Research methods in information

"Fully updated for today s research environments, the long-awaited second edition of Alison Jane Pickard's best-selling handbook includes brand new coverage of online research methods and techniques, mixed methodology and qualitative analysis. The first primer to focus entirely on the needs of the information and communications community, it guides would-be researchers through the variety of possibilities open to them under the heading research and provides students with the confidence to embark on their dissertations. While Pickard summarizes the philosophy and theory of research to provide context, she focuses squarely on a practical exploration of the research process, offering examples and exercises tried and tested over a whole teaching career."--Publisher description.

Introduction -- Setting the content -- The research hierarchy -- Overview of contents -- pt. 1. Starting the research process -- Major research paradigms -- Introduction -- Positivist research -- Postpositivism and mixed research methods (MMR) -- Interpretivist research -- Qualitative or quantitative methodology? -- Qualitative research design -- Quantitative research design -- Mixed methods research -- Criteria for judging research -- Establishing trustworthiness in qualitative research -- Establishing rigour in quantitative research -- Summary -- Practical exercise -- Suggested further reading -- Reviewing literature -- Introduction -- Information searching and retrieval -- Evaluation -- Critical analysis -- Synthesizing the research : developing a theoretical framework -- Summary -- Practical exercise -- Suggested further reading -- Defining the literature -- Defining the research -- Introduction -- Designing a conceptual framework -- The research hypothesis -- Research aims and objectives -- Summary -- Practical exercise -- Suggested further reading -- The research proposal -- Why write a proposal? -- Structure of a research proposal -- The proposal as a research framework -- …