Research methods

Applying Quantitative Research Methods

AllPsychONLINE: the Virtual Psychology Classroom

Virtual textbook on research methods which focuses on the basics of research design and critical analysis. Major units covered include: Research Basics, Research Designs and Research Analysis.

Complete Consort Plus Guidelines

The Consort guidelines cover all aspects of clinical trials from study design to analysis to dissemination of results.

Economic and Social Data Service: Learning and Teaching Resources

Provides resources which have been identified as being of particular interest and use within the context of teaching and learning. Most of the datasets held in the Data Catalogue are suitable for teaching and learning purposes, both in terms of analysing data and  making use of user guides which usually include questionnaires and detailed methodological information such as sampling and data collection

Electronic Textbook: StatSoft

This Electronic Statistics Textbook offers training in the understanding and application of statistics. The material was developed at the StatSoft Research and Development department based on many years of teaching undergraduate and graduate statistics courses and covers a wide variety of applications, including laboratory research (biomedical, agricultural, etc.), business statistics and forecasting, social science statistics and survey research, data mining, engineering and quality control applications, and many others.

Economic and Social Research Council National Centre for Research Methods

The National Centre for Research Methods is a Hub-Node network of research groups, each conducting research and training in an area of social science research methods, coordinated by the Hub at the University of Southampton.

Intute Social Sciences: Quantitative Methods

Provides links to range of useful resources in quantitative research methods.

Learning and Training

This site is aimed at helping researchers, particularly social scientists, understand and apply multilevel modelling. It is supported by The Economic and Social Research Council as part of the National Centre for Research Methods through the creation of the Learning environment for multilevel methodology and applications node.

Methods, Statistics and the Research Paper

Covers web links on areas such as methods and statistics, methodological tools, resources for qualitative inquiries, the structure of a research paper.

Research Bites

Fact sheet series about research which has a sheet on study design. Produced by the Primary Health Care Research Network.

Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research

Gateway which covers fee resources on methods e.g. surveys, focus groups, sampling, interviews and other methods.

Selecting Statistics

A quick and easy way to chose the appropriate statistical test or measure for your data. The program leads you through a series of questions about your research and data and then suggests the test you should use and a statistical program that could be used to accomplish the analysis. It should be useful for beginners or as an exploratory or educational tool. The program was developed at Cornell University with assistance from the United States Department of Education.

Social Psychology Network: Wesleyan University

Web links related to research methodology. Covers research tips and tools, research methodology, research ethics and institutional review, statistics and data analysis, web based research, professional organizations and research journals.

Social Science Research Methodology

Lecture notes covering qualitative and quantitative research methods and research ethics.

Stat Pages

The web pages listed here comprise a powerful, conveniently-accessible, multi-platform statistical software package. There are also links to online statistics books, tutorials, downloadable software, and related resources. All of these resources are freely accessible

The Question Bank

Provides links to several areas related to the development of a research project .

Tramss: Teaching Resources and Materials for Social Scientists

You will be introduced to data sources and method via a series of research questions. Once data have been extracted the training materials should take users through standard analyses and encourage them to ask questions that will lead them to more complex analyses, and possibly deepen their reading of text and journals.

Applying Qualitative Research Methods

Cardiff: Qualitative Researcher

Provides an interdisciplinary forum for social scientists to share their research and discuss questions arising from the application, innovation and dissemination of qualitative research. Qualitative Researcher invites contributions in the form of opinion pieces and polemics that stimulate debate; brief articles presenting current empirical research projects; and reports of instances of methodological innovation. Submissions should be between 1500 and 2000 words and as a reflection of Qualitative Researcher's pragmatic and inclusive orientation endnotes and references should be kept to a minimum.

Qualitative Research

Aims to provide better understanding of qualitative methods through links to a series of articles recently published by the British Medical Journal:

Designing sampling strategies for qualitative social research: with reference to the Office for National Statistics Qualitative Respondent Register

Article from the United Kingdom National Statistics Website.

Ethical aspects of Qualitative research in Health Research

A publication raising awareness of the ethical issues surrounding the use of qualitative methodologies in health research is available through the National Health and Medical Research Council at a cost of $6.95.

Forum: Qualitative Social Research

The Forum of Qualitative Social Research is a peer-reviewed multilingual online journal for qualitative research, established in 1999. It is an open-access journal, so all articles are available for free. Their Newsletter informs you of new publications as soon as they are posted online.

Intute: Social Sciences

Intute: Social Sciences offers an easy to use and powerful tool for discovering the best Internet resources in this important range of subjects.

Kerlins.net

Here you'll find many useful resources for conducting qualitative inquiry. Of particular note is the extensive Bibliography of qualitative research resources. The bibliography is indexed by research genre and methodologies, and contains references and links to high quality web sites. The Research Software page focuses on computer applications that include both quantitative and qualitative research. I have also developed an instructional guide for NUD.IST4 Classic software for analyzing qualitative data.

Qualitative Data Analysis

This essay is on the basic process in qualitative data analysis. It serves two purposes. First it offers some insights into the ideas and practices from which The Ethnograph emerged and continues to evolve. Second it is also a simple introduction for the newcomer of qualitative data analysis.

Qualitative Research Journals

This page provides links to a range of qualitative research journals.

The Qualitative Report

An online journal dedicated to qualitative research since 1990: Qualitative research textural resources.

Qualitative Research Web Sites

This page provides links to a range of qualitative research web sites.

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