Reviews of recent research literature – 3

Citation

Nazari, M. (2012), "Reviews of recent research literature – 3", Online Information Review, Vol. 36 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2012.26436baa.001

Reviews of recent research literature – 3

Article Type: Reviews of recent research literature – 3 From: Online Information Review, Volume 36, Issue 2

The literature of research, including theory, method and methodology, has become a substantial subset of the publishing industry in its traditional, electronic and hybrid forms. In this occasional series of reviews we focus on recent titles that address the many issues of research. The intention is to inform both established researchers and students of research. The reviewer’s assessment of each title is indicated by the number of stars (five being the highest recommendation).Developing Research ProposalsPam Denicolo and Lucinda BeckerSuccess in Research SeriesSage PublicationsThousand Oaks, CA2012134 pp.US$35.95 hard coverISBN 13-9780857028662Assessment ***

Conducting Online Surveys2nd ed.Valerie M. Sue and Lois A. RitterSage PublicationsThousand Oaks, CA2012242 pp.$40.00 hard coverISBN 9781412992251Assessment ****

Applied Thematic Analysis,Greg Guest, Kathleen M. MacQueen and Emily E. NameySage PublicationsThousand Oaks, CA2012295 pp.$62.00 hard coverISBN 9781412971676Assessment ****

Managing Research DataEdited by Graham PryorFacet PublishingLondon2012239 pp.£49.95 hard coverISBN 9781856047562Assessment ***

As suggested by the titles, the books reviewed in this selection cover diverse areas of research design and management and target diverse audiences, ranging from new to established researchers, as well as research managers and policy makers.

The first title, Developing Research Proposals, is a comprehensive handbook for proposal writers who are keen to begin doctoral research or step into the world of funded research. In addition to the extensive experiences of the authors on the topic obtained through their teaching and supervision in higher education, the book also has been inspired by serendipity and concerns about the quality of proposals collected from several researchers across a range of disciplines.

The book contains 10 chapters, each including several practical activities that contribute to the development of the reader’s proposal. It also contains several reflection points through which the reader can review his or her progress throughout the process. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the whole process of producing a proposal, while Chapter 2 provides more detail about the specific purposes of different kinds of proposals and includes an overview of the sections required in most proposals, discussing why they are important.

In Chapters 3 through 7 the authors discuss the wider preparation needed to embark on writing the proposal. This includes the importance of layout, tone and style demanded by different funding bodies; the theoretical perspective taken and the required extent of the literature review; methodological design and justifications; and financial matters. The final chapters concentrate on three main issues:

1. 1.

   Timing and research organisation issues.

2. 2.

   Other people involved in the process.

3. 3.

   Responding to results, reflections and anticipations.

The book also offers the reader an annotated list of funding sources and some further materials on proposal writing and related issues.

This is a sound introduction to proposal writing, especially for those unfamiliar with the process. It is clearly presented and written in largely jargon-free language that will appeal to the neophyte. All key areas are covered in adequate detail, although from time to time the reader might benefit from deeper insights drawn from the authors’ own experiences, and specific attention to the political realities of proposal acceptance would not have gone amiss – though it may well frighten the horses unnecessarily. As well, honest discussion of the proposal reviewing process and how to deal with criticism would have been useful. Experienced researchers familiar with proposals will not find much new here, but the work is useful as an introduction to the proposal-writing process.

The second title, Conducting Online Surveys, goes well beyond proposal preparation to focus on the gritty detail of conducting surveys in an online environment. The authors offer guidelines on the development, implementation and reporting of digital surveys, using the Internet and other digital devices such as mobile phones, tablets computers and public kiosks. The exploding popularity of digital devices and social media tools in research makes the re-birth of this quality guide timely, important and necessary.

In addition to issues such as creating reliable and valid survey questions, data analysis strategies, and writing the survey report, which are common to all survey environments, Sue and Ritter broaden the scope of the content to issues unique to online surveys. This includes sampling from online participants, developing online and mobile questionnaires and disseminating electronic surveys.

The book is structured in nine chapters and two appendices. Each chapter includes scenario-based exercises to open up the mind of the reader to the real-life world of online surveys. The first chapter is an introduction to the research process, the characteristics of all survey projects and the steps involved in creating a survey. Chapter 2 discusses planning the online survey and addresses issues related to the selection of digital surveys from three options: email, websites and mobile surveys. It gives suggestion on how to choose suitable software and web survey tools. It also familiarises the reader with security-related questions that must be asked when selecting software or websites. This information in Chapter 2 is extremely useful, but it will also date quickly as new software and web tools emerge.

Chapter 3 focuses on sampling techniques for Internet and mobile surveys, including saturation sampling, probability sampling and nonprobability sampling along with a discussion of sources of error in each method. This is a specific and pointed addition to such valuable survey classics as Alreck and Settle. Chapter 4 covers the basics of writing effective survey questions and the considerations to be undertaken in the creation of valid questions. The authors also discuss the distinction between open-ended and closed questions, types of closed questions, and the writing of questions to collect factual, demographic and attitude data. One wonders whether students and practitioners will ever understand the simple difference between open and closed questions – apparently not!

Chapter 5 examines survey design techniques in terms of appearance, readability, user-friendliness and technical compatibility. The content of this chapter draws on the authors’ observation of respondents’ preferences in selected web-based surveys. In Chapter 6, on conducting the survey, Sue and Ritter discuss currently popular recruitment methods: email invitations, website links to the survey, an interstitial (pop-up) window, a mobile device, social media and offline methods. While these may be the trendiest methods at present, it would have been useful to have the authors’ views on what might be emerging in this area. They also discuss techniques for increasing survey response rate. In Chapter 7 and 8 attention turns to strategies for effective analysis and presentation of survey data.

Highlighting the influence of increased utilisation of, and improvements in, technology for online survey research, in the final chapter the authors recap some of the considerations surrounding the use of online surveys and re-examine the benefits associated with their use. This is an excellent summary of a value-laden guide to online surveys. The timing and currency of the content, along with the visual presentation of the online survey process, make this book a useful guide for those seeking to exploit fully online tools for conducting surveys. One trusts that a third edition is in the making, to ensure that we capture rapidly emerging developments in this important area of research.

Once we have conducted our survey or engaged in interviews, the next step is what to do with the data thus generated. Accordingly, the third title, Applied Thematic Analysis, is an appropriate work to follow Sue and Ritter. Authors Guest, MacQueen and Namey present us with an instruction manual of operating procedures for analysing data generated from qualitative research and mixed methods projects. Rarely do we find a book whose full attention is devoted to the details of analysing qualitative data in various types of projects for different purposes. This includes qualitative research for evaluating programmes and interventions, using it as formative research within a larger study, or as a means of describing and explaining a targeted phenomenon. This makes the book a valuable addition to the corpus of literature on research.

The book is organised in 10 chapters that follow the same sequence that a researcher might follow when conducting data analysis. Each chapter begins with one or more learning objectives and containing real-world examples, and concludes with an exercises section as well as a “yardstick” against which the reader can evaluate his or her mastery of the material. With these features, the book can be used as a useful source for teaching or as a self-study material.

Chapter 1 defines terms and frames the authors’ approach to qualitative data analysis relative to other common approaches. Chapter 2 concentrates on planning and preparation, with guidelines for establishing analytic objectives, framing the analysis and other considerations that require attention in the early stages of the research process. Moving on from this, Chapter 3 covers details of finding themes and developing codes, including segmenting text, distinguishing types of codes, discovering and winnowing themes, developing code books, linking themes to both theoretical models and real-world problems.

Chapter 4 is dedicated to the concepts of validity and reliability, their relevance to qualitative enquiry, and a discussion of the procedural and practical implications related to each concept. (As an aside, is it perhaps time that qualitative investigators come clean on the matter of reliability and validity, and make clear that these are not the major issues that they are for quantitative research? We sniff around the bush endlessly, and it would be good to have open debate on the issue.) Chapter 4 also addresses intercoder reliability and illustrates how to measure intercoder agreement and instill a more intuitive understanding of the concept. Chapter 5 covers other analytic techniques and addresses special issues associated with analysing focus group data. Chapter 6 provides the reader with some principles and instructions on how to make sense of the data (themes and codebook), especially large datasets.

Chapter 7 presents methods for comparative data analysis and discusses some of the unique aspects of qualitative data in this regard. In Chapter 8, about building on conceptual frameworks delineated in the burgeoning mixed methods literature, the authors describe how to plan for and execute data integration from mixed methods research. Chapter 9 reviews some of the important factors, such as study size and complexity, to be considered when choosing analysis software and offers the reader a description of possible features and functions of software, along with a template for mapping analytic problems and logistical parameters against software functionality for selecting appropriate software packages.

The final chapter of Applied Thematic Analysis brings the researcher to the endpoint of the analysis process – write-up and dissemination. The chapter begins with general guidance for writing to suit one’s audience. The second part of the chapter focuses more specifically on writing up qualitative analyses and offers suggestions for improving the quality of reporting with publication in mind. This chapter is typical of the work as a whole: insightful, practical, and thorough. It is a most welcome addition to our knowledge base, and a work that I will certainly be referring to more than once.

Collecting data by survey and then analysing data both benefit from sound data management practices, something that researchers often learn though painful error. Therefore, The final title in this group, Managing Research Data, may be useful for many researchers, although it has more direct relevance to managers of research data in a winder setting. The 10 invited chapters by scholars and practitioners discuss the importance of, and suggestions for, managing data, mainly in digital format, generated from research.

Chapter 1 argues for the necessity of managing research data, highlighting the need for revisiting the role of the modern data practitioner or information professional in this context. Chapter 2 focuses on the fragile nature of digital materials and suggests management considerations to make these materials retrievable, identifiable and usable by the research community. Highlighting Open Access as underpinning the many drivers for research data management, Chapter 3 describes the research data policies, principles, requirements and trends in eight countries (none of them developing nations). This parenthetic omission becomes noticeable when in Chapter 4 discussion centres on conditions under which digital preservation activities must be addressed if they are to maximise the prospects of achieving long-term economic sustainability. It then examines each condition in the context of the preservation of research data and addresses the corresponding challenges and approaches. This chapter is in some ways an odd inclusion that interrupts the flow of ideas; it might have been better presented in a journal devoted to data management.

Elaborating on issues discussed in Chapter 3, Chapter 5 highlights the various factors that have led to the upsurge of interest in data management planning. It outlines components that commonly make up a data management plan, providing examples of tools and other resources helpful for the planning activities. Chapter 6 then reviews research data opportunities and challenges for libraries with reference to published reports and case studies of emerging practice. The problem here is that libraries are not the only repositories of research data, and are perhaps increasingly less so at present and in coming years. Chapter 7 draws on several UK studies of researchers’ everyday data management practices. These are used to review drivers for research data management services, to consider the challenges their provision pose for higher education institutions and explore how these might be met, including possible pathways to sustainability.

Chapters 8-10 are definitely of interest primarily to library and information managers, and much less so to the research community. These three chapters introduce several national data centres that bring together datasets or databases from a variety of sources in order to provide improved researcher access; they also describe research data infrastructures in the US and Australia, and then conclude with recent developments in the UK and Europe. One is never sure how useful these “how we do it here” discussions are, and in this work one might suggest “not very”.

As a less established, yet increasingly crucial area of practice, any discussion of data management practices should be considered by information professionals and other stakeholders who are keen to engage with the needs of the academic research community and make research assets usable for future research. This book provides familiarisation with digital data management underpinnings and solid guideline for those charged with planning and managing research data. The audience is thus purposely limited, and the chapter presentations are not terribly standardized or written in a stimulation fashion – perhaps this arises from the nature of the topic.

Maryam NazariFaculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia