The good research guide: for small-scale research projects

Content: The Good Research Guide: For small-scale social research projects 
 The Good Research Guide
 Summary of contents
 Contents
 List of tables and figures
 Acknowledgements
 Introduction
 Part 1 Strategies for social research
 What are research strategies?
 Which strategy to choose?
 Checklist for the choice of research strategy
 1 Surveys 
 What is a survey?
 Types of survey
 Which type of survey to choose?
 Postal surveys
 Face-to-face surveys
 Group-administered surveys
 Telephone surveys
 Internet surveys
 Web-based questionnaire surveys
 Social network sites
 Facebook surveys. The research populationResponse rates
 How to achieve good response rates
 Non-response bias
 Advantages of surveys
 Disadvantages of surveys
 Further reading
 Checklist for the use of surveys
 2 Sampling
 Representative samples and exploratory samples
 Probability sampling and non-probability sampling
 Sampling frames
 Probability sampling techniques
 Non-probability sampling techniques
 Which sampling technique should be used?
 Size of the sample
 Advantages of sampling
 Disadvantages of sampling
 Further reading
 Checklist for the use of sampling
 3 Case studies
 What is a 'case'? The case study approachThe purpose of a case study
 Selecting a case
 Can you generalize from a case study?
 Advantages of the case study approach
 Disadvantages of the case study approach
 Further reading
 Checklist for the use of case studies
 4 Experiments
 What is an experiment?
 When to use an experiment
 Types of experiment
 Experiments involving people --
the observer effect
 Causal relationships and variables
 The use of controls
 Control groups
 Blind trials
 True experiments and quasi-experiments
 Advantages of experiments
 Disadvantages of experiments
 Further reading. Checklist for the experimental approach5 Ethnography
 What is ethnography?
 The alien, the exotic and the routine
 Life on the Internet
 Life history
 Access to fieldwork settings
 Description and theory
 Reflexivity: ethnographers as part of the world they seek to describe
 Putting the researcher's 'self' into ethnographicresearch
 Advantages of ethnography
 Disadvantages of ethnography
 Further reading
 Checklist for ethnographic research
 6 Phenomenology
 What is the phenomenological approach?
 Experience
 The everyday world
 Seeing things through the eyes of others. The social construction of realityMultiple realities
 Description
 The suspension of common-sense beliefs
 Members' accounts
 Types of phenomenology: underlying essences or actual experiences
 Advantages of phenomenology
 Disadvantages of phenomenology
 Further reading
 Checklist for phenomenology 
 7 Grounded theory
 What is the grounded theory approach?
 When is the grounded theory approach useful?
 Starting grounded theory research
 Theoretical sampling: the selection of sites for fieldwork
 Completing the research (theoretical saturation)
 Methods of data collection
 Analysing the data.