Key Texts: Beginners’ guides to research methods

The following are recommended for those that aren’t familiar with social science research methods.

• BELL, J., 1999. Doing your research project: a guide for first-time researchers in education and social science. 3rd ed. Buckingham: Open University Press.
• CRESWELL, J., 2003. Research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. 2nd ed. London: Sage.
• DENSCOMBE, M., 2007. The good research guide. 3rd ed. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
• HENN, M., WEINSTEIN, M., and FOARD, N., 2006. A short introduction to social research. London: Sage.
• Internet for social research methods tutorial (Accessed 3 November 08). This offers a tour of useful websites about social science research methods.
• MANN, C., and STEWART, F., 2000. Internet communication and qualitative research: A handbook for researching online. London: Sage.
• MASON, J., 2006. Six strategies for mixing methods and linking data in social science research (Accessed 3 November 08).
• TIGHT, M., 2003. Researching higher education. Maidenhead: Open University Press. (This is available through the library as an ebook). The third section of this book is the most useful as it looks at how to research Higher Education: including method, methodology and at the back has a list of Academic Journals in Higher Education.