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

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

Table 2 – The Sage Catalogue

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)

Data-set Non-empirical Qualitative Mixed Q. & Q. QuantitativeMainstream

Journals37.7 40.6 7.4 14.3

BSA Conference

35.5 47.1 6.9 10.8

WES

4.3 40.4 17.0 38.3

Table 2 Mainstream UK Sociology Journals output 2004/5

Table 3 Sociology undergraduate attitudes toward research methods

Agree Disagree Not

Sure N=

I enjoy learning about surveys

43.2 40.4 16.4 681

Learning Statistics makes me feel anxious

52.6 38.2 9.2 683

I didn’t expect to have to do so much number work

44.7 45.8 9.5 683

I don’t think sociology students should have to study statistics

17.6 69.5 12.9 682

Using statistics detaches you from your research topic

23.1 58.3 18.6 683

I’d rather write an essay than analyse data

65.0 18.9 16.1 683

Qualitative methods tell us more about the social world

53.2 19.0 27.8 680

On the whole you can’t trust statistics

29.4 38.2 32.4 685

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