Research Methods

Misyurov D.A. Dialectical formulas based on the binary notation as the development formulas // Credo New. 2012. №2

by Dmitry Misyurov

The article suggests dialectical formulas based on the binary notation as the development formulas: formula with... more The article suggests dialectical formulas based on the binary notation as the development formulas: formula with dominant and the non-dominant elements; universal formula; formula with symbolic weight of elements; tautological formula. For example, it suggests an opportunity to use the dialectical formulas for modeling and artificial intelligence creation, etc.

Proposing a heuristic reflective tool for reviewing literature in transdisciplinary research for sustainability

by A. Idil Gaziulusoy

co-authored with Assoc. Prof. Carol Boyle of University of Auckland

Projects aiming to solve socially-relevant complex problems in general and sustainability related projects in... more Projects aiming to solve socially-relevant complex problems in general and sustainability related projects in particular are increasingly approached as transdisciplinary research projects. Reviewing and integrating literature and theory across a broad range of disciplines is identified as one of the main quality criteria for transdisciplinary research. Such broad preparation, however, is a major challenge, especially for individual researchers. Even though this challenge has been acknowledged, no systematic way of approaching it has been proposed so far. This paper presents a heuristic tool developed to help individual researchers undertaking transdisciplinary projects in systematic structuring and prioritization of the literature review/reporting process. Using this tool, the transdisciplinary researcher undertakes an iterative, reflective enquiry throughout the research project to identify several literature review filters. A PhD research project, which investigated system innovation for sustainability at product development level, is used as a case study to illustrate the use of the tool. The findings of the case study provided suggestive evidence that the tool addresses the emerging need for a systematic way of reviewing and reporting of literature in transdisciplinary research undertaken by individual researchers effectively.

Internet Research Skills, 3rd Edition

by Niall O Dochartaigh

Ó Dochartaigh, Niall (2012) Internet Research Skills, 3rd Edition. London; Los Angeles; New Delhi: Sage. (In press)

Internet Research Skills is a clear, concise guide to effective online research for social science and humanities... more Internet Research Skills is a clear, concise guide to effective online research for social science and humanities students. The first half of the book deals with publications online, devoting separate chapters to academic articles, books, official publications and news sources, which form the core secondary sources for social science research. The second half of the book deals with the open web, a vast and confusing realm of materials, many of which have no direct print counterpart. The new edition has been updated throughout so that it includes coverage of cutting edge online services as well as newly developed approaches to using online materials. Each chapter contains a number of illustrations, examples and short exercises to help you put what you learn into practice.

The new edition has been fully updated and now contains:

- a new chapter on organising your research and on Internet research methodologies

- additional material on the use of social networks for research

- a new introduction

This concise and accessible introduction to Internet research skills will be a perfect guide for undergraduate students carrying out research projects and for postgraduate students working on theses and dissertations

Cochrane and non-Cochrane systematic reviews in leading orthodontic journals: a quality paradigm?

by Zbys Fedorowicz

Fleming PS, Seehra J, Polychronopoulou A, Fedorowicz Z, Pandis N. Eur J Orthod. 2012 Apr 16. [Epub ahead of print]

The aims of this study were to assess and compare the methodological quality of Cochrane and non-Cochrane systematic... more The aims of this study were to assess and compare the methodological quality of Cochrane and non-Cochrane systematic reviews (SRs) published in leading orthodontic journals and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) using AMSTAR and to compare the prevalence of meta-analysis in both review types. A literature search was undertaken to identify SRs that consisted of hand-searching five major orthodontic journals [American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Angle Orthodontist, European Journal of Orthodontics, Journal of Orthodontics and Orthodontics and Craniofacial Research (February 2002 to July 2011)] and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from January 2000 to July 2011. Methodological quality of the included reviews was gauged using the AMSTAR tool involving 11 key methodological criteria with a score of 0 or 1 given for each criterion. A cumulative grade was given for the paper overall (0-11); an overall score of 4 or less represented poor methodological quality, 5-8 was considered fair and 9 or greater was deemed to be good. In total, 109 SRs were identified in the five major journals and on the CDSR. Of these, 26 (23.9%) were in the CDSR. The mean overall AMSTAR score was 6.2 with 21.1% of reviews satisfying 9 or more of the 11 criteria; a similar prevalence of poor reviews (22%) was also noted. Multiple linear regression indicated that reviews published in the CDSR (P < 0.01); and involving meta-analysis (β = 0.50, 95% confidence interval 0.72, 2.07, P < 0.001) showed greater concordance with AMSTAR.

Criteria for construction and report of prototypical analysis for social representations (English version of paper originally published in Portuguese)

by João Wachelke

English version of: Wachelke, J. & Wolter, R.P. (2011). Critérios de construção e relato da análise prototípica para representações sociais. Psicologia Teoria e Pesquisa, 27(4), 521-526.

Prototypical analysis is a largely diffused presentation convention to present to characterize the structure of a... more Prototypical analysis is a largely diffused presentation convention to present to characterize the structure of a social representation from evocation data. However, occasionally the results of that analysis do not contain essential indications to guarantee its transparency. The present text aims at systematizing and organizing some of the information that should be present in the description of prototypical analysis results, briefly discussing the pros and cons of some analysis options. For that purpose, a brief introduction of the analysis is made, then moving on to technical consideration and closing the text with a report example.

Linking Relevance to Practical Significance

by Kaveh Mohajeri

A scaffolded approach to teaching research skills to post Graduate students

by Lynda Holland

co-authored with Joy Garfield - peer reviewed paper delivered at UKAIS March 27 & 28 2012, New College, Oxford

A recent re-validation of Postgraduate Awards and a move from fifteen to twenty credit modules provided an opportunity... more A recent re-validation of Postgraduate Awards and a move from fifteen to twenty credit modules provided an opportunity to re-think and restructure modules. This research looks at one specific module titled Research and Professional Skills which was restructured to implement a scaffolded approach to delivering the module aimed at increasing the students’ confidence as well as their academic research skills. This research has shown that postgraduate students may have had little research experience during their undergraduate studies and that appropriate scaffolding is needed to support them developing research skills and has resulted in the formulation of a five step framework for developing postgraduate research skills.

User-led design in the urban/domestic

by Georgina Voss

Journal of Urban Technology, 19:2. 2012
Co-authored with Natasha Carolan

Urban spaces are pervaded by interpretive and reactive technologies which shape and are shaped by its inhabitants,... more Urban spaces are pervaded by interpretive and reactive technologies which shape and are shaped by its inhabitants, with an increasingly active role for citizen technologists. Yet the role of domestic spaces in shaping lived experience within the urban environment, and subsequent technological interventions, is often overlooked. Homes are framed as closed-off environments which isolate their inhabitants from the city, despite being porous spaces which are also filled with ubiquitous computing. In this paper we draw on the participatory design and user innovation literatures to present the methodology for the ‘Homesense’ research project which explored how users design and develop ‘smart’ technologies within their own homes, based on the intersection of their concurrent urban/domestic lived experience. Open hardware toolkits are utilized as cultural probes, and co-located ‘lead users’ provide technical expertise. This methodology demonstrates the importance of physical space and location in user-led domestic activities, and of combinations of technical and ‘lived ‘ expertise in developing these interventions.

Studying local-to-global tourism dynamics through glocal ethnography

by Noel B. Salazar

Salazar, Noel B. 2010. Studying local-to-global tourism dynamics through glocal ethnography. In C. M. Hall (Ed.), Fieldwork in tourism: Methods, issues and reflections (pp. 177-187). London: Routledge.

Researching tourism in Asia, like elsewhere in the world, is a fascinating but extremely challenging endeavour. Since... more Researching tourism in Asia, like elsewhere in the world, is a fascinating but extremely challenging endeavour. Since tourism is a multi-layered phenomenon – marked by a plethora of politico-economic, socio-cultural, and other processes of production, consumption, representation, and regulation on local, national, regional, and global levels – many studies fail to understand and explain it adequately. Collaborative, mixed-methods, and multi-sited research have been proposed as possible ways to tackle and unpack tourism’s complexity. However, these are demanding to engage with as a graduate student, often with limited time, experience, and resources. Using my dissertation fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, as an example, I demonstrate how a “glocal ethnography” approach helped me capturing the details of the local tourism scene while at the same time paying attention to how that local reality is firmly embedded in and continuously interacting with broader processes and power structures. In this chapter, I offer a tentative description of what glocal ethnography entails and I illustrate the use of this methodology in my own study of tour guiding.

From local to global (and back): Towards glocal ethnographies of cultural tourism

by Noel B. Salazar

Salazar, Noel B. 2010. From local to global (and back): Towards glocal ethnographies of cultural tourism. In G. Richards & W. Munsters (Eds.), Cultural tourism research methods (pp. 188-198). Wallingford: CABI.

Researching cultural tourism, covering the gamut from global standards of hospitality to dyadic host-guest... more Researching cultural tourism, covering the gamut from global standards of hospitality to dyadic host-guest interactions, is a fascinating but challenging endeavour. Since travel-for-leisure is a multi-layered phenomenon, many studies fail to understand and explain it adequately. Using a research project in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, as an example, I demonstrate how a “glocal ethnography” approach helps to capture the details of the local cultural tourism scene while at the same time it pays attention to how that lived reality is firmly embedded in and continuously interacting with supralocal processes. Cultural tourism offers many possibilities for glocal ethnographies, especially where international tourists meet local manufacturers, retailers, and service providers in the production, representation, and consumption of glocalized tourism goods and services. I illustrate the potential as well as weaknesses of the methodology with ethnographic examples on cultural tour guiding. For those researchers wanting to conduct in-depth studies, glocal ethnography offers a valuable innovative methodology. By engaging in a genuine holistic approach, tourism scholars have a great opportunity to take the lead, thereby demystifying the common stereotype that all they are able to do is applied quantitative research.

Investigative Management and Consumer Research on the Internet

by Peter Lugosi

A final version of this paper will be published as Lugosi, P., Janta, H. and Watson, P. (2012) Investigative Management and Consumer Research on the Internet. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management Vol. 24, No. 6. Please consult the final published version if citing.

This paper introduces the notion of Investigative Research on the Internet (IRI) and conceptualises its processes... more This paper introduces the notion of Investigative Research on the Internet (IRI) and conceptualises its processes through the principle of streaming. It discusses the similarities and differences between IRI and netnography and considers various aspects of the IRI process, including site selection, sampling, data collection and analysis. It is argued that streaming can help to understand the processes involved in conducting netnographic research. Moreover, it is suggested that streaming is a more appropriate way to conceptualise some internet-based studies that do not conform to netnographic or ethnographic ideals. Three international empirical cases are used to illustrate the application of IRI and streaming in research on international workers, consumer cultures and on emerging business phenomena.

A Geography of the Lifeworld (1979)

by David Seamon

A Geography of the Lifeworld, a book originally published in 1979 by Croom Helm (London) & St. Martin's Press (New York)

This book,  A Geography of the Lifeworld (1979), focuses on a wide-ranging phenomenon labelled everyday... more This book,  A Geography of the Lifeworld (1979), focuses on a wide-ranging phenomenon labelled everyday environmental experience—the sum total of peoples’ firsthand involvements with the geographical world in which they live. By geographical world is meant the everyday places, spaces, and environments in which people find themselves. The source of experiential descriptions was environmental experience groups, small focus groups of students and other interested participants who were willing to meet weekly to examine in their own daily experience such themes as movement patterns, emotions relating to place, the nature of noticing and attention, the meaning of home and at-homeness, places for things, deciding where to go when, and so forth.

Through a phenomenological explication of the more than 1,500 personal observations offered in these environmental experience groups, the study identifies three overarching themes—movement, rest, and encounter—that appear to mark the essential core of everyday environmental experience.

The section on movement examines the habitual nature of everyday environmental behaviors and argues, after French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1962), that the lived foundation of these behaviors is the body as preconscious but intelligent subject. The section on rest explores people’s attachment to place and gives particular attention to at-homeness and positive affective relationships with places and environments.

The book’s final section on encounter considers the multifaced ways in which people make attentive contact with their world. Group observations indicate that this range of awareness extends from obliviousness and minimal attentive contact with the world at hand through watching, noticing, and more intense kinds of encounter where the experiencer, at least metaphorically, feels a sense of “merging” with some aspect of world.

The last section of the book examines lived relationships and interconnections among movement, rest, and encounter and argues that their threefold structure offers one simple but integrated way to envision human environmental experience conceptually and to think about design and policy implications practically.

A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review

by Moges Ashagrie Retta

Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation
Author: Justus J. Randolph, Walden University
Volume 14, Number 13, June 2009

Writing a faulty literature review is one of many ways to derail a dissertation. This article summarizes some pivotal... more Writing a faulty literature review is one of many ways to derail a dissertation. This article summarizes some pivotal information on how to write a high-quality dissertation literature review. It begins with a discussion of the purposes of a review, presents taxonomy of literature reviews, and then discusses the
steps in conducting a quantitative or qualitative literature review. The article concludes with a discussion of common mistakes and a framework for the self-evaluation of a literature review

Join the REx Collective

by Jenn Fishman

REx editors include Jenn Fishman, Joan Mullin, and Mike Palmquist.

The Research Exchange Index or REx  is designed to recognize local, national, and international writing... more The Research Exchange Index or REx  is designed to recognize local, national, and international writing researchers by periodically collecting and publishing information about the research studies they've conducted. All writing researchers are invited to contribute by uploading information about their work. In addition, writing researchers, teachers, and students are invited to help build and shape REx by joining the editorial collective as an acquisitions editor or an editorial reviewer. To learn more, download the attached paper or contact the REx editors: RExchangeContact@gmail.com.

Portfolio Planning Methods: Faulty Approach or Faulty Research? A Rejoinder to "Making Better Decisions" by Wensley

by J Armstrong

Co-authored with Roderick J. Brodie.

Wensley (1994) makes three key points. First, it is worthwhile to conduct empirical studies of the value of management... more Wensley (1994) makes three key points. First, it is worthwhile to conduct empirical studies of the value of management techniques. Second, managers probably misuse portfolio methods. Third, the Armstrong and Brodie study is flawed. We agree with all three points.

On the Interpretation of Factor Analysis

by J Armstrong

Published in Psychological Bulletin, 70 (5), 1968, 361-364.

The importance of the researcher’s interpretation of factor analysis is illustrated by means of an example. The... more The importance of the researcher’s interpretation of factor analysis is illustrated by means of an example. The results from this example appear to be meaningful and easily interpreted. The example omits any measure of reliability or validity. If a measure of reliability had been included, it would have indicated the worthlessness of the results. A survey of 46 recent papers from 6 journals supported the claim that the example is typical, two-thirds of the papers provide no measure of reliability. In fact, some papers did not even provide sufficient information to allow for replication. To improve the current situation some measure of factor reliability should accompany applied studies that utilize factor analysis. Three operational approaches are suggested for obtaining measures of factor reliability: use of split samples, Monte Carlo simulation, and a priori models.

Communication of Research on Forecasting: The Journal

by J Armstrong

Published in International Journal of Forecasting, 4 (1988), 321-324

It seems trivial to point out that one of the major goals of the International Institute of Forecasters is to... more It seems trivial to point out that one of the major goals of the International Institute of Forecasters is to communicate research findings. In particular, the IIF tries to foster communication among researchers, between researchers and practitioners, across nationalities, and across disciplines. We have two major vehicles for this: the annual symposiums and the journal. This editorial examines the results that we have had to date with our journals.

AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD FOR TEACHING THE CONCEPT OF THEORY IN RESEARCH METHODOLOGY COURSES: LESSONS FROM HOUSE M.D.

by Eyup Aygun Taysir

published in Marmara University Journal of Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences

Management students need to learn the concept of theory in order to both understand managerial latent dynamics of... more Management students need to learn the concept of theory in order to both understand managerial latent dynamics of organizations and to carry out research. However, teaching this concept using traditional teaching methods is difficult as the concept of theory is sophisticated in nature and the learning styles of today’s students necessitate alternative teaching methods. Thus, in this study it is argued that one television series, entitled House M.D., can be used as an alternative tool to teach the concept of theory, and the ways in which it can be used in the research methodology classroom are explained.

Keywords: TV series in management education, the concept of theory, Generation Y, House M.D.

‘Through the creator’s eyes’: Using the subjective camera to study craft creativity

by Vlad Glaveanu

Forthcoming in Creativity Research Journal.
Co-authored with Saadi Lahlou.

The present article addresses a methodological gap in the study of creativity: the difficulty of capturing the... more The present article addresses a methodological gap in the study of creativity: the difficulty of capturing the microgenesis of creative action in ways that would reflect both its psychological and behavioural dynamics. It explores the use of subjective camera (subcam) by research participants as part of an adapted Subjective Evidence-Based Ethnography (SEBE). This methodology combines: a) obtaining first person audio-visual recordings of creative action with a miniature video-camera worn at eye-level, b) accessing the subjective experience of the participant through a confrontation interview based on the recording, and c) formulating interpretations and discussing them with the participant. Illustrations of the technique are offered from a study of craft creativity, chosen as a test ground for its micro-level forms of creative expression. Findings are presented, exemplifying how the technique enables microscopic description of creativity at both process and content levels. In the end, the benefits, limitations and possible applications of the method are considered in the broader context of creativity studies.

Statistical Methods Used in Gifted Education Journals 2006-2010

by Nicola L. Ritter, M.Ed.

Warne, R., Lazo, M., Ramos, T., & Ritter, N. (in press). Statistical Methods Used in Gifted Education Journals 2006-2010. Gifted Child Quarterly.