Part I Reading , Reviewing and Reflecting

This part of the book is designed to provide a reference point to reading Parts II to VIII. The Introduction to this book is a ‘must read’ (unlike in many other books) because it answers key questions like, What is special about this book? How is the book as a whole organized? and How are the chapters organized? Coming immediately after the Introduction, Part I includes three chapters that provide essential information for every social science researcher. The first chapter gives a readable but scholarly introduction to the history and development of social science research, including a general overview and six sub-sections focused on individual disciplines. As well as the ‘core’ disciplines of psychology and sociology, these include education, health, social work and business/management. This is followed by a chapter on Literature Reviewing which places this daunting task – often the first that a new researcher embarks upon – in the context of mapping the field, and learning to identify the core texts in the area and engage in debate with them. This chapter provides examples of literature review draft texts and tracks their improvement after dialogue between graduate student and tutor. Rather than presenting literature reviewing as a monolith, the authors suggest that it can become identity work that moves a new researcher from the position of novice to that of an authority capable of working with texts reflexively. The third chapter, on Ethical Issues in Generating Public Knowledge, should be read alongside whatever other chapters from Parts II – VIII readers choose as their special focus. All research methods and methodologies have ethical implications which have an impact on the quality of research data (e.g. interviewees are strongly influenced in what they say by the extent to which they trust the interviewer). In addition, these matters are covered by legislation, in most countries, with the result that seeking approval from an IRB (institutional review board) or ethics committee may be one of the first formal tasks that new researchers are asked to undertake.