You are here

Qualitative Research Practice
Share
Share

Qualitative Research Practice
A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers

Second Edition
Edited by:


January 2014 | 456 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
Why use qualitative methods? What kinds of questions can qualitative methods help you answer? How do you actually do rigorous and reflective qualitative research in the real world?  

Written by a team of leading researchers associated with NatCen Social Research (the National Centre for Social Research) this textbook leads students and researchers through the entire process of qualitative research from beginning to end - moving through design, sampling, data collection, analysis and reporting.   In this fully revised second edition you will find:
  • A practical account of how to carry out qualitative research which recognises a range of current approaches and applications
  • A brand new chapter on ethics
  • A brand new chapter on observational research
  • Updated advice on using software when analysing your qualitative data
  • New case studies which illustrate issues you may encounter and how problems have been tackled by other researchers.  
This book is an ideal guide for students, practitioners and researchers faced with the challenges of doing qualitative research in both applied and academic settings in messy real-life contexts.

Rachel Ormston, Liz Spencer, Matt Barnard, Dawn Snape
The Foundations of Qualitative Research
Jane Ritchie and Rachel Ormston
The Applications of Qualitative Methods to Social Research
Jane Lewis and Carol McNaughton Nicholls
Design Issues
Stephen Webster, Jane Lewis and Ashley Brown
Ethics of Qualitative Research
Jane Ritchie, Jane Lewis, Gilliam Elam, Rosalind Tennant and Nilufer Rahim
Designing and Selecting Samples
Sue Arthur, Martin Mitchell, Jane Lewis and Carol McNaughton Nicholls
Designing Fieldwork
Alice Yeo, Robin Legard, Jill Keegan, Kit Ward, Carol McNaughton Nicholls and Jane Lewis
In-depth Interviews
Helen Finch, Jane Lewis, and Caroline Turley
Focus Groups
Carol McNaughton Nicholls, Lisa Mills and Mehul Kotecha
Observation
Liz Spencer, Jane Ritchie, Rachel Ormston, William O'Connor and Matt Barnard
Analysis: Principles and Processes
 
Traditions and approaches
Liz Spencer, Jane Ritchie, William O'Connor, Gareth Morrell and Rachel Ormston
Analysis in practice
 
Generalisability
Clarissa White, Kandy Woodfield, Jane Ritchie and Rachel Ormston
Writing up qualitative Research

Full of useful and informative chapters that take the students through the key stages within qualitative research.

Professor Margaret Hogg
Department of Marketing, Lancaster University

I think this is an excellent book - whenever students ask for advice on DOING qualitative research (rather than writing essays on it), I reach for this.

Dr Ben Baumberg
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kent

An excellent primer for anyone who is new to qualitative research, and also a very useful reference book for people with more experience.

Helen Kara
SRA Trustee
SRA Research Matters

Quite a wordy text that could benefit from some diagrams and images to lighten the intensity of the content. A few more examples would aid student uptake of the knowledge within.

drupal

Another well-written book on qualitative research.

Dr Alice Lungu
Urban Studies, Copperbelt University
drupal

As emailed to Paula Carneiro on the 1 Ocotober 2014:
\
Dear Paula,
\
My apologies in advance for not responding to your previous email to me. I had every intention to do so, however was caught up with my teaching and research commitments. In addition to the textbook in the email below, two other research books titled Research Methodology by Ranjit Kumar and Introduction to Social Research by Keith Punch have been most useful to my colleagues and students alike who are pursuing their postgraduates studies (PhD and Masters). Seeing that their research work involves a mixed methodology research design, reading these books has enabled them access to, and acquisition of, both qualitative and quantitative research knowledge. They have also reported that the books are written simplistically and this really helps them to grasp core research fundamental principles, particularly with regards to social research an area that they are not familiar with. I will certainly be using these books to supplement the teaching of research to my students, as well as with my own research work.
\
Thanks to SAGE for making these inspection copies available as this further enables me to request additional copies to be ordered through DUT's library.

Dr Anisa Vahed
Dental Sciences, Durban Institute of Technology
drupal

We can but advocate the book to students but since most of our masters students and indeed DMin students work on empirical research they should get this!

Dr Anne Dyer
Postgraduate department, Mattersey Hall
drupal

A comprehensive and accessible resource which will be useful to practitioners and professionals alike who are undertaking qualitiative projects. This book not only provides gudiance on what to do but how to do it with key examples.

Dr Barbara Howard Hunt
Health , Birmingham City Univeristy
drupal

A useful and accessible text for the novice qualitative researcher.
The sciope of the book is broad with many case studies that can illustrate to students the challenges they may face when carrying out qualitative research. I would have liked a chapter which provided some guidance on qualitative systematic reviews but recognise that this is a newly emerging arm of qualitative research and may therfore thought to be oustide of the scope of this publication.

Dr Barbara Howard Hunt
Health , Birmingham City Univeristy
drupal

I have always been a fan of Ritchie & Lewis's practical approach to qualitative research. This book is an updated version of the classic text and is likely to of great value to researchers and students.

Dr Bernadine Brady
School of Political Science and Sociology, NUI, Galway
drupal