Doing Your Research Project

worldwide bestseller - over 250,000 copies sold

Step-by-step advice on completing an outstanding research project.

Step-by-step advice on completing an outstanding research project. Research can be daunting, particularly for first-timers, but this indispensable book provides everything you need to know to prepare for research, draft and finalise a methodologically sound and well-written report or thesis, plus it warns you of potential pitfalls to prevent you wasting time on false trails.

This new edition of doing your research project has been thoroughly updated and includes:

• Wider coverage of research ethics
  
• Clear guidelines on the differences between different types of research project
  
• New coverage of Research diaries
  
• New sources in further reading plus more information on internet research and the use of electronic resources
  
• Coverage of the latest information on plagiarism
  
• More examples to highlight key issues

This bestselling book is an essential resource to help establish good practice for beginner researchers embarking on undergraduate or postgraduate study, and for professionals in such fields as social science, education, and health.

(McGraw-Hill)

Bli först med att recensera och betygsätt boken Doing Your Research Project - du kan vinna 200 kr varje månad i tävlingen "Månadens recension".

Judith Bell has worked as a university lecturer, head of department and vice principal in colleges of further education; senior counsellor and course team writer for the Open University; and as one Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools specializing in continuing education. In 1997 she was awarded the MBE for services to educational research and in the same year was awarded the degree of D.Univ by the Open University, for services to adult education and to the University. She now holds the post of Special Professor in the School of Continuing Education at the University of Nottingham.

(McGraw-Hill)

PART ONE Preparing the ground

Approaches to research

Action research and the role of practitioner researchers

Case study

Critics of case study

Survey

The experimental style

Ethnography and the ethnographic style of research

The grounded theory approach

Narrative inquiry and stories

Which approach?

Further reading

Planning the project

Selecting a topic

Getting started

Hypotheses, objectives and researchable questions

Working title and the project outline

Timing

Supervision

Student-supervisor relationships

Codes of practice for supervision

Change of supervisor

Keeping records of supervisory tutorials

The research experience

Writing as you go along and the research diary

Planning the project checklist

Further reading

Ethics and integrity in research

Research contracts, codes of practice, protocols and the principle of informed consent

Ethics committees

Confidentiality and anonymity

Safeguarding confidentiality and anonymity if disseminating information by
computer

Ethical research in practice and the problems of 'inside' research

Codes of ethical practice relating to intellectual ownership/property

The ethics and integrity in research checklist

Further reading

Reading, referencing and the management of information

Reading

Note taking and guarding against plagiarism

Referencing

For books

For journal articles

For chapters in books

Citing journal articles and other materials taken from CD-ROMs or the Internet

The card index

The management of information

A lot of fuss about nothing?

Reading, note taking, guarding against plagiarism, referencing and the management of information checklist

Further reading

Literature searching

Defining the parameters of your search (search limiters) and keywords

Focusing, refining an grouping your keywords

Passwords, user names and working from home

Libraries, librarians - and of course books

Scanning books into digital format

Journals

Citing sources from the Internet

Evaluating sources

Copyright and licensing restrictions when downloading items from web pages

Time to move on

The top ten guide to searching the Internet

Literature searching checklist

Further reading

Appendix to Chapter 5

Search Engines and Internet Gateways

The review of the literature

The 'critical review' of the literature

Theory and theoretical (or conceptual) frameworks

The 'critical review' in practice

The Gilbert Fan review

The Richardson and Woodley review

Reviewing the reviews

The review of the literature checklist

Further reading

PART TWO Selecting methods of ...

(McGraw-Hill)