SOC150 Week 3 Reading

research design

the planning process for a scientific study which typically involves a through review of the relevant literature, the formulation of a focused researched and a detailed proposal for the methodological approach that will be used to answer that question

research question

the question a researcher hopes to answer by collecting and analyzing data for an empirical study

working research question

an initial research question that a researcher develops to guide the design of their study and its early phases

conceptualization

the stage of the research process at which researchers explicitly and clearly define the concepts they are using in their study

operationalization

the stage of the research process at which the researcher specifies explicitly and clearly how a concept will be measured

academic literature

the existing scientific studies that relate to a particular phenomenon

curriculum vitae

a document listing a scholar's credentials, research interests, teaching experience, and important publications and presentations (CV)

paper

a write-up of a study that a researcher has conducted

confirmation bias

a natural tendency to interpret data in ways that support, or "confirm," one's existing views, which can lead to flawed research findings that reflect the researcher's personal biases

population of interest

the larger group (of people, organizations, objects, etc.) that a researcher is interested in learning about and that their research question applies to (aka target population)

concept map

a visualization of how concepts relate to one another, which typically includes boxes that represent concepts and arrows that represent relationships (with the direction of the arrows indicating the presumed direction of causality)

empirical questions

questions that have to do with our factual reality and that can be answered through research

normative questions

questions that concern what norms or standards society should have, and whose answers therefore depend on people's moral opinions (research can inform, but no answer, normative questions)

exploratory research

a type of research that examines new areas of inquiry, with the goals of (1) scoping out the magnitude or extent of a particular phenomenon, problem, or behaviour; (2) generating initial ideas of hunches about that phenomenon; or (3) testing the feasibility of undertaking a more extensive study regarding that phenomenon

descriptive research

a type of research directed at making careful observations and generating detailed documentation about a phenomenon of interest

explanatory research

a type of research that seeks explanations of observed behaviours, problems, or other phenomena, seeks answers to "why" and "how" questions

descriptive statistics

calculating statistics (e.g., counts, percentages, means) to summarize the main features of a sample or subsample.

inductive approach

an approach to empirical investigation in which researchers start with a set of observations and use the empirical evidence they gather to create a more general set of propositions about how the world operates (aka induction or inductive analysis)

deductive approach

an approach to empirical investigation in which researchers start with a social theory that they find noteworthy and then test its implications with data (aka deduction or deductive analysis)

empirical generalizations

patterns or regularities identified in the data that a researcher analyzes

grounded theory

an inductive method of generating theory from data by creating categories in which to place data and then looking for relationships among categories

abductive approach

an approach to empirical investigation in which researchers apply a particular theory to the social context they are examining and then look for deviations from that theory (aka abduction or abductive analysis)

literature review

a summary, analysis, and synthesis of the most significant published research on a scholarly topic

control variables

the variables you keep the same in an experiment

mediating variables

variables that describe a pathway by which an independent variables affects a dependent variable (aka casual mechanisms, linking concepts, or mediators)

research problem

a gap in the literature on a topic that scholars who work in that area aim to address with their research

research proposal

the end product of the process of research design for a proposed scientific study, which usually takes the form of a paper that includes a thorough review of the relevant literature, the formulation of a focused research question, and a detailed plan for the methodological approach that will be used to answer that question

review articles

long-form literature reviews that scholars write to synthesize and comment on the existing research on a particular topic of scientific interest

policy briefs

reports written by experts that summarize a particular issue and the recommended policy approaches for dealing with it

peer review

a formal process in which other researchers review a scholarly work to ensure that it meets the standards and expectations of their field

empirical papers

papers that report the results of quantitative or qualitative data analysis conducted by the author, oftentimes with original data collection as well

secondary data

data that other researchers have previously collected

secondary data analysis

analysis of data that has previously been collected by other researchers

theoretical papers

paper that focus on elaborating a conceptual model or framework for understanding a problem rather than discussing data the author has collected or analyzed (aka theory papers)

systematic reviews

a synthesis of past research usually focused on a narrow empirical question

meta-analysis

a common type of systematic review that uses statistical procedures to synthesize the results of many quantitative studies

academic journals

periodical publications that contain scholarly papers focused on the topic or topics that the journal covers

generalist journals

academic journals that publish any noteworthy paper within a broad field

specialist journals

academic journals dedicated to a subfield within the discipline, such as the sociology of education or organizational sociology

impact factor

a rough numerical measure of a journal's influence within the scientific community, which is calculated based on how many citations its articles received, on average, a year or two after publication

digital object identifier (DOI)

permanent, direct link to an article which is included at the end of a periodical reference

refereed journal (peer-reviewed journal)

an academic journal whose papers are vetted through peer review

double-binding

a procedure of keeping identities secret on both sides

monographs

scholarly books that focus on a particular topic

single-blinded

a peer-review process in which the reviewers know who the author or authors are.

edited volume

a book whose chapters are scholarly papers written by various authors

gray literature

research and information produced by nonacademics, including researchers working for government agencies, advocacy organizations polling outfits, and think tanks

trade presses

mainstream commercial presses (as opposed to academic presses) that publish books meant for general audiences

op-eds

commentary pieces published by new outlets

content analysis

a materials-based research method that focuses on texts and their meanings

tertiary sources

publications that summarize secondary sources (wikipedia)

plagiarism

the presentation of someone else's work as your own

mosaic plagiarism

a form of plagiarism in which the author cites the source that they drew ideas or information from, but nevertheless uses a substantial amount of the source's exact wording without explicitly quoting the copied passages

queries

search terms used in a database to find sources

keywords

when searching the scholarly literature on a topic, keywords refer to relevant terms used in a search query

archival searching

expanding the coverage of a literature review by identifying any relevant work that (1) is cited in the sources already gathered (as indicated in their reference lists), or (2) cities those sources (as indicated in scholarly databases)

scope conditions

the conditions under which a relevant theory derived from a study's empirical research can and cannot reasonably be applied (aka boundary conditions)

literature review matrix

a grid, table, or outline that lists all the sources to be included in a literature review, breaking them down by their research questions, methods, samples, key findings, and other characteristics (aka summary table)

signposting

signaling the organization and structure of a paper (or presentation) to its readers (or audience) by stating and reiterating its key points or arguments

thick description

a detailed description of the unfolding of a scene observed first-hand, with particular attention to the subjective and cultural meanings of any behaviours and other aspects of the larger social context

in-depth interviews

face-to-face, phone, or online, conducted with individuals or focus groups

ethnographic observation

A qualitative research method of studying a phenomenon within its social context by doing first-hand observations and providing detailed descriptions

bystander observation

a type of ethnographic observation in which researchers choose not to get involved in the activities or organizations they are studying, typically with the goal of being more impartial in their assessments of what they observe (aka direct observation

participant observation

a type of ethnographic observation where researchers get involved in the activities or organizations they are studying, taking on more or less formal roles as event participants or members of groups

survey

a quantitative method of research (formally called survey research) that involves posing the same set of predetermined questions, typically in a written format, to a sample of individuals.

social network analysis (SNA)

a method for examining the ties linking individuals, groups, or other units and the dynamics and consequences of these structures

experiments

a research method that ideally entails having control and experimental groups that are exactly the same except for the presence of a stimulus or treatment, allowing researchers to rigorously assess whether a change in the corresponding independent variable brings about a change in the dependent variable or variables of interest.

a mixed-methods research design

a research design that uses qualitative and quantitative techniques jointly within a single study (aka mixed methods or a mixed-method approach)

stakeholders

the various individuals or groups with a stake in the outcome of an endeavor.

inference

the process of testing hypotheses based on empirical evidence

falsifiable

the possibility that empirical observations can show a hypothesis generated from a theory to be untrue

causal inference

the process of testing, based on empirical evidence, whether changes in one variable truly cause changes in another variable