Research Methods for Postgraduates, Second Edition

Citation

Andrew, A.M. (2003), "Research Methods for Postgraduates, Second Edition", Kybernetes, Vol. 32 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2003.06732cae.007

Research Methods for Postgraduates, Second Edition

Research Methods for Postgraduates, Second Edition

Tony Greenfield (Editor)Arnold, London2002ISBN 0-340-80656-7xiv + 370 pp.paperback, £19.99

The front cover of this book carries a quotation from a review of the first edition by John Gribben in the New Scientist, calling this “the most useful book any new postgraduate could ever buy” and this accolade seems to be fully warranted. The book has been produced under auspices that ought to ensure high quality. It is explained in the preface written for the first edition that in 1994 the British government, in a white paper called Realising our Potential, recommended that all graduates wishing to study for doctorates should first take a 1-year master's course in research methods. Several universities have introduced such courses and more are planned. This book has been written as a response to that development, and is meant to serve as a textbook, though without rigidly dictating course content.

The total number of contributors is not less than 28, and the 42 chapters, most of them are the works of a single author, and are grouped into ten Parts. The first Part, headed Introduction, has six chapters that give useful initial orientation, and the next with three chapters discusses ways of obtaining support. The final Part, headed Future, has a chapter on Protecting and Exploiting Technology and one on Career Opportunities. In between there is an enormous amount of information about the conduct of research, including tools and methods of collecting and analysing data and of presenting the results. There are hints about making the best use of library facilities, and of course of the Internet, and about using word processors and spreadsheets and computer packages for statistical analysis and modelling and some less obvious purposes such as guiding innovation.

One use of the book will be simply as a source of recommendations for such things as statistical packages and addresses of Web sites, but it offers very much more. The contributors have not been afraid to depart from the strictly factual and to give general advice based on their own experience. There is consequently some material that may not be directly applicable to all types of research or research situations, or personalities of researcher, or even known idiosyncrasies of examiners, but all of it is well worth reading and pondering.

Part 4 has the title “Creativity” and consists of four chapters whose authors give their views on how creativity can be encouraged. The first discusses the life of Charles Darwin as a supreme innovator and suggests ways of profiting from his example. The last of the chapters brings even this elusive topic down to earth by reviewing Web sites that provide systematic aids to creativity.

I turned to this Part wondering whether it would mention a certain slightly heretical suggestion that I once read somewhere, and have passed on to a number of postgraduate students. It is the suggestion that the literature survey should not be the first task to be undertaken. There is much to be said for stopping to “have a good think” about the project before becoming immersed in what previous workers have written about it and perhaps thereby being steered into a blinkered or even erroneous view. Of course, the literature survey has to be made, and it is entirely possible that it will show that what seemed like a good idea at the earlier stage is either untenable or not new, but even then the earlier thinking may have value. This suggestion does not actually appear in Part Four of the book, though there is emphasis on wide thinking that is consistent with it.

The book certainly merits its acceptance as essential reading for postgraduates and will be valuable to anyone associated in any way with research or with presentation of technical or scientific information of any kind.

Alex M. Andrew