Research Design
Creating Robust Approaches for the Social Sciences
- Stephen Gorard - Durham University, UK, The University of Birmingham, UK
This new book: discusses the nature of design; gives an introduction to design notation; offers a flexible approach to new designs; looks at a range of standard design models; and presents craft tips for real-life problems and compromises. Most importantly, it provides the rationale for preferring one design over another within any given context. Each section is illustrated with case studies of real work and concludes with suggested readings and topics for discussion in seminars and workshops, making it an ideal textbook for postgraduate research methods courses.
Based on the author's teaching on the ESRC Doctoral Training Centre "Masters in Research Methods" at the University of Birmingham, and his ongoing work for the ESRC Researcher Development Initiative, this is an essential text for postgraduate researchers and academics. There is no book like Research Design on the market that addresses all of these issues in an easy to comprehend style, for those who want to design research and make critical judgements about the designs of others.
It's a little complicated for the level of our students at this point (they're UG).
Very strong and clear with a positivist slant
An excellent well-laid out textbook reference in research methodology, highly recommendable to students and lecturers.
highly essential for the design of any research protocol for both novice and experienced researchers
Good basic guide. To be read with caution.
Gorard has an interesting perspective on research design, but I think this book would be too overwhelming for students. It's not broad enough to be an introductory text.
Research Design is a thought provoking read; it is especially helpful for students in their final year as they grapple with planning their dissertation. I have found the text useful to refer to in tutorials when students are planning their research design.
It is a very interesting book that will help researchers desing their research in the social sciences. I highly recommend it to anyone who is starting to write funding proposals. It will be one of my main reference books in the future writing for funding.
This is a clearly laid out book that really thinks about all the different elements of research design. It also addresses the limitations to various approaches and encourages readers to question their approaches and uses real world examples to explain concepts. A useful tool for researchers but might be aimed a little high for undergraduates.
