methods of data collection in social science research
Their appearance in the text is logical though, and the few tables or diagrams that do appear are in color, with arrows or labels to ease interpretation. This format also enables instructors to easily supplement with other materials. The information in the book seems accurate. As the book title stated, this book provides A Quick Guide to Quantitative Research in Social Science. As a matter of fact, pointing out historical issues in research ethics using some sensitive vignettes actually heightens the importance of research in everyday life. 2. I appreciate the clear and helpful context it provides on key concepts that students must understand to become effective researchers. I think a good proofread would help. Reviewed by Allison White, Assistant Professor, Colorado State University on 1/7/16, This text covers a wide array of topics relevant to social science research, including some that are not traditionally included but are welcome additions, such as a chapter dedicated to research ethics. There isn't a discussion of threats associated with the four types of validity. What I liked in particular is that the author includes information on the ENTIRE research process, including The text is a quick guide to considerations and terminologies used in social science research. This is because big For this reason, the book should include a few more chapters so that course instructors can have more options for a semester-long The biggest challenge faced when writing a book about research methods is the decision about what NOT to include. I did not detect any issues with grammar, usage, etc. The text contains some grammatical errors but the errors are minor and do not distract the reader. I feel this text is great for students who may not necessarily be interested in research as a job prospect (their interests may be more clinical in nature) but need the basics of research in a clear, easy to understand, and straight forward format. Project Planner. Even I had missed some, they would not be destructions for the reader. This, however, is a part of instruction and would be done in any case. This text is extremely and unusually well-written and clear. I think that the text may lend itself to several different types Key terminology is bolded with the definition following, making it easy to identify. Occasionally, there were concepts that I anticipated would require additional clarification (beyond the reading) for my graduate students. Virtual Reviewed by David Denton, Associate Professor, Seattle Pacific University on 5/3/21, I use this book with graduate students in education taking an initial course in education research. Chapters and sections in the text can be easily reorganized and assigned as per needs of the instructor and the course without causing disruption to the reader. I expect there is very little of this text that is likely to become obsolete any time soon. Data Collection is concerned with the techniques and practices of doing empirical research. This is both a plus and a minus, as it makes the book more compact and allow it to be used by many different disciplines, but may be harder for students to relate. The book seems to free of errors and bias. It would be a good text for an intro to research class at the UG or MA level, as a supplemental text. I'm assuming the author means that they are not pertinent to the hypothesis being tested (as opposed to them not being pertinent to the explanation of the dependent variable). Because it uses footnote citations instead of endnotes / parenthetical citations, each page contains all of the references contained on it, which helps with modularity. One area needing updating (or that instructors would need to supplement) is Chapter 9 on Survey Research. The textbook does not have interface issues. Reviewed by Brendan Watson, Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota on 7/15/14. One odd thing I noticed is that the paragraph spacing is inconsistent. The chapters are very brief- about half of what would be a typical, field-specific textbook, but the content is simultaneously dense and clear. The text is readable at a collegiate level without becoming over-academic, or for that matter, casual. With more examples and cases, students would be able to put research methods into context and practice how they can apply the methods to their own research projects. Overall, this is a good book to have as a reference or an additional text for a class. The portions of the text that are less relevant to the course I teach (i.e. It is free of technical jargon and is meant to provide the essentials of social science inquiry and research considerations. The concepts were presented accurately and often with citations. Including some of the important subsections of the chapters would also improve navigation of the pdf version of the book. 
This may be useful information for users of this text. read more. As a fellow social scientist from a high growth area (communication studies), I would appreciate even more breadth! Again, the book is an accessible and smooth read; it will pose no challenges to an informed reader, and there will be nothing in the organization of the book that will be distracting or irritating. The text also lacks an index, glossary and discussion questions, all of which would have been quite useful for a text of this nature. The text, for example, mentions Internet surveys, but there is no conversation about tools one can use to build an Internet survey; how Internet surveys differ from traditional modes of surveying; or the practice of weighting Internet survey results to make them "representative" of the larger population. As I mentioned earlier, I like the overall sequence that the author follows, but at the same time I can appreciate how the sections can be detached and still stand alone. The table of contents is straight forward, and the chapters are arranged in a fluid, logical order. While images were viewable, many appeared 'pixelated'/'grainy' (low resolution). I downloaded the PDF version of the textbook and find it easy to read offline. There are a few important topics missing, however. For example, Institutional Review Boards (IRB) receive only two short paragraphs, and there is no mention of the history of why such boards were deemed necessary and play an important role in the research process. The discussion of survey methodology and analysis programs will change with technology, but that should be easy to update. The discussion on research ethics is certainly a nice addition to the book where many other research methods texts lack. WebAbout the Methods and Statistics in Social Sciences Specialization Identify interesting questions, analyze data sets, and correctly interpret results to make solid, evidence-based decisions. Similar to modularity, consistency is a strength. Instructors and disciplines within the social sciences vary widely in terms of their expectations of students in an introductory Personally, I appreciate the compact nature of this text and I would much rather fill in a few gaps on my end, if it means that I can assign my students an open textbook. The text is clear and concise, offering a variety of short examples specific to various social science professions. read more. I see it as a foundation text or an external source for students who seek a concise fallback for lessons, and with content that is compatible with other textbooks. While writing the book, I decided to focus only on essential concepts, and not fill pages with clutter that can divert the students' attention to less relevant or tangential issues. Overall, the core content is strong, as a printed book it is probably acceptable, but as an electronic textbook it lacks some contemporary features. This does not suggest that the content is wrong, only that I would likely rearrange it to suit my instructional sequence. Experimental research is primarily a quantitative method. The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework. The social science research process is unlikely to change in any signfiicant way for some time; therefore, I suspect the book will be relevant for years to come. I think that the text may lend itself to several different types of courses. However, both the breadth and depth of information might be too elementary for Ph.D. and graduate students. Areas that would need attention: a chapter introducing mixed methods research, and a deeper discussion on Research Ethics. Aside from the above-mentioned deviations from broader social sciences terminology on a few occasions, I did not encounter any problems with the jargon/technical terminology used. This book is a nice walk-through guide for researchers new to the field of social science research. For its purpose, as introduced by the author, this is appropriately comprehensive. I can see how psychologists, sociologists and political scientists could provide discipline-specific examples to tailor this to their students particular needs. The book is clear and has high readability. I have not spotted any glaring errors, other than an occasional grammatical slip or a cumbersome edit. Reviewed by Amy Thompson, Associate Professor, University of South Florida on 6/19/18, This text is a nice overview of some of the key points in social science research. I would have liked a more nuanced discussion of reliability and validity concepts- introducing the concept of validity as conceptualized by Messick/Kane is needed. I had no trouble reading or understanding the textbook. Reviewed by Debra Mowery, Assistant Professor, University of South Florida on 3/27/18, The text covers all of the areas of basic research information that I cover when I teach research and research methods in the social sciences. These steps include formulating a research question, concept definition, theory elaboration, measurement (including reliability and validity) and sampling. I later realized that they are not necessarily very long chapters; it varies in terms of the topic. The book neatly compartmentalizes the topics, making it easily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course. I do like that it includes a chapter on research ethics and an appendix with a sample syllabus, however. It builds upon basic topics to more advanced concepts, so students from various backgrounds of research experience should still find the text useful. Interview types and strategies are discussed in detail in Chapter 9. Overall, the use of indentations, bolding, italicization, and bullet points, was consistent. Find step-by-step guidance to complete your research project. The headings, subheadings, an bold items are great additions that highlight important topics or definitions. This makes the book quite comprehensive in that the book could Dr. Bhattacherjees book, Social Science Research, is a good introductory textbook for upper-level undergraduate students and graduate students to learn about the research process. The glossary for the text is clear and a sample syllabus is provided by the author for individuals wishing to use this text for their course. This is appealing to me as an instructor so there is background information for the students. I also don't feel like this textbook has enough visuals or figures that could be used to support comprehension of the materials. This text provides a great overview of core concepts relevant to health-science research. Reviewed by Valerie Young, Associate Professor, Hanover College on 12/19/19, I really appreciate the broad focus and examples from social science fields. WebSociologists generally choose from widely used methods of social investigation: primary source data collection such as survey, participant observation, ethnography, case study, Webquantitative, and mixed methods research as three major approaches to research in the social sciences. The comprehensive nature of the book allows the reader to be exposed to all the necessary topics, or provides a structure for a course instructor, who then supplements with additional materials to create the depth that is specifically tailored for their discipline. Nevertheless, there are some sections that I found helpful to have students read out of sequence. Because the book focuses on methods, it does not need too much change over time. 
This text introduces social science doctoral students to the research process. The text does not contain conspicuous grammatical errors. There are useful definitions of key terms throughout the book, although none of the chapters go into much depth. There are no major problems with the books interface. -mixed methods research Research is something of a traditional topic, in the sense that changes or evolutions move at a comfortably slow pace. The text in some of the tables is blurry, especially when enlarging the PDF. An index/glossary is not included with the text, but the table of content clearly outlines the topics discussed for each module. There was some repetition with various terms such as Occums razor, but this is because there is some overlap with concepts which I think is fine, given that some chapters may not be used in the course of a semester. The only minor problem I noted (which made me I've a ranking of 4 as opposed to 5) was a certain amount of repetitiveness in the earlier chapters, specifically with regard to positivism/post-positivism and the discussion of theory/hypothesis creation and testing. This book is designed to complement those readings by summarizing all important concepts in one compact volume, rather than burden students with a voluminous text on top of their assigned readings.Third, this book is free in its download version. The first major section considers the role of research methods in each of these approaches. The main area that might need to be updated in the discussion regarding the Internet and how it impacts our research options. The text does not have any significant interface issues, though the font size of the figures can be larger (e.g., they should not smaller than the font size of the text). In particular, the qualitative and quantitative analysis sections are well organized. Written in 2012, the information remains relevant with few areas that would ever need to change. For example, the beginning chapter which discusses what science is and uses vocabulary from the hard or natural sciences may not necessarily be relevant in a social science course, but the author is being comprehensive by explaining the origins of science and the creation of the scientific method.The vocabulary in bold is extremely effective throughout the book. If there are any new or interesting content that you wish to see in future editions, please drop me a note, and I will try my best to accommodate them. However, the book falls short on the depth of the essential concepts. However, it does so at a fairly superficial level. read more. The authors choice to use footnotes for references is not the one that seemed logical to me at first - it seems elegant to put all the references in a list at the rear of a book; now, reading through the whole text, however, I see some value to having the entirety of a citation at hand when reading through the main body of the text. A nice add is the sample syllabus for a doctoral program. Another topic I would have liked to see developed further - and perhaps is especially important to the more digitally-savvy crowd interested in the open textbook movement - is the expanding role of the Internet and digital technologies in the research process itself, particularly in the era of "big data." Download. Culturally sensitive with relevant and inclusive cases provided. 
Data collection is a process of collecting information from all the relevant sources to find answers to the research problem, test the hypothesis (if you are following deductive approach) and evaluate the outcomes. The book was structured in a logical progression. 
Reviewed by Anika Leithner, Associate Professor, California Polytechnic State University on 7/15/14, This text certainly covers all the basic concepts and processes I would expect to find in an introduction to social sciences research. The book is comprehensive in its treatment of the central components of research design and the different methodological strategies that researchers can leverage to investigate various research questions. The book makes great use of graphics and other visual aids throughout the chapters, but I wish there as a standalone chapter that introduces simple plots for univariate and bivariate data. The author, Dr. Bhattacherjee, structured the book following the research process from theories, to research design, data collection, and analysis. This might include 2. I did not come across any culturally-insensitive or offensive passages in the text. It covers a wide range of methods and Furthermore, Facebook has also seen its share of users rise at a meteoric rate. The textbook is appropriately structured for a standard 15 week course and even recommends a syllabus. The table of contents is primitive, and there is no way to navigate specific tables or diagrams except moving page by page in sequence. The later chapters explain in greater detail various kinds of methods such as how to measure constructs, and scale reliability. Little is presented or discussed on electronic surveys, survey platforms, or the use of social media in recruitment, survey distribution or every survey completion. No concerns about inclusivity or offensiveness. I use this book with graduate students in education taking an initial course in education research. Bearing in mind the authors stated target audience of graduate and doctoral students, it is entirely reasonable that this would require additional work and instructor support (extra time and explanations for definitions and examples, for instance) when used in an undergraduate classroom. WebSocial science research may involve complex surveys from which underlying structure is extracted, experiments to investigate impacts of education or health policy, and -how to One thing that strikes me as amazing and also challenging about this text is the concision and simplicity for which Bhattacherjee integrates complex information. The text contains up-to-date approaches to research methods and presents classic theoretical debates. Ideally, several faculty with similar teaching needs would team up to combine and adapt several open texts to their courses' needs. I do not see any issues with consistency. The text consistently matches the topics outlined in the table of content. On page 77, the author indicates that a survey should begin with non-threatening questions such as demographic information. read more. Reviewed by Wendy Bolyard, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Denver on 4/30/20, This text presents all the topics, and more, that I cover in my master's-level research and analytic methods course. The content mostly aligns with my own conceptions of research, although it does have a different arrangement from my presentation in class. The text is divided into 16 chapters, which corresponds seamlessly with a 16-week semester. Furthermore, Facebook has also seen its share of users rise WebWhile the data collection methods described thus far in the text may be among the most commonly used in sociology, they certainly are not the only methods that social scientists use. Personally, I did not find this to be a problem, as the outline/table of contents is very useful, but perhaps students using the text could benefit from an index that would allow them to quickly look up what they need to know. There are a number of places where extraneous words were left in (perhaps when rewriting and changing the structure of a sentence) or where words are not quite right. While the content covered is detailed, a more critical introduction of the concepts as being situated in the obtained scores as opposed to the instrument itself would have made the chapter stronger. The majority of the text is presented in a logical format. The overwhelming majority of the content in this text is classical understandings of research and methodologies that are essential to all graduate students, particularly in business and the social sciences. I feel the text will be relevant and useful for multiple years. The book contains important terms in bold to guide a beginner reader as well as sample syllabi for incorporating it at the graduate level. There are no culturally insensitive or offensive materials noticed. The book is divided into sixteen chapters, which seemed a bit intimidating at first. The statistical coverage is very thin and should not serve as the primary source material in any class that covers statistics. In this case "generic" is actually a positive attribute: because the text covers social science research broadly, rather than sociology, psychology, etc. Teachers looking for a text that they can use to introduce students to the research process and cover the foundational components of the research process should find this manuscript sufficient for their needs. Not be destructions for the reader are not necessarily very long chapters ; it varies in terms of and..., etc PDF could have the table of Contents on the sidebar, it does so a... 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