This book provides a useful guide for researchers, reviewers, and consumers who are charged with judging the quality of qualitative studies.

Focusing on the integral role of the researcher, Qualitative Research for the Social Sciences uses a conversational writing style that draws readers into the excitement of the research process. Lichtman offers a balanced and nuanced approach, covering the full range of qualitative methodologies and viewpoints about the field, including coverage of social media as a tool to facilitate research or as a venue for study. After presenting theoretical concepts and a historical overview, Lichtman guides readers, step by step, through the research process, addressing issues of analyzing data, presenting completed research, and evaluating research. Real-world examples from across the social sciences provide both practical and theoretical information, helping readers understand abstract ideas and apply them to their own research.

Some in the social sciences argue that the same logic applies to both qualitative and quantitative methods. In A Tale of Two Cultures, Gary Goertz and James Mahoney demonstrate that these two paradigms constitute different cultures, each internally coherent yet marked by contrasting norms, practices, and toolkits. They identify and discuss major differences between these two traditions that touch nearly every aspect of social science research, including design, goals, causal effects and models, concepts and measurement, data analysis, and case selection. Although focused on the differences between qualitative and quantitative research, Goertz and Mahoney also seek to promote toleration, exchange, and learning by enabling scholars to think beyond their own culture and see an alternative scientific worldview. This book is written in an easily accessible style and features a host of real-world examples to illustrate methodological points.

The teaching of qualitative analysis in the social sciences is rarely undertaken in a structured way. This handbook is designed to remedy that and to present students and researchers with a systematic method for interpreting qualitative data', whether derived from interviews, field notes, or documentary materials. The special emphasis of the book is on how to develop theory through qualitative analysis. The reader is provided with the tools for doing qualitative analysis, such as codes, memos, memo sequences, theoretical sampling and comparative analysis, and diagrams, all of which are abundantly illustrated by actual examples drawn from the author's own varied qualitative research and research consultations, as well as from his research seminars. Many of the procedural discussions are concluded with rules of thumb that can usefully guide the researchers' analytic operations. The difficulties that beginners encounter when doing qualitative analysis and the kinds of persistent questions they raise are also discussed, as is the problem of how to integrate analyses. In addition, there is a chapter on the teaching of qualitative analysis and the giving of useful advice during research consultations, and there is a discussion of the preparation of material for publication. The book has been written not only for sociologists but for all researchers in the social sciences and in such fields as education, public health, nursing, and administration who employ qualitative methods in their work.

Qualitative Research Methods - collection, organization, and analysis strategies This text shows novice researchers how to design, collect, and analyze qualitative data and then present their results to the scientific community. The book stresses the importance of ethics in research and taking the time to properly design and think through any research endeavor.

This original textbook provides a comprehensive and integrated approach to using quantitative methods in the social sciences. Thomas R Black guides the student and researcher through the minefield of potential problems that may be confronted, and it is this emphasis on the practical that distinguishes his book from others which focus exclusively on either research design and measurement or statistical methods. Focusing on the design and execution of research, key topics such as planning, sampling, the design of measuring instruments, choice of statistical text and interpretation of results are examined within the context of the research process. In a lively and accessible style, the student is introduced to researc design issues alongside statistical procedures and encouraged to develop analytical and decision-making skills.

Foundational characteristics of qualitative research include flexibility, variation in application, critique, and innovation all of which derive from its subjective roots in interpretivism and constructivism. While the scholars who design qualitative research projects envision these qualities as strengths, such a breadth of practices and the assumptions that undergird them may present challenges during the peer review process. As a result, those who review and consume qualitative research often have important and difficult-to-answer questions about the project’s design, strategies/tools, and analysis, with few guidelines for gauging the merit of the work. The mission of this book is to provide a useful guide for researchers, reviewers, and consumers who are charged with judging the quality of qualitative studies. In order to embrace the challenges and controversies that accompany this goal, the editors have solicited experts representing multiple disciplines and methods of qualitative inquiry. Their contributions represent the rich diversity in the field while simultaneously producing a pragmatic and useful guide. While it is neither possible nor desirable to compartmentalize qualitative approaches and issues into neatly organized categories, the construct of method has been chosen as a common organizing device. The introductory chapter explains the need for such a book and underscores the foundational strengths of qualitative research: flexibility, variation, critique, and innovation. The remaining chapters review the principal approaches to qualitative research with care taken not to standardize, rigidly define, or oversimplify any approach. For ease of use, all methodological chapters are organized around the following elements of inquiry which reviewers tend to examine: definition, sampling, data collection, data analysis, representation, and congruency.

This book is both a handbook for defining and completing a research project, and an astute introduction to the neglected history and changeable philosophy of modern social science.

This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.