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Ten Years of Research Methods
Publishing
Malcolm Williams
University of Plymouth
Reflections, Observations and
speculations……..
• Reflections: The last ten years and
before…..
• Observations: Producers and
consumers
• Speculations: Are we better
researchers?
Reflections
• Context: Huge growth in number of text
books / monographs in methods/
methodology in last ten years.
• What it was like in the old days?
• What it is like now?
• Range of methods published as books
Table 1)
• Journal publishing
Table 2 – The Sage Catalogue
Author Location
Quant
Qual
Mixed/ N/A
Sample total
US/ Canada
15
10
5
30
Europe
1
4
0
5
Other
0
1
1
2
total
16
15
6
37
Quant
Qual
Mixed/N/A
total
2006- 8
30.7
44.6
24.6
215
2002 -3
45.4
32.9
21.6
88
1997 -8
38.2
45.6
16.2
68
IJSRM – The Growth of a Journal
• International Journal of Social Research
Methodology first published 1997
• 253 papers published by end 2007
• In 1998: 22 papers, no international authors
and 1 ‘quants’ paper
• In 2007: 25 papers, 11 international and 9
quants.
• Mainly academic papers
IJSRM
• ‘absence of any forum for methods
discussion in the UK, other than quantitative’
• Dedicated methodological space are able to
take a reflexive approach
• Social research, not substantively/
disciplinary based (successful)
• Relevant to all social sectors (less successful)
MI Online – the new kid on the
block
• Methodological Innovations Online. First
published 2006. 2 issues a year (plus ‘specials’).
Open access
• Focuses on methodological problems/
innovations
• Works with early career researchers
• Aimed to span all social sciences & connections
with natural sciences/ humanities, but still
predominantly ‘sociological’
Observations
• Growth in UK student numbers (&
demand for methods education) in
social science/ humanities.
• UK. Two key audiences. Students and
teachers/ researchers.
• The role of ‘benchmarking’ / ESRC.
• The role of technology in methods
accessibility.
Observations
• Growth in UK student numbers in social science/
humanities.
• The US/ Europe divide. (crudely) US statistical
analysis techniques. Europe qualitative methods
• A quants crisis? Methods and social science
output (evidence from sociology. Table 2)
• A quants crisis? Methods and student attitudes
(more evidence from sociology. Table 3)
Table 2 Mainstream UK Sociology Journals output
2004/5
Data-set
Mainstream
Journals
BSA
Conference
WES
Non-empirical
37.7
Qualitative
40.6
Mixed Q. & Q. Quantitative
7.4
14.3
35.5
47.1
6.9
10.8
4.3
40.4
17.0
38.3
Table 3 Sociology undergraduate
attitudes toward research methods
I enjoy learning about
surveys
Learning Statistics makes me
feel anxious
I didn’t expect to have to do
so much number work
I don’t think sociology
students should have to study
statistics
Using statistics detaches you
from your research topic
I’d rather write an essay than
analyse data
Qualitative methods tell us
more about the social world
On the whole you can’t trust
statistics
Agree
Disagree
N=
40.4
Not
Sure
16.4
43.2
52.6
38.2
9.2
683
44.7
45.8
9.5
683
17.6
69.5
12.9
682
23.1
58.3
18.6
683
65.0
18.9
16.1
683
53.2
19.0
27.8
680
29.4
38.2
32.4
685
681
Conclusions andSpeculations
• Publishing and methods. The causal direction?
• How good is what is published. Has quantity
produced quality?
• Are our students driving the publishing market?
• Has the ‘cultural turn’ (in Europe) deskilled
social research methods? When method
became an ‘ology’
• Market research methods – the people next
door
• Futurology