The Research Companion

Have you ever wanted to know an effective and ethical way to: Design a study? Recruit participants? Report findings? And improve the quality and output of your research? The Research Companion focuses on the practical skills needed to complete research in the social or health sciences and development. It covers the behind-the-scenes essentials you need to run an effective and ethical piece of research and offers clear, honest advice to help avoid typical problems and improve standards and outcomes. It addresses each stage of the research process from thinking of a research idea, through to managing, monitoring, completing and reporting your project, and working effectively and safely with participants and colleagues. As well as covering theoretical issues in research, the book is full of links to other resources and contains practical tips and stories from researchers at all levels. This new edition is fully updated to reflect shifts in funding structures, open access, and online developments and has a link to a blog and friendly online community for readers to connect with diverse researchers all sharing experiences and offering practical advice. The Research Companion brings hard-earned lessons from the real world to offer invaluable guidance to all students of the social and health sciences, from those just beginning their first research project, to experienced researchers and practitioners. It will be instrumental in raising readers’ competence levels and making their research more accurate, ethical, and productive.

Social science research has traditionally focused on the historical study of research methods, frequently overlooking the practical skills needed to undertake a research project. The Research Companion recognises this need for instruction in the practice of research and offers clear, honest advice to help avoid typical problems and improve the standards. The whole research process is covered in detail, from setting up a study through to presenting findings, with sections on all the basic tasks central to any research project, including: planning research researcher and participant safety monitoring research in progress research ethics. The structure of the book means it is useful for researchers at all levels of experience. The numerous examples and case histories make it ideal for students just beginning their first research project, whilst the breadth of coverage and wealth of practical tips will also be highly relevant to experienced researchers. This book is invaluable to all students of the social sciences, whatever their level of experience, and should be instrumental in raising the general level of research competence, making research more accurate, ethical and productive. A website - http://www.psypress.com/boynton - which includes a users' message board and other supplementary materials accompanies this book.

The Psychology Research Companion: From student project to working life not only gives you the skills and confidence to conduct your psychology research project at university, but is the first book to show how these skills will help you get ahead in your first job in the workplace. Jessica S. Horst, an American psychologist teaching in the UK, takes you through every step of the research process; from conceiving your research question and choosing a research methodology, to organizing your time and resources effectively. The book includes sections on ethics, data management, working with research participants and report writing, but each chapter is also informed by the wider aim of providing a toolkit for working life. Each chapter is packed with tips and skills that can be taken into the workplace, including working collaboratively and organising your workload, as well as discussing your research project in interview situations and when applying for jobs. This invaluable guide will appeal to all undergraduate and postgraduate psychology students whose aim is to learn a set of transferable research skills as well as to obtain a good degree result.

The study of Cosmopolitanism has been transformed in the last 20 years and the subject itself has become highly discussed across the social sciences and the humanities. The Ashgate Research Companion to Cosmopolitanism pursues distinct theoretical orientations and empirical analyses, bringing together mainstream discussions with the newest thinking and developments on the main themes, debates and controversies surrounding the subject.

This comprehensive research companion examines the theory, practice and historical development of the principle of federalism from the ancient period to the contemporary world. The scope and range of the volume is unparalleled; it will provide the reader with a firm understanding of federalism as issues of federalism promise to play an ever more important role in shaping our world.

R. G. Collingwood is an important 20th-century historian, archaeologist and philosopher whose works are the subject of continued interest, analysis and study. There is an unquestionable need to support this research activity with the provision of a reference guide which is fully up-to-date, informed and authoritative. The Companion therefore lists all primary and secondary material relevant to the study of Collingwood in all his fields of expertise - historical theory, philosophy and archaeology. It also provides a guide to archive material relevant to his life, together with sources and locations. The resulting volume is an essential companion to the understanding of the life and thought of R. G. Collingwood.

Michel Foucault continues to be hugely influential. His diagnoses challenge us to rethink crucial phenomena such as madness, discipline, the human sciences, the state, neoliberalism, sexuality and subject formation. Based on his work in its entirety, and with special emphasis on his many recently published lecture series, this book provides an updated, comprehensive and original account of his thought. By reading Foucault as a philosopher, it offers an extensive systematic assessment and discussion of his unique conception of philosophical practice and brings a unifying trajectory in his work to light.

The research presented in this volume is very recent, and the general approach is that of rethinking popular musicology: its purpose, its aims, and its methods. Contributors to the volume were asked to write something original and, at the same time, to provide an instructive example of a particular way of working and thinking. The essays have been written with a view to helping graduate students with research methodology and the application of relevant theoretical models. The team of contributors is an exceptionally strong one: it contains many of the pre-eminent academic figures involved in popular musicological research, and there is a spread of European, American, Asian, and Australasian scholars. The volume covers seven main themes: Film, Video and Multimedia; Technology and Studio Production; Gender and Sexuality; Identity and Ethnicity; Performance and Gesture; Reception and Scenes and The Music Industry and Globalization. The Ashgate Research Companion is designed to offer scholars and graduate students a comprehensive and authoritative state-of-the-art review of current research in a particular area. The companion's editor brings together a team of respected and experienced experts to write chapters on the key issues in their speciality, providing a comprehensive reference to the field.