This paper has a marked practical aspect. We wish to encourage and facilitate the use of Q methodology amongst psychologists interested in qualitative research. The paper duly answers a number of pertinent ‘how to do Q’ questions. Yet our primary intention is not to produce an exhaustive ‘how to do Q’ guide. In discussing issues of theory, method and interpretation in Q methodology, the main ai...

The prediction of extreme crest elevations is fundamental to the design of marine structures, irrespective of whether they are intended for deep-water offshore locations or shallow-water coastal locations. In undertaking design extreme crest elevations, specified in terms of either a 1 in 100 year or 1 in 10,000 year event, are relevant to both the overall geometry of the structure, particularl...

We seek to quantify both the classification performance and estimation error robustness of the authors’ tomographic classifier fusion methodology by contrasting it in field tests and model scenarios with the sum and product classifier fusion methodologies. In particular, we seek to confirm that the tomographic methodology represents a generally optimal strategy across the entire range of proble...

To probe how ‘good minds’ think, I asked 16 CEOs who ran (or had been running until recently) successful oil and gas companies to read a realistic decision scenario which presented three strategic alternatives: to invest in a new technology, to explore in the Arctic in a joint venture, or to acquire another oil company. The chief executives were then asked to think out loud how they would decid...

In an editorial in a previous issue of this journal Rapport et al introduced the metaphor of the edgelands, arguing that the area between urban and rural landscapes serves to illustrate some of the difficulties of interdisciplinarity experienced by those who work in the medical humanities. In this paper the authors explore some specific issues of qualitative research methodology in health care ...

Healthcare managers, clinical researchers and individual patients (and their physicians) manage variation differently to achieve different ends. First, managers are primarily concerned with the performance of care processes over time. Their time horizon is relatively short, and the improvements they are concerned with are pragmatic and 'holistic.' Their goal is to create processes that are stab...