Research Skills Centre

Researching and developing your own project requires developing a new set of skills. With such a range of methods to come to terms with and understand, it is likely that any additional help is welcome. This skills centre is designed to help provide additional support to ensure that you can get the most out of your research project.

The centre is divided into 3 sub-sections: templates, bonus chapters and Student Researcher. The former is designed to provide you with some suggested starting points for certain methods, for example questionnaires and surveys. These will obviously not fit the project you are likely to be undertaking, but they are provided to give you ideas and suggestions to help with your own project. The bonus chapters are provided from our excellent range of Open University Press research titles. Finally, the Student as Researcher guide is an extra supplement, to help you get started conducting your own research project.

Templates

These are a couple of templates to give you some ideas when planning your own research projects.

Questionnaire 1

Questionnaire Template 1 (70.0K)

Questionnaire 2

Questionnaire Template 2 (73.0K)

Bonus Chapters

The chapters are designed to help you to polish up two key skills that are required for good business research - Interviewing and Observation.

The first is a chapter called 'Planning and Conducting Interviews' from Judith Bell's book Doing your Research Project, 5e. To download this free chapter, click on the link below:

Planning and Conducting Interviews (98.0K)

About Doing your Research Project, 5e:

This book is an invaluable resource for anyone carrying out a research project.

We all learn to do research by actually doing it, but a great deal of time and effort can be wasted and goodwill lost by inadequate preparation. This book provides first-time researchers with the tools to do the job to help them avoid some of the pitfalls and time-wasting false trails and to establish good research habits. It takes researchers from the stage of choosing a topic through to the production of a well-planned, methodologically sound, and well-written final report or thesis on time. It is written in plain English and makes no assumptions about previous knowledge.

This book is a guide to good practice for beginner researchers in any discipline embarking on undergraduate or postgraduate study, and for professionals in fields such as social science, education and health. To purchase this text go to http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335235824.html

The second chapter, 'Observation', is from Martyn Denscombe's The Good Research Guide, 4e.

To download this free chapter, click on the link below.

Observation (99.0K)

More about The Good Research Guide, 4e:

As a best-selling introductory book on the basics of social research, The Good Research Guide provides an accessible yet comprehensive introduction to the main approaches to social research and the methods most commonly used by researchers in the social sciences.

Written for anyone undertaking a small-scale research project, either as part of an academic course or as part of their professional development, this book provides:

• A clear, straightforward introduction to data collection methods and data analysis.
• Explanations of the key decisions researchers need to take, with practical advice on how to make appropriate decisions.
• Essential checklists to guide good practice.

This book is perfect for the first-time researcher looking for guidance on the issues they should consider and traps they should avoid when embarking on a social research project.

To purchase this text go to http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335241387.html

Open University Press publishes a variety of study skills books to help you with your research project, and also to get you through revision, exams, essays and more! Packed with practical and easy-to-implement advice, whatever your study needs, you will find a book to help you!

Go to www.openup.co.uk/studyskills for a host of resources, including hints and tips, special offers and links to all our study skills books.

Student as Researcher

Below, a useful ten step research guide is provided to help you approach a research project. Each step can be downloaded individually and there is also a data file associated with step eight.

Step One - Think Like a Scientist (50.0K)

Step Two - Choose a Research Question (41.0K)

Step Three - Generate a Research Hypothesis (38.0K)

Step Four - Form Operational Definitions (39.0K)

Step Five - Choose a Research Design (77.0K)

Step Six - Evaluate the Ethics (36.0K)

Step Seven - Collect Data (48.0K)

Step Eight - Analyse Data and Form Conclusions (105.0K)

Step Nine - Report Research Results (40.0K)

Step Ten - Take the Next Subject (31.0K)

You can download the data associated with step eight as either an SPSS file Data Primer Ch08.sav (15.0K) or an Excel file Data Primer Ch08 (60.0K)