Research How To Guides

All literature reviews should be more than a mere description of the current state of knowledge of an area, and should critically evaluate the theoretical positions and research studies, drawing attention to major debates. In this guide, Margaret Adolphus looks at how to write a literature review in the context of a research-based dissertation or scholarly paper and considers what constitutes a systematic, as opposed to a descriptive, literature review.

Grounded theory (GT) is a method of social research which involves generating theory from empirical data. Originating in sociology, it has become highly popular in management research. This article looks at the key features of GT and at the all-important historical evolution of different GT schools. It also looks at its applications in the various areas of management and LIS research, as well as its misuse.

Ethical issues are assuming increasing importance in research, with most research proposals – even at undergraduate level – needing to be subject to their university's ethics committee and follow a particular code. This guide looks at what constitutes ethics in the context of management and social research, before exploring the various issues that come up throughout the research, from gaining access to an organization to disseminating the results.

This article explores how to make use of a versatile and ingenious research technique – the repertory grid. In the first section an overview of the method is given, in the second it is explained how to set one up, and in the third how to carry out an analysis. Finally, examples of how Emerald authors have used it, together with other sources of help, including software, are given.

Action research has been around for some time and is now an increasingly popular research approach. This article defines and situates it, then looks at how to design a good action research project, how to ensure its validity, and the best vehicles of dissemination. Finally, it looks at some useful sites on action research.

This is a huge topic, worthy of a whole monograph or text book, and we cannot here do more than provide some basic guidelines and tips. What we have also done is to provide some examples of research which has been published in the pages of Emerald journals, in the hope that this may provide inspiration as examples of good practice, or that you may see a particular methodology which you might consider applying to your own research.

Giving a presentation about your research is a very important skill for an academic. You will need to do it when defending your PhD, when outlining your current research at a job interview, when doing a presentation on your research at a conference, and when describing the research which you are hoping that a potential funder will provide funds for you. In these pages we'll focus on the elements of a good presentation about your research for a job interview, conference or to influence a potential funder.

This guide aims to give you some hints and tips for collaborating on research and development projects. It doesn't deal with how to find partners in the first place – we assume you have got that far. It's about the nuts and bolts of the collaborating process.

In this feature, we look at the use of secondary data, that is data that are not collected directly by observation, focus group or surveys. We start with a general look at the research methods associated with secondary data, examine the main types of secondary data and look at how to incorporate secondary data as part of a research design. Finally, where such data exist as part of public or private collections, we consider how to access them.

The questionnaire is one of the most widely used instruments in research in the management sciences; it is also commonly used in business for market research. Effectively used, it is a highly efficient tool for obtaining data of a both structured (i.e. the answers are predetermined) and unstructured (the answers are open to the respondent) nature.

These pages are concerned with what in general terms is considered, from the point of view of rigour, the gold standard of research, the experiment, which is nevertheless something of a Cinderella in the management sciences. We shall look first at what defines the experiment and what qualifies its use in management research, then in more detail at design issues, before exploring various types of experiment.

In this feature, we describe one of the key techniques of qualitative and ethnographic research: the focus group, which is often also referred to as the group interview. We shall here use the former term also to describe the latter, and will look at its main features, at the key tasks of the facilitator, at how to recruit for and organize a focus group, and finally where to go for further information.

This feature provides a general introduction to ethnographic methods of research with a particularly focus on participant observation. Ethnographic methods originate from the social sciences, particular anthropology, and are about immersing yourself in a particular setting (usually in business research a company or other organization) an "hanging out" there to obtain a rich and detailed description.

These pages deal with a very common research technique: the interview. In the main, they concentrate on the interview as a qualitative technique, although personal interviews are also used as a quantitative survey method. They look first at the general features of the interview, then at different types of interview, then at how to stage the interview and frame the questions, and finally (and briefly) at how to analyse, code and present the responses.

This section will point you in the direction of books and websites on statistics. Note that these resources are not reviewed in the formal sense in that we do not attempt to make a qualitative judgement. We indicate the provenance (which should itself give you an idea of their quality) and coverage of websites, and, in the case of books, give bibliographic details and brief descriptions of their approach.

This feature is concerned with the choice of basic statistical analysis tools appropriate for academic research. It does not pretend to be exhaustive, but aims to give broad direction, some definitions, and a starting point for those with little experience of statistical methods. It does not go into any detail of how to apply the various tools, or perform the calculations, as these are best carried out by any of the range of statistical packages available as part of spreadsheet and database programs or as standalone tools.

These pages are concerned with data collection and preliminary analysis methods appropriate for academic research. They do not pretend to be exhaustive, but aim to give broad direction, some definitions, and a starting point for those with little experience of statistical methods.

Qualitative research techniques are becoming more and more important in management and social science research. Careful analysis can ensure the research has a depth not always present in quantitative research, while retaining rigour and validity. This guide covers how the process differs from that for quantitative data, principles of data collection, coding, theory building, use of CAQDAS software, and finally at some of the main techniques and methods used for qualitative analysis, from grounded theory to hermeneutics.

A survey is a structured method for gathering data from a large number of respondents. It is used as a social science research method, by businesses determining the likely success of products, and by pollsters considering the impact of a particular policy or the likely outcome of an election. In these pages we are specifically concerned with the use of surveys as a tool for scholarly research in management-related disciplines, or for those who may use surveys in their business consulting work. We will also be focusing specifically on the design of the survey as a research enterprise.

You have chosen your research topic and refined your research question. Still very much at the planning stage, you must now decide which research techniques to employ. Here we detail the most common – what are they, how are they used and which are most suitable for your particular study?

Because each proposal is unique, there is no one correct way to write one. What follows is a series of pointers, which should be read in conjunction with the particular advice given by the body from whom you are seeking funds.

Applying for research funding is an increasingly complex, time-consuming and competitive business. For those who have entered academic life because they want to extend the frontiers of knowledge, it must be an irksome task.

These pages look at how to prepare a proposal for a research degree, probably but not exclusively a PhD. PhD proposals have particular requirements which differ from those pertaining to other research situations, and they provide both a way of ensuring that the university matches the student's needs, and also a guidance document which will give shape and substance to the ensuing research.

With advice for undergraduate dissertations, PhD and post-PhD research, a well-focused research project with a strong rationale should pass the "so what" test at all stages, including when you are seeking to publish...

Overwhelmed by your research? You can make the process easier by applying the techniques of project management. Here we look at the particular characteristics of research which make it different from other projects, up-front planning and ongoing monitoring, and working with partners and funding bodies.