Research methods for postgraduates 3rd edition by Tony Greenfield, Sue Greener ISBN 1118341465 9781118341469

Part I: First Steps

Chapter 1: A View of Research

• Introduction

• Contents

• Creativity

Chapter 2: The Research Journey: Four Steps to Success

• Part 1: Reviewing the Field

• Part 2: Theory Building

• Part 3: Theory Testing

• Part 4: Reflection and Integration

• Summary and conclusions

• References

• Notes

Chapter 3: Managing Your Doctorate

• Introduction

• Approaching and Starting Your Doctorate

• Planning Your Research Project

• Organising Your Research

• Managing Your Research

• Managing Your Relationship with Your Supervisory Team

• Managing Yourself

• Completing Your Submission

• Preparing for Your Viva

• On the Day

• Disseminating Your Findings

• Conclusions

• References

• Note

Chapter 4: Documenting Your Work

• Why Document?

• Documenting Data

• How to Document?

• In Conclusion

• References

Chapter 5: Ethics of Research

• Introduction

• Background

• Codes of Conduct

• Politics

• Cutting Corners

• Fraud

• References

Chapter 6: Plagiarism

• Some Examples

• Stopping Plagiarism

• Conclusion

Chapter 7: Critically Reviewing Your Own Research

• Introduction

• A Checklist from the Experts in Reviewing Research

• The Issue of Criticality

• Conclusions

• Appendix

• Note

Part II: Support

Chapter 8: Research Proposals for Funding

• Introduction

• Find a Suitable Funder

• Plan Your Proposal

• Write Your Proposal

• How Much to Charge?

• Checks before Submission

• What Happens Next?

• If You Are Unsuccessful

• If You Are Successful

• The Future

Chapter 9: Who Can Help?

• Introduction

• Supervisors

• Attracting Ideas

• Academic Sources of Help

• Other Sources of Help

• Summary

Chapter 10: Information and Library Services

• Introduction

• Know Your Librarian

• Develop the Skills You Need

• Tracking down Books

• Journal Articles and Electronic Sources

• Accessing Other Libraries

• Studying at a Distance

• Keep a Record of What You Have Done

• Research Data Management

• Conclusion

• References

Chapter 11: Research Methods for Advanced Web Searching

• Some Background

• How It Works and How to Work It

• Web Filtering

• Finding the Academic Websites That Search Engines Cannot Find

• Finding Journal Articles

• Conclusions

• List of Websites Referred to in the Text

• References

Chapter 12: Searching in Unfamiliar Fields

• A Strategy for Search

• Searching in Unfamiliar Territory

• Keywords

• Conclusions

• Appendix: Specimen Search Profile

• References

Chapter 13: Sources of Population Statistics

• Why Are Statistics about Populations So Important?

• Populations and Classifications

• Which Population Counts Would You Ideally Like for Your Project?

• Which Organisations Produce and Supply Data?

• What Are the Major Sources of Population Statistics?

• Conclusions: Hunting Population Statistics

Chapter 14: An Introduction to Bibliometrics

• Why a Chapter on Bibliometrics?

• Introduction

• The Definition of Bibliometrics

• The History of Bibliometrics

• Bibliometrics as a Research Field

• Bibliometrics and Evaluation of Research

• Bibliometrics Indicators

• Conclusions

• References

• Notes

Chapter 15: Choosing and Using Software for Statistics

• What Can You Afford?

• What Sort of Person Are You?

• Emphasising the Graphical

• Taking Direct Command of Your Software

• Going for the Best of Both Worlds

• Special Cases

• Suitability for Your Purpose

• And Finally …

Chapter 16: Computer Support for Data Analysis

• Introduction

• Five Stages of Statistical Method

• Confirmatory and Exploratory Analysis

• Computing Resources

• Standard Statistical Packages

• Specialised Statistical Packages

• Conclusion

• References

Part III: Measurement and Experimentation

Chapter 17: Instrumentation in Experimentation

• Introduction

• Concept of Measurement

• Measurement Systems: Basic Principles

• Performance of Measurement Systems

• Evaluation of Measurement Instrumentation

• Discussion

• Websites for Software and Hardware

• Websites on Safety and Standards

• References

Chapter 18: Randomised Trials

• Introduction

• Trial Design

• Analysis

• Interpretation of Results

• References

Chapter 19: Laboratory and Industrial Experiments

• Introduction

• Principles of Experimental Design

• References

Chapter 20: Experiments in Biological Sciences

• Blocking

• Treatment Structure

• Other Types of Blocking Structure

• Assumptions of the Analysis

• Transformations

• Generalised Linear Models

• Spatial Covariance Models

• Repeated Measurements

• Conclusion

• References

Chapter 21: Survey Research

• What Is a Survey?

• Dimensions of Surveys

• Questionnaire Design

• Modes of Questionnaire Administration

• Ethics

• Practicalities

• Pros and Cons of Each Method of Administration

• References

• Further Reading

Chapter 22: Theory and Practice of Qualitative Research

• What Is Qualitative Research, and Why Use It?

• Qualitative versus Quantitative Research

• Typologies of Qualitative Research

• Questioning-Driven Qualitative Research Methods

• Observation-Driven Qualitative Research Methods

• Software Support of Qualitative Research

• Reliability and Validity of Qualitative Research

• References

Chapter 23: Kansei Engineering

• An Introduction to Kansei Engineering

• A Model for Kansei Engineering Studies

• An Example Using Printed Paper Sheets

• References

Chapter 24: Principles of Sampling

• Introduction

• Why Sample?

• Sample Design

• Inference

• Bias, Variance and Accuracy

• Non-probability Sampling

• Probability Sampling

• Capture–Recapture Sampling

• Adaptive Sampling

• Sample Size

• Weighting

• Summary

• References

Chapter 25: Sampling in Human Studies

• Introduction

• Important Considerations

• Stratification

• Sampling Frames

• Sampling General Populations

• Sampling Special Populations

• Screening a General Population Sample

• Weighting

• References

Chapter 26: Interviewing

• Introduction

• The Case for and against Interviewing

• Varieties of Interview

• Internet Interviewing

• Interview Questions

• Interviewing as a Process

• Upon Arrival

• Recording Interviews

• Analysing Interviews

• Final Reflections upon Interviewing

• Internet Resources

• References

Chapter 27: Measurement Error

• Introduction

• Scales of Measurement

• Four Researchers Who Need to Measure

• How Good Are Their Measurements?

• How Can We Best Describe the Performance of a Process?

• Assessing a Measurement Process in Psychology

• Assessing a Measurement Process in Engineering Research

• A Procedure for Assessing Engineering Measurement Processes

• A Procedure for Assessing Chemical Measurement Processes

• Errors in Data Taken from Computer Files

• Measurement Uncertainty

• Summary

• References

Part IV: Data Analysis

Chapter 28: Elementary Statistics

• Introduction

• Scales

• Basic Measures

• Simple Distributions

• Estimating Parameters

• Testing Hypotheses

• Conclusion

• References

• Further Reading

Chapter 29: Further Statistical Methods

• Introduction

• Regression Analysis

• Logistic Regression

• Discriminant Analysis

• Analysis of Variance

• Other Methods

• Time Series

• Other Techniques

• References

• Further Reading

Chapter 30: Spreadsheets: A Few Tips

• Introduction

• Part One: Data Source

• Part Two: Data Analysis

• Reference