scholarly journals EMBARKING ON RESEARCH IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: UNDERSTANDING THE FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raqib Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
First Time

Written primarily for new or early-career researchers and postgraduate students, this paper problematises some of the foundational concepts any beginning researcher will come across when conducting research for the first time. Understanding the oft-confused, abstract, yet important notions of ontology, epistemology and paradigms can be a daunting obstacle in the experience of a new researcher, yet there are nearly no ways of sidelining these if we were to meaningfully plan, construct and execute our research. Through familiar examples, this article engages in discussing the research approach and design and how these are grounded in the ways a researcher thinks about and understands the world - in other words, how their ontological and epistemological positions determine the methodological choices they make. As well as problematising these concepts, the article also compares the qualitative and quantitative approaches, and critically considers how, in some ways, qualitative studies can yield richer results in the social science disciplines, including in Education.

Fast, Free, and Targeted

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 537-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itamar Shatz
Keyword(s):  
Early Career ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Online Research ◽  
Large Samples ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
Potential Source ◽  
The Social ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Untapped Resource

Recruiting participants is a necessary step in many studies. With the advent of online research techniques, scientists are looking for new places where participants can be recruited online, in order to overcome the limitations of current sources and avoid the issues associated with sample overuse. The social media website “Reddit” is a potential source for recruitment, as it allows for free and rapid data collection from large samples, while enabling researchers to target specific populations when needed. The ability to recruit for free is especially important because it enables students and early career researchers, for whom even low recruitment costs can be prohibitive, to benefit from the opportunity of conducting research that they otherwise would not be able to. The current article therefore aims to bring this prospective, untapped resource to the attention of the research community. The article discusses current online recruitment sources and their limitations, provides an overview of Reddit, validates its use for research purposes, examines participation data from previous studies which recruited through Reddit, highlights its advantages and limitations as a participant pool, and suggests guidelines that can improve recruitment and retention rates for scientists looking to use Reddit for their research.

scholarly journals Editorial

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Hannah Ditchfield ◽  
Shuhan Chen
Keyword(s):  
Conference Proceedings ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
New Directions ◽  
The World ◽  
Media Research ◽  
The University ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
First Time

The first issue of for(e)dialogue is composed of a collection of papers given at the New Directions in Media Research (NDiMR) postgraduate conference in June 2015 at the University of Leicester. NDiMR is a one-day postgraduate focused conference organised by PhD students from the Department of Media and Communication. This conference has a similar aim and purpose of this journal as a whole which is to provide postgraduate students, PhD students and early career researchers with a platform and opportunity to develop and share their research and critically contribute to discussions of theory and methodology on a variety of Media and Communication issues. The NDiMR conference has been held annually since 2012, each year growing in size and attracting more delegates and presenters from across the world. However, this is the first time that some of the events’ presentation papers have been collected for a published conference proceedings.

Puzzling the Picture using Grounded Theory

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-94
Author(s):  
Elisabeth E. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Substantive Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Coding Strategies ◽  
First Time ◽  
Over Time

Since the first publication by Glaser and Strauss in 1967, Grounded Theory has become a highly influential research approach in the social sciences. The approach provides techniques and coding strategies for building theory inductively from the “ground up” as concepts within the data earn relevance into an evolving substantive theory. Over time, Grounded Theory has undergone development and adaptations, and the first phases of analysis have been successfully applied to other types of inductive approaches, such as basic qualitative and case studies. The methodological literature can be difficult to navigate for new researchers as well as experienced analysts using the approach for the first time. This article synthesizes the work of various seminal scholars to address the value of grounded theorizing and it builds a picture of what it means to do grounded theory.

Puzzling the Picture using Grounded Theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 1778-1792
Author(s):  
Elisabeth E. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Substantive Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Coding Strategies ◽  
First Time ◽  
Over Time

Since the first publication by Glaser and Strauss in 1967, Grounded Theory has become a highly influential research approach in the social sciences. The approach provides techniques and coding strategies for building theory inductively from the “ground up” as concepts within the data earn relevance into an evolving substantive theory. Over time, Grounded Theory has undergone development and adaptations, and the first phases of analysis have been successfully applied to other types of inductive approaches, such as basic qualitative and case studies. The methodological literature can be difficult to navigate for new researchers as well as experienced analysts using the approach for the first time. This article synthesizes the work of various seminal scholars to address the value of grounded theorizing and it builds a picture of what it means to do grounded theory.

Affiliation in Transition: Rethinking Society Membership with Early-Career Researchers in the Social Sciences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel LaFlamme
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Changing Environment ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
The Social

This paper by Marcel LaFlamme explores new forms of connection and community for early-career researchers in less formal structures, often facilitated by social media and other communication technologies. By learning from these loosely institutionalized spaces, LaFlamme contends, scholarly societies as well as research libraries and their parent institutions can adapt to a changing environment and take steps to make scholarship more open and accessible.

The origins, development, and application of Qualitative Comparative Analysis: the first 25 years

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Marx ◽  
Benoît Rihoux ◽  
Charles Ragin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Quantitative Research Methods ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
The Social

A quarter century ago, in 1987, Charles C. Ragin published The Comparative Method, introducing a new method to the social sciences called Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). QCA is a comparative case-oriented research approach and collection of techniques based on set theory and Boolean algebra, which aims to combine some of the strengths of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Since its launch in 1987, QCA has been applied extensively in the social sciences. This review essay first sketches the origins of the ideas behind QCA. Next, the main features of the method, as presented in The Comparative Method, are introduced. A third part focuses on the early applications. A fourth part presents early criticisms and subsequent innovations. A fifth part then focuses on an era of further expansion in political science and presents some of the main applications in the discipline. In doing so, this paper seeks to provide insights and references into the origin and development of QCA, a non-technical introduction to its main features, the path travelled so far, and the diversification of applications.

A Tale of Two Cultures

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Goertz ◽  
James Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Measurement Data ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Quantitative Research Methods ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scientific Worldview ◽  
Different Cultures

Some in the social sciences argue that the same logic applies to both qualitative and quantitative research methods. This book demonstrates that these two paradigms constitute different cultures, each internally coherent yet marked by contrasting norms, practices, and toolkits. The book identifies and discusses major differences between these two traditions that touch nearly every aspect of social science research, including design, goals, causal effects and models, concepts and measurement, data analysis, and case selection. Although focused on the differences between qualitative and quantitative research, the book also seeks to promote toleration, exchange, and learning by enabling scholars to think beyond their own culture and see an alternative scientific worldview. The book is written in an easily accessible style and features a host of real-world examples to illustrate methodological points.

Tradition and Innovation in Cataloguing Medieval Manuscripts

2021 ◽  
Vol 139 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-58
Author(s):  
Orietta Da Rold
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Digital Form ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Medieval Manuscripts ◽  
Early Career Researchers ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Training

Abstract In this essay, I offer a brief history of manuscript cataloguing and some observations on the innovations this practice introduced especially in the digital form. This history reveals that as the cataloguing of medieval manuscripts developed over time, so did the research needs it served. What was often considered traditional cataloguing practices had to be mediated to accommodate new scholarly advance, posing interesting questions, for example, on what new technologies can bring to this discussion. In the digital age, in particular, how do digital catalogues interact with their analogue counterparts? What skills and training are required of scholars interacting with this new technology? To this end, I will consider the importance of the digital environment to enable a more flexible approach to cataloguing. I will also discuss new insights into digital projects, especially the experience accrued by the The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220 Project, and then propose that in the future cataloguing should be adaptable and shareable, and make full use of the different approaches to manuscripts generated by collaboration between scholars and librarians or the work of postgraduate students and early career researchers.

Emotions and politics of sensibilities in Latin America

2021 ◽  
pp. 026858092199451
Author(s):  
Adrian Scribano
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Latin America ◽  
The State ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
The Social ◽  
Multi Method Approach ◽  
Method Approach

The social sciences in Latin America have always had a special connection with the study and analysis of the place of emotions in the social structuration processes. The aim of this article is to offer a synthetic exposition of some inquiries about emotions and the politics of sensibilities in Latin America, emphasizing those that are being felt in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this objective, first we offer a synthesis of the theoretical and methodological points that will guide the interpretation; then we draw on pre-existing inquiries and surveys which allow us to capture the state of sensibilities before and during the pandemic in the region; and finally some conclusions are presented. The work is based on a multi-method approach, where qualitative and quantitative secondary and primary data are articulated in tandem.

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