'Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research' offers a practical, how-to guide for designing a mixed methods study. The text incorporates activities and exercises for classroom use or for use by the researcher in preparing designs.

In the revised Fourth Edition of the best-selling text, John W. Creswell and new co-author Cheryl N. Poth explore the philosophical underpinnings, history, and key elements of five qualitative inquiry approaches: narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case study. Preserving Creswell's signature writing style, the authors compare the approaches and relate research designs to each of the traditions of inquiry in a highly accessible manner. Featuring new content, articles, pedagogy, references, and expanded coverage of ethics throughout, the Fourth Edition is an ideal introduction to the theories, strategies, and practices of qualitative inquiry.

Now in its fourth edition, this handbook is an essential resource for those interested in all aspects of qualitative research, and has been extensively revised and updated to cover new topics including applied ethnography, queer theory and auto-ethnography.

In Unstable and Brittle Diabetes, Geoff Gill brings together research on the management of brittle diabetes (or erratic glucose control), which is a controversial area in terms of definition and management and one that creates much debate among diabetologists. This monograph aims to help the diabetologist understand this troublesome condition.

The Fourth Edition of the bestselling Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research offers an easy-to-ready overview of sound focus group practices. Authors Richard A. Krueger & Mary Anne Casey describe how one can set up and conduct quality and effective focus group interviews. The process depicted is unbiased, non-judgmental and is respectful of all views. It is a deliberate and systematic way of listening that is helpful to public and private organizations as they listen to stakeholders, customers, and employees. This book cuts through the theory and gives hand-on advice to those who are seeking to actually conduct a focus group. It is most helpful for conducting focus groups for research or evaluation with public, non-profit, educational, health, human service, and religious organizations. Key Features Offers the latest on telephone and Internet focus groups Provides suggested focus group questions that help students construct quality questions that engage participants and produce dependable and valid results. Gives solid information on organizational focus groups Presents ways on how to recruit participants to the focus group Contains a number of practical tips that actually work. It is written for the person who has to plan, recruit, develop questions, moderate, analyze and report the results. Incorporates icons throughout the book that offer tips, examples, additional resources and others bits of practical information. Intended Audience This book is appropriate for a variety of research methods and evaluation courses in departments such as education, sociology, political science, journalism, business & marketing, public administration, and public health.

Most writing on sociological method has been concerned with how accurate facts can be obtained and how theory can thereby be more rigorously tested. In The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss address the equally Important enterprise of how the discovery of theory from data—systematically obtained and analyzed in social research—can be furthered. The discovery of theory from data—grounded theory—is a major task confronting sociology, for such a theory fits empirical situations, and is understandable to sociologists and laymen alike. Most important, it provides relevant predictions, explanations, interpretations, and applications. In Part I of the book, "Generation Theory by Comparative Analysis," the authors present a strategy whereby sociologists can facilitate the discovery of grounded theory, both substantive and formal. This strategy involves the systematic choice and study of several comparison groups. In Part II, The Flexible Use of Data," the generation of theory from qualitative, especially documentary, and quantitative data Is considered. In Part III, "Implications of Grounded Theory," Glaser and Strauss examine the credibility of grounded theory. The Discovery of Grounded Theory is directed toward improving social scientists' capacity for generating theory that will be relevant to their research. While aimed primarily at sociologists, it will be useful to anyone Interested In studying social phenomena—political, educational, economic, industrial— especially If their studies are based on qualitative data.

The Third Edition presents an approach to qualitative research design that both captures what researchers really do and provides step-by-step support and guidance for those embarking for the first time on designing a qualitative study.

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"Creswell does an excellent job categorizing the various qualitative methods into five approaches: narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case study...The author has expanded on and updated the information he presented in the first edition of the book (Creswell, 1998), including discussion of the various schools of thought that have developed among qualitative researchers since the mid 1990's...Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing among five approaches is a highly informative book; researchers will likely return again and against to the book as they expand their comfort zone within qualitative research." —Peggy M. Delmas, University of Alabama “Creswell has produced an even more outstanding and valuable text for qualitative research than the First Edition.” —Edith King, University of Denver Like the bestselling First Edition, this new version explores the philosophical underpinnings, history, and key elements of each of five qualitative inquiry approaches: narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case study. Using an accessible and engaging writing style, author John W. Creswell compares theoretical frameworks, ways to employ standards of quality, and strategies for writing introductions to studies, collecting data, analyzing data, writing a narrative, and verifying results.

Communication research is evolving and changing in a world of online journals, open-access, and new ways of obtaining data and conducting experiments via the Internet. Although there are generic encyclopedias describing basic social science research methodologies in general, until now there has been no comprehensive A-to-Z reference work exploring methods specific to communication and media studies. Our entries, authored by key figures in the field, focus on special considerations when applied specifically to communication research, accompanied by engaging examples from the literature of communication, journalism, and media studies. Entries cover every step of the research process, from the creative development of research topics and questions to literature reviews, selection of best methods (whether quantitative, qualitative, or mixed) for analyzing research results and publishing research findings, whether in traditional media or via new media outlets. In addition to expected entries covering the basics of theories and methods traditionally used in communication research, other entries discuss important trends influencing the future of that research, including contemporary practical issues students will face in communication professions, the influences of globalization on research, use of new recording technologies in fieldwork, and the challenges and opportunities related to studying online multi-media environments. Email, texting, cellphone video, and blogging are shown not only as topics of research but also as means of collecting and analyzing data. Still other entries delve into considerations of accountability, copyright, confidentiality, data ownership and security, privacy, and other aspects of conducting an ethical research program. Features: 652 signed entries are contained in an authoritative work spanning four volumes available in choice of electronic or print formats. Although organized A-to-Z, front matter includes a Reader’s Guide grouping entries thematically to help students interested in a specific aspect of communication research to more easily locate directly related entries. Back matter includes a Chronology of the development of the field of communication research; a Resource Guide to classic books, journals, and associations; a Glossary introducing the terminology of the field; and a detailed Index. Entries conclude with References/Further Readings and Cross-References to related entries to guide students further in their research journeys. The Index, Reader’s Guide themes, and Cross-References combine to provide robust search-and-browse in the e-version.