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New RC e-Books now available!
See the list below for some of the latest and most sought-after titles for your postgraduate needs.
Literature Review and Research Design by Designing a research project is possibly the most difficult task a dissertation writer faces. It is fraught with uncertainty: what is the best subject? What is the best method? For every answer found, there are often multiple subsequent questions, so it's easy to get lost in theoretical debates and buried under a mountain of literature. This book looks at literature review in the process of research design, and how to develop a research practice that will build skills in reading and writing about research literature--skills that remain valuable in both academic and professional careers. Literature review is approached as a process of engaging with the discourse of scholarly communities that will help graduate researchers refine, define, and express their own scholarly vision and voice. This orientation on research as an exploratory practice, rather than merely a series of predetermined steps in a systematic method, allows the researcher to deal with the uncertainties and changes that come with learning new ideas and new perspectives. The focus on the practical elements of research design makes this book an invaluable resource for graduate students writing dissertations. Practicing research allows room for experiment, error, and learning, ultimately helping graduate researchers use the literature effectively to build a solid scholarly foundation for their dissertation research project.
Proposing Empirical Research by Proposing Empirical Research: A Guide to the Fundamentals provides step-by-step instructions for students who will be writing their first research proposal in the social and behavioral sciences and using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The structure of the book enables students to work independently with confidence while writing the first drafts of their proposals. Each major section is divided into short topics and for each topic, students are asked to complete an exercise that leads them toward the goal of preparing a proposal. Numerous illustrative examples throughout the book make the recommendations for proposal writing come alive. In addition, the 10 model proposals provided at the end of the book illustrate proposal writing and provide material for classroom discussions. New to the Sixth Edition: Updates throughout to reflect research and learning in the digital/online environment, e.g., online surveys, digital organization tools, digital recruitment methods for research, and digital databases, records, and archives. Discussion of qualitative methods. Updated references, model proposals, end of chapter exercises etc. Proposing Empirical Research is ideal for use in research methods classes where students write a proposal as a term project, thesis/dissertation preparation classes, senior research seminars where proposing and conducting research is a culminating undergraduate activity, and any graduate-level seminar in which the instructor wants to incorporate a project that will engage students in critical thinking about the content area.
Quantitative Analysis of Questionnaires by Bringing together the techniques required to understand, interpret and quantify the processes involved when exploring structures and relationships in questionnaire data, Quantitative Analysis of Questionnaires provides the knowledge and capability for a greater understanding of choice decisions. The ideal companion for non-mathematical students with no prior knowledge of quantitative methods, it highlights how to uncover and explore what lies within data that cannot be achieved through descriptive statistics. This book introduces significance testing, contingency tables, correlations, factor analysis (exploratory and confirmatory), regression (linear and logistic), discrete choice theory and item response theory. Using simple and clear methodology, and rich examples from a range of settings, this book: provides hands-on analysis with data sets from both SPSS and Stata packages; explores how to articulate the calculations and theory around statistical techniques; offers workable examples in each chapter with concepts, applications and proofs to help produce a higher quality of research outputs; discusses the use of formulas in the appendix for those who wish to explore a greater mathematical understanding of the concepts. Quantitative Analysis of Questionnaires is the ideal introductory textbook for any student looking to begin and or improve statistical learning as well as interpretation.
Analyzing Group Interactions by Analyzing Group Interactions gives a comprehensive overview of the use of different methods for the analysis of group interactions. International experts from a range of different disciplines within the social sciences illustrate their step-by-step procedures of how they analyze interactions within groups and explain what kind of data and skills are needed to get started. Each method is discussed in the same, structured manner, focusing on each method's strengths and weaknesses, its applicability and requirements, and the precise workflow to "follow along" when analyzing group interactions with the respective method. The analyzing strategies covered in this book include ethnographical approaches, phenomenology, content analysis, documentary method, discourse analysis, grounded theory, social network analysis, quantitative ratings, and several triangulative and mixed-method research designs. This volume is recommended for researchers at all levels that need guidance with the complex task of analyzing group interactions. The unified structure throughout the book facilitates comparison across the different methods and helps with deciding on the approach to be taken.For some informal keeping-up-with-the-commons, see our new blog called The Commons Informer here.
There are some great things to come for this interactive addition to the Research Guide, so be sure to subscribe and leave us a comment before you go.
Dear researchers,
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This Research Guide provides tips and tools for postgraduate students to complete their research.
Please see Prof McNaught's excellent presentation for an overview of the research process:
Additional sources:
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