The Researcher’s Toolkit. The Complete Guide to Practitioner Research

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of figures
Preface
Chapter 1: Why research?: What to look out for and what to think of
	The purpose of research
		The focus of research
		To expand knowledge in a discipline or area
		To create impact
	Traditions and methods
		Underlying elements: Ontology, epistemology, methodology
		Some examples of traditions: positivism, constructivism, pragmatism
			Positivism
			Constructivism
			Pragmatism
		Approaches to collecting data – methods and tools
		Quantitative methods
		Qualitative methods
		Mixing quantitative and qualitative methods
		Action research
	Ethics of research
		Consenting to participate (informed consent)
		Voluntary participation
		Anonymity
		Confidentiality
		Potential for harm
		Accurate reporting
	Summary
	References
Chapter 2: Planning the research
	Planning your research and the messy research journey
		Stages in the process
	Things to think about before you start
		Resources
		Amount of time available
		Accessibility of research sample (your participants or respondents)
	Framing your questions
	Being realistic about what you can do
	The hypothesis
	Exploring the literature
	Developing a strategy
		An example research plan
			A visual plan – the GANTT chart
	Timing and planning
		Collecting data
		Analysing data
		Drawing conclusions
		Writing and submitting your report
	Methodology
	Ethics as part of your planning
		Informed consent
	Summary
	References
Chapter 3: Collecting your data: Literature and other forms of data
	The importance of data – finding out what is already out there
	Collecting data through a literature review
		Types of literature review
			Literature review as a list
			Literature review as a search
			Literature review as a survey or scan
			Literature review as a knowledge enhancer
			Literature review as a steering instrument
			Literature review as a report
		Locating the literature
		Developing a review strategy: search terms and lists
		Selecting appropriate literature and maintaining literature notes
		Aggregating literature material
		Critically analysing the literature
		Being aware of bias
	Collecting other research data
		Fundamental types – quantitative and qualitative
		Which tools or instruments?
	Experiment-based research
	Survey-based research
	Research interviews
		Before the interview
		Setting up the interview ‘space’
		Conducting the interview
	Focus group interviews
		The focus group checklist
	Observation as a data collection tool
		Types of data collected: passive and contextualised
	A note on using social media as data collection tools
	Summary
	References
Chapter 4: Analysing your data
	Dealing with data
		Coding and classifying data
	Analysing qualitative data
	Content analysis
		Concept-driven and data-driven coding
		Guides to help you code
		Qualitative data analysis software
	Narrative analysis
		Digital narrative – digital storytelling
	Discourse analysis
		Critical Discourse Analysis
	Grounded theory
	Analysing quantitative data
		Quantitative data analysis software
	Descriptive tools and techniques
	Describing data
		The mode, the median, and the mean
		Standard deviation
		Associating data
		Formula for correlating data
	A note on inferential analysis
		Statistical significance
		Testing for significance
	Presenting your data
	Dealing with ever-increasing amounts of data – the role of data visualisation
	Summary
	References
Chapter 5: Writing it all up
	Getting started: preparing your writing
	Tips for getting started
		An example for organising the write-up
	Time management
	Formatting and structuring your writing: an example
		Preliminary part
			Title
			Abstract
			List of contents
			Lists of figures and tables
			Preface
			Acknowledgements
		The main text
			Introduction
			Literature review
			Methods
			Results
			Analysis and discussion
			Conclusions and recommendations
		The end matter
	Fallacies (mistakes) to avoid when writing
	Thinking about your audience when writing
	Presenting your work to others
	A note on ethics when writing up
	Submitting your research report to others
	Styling your report
	Social media and publication
	Storytelling
	Visualising your data
	Tone and voice
	Summary
	References
Chapter 6: Research impact
	What is impact?
		The development of impact
	Examples of impact
		Academia
		Industry
		Public sector
		Society
		Sharing impact (and research) findings with others
	Different interpretations of impact
	Co-production as impact
		Example of co-production across the sectors
	Assessing impact
	Limitations of assessing impact
	Dissemination
		A dissemination identifier
		Limitations to dissemination
	Contextualising research impact (by using Merton’s norms)
	Summary
	References
Index