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:ID: c2dd10e4-debc-4463-a735-60c66644c4ba
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#+title: 2016-12-15

* Research Design, Ethics and Practice Assignment :academia:UoN:@personal:
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:CREATED: [2016-12-15 Thu 21:12]
:MODIFIED: [2016-12-15 Thu 21:22]
:IMPORTED: [2023-02-08 Wed 19:22]
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You have to discuss a published social science article that reports empirical research. Thus not a purely theoretical or normative article, but one that reports data and data analysis in an effort to answer a particular empirical question. The article can be qualitative or quantitative or a mix of methods, just as long as it reports the use of empirical data.

You are free to select this reported study yourself, and it would make sense to derive it from the body of published work that is available in your own field of social research

Structure

You are required to write a short ‘review’ of the chosen publication in which you discuss three things.

First, and briefly you introduce the article by an analytical summary that contains the research questions (which may be explicit or implicit) and, in as few words as possible, the approach and design used to answer those questions.

Second, you discuss the publication in terms of the four kinds of validity distinguished (analytical validity; internal validity; construct validity; and external validity). Here you will be expected to talk about such things as, sampling, access, data, ethics, etc. all of which are related to issues of validity.

Third, you discuss how the research question addressed by the author(s) of that study might be addressed with a different research design

Content

Your report should discuss weak and strong aspects of the selected article in relation to the four forms of validity distinguished.

This involves identifying what the author does exceptionally well to strengthen the validity of her/his work, as well as what (s)he leaves unattended as potential threats to validity for this particular study. You have also to point out where in the article these good or poor aspects can be found (e.g., p.21, paragraph 3, etc.).

In addition to identifying these good/poor aspects, you have to explicate why they matter for this particular study. You do not have to indicate what the ‘solution’ is for each of the problems you identify, but you have to indicate why that potential threat is relevant for the chosen project (not all the potential threats listed in SCC, KKV and in the slides are relevant for each study).

Focus on major problems

Please focus on major problems and explain clearly why they are problems for the findings and conclusions of this study, what the threat is to which kind of validity, how the author has ‘solved’ the problem (if at all), and which conclusions are potentially affected by it.

If you feel that there are no problems at all from the perspective of a particular kind of validity, you may state that as well, but please elaborate the grounds for that evaluation.

Solutions

In the last part of your essay you have to address the same research question as the authors in the study you chose (and which you have already identified and summarised in the first part) in the form of a different research design.

Sometimes the research question is implicit, in which case you have to first explicate it. Your alternative design has to address the same question, not another one! Moreover, the alternative design should not require more resources than the author of the article had to his/her disposal.

Clearly describe the design that you propose as an alternative, and also what the strengths and weaknesses of that design are for the various kinds of validity.
