Includes index.

Contents: 1. Shit happens, but you have a job to do! / Keith Townsend and Mark NK Saunders -- 2. Developing research ideas / Bill Lee -- 3. On the path to enlightenment?: reviewing the literature systematically - or not / Céline Rojon -- 4. The master and apprentice: lessons from two PhD supervisors and a recent PhD graduate / Jillian Cavanagh, Hannah Meacham and Timothy Bartram -- 5. "Finders, keepers, losers, weepers!": a doctoral candidate's reality of changing thesis advisors / Polly Black -- 6. Reply all, tweets and social media: technological friends for developing a professional identity that need to be treated with care / Hugh Bainbridge -- 7. Coming up with a research question: opinions, feedback, and networking / Deisi Yunga, -- 8. Finding epistemology / Neve Isaeva -- 9. Bounce back, firewalls and legal threats: reaching respondents using Internet Questionnaires / Mark N.K. Saunders and David E. Gray -- 10. Finding the truth amongst conflicting evidence / Heather Short -- 11. Rolling with the punches / Sharyn Rundle-Thiele, Julia Carins and Christiane Stock -- 12. Access, Involvement and Interference: encounters and experiences of case studies / Kenneth Cafferkey -- 13. Is a pilot necessary? / Polly Black -- 14. The precarious nature of access / Wojciech Marek Kwiatkowski -- 15. The diminishing dissertation: seven cases to three+ / Ashlea Kellner -- 16. So, I guess we're probably finished then / Keith Townsend -- 17. Your incentives are too lucrative: caution in rewarding interview participants / Catheryn Khoo-Lattimore -- 18. Sales skills for researchers / Colin Hughes -- 19. Being flexible in interviews: make sure that you account for power imbalance / Qian Yi Lee -- 20 . " ... just one goat": the importance of interpretation in qualitative data analysis / Keith Townsend and Rebecca Loudoun -- 21. Analysing quantitative data / Sameer Qaiyum and Catherine L. Wang -- 22. When the words just won't come / Dawn C Duke -- 23. I'm a paper person or maybe not? / Ilenia Bregoli -- 24. A mug of stress / Rohit Talwar -- 25. Excuse me... should that comma be there?: dealing with awkward questions. / Kenneth Cafferkey -- 26. Finding the time to progress your research, and the big lie that you are part of! / Jennifer McDermott -- 27. Authorship in action / Kate L. Daunt and Aoife M. McDermott -- 28. "They think I'm stupid": dealing with supervisor feedback / Amanda Lee -- 29. Grasping roses or nettles?: losing and finding ourselves in research projects / Kiran Trehan, Alex Kevill, and Jane Glover -- 30. Using social media to enhance your research / Angelique Gatsinzi -- 31. Organisations, clients and feminists: getting in, coming back and having fun / Marian Baird -- 32. Born to... write, re-write and re-write again / Mark NK Saunders -- 33. "I'm over it.." / Peter J Jordan -- Index.

Textbooks and journal articles on research methods are rarely of help regarding what to do when your research project goes off track. This book addresses this important, and usually hidden, aspect of research by providing students and researchers with insider insights, advice and lessons about the difficulties in the research process. Written by experienced researchers, PhD supervisors and examiners, it should prepare the reader for all that can go wrong when researching a PhD or any large research project. The starting point of each chapter is the acceptance that research projects do not always go smoothly. Researchers must find ways to jump through a myriad of invisible hoops and over a plethora of hurdles of unknown heights to guide their research, from conceptualisation of worthwhile projects to the completion and dissemination to a range of different audiences. The book is divided into four sections: 'getting started', 'getting data', 'getting it together', and 'getting finished'. Each section comprises chapters followed by short vignettes - all of which offer insights into researchers facing real-world problems or not quite getting things right in the first instance. This ground breaking book will give hope to the early-career researcher, the PhD or Masters student, and provide experienced academics with reinvigoration and new perspectives on the research process.

Description based on print record.