Research Methods in Information

Abstract

The instant contribution of this introductory handbook about information and communication sciences research is its ecumenical attitude about qualitative and quantitative methods. Some descriptions of quantitative methods that suggest nonempirical approaches are ascientific. Alternatively, Pickard, University of Northumbria (UK), discusses research from both qualitative and quantitative angles and attempts to foster diverse approaches. Considering introductory graduate (or honors undergraduate) texts often are a student's first exposure to research, Pickard's even-handed approach provides a safe haven for exploration and thinking. Regardless of a student's orientation, the text tours diverse approaches and promotes thinking about research. The handbook also emboldens faculty who wish to provide creative options for students, in lieu of steering them toward a predetermined path. The text is organized into four areas: ways to organize research, an introduction to research methods, data collection techniques, and data analysis and research presentation. The chapter topics in each range from ways to conduct a literature review and write research proposals in the first area to an introduction to experimental research and to grounded theory in the second. The third area, data collection techniques, addresses interviews and questionnaires, while the fourth area, data analysis and research presentation, discusses qualitative analysis and quantitative methods. This topic variety is at least as expansive as most similar research methods texts. Hence, the book's range meets expectations for an introductory research class for students in the information-communication disciplines. Pickard's initial description of both quantitative and qualitative paradigms (and their juxtaposition) borrows heavily from Lincoln and Guba's frequently cited book that was aimed at students in the communication sciences [1]. Further regarding the provision of context, it is easier to inspire students about research if they have an interest in a field's past, present, and future. In many graduate programs, this introduction often is provided in a separate course that uses a different text. Nevertheless, it helps anchor the relevance of a research methods text by starting with a short review of a field's unanswered questions, opportunities, methodological diversity, and research traditions as well as an explanation of how research methods are integral to a field's evolution. Similarly, all the book's research methods chapters feature examples, such as scales or research abstracts that illustrate the type of approach under discussion. But the book's research methods chapters focus on a broad introduction rather than applied uses of the method in question. The applications of research methods and tools are provided in chapter inserts or sidebars. Overall, Pickard's commendably equitable approach is one of the book's major strengths. Other assets include a good variety of topics, careful annotation, clear questions for readers to consider at each chapter's end, a glossary, and consistently crisp writing. However, even a handbook with a reserve of commendable elements has blemishes, and a few areas of this text could use some further polishing. While a few additions are suggested, they are not intended to detract from the book's fundamental fairness and the author's genuine attempt to provide diverse research options. It might help students distinguish among research approaches if survey and experimental research were clustered as normative examples of quantitative methods, while case studies, ethnography, delphi studies, action research, history, and grounded theory were more clearly identified as normative (and in some cases, iconic) examples of qualitative methods. Along the same lines, the book could use more discussion and examples of research with mixed methods. For example, it would be instructive to introduce research where investigators combine quantitative and qualitative methods in the same study. Finally, in providing examples of quantitative software, Pickard only mentions SPSS and MINITAB. This is a short list, which seems ripe for rebuttal by the publishers of SAS and other comprehensive statistical programs. Similarly, the only qualitative software mentioned is NUD.IST. Although a chapter devoted to research software is valuable, why not provide a more comprehensive list and briefly explain in what research areas they are frequently used? These quibbles aside, Pickard provides a diverse and methodologically balanced entry point for students. This is a laudable asset—especially for research novices and their mentors. The text is recommended for use in introductory research methods classes in the information and communication sciences.