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When Research Goes Off the Rails: Why It Happens and What You Can Do About It
Few behavioral or health science studies proceed seamlessly. This refreshingly candid guide presents firsthand vignettes of obstacles on the bumpy road of research and offers feasible, easy-to-implement solutions. Contributors from a range of disciplines describe real-world problems at each stage of a quantitative or qualitative research project―from gaining review board approval to collecting and analyzing data―and discuss how these problems were resolved. A detailed summary chart helps readers quickly find material on specific issues, methods, and settings. Written with clarity and wit, the vignettes provide exemplars of critical thinking that researchers can apply when developing the operational plan of a study or when facing practical difficulties in a particular research phase.
Winner-- American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award!
Winner-- American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award!
398 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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11 people want to read
About the author
David L. Streiner
16 books3 followersDr. Streiner was trained in Clinical Psychology, and received his Ph.D. in 1968 from Syracuse University . He joined the Psychiatry Department of McMaster University upon graduation.
His primary research interests are, broadly speaking, the psychological effects of medical disorders and treatments, and applying psychological ways of thinking to other areas. Most important, on-going research, though, is exploring the relative merits of oak versus rock maple for making furniture and kids' toys.
His primary research interests are, broadly speaking, the psychological effects of medical disorders and treatments, and applying psychological ways of thinking to other areas. Most important, on-going research, though, is exploring the relative merits of oak versus rock maple for making furniture and kids' toys.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 14, 2011
Collection of contributions by social science researchers, mostly Canadian, telling horror stories from their research careers, what they learned from them, and how the problems could be ameliorated or could have been averted.
Maybe because the contributors varied a great deal in research experience, the problems ranged from subtle/technical [what happens to statistical conclusion validity if you in your role as biostatistician for a clinical trial are pressured to conduct and report multiple interim analyses.....] to commonsensical (our no-show rate for assessments declined after we started making reminder calls) to frustrating but pretty typical and predictable delays/hassles (many of the researchers conducted studies in schools, and come to find out that school systems are sluggish bureaucracies requiring many layers of approval for outside projects).
A few chapters (esp. the one on data management, and some of the ones pertaining to conducting online surveys) could stand alone as useful supplementary readings for research methods courses. All told, though, as just a book to read straight through I found it disappointing. The marketing made it sound like it would be funny, perhaps cathartic, in showing the behind-the-scenes realities of conducting research. But with one or two exceptions (notably a chapter on incredible delays incurred while trying to conduct a publicly funded placebo-controlled drug trial) it wasn't funny or particularly affecting.
As a backseat driver, I'd say the angle they missed was the interpersonal. There's a chapter on collaboration, but it just turns out to mean collaboration from agencies who are not actually partners in the research but had to facilitate the investigator's work. And some of the other chapters touch on difficulties with co-workers, but it was usually just simple miscommunications such as failing to train interview coders adequately. I think there is a much more interesting book waiting to be edited on horror stories associated with interpersonal difficulties experienced in collaborating with other investigators.
Maybe because the contributors varied a great deal in research experience, the problems ranged from subtle/technical [what happens to statistical conclusion validity if you in your role as biostatistician for a clinical trial are pressured to conduct and report multiple interim analyses.....] to commonsensical (our no-show rate for assessments declined after we started making reminder calls) to frustrating but pretty typical and predictable delays/hassles (many of the researchers conducted studies in schools, and come to find out that school systems are sluggish bureaucracies requiring many layers of approval for outside projects).
A few chapters (esp. the one on data management, and some of the ones pertaining to conducting online surveys) could stand alone as useful supplementary readings for research methods courses. All told, though, as just a book to read straight through I found it disappointing. The marketing made it sound like it would be funny, perhaps cathartic, in showing the behind-the-scenes realities of conducting research. But with one or two exceptions (notably a chapter on incredible delays incurred while trying to conduct a publicly funded placebo-controlled drug trial) it wasn't funny or particularly affecting.
As a backseat driver, I'd say the angle they missed was the interpersonal. There's a chapter on collaboration, but it just turns out to mean collaboration from agencies who are not actually partners in the research but had to facilitate the investigator's work. And some of the other chapters touch on difficulties with co-workers, but it was usually just simple miscommunications such as failing to train interview coders adequately. I think there is a much more interesting book waiting to be edited on horror stories associated with interpersonal difficulties experienced in collaborating with other investigators.
November 30, 2012
This is an interesting read that will be useful to researchers who are just starting out. Although not all chapter are equally interesting, there's much to be learned from this book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews