How to Keep Your Research Project on Track

Edited by Keith Townsend, Professor of Human Resources and Employment Relations, Department of Employment Relations and Human Resources, Griffith University, Australia and Mark N.K. Saunders, Emeritus Professor, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK

‘If you ever thought doing academic research was a load of gobbledygook written from the back of a beer mat, these editors prove novel ideas can start from such a premise. This is the second edition of what is a vital guide for new, early career and experienced researchers in the social science and business fields. It charts real-world stories from problems of access, student-supervisor dynamics, finding time, dealing with writers-block, to what happens to you and a research project after you emigrate to another country. This is a highly engaging and enjoyable volume for all who do research.’

• Contents1 The more things change, the more things stay as they are! 1Keith Townsend and Mark N.K. SaundersPART I GETTING STARTED2 How to develop research projects 11Carol Atkinson3 On the path to enlightenment? Reviewing the literaturesystematically – or not 20Céline Rojon4 The PhD supervisor–candidate relationship 28Jillian Cavanagh, Hannah Meacham and Timothy Bartram5 ‘Finders, keepers, losers, weepers!’ A doctoral candidate’sreality of changing thesis advisors 36Polly Black6 Benefits, pitfalls, ethics, and realities of GenAI in research 43Jerome Kiley7 Awful #14: putting on my novice researcher’s shoes anddeveloping my research question 58Deisi Yunga-Godoy8 Reply all, tweets and social media: technological friendsfor developing a professional identity that need to betreated with care 62Hugh T.J. BainbridgePART II GETTING DATA9 Epistemological odyssey: a journey of self-discovery 65Neve Abgeller10 A tale of two surveys: reaching respondents using Webquestionnaires 71Mark N.K. Saunders11 Finding the truth amongst conflicting evidence 79Heather Short12 Dealing with the practical difficulties of case studies 89Kenneth Cafferkey and Hetal Doshi13 Is a pilot necessary? 99Polly Black14 Access confirmed? 101Wojciech Marek Kwiatkowski15 So, I guess we’re probably finished then 102Keith Townsend16 Your incentives are too lucrative: caution in rewardinginterview participants 103Catheryn Khoo17 Sales skills for researchers 105Colin Hughes18 Being flexible in interviews: make sure that you accountfor power imbalance 108Qian Yi LeePART III GETTING IT TOGETHER19 What precisely do you mean? Interpreting qualitative data 111Rebecca Loudoun and Keith Townsend20 Analysing quantitative data 119Sameer Qaiyum and Catherine L. Wang21 When the words just won’t come 126Dawn C. Duke22 Conducting research ‘with’ and not just ‘on’ organisations 135Carol Woodhams23 Where, oh where, is my golden thread? 143Vivienne Spooner and Helena Barnard24 I’m a paper person or maybe not? 152Ilenia Bregoli25 A mug of stress 154Rohit Talwar26 Excuse me … should that comma be there? Dealing withawkward questions 156Kenneth Cafferkey27 Finding the time to progress your research, and the big liethat you are part of! 158Jennifer KilroyPART IV GETTING FINISHED28 Authorship in action 162Kate L. Daunt and Aoife M. McDermott29 ‘Will I ever be good enough?’: Using feedback constructively 170Amanda Lee30 Grasping roses or nettles? Losing and finding ourselves inresearch projects 177Kiran Trehan, Alex Kevill and Jane Glover31 The problem with peer review … they say as if there’sonly one problem … 186Keith Townsend, Adrian Wilkinson, Andrew Timming andRebecca Loudoun32 My research iourney in the offline and online world ofsocial media 194Samreen Ashraf33 Scribble, leave it, type it, change it 204Mark N.K. Saunders34 ‘I’m over it …’ 207Peter J. Jordan35 The skill of bouncing back: a toolkit for developingresilience in academia 209Mollie Bryde-Evens and Rebecca Beech36 I have left the country, but the project continues 218Stefan Jooss37 To Dean, or not to Dean, that is the question 220Jenna Ward