Research Basics: Design to Data Analysis in Six Steps

Perfect for my Emergency Management Administration Program Research

Loved how fast it arrived and it was in the condition that it said it would be in thank you clean and usable.

As expected

I needed to read the first two chapters for the first week of my graduate course. I ended up reading the first six chapters over the weekend due to the author's inviting sense of humor and tone.

There are many texts to introduce the basic concepts of research: developing a hypothesis, research design, and data collection and analysis. Because there is such a wealth of choices one can be picky. I thought the text was good, written in a clear style, concepts well explained. The sections on explaining different types of data are very well done.The biggest problem with this book are the graphics: often overly simplistic, extraneous or confusing.There is access to an online study site that includes articles, quizzes and other resources. The book concludes with an excellent glossary, author index and very good index.

The premise of this book is simple and awesome for beginning researchers: most research "fails" because of lack of a proper question and how to build your research AROUND it instead of aimless gathering of data. Sage is one of the best publishers for research and social science learning and this book does not disappoint. The steps are simple and easy to implement and the book provides many brilliant examples to get your own creative and critical juices flowing!

This author's thoughtful approach, conversational tone, and excellent questions is a major contribution to research design and its instruction.While the author is primarily a sociologist of religion, and a practitioner of qualitative research, this easy to read and absorb book which features "the right questions" would be an excellent supplement to the standard experimental design textbook for psychology and the "hard sciences".

A good introduction to research and study design the book is also supported by supplemental online materials and resources. The book is not targeted at those doing hard sciences, but the general principles can he useful for those presenting to a non-technical audience.