Internet Research Methods : A Practical Guide for the Social and Behavioural Sciences

by Claire Hewson

• ISBN13: 9780761959199
• ISBN10: 076195919X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-24
• Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd

Summary

Offering a concise, comprehensive guide to conducting research on the Internet, this book provides a detailed explanation of all the main areas of Internet research. It distinguishes between primary research (using the Internet to recruit participants, to administer the research process and to collect results) and secondary research (using the Internet to access available material online). The book is designed for social science researchers and presents a user-friendly, practical guide that will be invaluable to both students and researchers who wish to incorporate the Internet into their research practice.

Author Biography

Claire Hewson is Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology, Bolton Institute of Higher Education Peter Yule is a Research Fellow in the School of Psychology, Birkbeck College Dianna Laurent is an Instructor, English Department, Southeastern Louisiana University and Director of Training for the Florida Parishes Social Science Research Center Carl Vogel is a Lecturer in the Centre for Computing and Language Studies, Trinity College Dublin

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
List of Figures	viii
List of Abbreviations	ix
Introduction	1	(10)
History of the Internet	4	(1)
Overview of Chapters	5	(6)
What is the Internet?	11	(15)
Subject-Based Discussion Groups	12	(2)
Library Catalogues	14	(2)
Newspapers	16	(1)
Indexes to Periodical Literature	17	(3)
Art Archives	20	(2)
Government Official Databases	22	(2)
Electronic Texts Including Literature	24	(2)
Is the Internet a Viable Research Tool?	26	(30)
Sampling from the Internet User Population	27	(3)
To What Extent is Internet Sampling Problematic?	30	(6)
Internet Sampling Methodologies	36	(6)
Generating Data: Possibilities in Internet-Mediated Research	42	(9)
General Advantages of Internet-Mediated Primary Research: When and Why Would It Be Better to Conduct a Study via the Internet?	51	(1)
Ethical Considerations in Internet-Mediated Research	51	(5)
Equipment for Internet-Based Research	56	(22)
Internet, Intranets, and System Diversity	56	(2)
Basic Requirements	58	(1)
Software Technologies Useful for Research	59	(4)
Using the World Wide Web for Research	63	(12)
Conclusions and Caveats	75	(3)
How to Design and Implement an Internet Survey	78	(28)
Design Issues	78	(8)
Software Procedures for Implementing Internet Surveys	86	(3)
Implementing a WWW Survey	89	(3)
A Simple UNIX Server Script	92	(3)
An ASP-based Windows Server Script	95	(2)
Adding JavaScript to the HTML Form	97	(1)
Getting More Information	98	(1)
Timing Participants	99	(1)
Form Data Validation	100	(2)
Stimulus Randomisation	102	(2)
Conclusion	104	(2)
What Can Go Wrong?	106	(19)
Equipment	107	(6)
Methodology	113	(2)
Netiquette	115	(3)
Hackers	118	(3)
Summary	121	(4)
Case Studies	125	(14)
Case Study 1: Empirical Evidence Regarding the Folk Psychological Concept of Belief	125	(5)
Case Study 2: Decision Making in a Medical Diagnosis Task	130	(3)
Case Study 3: Tandem Language Learning	133	(3)
Lessons to be Learned	136	(3)
Conclusions	139	(7)
References	146	(5)
Index	151