When Research Goes Off the Rails: Why It Happens and What You Can Do About It - PDF
نویسندگان: David L. Streiner PhD, Souraya Sidani PhD
خلاصه: Welcome to the wonderful world of research. Actually, as a reader ofthis book, you probably don’t need a welcome; you’re already in it, as aresearcher or a student learning the ins and outs of design, methodology,sampling, statistics, focus groups, and all of the other arcane arts that arenecessary to be successful. As researchers and teachers of research ourselves,for more years than either of us would like to admit, we know about thesethings and how they’re presented, both in the classroom and in publishedpapers. But we also know what’s not told—that research is not a smooth,paved superhighway leading from the idea, to the proposal, through thefunding agency, the execution of the plan, and ending in eventual publica-tion. It’s more like a rutted back road, full of dead ends, potholes, detours,and branching side roads. We also know that highways may be fast andefficient, but they’re boring; the back roads are far more unpredictable andscenic. You never know what you’ll find; sometimes it will be little morethan a nondescript backwater town, but more often than not it will be avista that takes your breath away.There are many textbooks that act as tour books for the superhigh-way, but none that are guides to the back roads; this book is such a guide.It tells what really happens on the bumpy road of research; things you findout about only over a beer in the campus pub with a seasoned researcherwho’s in a melancholy mood. Each of the 42 vignettes describes how acarefully crafted, well-thought-out study has been derailed by Murphy’slaw—“If anything can go wrong, it will.” In a few cases, the chapters areas cathartic as they are educational, with the authors sadly relating howthe derailment was disastrous. What comes through in all of the chapters,though, is ingenuity, flexibility, resourcefulness, and—most of all—thelove of research. Projects may have been derailed, at least for a while, butthe researchers weren’t.