If you had to train a researcher and you could only do so by prescribing them books and other written and electronic sources, which resources would you use most confidently? Also, think in terms of things you wish you knew when you started or resources you wish you could access at the beginning of your career.
I recommend these textbooks
Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (NULL) by John W. Creswell and J. David Creswell | Dec 19, 2017
Understanding Research Methods: An Overview of the Essentials by Mildred L. Patten and Michelle Newhart | Jul 7, 2017
I smiled (approvingly) when I saw Martin Klvana 's suggestion of Against Method (imagine what students would be like if that was all they read?). A shorter paper by Feyerabend is https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/how-to-defend-society-against-science . Feyerabend is often compared with his friend (and fellow anarchist? at least according to F) Lakatos and I put this audio of him on lots of syllabi ( http://www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/science-and-pseudoscience-overview-and-transcript/ ). For short pieces, I'd add Feynman's 1974 CalTech commentment address ( http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/3043/1/CargoCult.pdf ).
I think whatever how-to books would depend on the discipline. What type of students is this for?
Thank you for all the answers so far.@Daniel Wright, I recently finished my honours degree and would like to try my hand at a master's degree later on- when I feel more confident in conducting research. For myself, I would focus on research for the social sciences, specifically discourse studies and hopefully psychology soon enough. Additionally, I am a consultant at a writing center and would like to know more about research in general for professional development. At the writing center, we help students from different disciplines, so I'm not limiting my interest any specific discipline.
Pieter Smuts , is your first degree in a subject where you had research methods training, like psych or sociology, or will be you be learning from the basics? There are lots of textbooks out there, so I'd look at syllabi at where you might be doing your masters. I will mention one, but the caveat that I am an author. The fifth edition of Breakwell et al.'s Research Methods in Psychology (Sage Publications) will be out, ummm, probably beginning of next year and it is aimed for people without previous training. Also, it has more on text analysis or qualitative methods than many psych methods books. It also has a philosophy chapter and talks lots of Feyerabend so hopefully Martin Klvana approves.
It depends on the level.
For bachelor's level Creswell's books have been a good head start in my experience.
For PhD courses, specifically on qualitative methods, I have used the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research by Denzin and Lincoln, and the Basics of Grounded Theory by Strauss and Corbin.
Although these are not books on philosophy of science, they provide good introductions to research and research methodology.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Education
- Higher Education
- Academic Writing