forschungsmethodik, Wissenschaftliche Ausstattung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PART ONE: TAKING THE LEAP INTO THE RESEARCH WORLD
The challenge of tackling a research project
So what is this thing called research and why do it?
The need for research knowledge

The potential of research knowledge

Delving into the 'construct' of research
Ontology and epistemology

Competing positions

The position of the reflexive researcher

Getting help along the way
The structure of the book

How to get the most out of the book

PART TWO: GETTING STARTED
On your mark, get set, go!
Navigating the process
Understanding your programme
Getting set up

Getting the right advice

Managing the workload

Staying on course
Finding a balance

Dealing with 'crisis'
PART THREE: STRIVING FOR INTEGRITY IN THE RESEARCH PROCESS
Power, politics, ethics and research integrity
Understanding the power game

Credibility: Integrity in the production of knowledge
Working with appropriate indicators

Managing subjectivities
Capturing 'truth'

Approaching methods with consistency

Making relevant and appropriate arguments

Providing accurate and verifiable research accounts

Ethics: Integrity and the 'researched'
Legal obligations

Moral obligations
Ethical obligations

Ethics approval processes

Integrity indicators and checklist
PART FOUR: DEVELOPING YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION
The importance of good questions
Defining your topic
Curiosity and creativity
Looking for inspiration

Practicalities

From interesting topics to researchable questions
Narrowing in

The need to redefine

The hypothesis dilemma
Hypothesis defined
Appropriateness

Characteristics of good questions
PART FIVE: CRAFTING A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
The role of the proposal
Demonstrating merits of the research question

Demonstrating merits of the proposed methods

Demonstrating merits of the researcher
Writing a winning proposal
Following guidelines

Writing purposively

Drafting and redrafting

Obstacles and challenges
When your design doesn't fit proposal requirements

When your design is emergent
When want to or need to change direction/method

PART SIX: WORKING WITH LITERATURE
The importance of literature
The role of literature
Sourcing relevant literature
Types of literature

Calling on 'experts'
Honing your search skills

Managing the literature
Assessing relevance

Being systematic

Annotating references

Writing a the formal 'literature review'
Purpose

Coverage
The writing process

PART SEVEN: DESIGNING A RESEARCH PLAN
Methodology, methods and tools
The relationship between methodology and methods

Moving from questions to answers
Finding a path

Hitting the target
Getting down to the nitty gritty
Fundamental questions

Emergent methodological design

PART EIGHT: UNDERSTANDING METHODOLOGIES: QUANTITATIVE, QUALITATIVE AND 'MIXED' APPROACHES
Understanding the quantitative/ qualitative divide
The quantitative tradition
Scientific/ hypothetico-deductive methods

Experimental design

Exploring a population

The qualitative tradition
Credibility in qualitative studies
Ethnography

Phenomenology

Ethnomethodology

Understanding feminist approaches

Mixed methodology
Arguments for mixed methodology

Perspectives and strategies

Challenges and obstacles
PART NINE: UNDERSTANDING METHODOLOGIES: EVALUATIVE, ACTION-ORIENTED AND EMANCIPATORY STRATEGIES
Research that attempts to drive change
Evaluation research
Summative/outcome evaluation

Formative/process evaluation

The politics of evaluative research

Negotiating real-world challenges of evaluative research

Action research
The scope of action research

Key elements of action research

Challenges associated with action research

Emancipatory research
Participatory action research

Critical ethnography

Issues in emancipatory research

PART TEN: SEEKING 'RESPONDENTS'
Who holds the answer?
Samples: Selecting elements of a population
Opportunities in working with a 'sample'
Sample selection

Random samples

Non-random samples

Key informants: Working with experts and insiders
Opportunities in working with key informants

Informant selection

Cases: Delving into detail
Opportunities in working with cases

Case selection

PART ELEVEN: DIRECT DATA COLLECTION - SURVEYS AND INTERVIEWS
The challenge of getting data directly from the source
Surveying Options and possibilities

Issues and complexities
The survey process

The survey instrument

Interviewing
Options and possibilities

Issues and complexities

The interview process

Conducting your interview
PART TWELVE: INDIRECT DATA COLLECTION: WORKING WITH OBSERVATIONS AND EXISTING TEXT
The challenge of gathering indirect data
Observation
Options and possibilities

Issues and complexities

The observation process

Receiving, reflecting, recording, authenticating
Working with existing 'text'
Options and possibilities

Issues and complexities

The process of textual analysis

Delving into documents, history, artefacts, and secondary data

PART THIRTEEN: ANALYSING QUANTITATIVE DATA
Moving from raw data to significant findings
Keeping a sense of the overall project

Doing statistical analysis

Managing data and defining variables
Data management

Understanding variables - cause and effect
Understanding variables - measurements scales

Descriptive statistics
Measuring central tendency

Measuring dispersion

Measuring the shape of the data

Inferential statistics
Questions suitable to inferential statistics
Statistical significance

Understanding and selecting the right statistical test

Presenting quantitative data
PART FOURTEEN: ANALYZING QUALITATIVE DATA
The promise of qualitative analysis
Keeping the bigger picture in focus

From raw data to significant findings

QDA software

The logic of QDA Balancing creativity and focus

Moving between inductive and deductive reasoning

The methods of QDA Identifying biases/ noting impressions

Reducing and coding into themes
Looking for patterns and interconnections

Mapping and building themes

Developing theory

Drawing conclusions

Specific QDA strategies
Presenting quantitative data
PART FIFTEEN: THE CHALLENGE OF WRITING UP
The writing challenge
Research as communication
Knowing and engaging your audience

Finding an appropriate structure and style

The writing process
Writing as analysis

Constructing your 'story'
Developing each section/ chapter

From first to final draft

The need for exposure
Attending conferences

Giving presentations

Writing and submitting articles

The final word
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

O'Leary, Zina
Zina O’Leary is an internationally recognized leader in research methodologies and has a keen interest in the application of research to evidence-based decision-making. Zina is an Adjunct Professor at the Joseph R. Biden Jr, School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware as well as a Senior ­Fellow at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government where she coordinates research and project units for their Executive Masters and Executive Education Programmes. Zina also has an extensive history as a consultant to both government and the private sector and was the research coordinator for the Centre for Environmental Health Development at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre. She is the author of Researching Real World Problems, The Social Science Jargon Buster, Workplace Research and three books in Sage’s Little Quick Fix Series: Research Questions; Research Proposals; and Presenting Your Research.