Research Resources

This page started as a Research Methods hub but over recent years has also had many links added which could be described as "The Research Environment". It's a useful collection for me so I thought others might also find some resources of interest.

Research Methods resources on this Website

Qualitative Research Methods

Qualitative Methods: Conducting an Interview

Statistical Analysis

Study Skills - Academic Reading, Writing etc

Research Ethics

• The Research Ethics Guidebook - [www] 

• Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2001). Principles of biomedical ethics. Oxford university press. [google books] 

• http://research-ethics.net/ - a great collection of resources for use in the teaching of ethical research 

• Medical Research Council (2012) MRC Ethics Series: Good Research Practice, Principles andGuidance

• Economic and Social Research Council Framework for Research Ethics

• Do I need NHS REC approval?

• Bracken-Roche, D., Bell, E., Macdonald, M. E., & Racine, E. (2017). The concept of ‘vulnerability’ in research ethics: an in-depth analysis of policies and guidelines. Health research policy and systems, 15(1), 8.  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-017-0186-8 

• Luna, F., & Vanderpoel, S. (2013). Not the usual suspects: addressing layers of vulnerability. Bioethics, 27(6), 325-332. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12035     

Conducting Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses

• Gough, D., Oliver, S., & Thomas, J. (2012). An introduction to systematic reviews. Sage Publications. 

• Centre for Reviews and Dissemination - Guidance for undertaking reviews in healthcare

• Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions [www] 

• PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) website

• A teaching resource from University of Strathclyde on Systematic Reviews [www]

• Systematic Reviewer Software: EPPI [EPPI on youtube] 

• A critique of a meta-analysis by James Coyne [www] 

• Excel spreadsheets for conducting systematic reviews [www] 

• Gucciardi, D. F., Lines, R. L., & Ntoumanis, N. (2021). Handling effect size dependency in meta-analysis. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2021.1946835 

Evaluation as Research

Adams, J., & Neville, S. (2020). Program Evaluation for Health Professionals: What It Is, What It Isn’t and How to Do It. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, 1609406920964345. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1609406920964345 

Recommended Journal Articles

Caldwell, A., Vigotsky, A. D., Nuckols, G., Boardley, I., Schmidt, J., Tenan, M., … Halperin, I. (2019, January 3). Moving Sport and Exercise Science Forward: A Call for the Adoption of More Transparent Research Practices. https://doi.org/10.31236/osf.io/fxe7a  

Gray, K., & Wegner, D. M. (2013). Six guidelines for interesting research. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(5), 549-553. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613497967 

Imenda, S. (2014). Is there a conceptual difference between theoretical and conceptual frameworks?. Journal of Social Sciences, 38(2), 185-195. https://doi.org/10.1080/09718923.2014.11893249 

Ioannidis, J. P. (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PLoS medicine, 2(8), e124. 

Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251), aac4716. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/349/6251/aac4716 

Cole, G. D., Shun-Shin, M. J., Nowbar, A. N., Buell, K. G., Al-Mayahi, F., Zargaran, D., ... & Francis, D. P. (2015). Difficulty in detecting discrepancies in a clinical trial report: 260-reader evaluation. International journal of epidemiology, 44(3), 862-869. 

Sand‐Jensen, K. (2007). How to write consistently boring scientific literature. Oikos, 116(5), 723-727. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0030-1299.2007.15674.x 

Scheel, A. M., Tiokhin, L., Isager, P. M., & Lakens, D. (2020). Why hypothesis testers should spend less time testing hypotheses. Perspectives on Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1745691620966795 

Recommended Textbooks

• Hart, C. (2018). Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Research Imagination. Sage. 

• Furseth, I., & Everett, E. L. (2013). Doing your master's dissertation: from start to finish. Sage. 

• Hall, S. & Getchell, N. (2014) Research Methods in Kinesiology and Health Sciences. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins

• Berg, K. E., & Latin, R.W.(2008). Essentials of research methods in health, physical education, exercise science, and recreation (3rd Ed). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins [google books]

• Evans,I., Thornton, H. and Chalmers, I. (2010 ) Testing Treatments: Better research for better healthcare. Pinter & Martin Limited [full text]

• Gallagher, K. (Ed.). (2008). The methodological dilemma: Creative, critical and collaborative approaches to qualitative research. Routledge.[google books]

• Salkind, N. J. (2011). 100 Questions (and Answers) about Research Methods. London: Sage. [google books]

• Edwards, R., & Holland, J. (2013). What is qualitative interviewing?. A&C Black.[full text]

• National Health Service (2006) Research Governance Framework for Health & Social Care (2nd Ed) [full text]

• Creswell, J. W. (2012). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. London: Sage 

• Pawson, R. and Tilley, N. (2004) Realist Evaluation [full text]

• Silverman, D. (2013). Doing qualitative research: A practical handbook. London: Sage

• Taylor, B. and Francis, K. (2013) Qualitative Research in the Health Sciences London: Routledge

• How to use an interview as a method of qualitative research [click here]

• Office of Behavior and Social Science Research - e-Source online textbook

• The National Centre for Research Methods - [www resources]

• Steele, J. (2024) Foundations of Scientific Research in the Sport and Exercise Sciences https://doi.org/10.51224/SRXIV.366 [ch 1 of emerging online textbook, Jan 2024]

Recommended Resources

• Author Hub - https://www.research4life.org/training/authors-hub/ 

• Critical Appraisal Checklists from The Joanna Briggs Institute - https://joannabriggs.org/ebp/critical_appraisal_tools 

• Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) - https://casp-uk.net/ 

• MethodSpace - www.methodspace.com/ 

• Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) - http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/Introduction/researchers.php 

• National Centre for Research Methods - www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/ 

• www.patthomson.wordpress.com - research education, academic writing, public engagement, funding, other eccentricities.

• www.thesiswhisperer.com - just like the horse whisperer but with more pages

• www.theresearchwhisperer.wordpress.com - just like the thesiswhisperer but with more money

• Fryer, T. (2020) A short guide to ontology and epistemology: why everyone should be a critical realist. https://tfryer.com/ontology-guide/ 

• Jamieson, M. K., Govaart, G. H., & Pownall, M. (2022, February 23). Reflexivity in Quantitative Research: a Rationale and Beginner’s Guide. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xvrhm 

• Lakens, D. (2021, January 4). Sample Size Justification. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/9d3yf   

• Gehlbach, H., & Artino Jr, A. R. (2018). The survey checklist (manifesto). Academic Medicine, 93(3), 360-366. 

• Evans, I., Thornton, H., Chalmers, I., & Glasziou, P. (2011). Testing treatments: better research for better healthcare. Pinter & Martin Publishers.Testing Treatments website 

• The EQUATOR NETWORK - www.equator-network.org - Enhancing the Quality and transparency of health research

• ResearchProfessional website

• Getting the best from IRAS

• The 7 skills that students must have for the future (from edudemic)

• Medical research in Plymouth - http://www.medicalresearchplymouth.org.uk/index.html 

• Getting published - click here for an elsevier presentation

• www.badscience.net - Ben Goldacre's site to accompany the book of the same name.

• The James Lind Library - Thoughts on reviewing treatments in healthcare

• Outlining and organising your research - Macademise article

• How to Review a Paper - Science Magazine (Sept, 2016)

• Seals, D.R. and Tanaka (2000) Manuscript peer review: a helpful checklist for students and novice referees. Advan in Physiol Edu 23:S52-58 [full text]

• Presentations from the Early Career Workshop at ISPAH 2016, Bangkok

• Convening and Attending Conferences - from Research to Action

• www.timeshighereducation.co.uk

• Mojarad, S. [@Sarah_Mojarad]. (2020, February 14). To the person attending an academic conference for the first time: Hi, hello! Remember you’re at the meeting to learn AND to network. Don’t know how to network? Too afraid to network? [thread] https://twitter.com/Sarah_Mojarad/status/1228554917490520067?s=20   

• Johnson, A. C., & Sumpter, J. P. (2018). How to be a Better Scientist: Researching with impact. Routledge.

• An OpenSource Research Methods Course on Canvas - https://canvas.pitt.edu/courses/124970 - See this tweet. 

Exercise, Sport Science and Research

Bishop, D. (2008). An applied research model for the sport sciences. Sports Medicine, 38(3), 253-263. https://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/00007256-200838030-00005

Drust, B., & Green, M. (2013). Science and football: evaluating the influence of science on performance. Journal of Sports Sciences, 31(13), 1377-1382. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02640414.2013.828544 

Podcasts

Follow on twitter

@researchwhisper 

@ThomsonPat 

Related Content on this website

Study Skills