Book excerpt: "This is an impressive collection that will form a must-have resource for those undertaking, teaching or studying qualitative research. It is nicely balanced to include practical advice and methodological discussion on a range of issues, including research design, data collection, analytical approaches and the political economy of contemporary qualitative research practice." - Amanda Coffey, Cardiff University The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit is a major event in the world of Research Methods publishing. The kit comprises eight quality volumes that provide practical and accessible advice on how to conduct state-of-the-art qualitative research. This is an ideal toolkit for students and researchers for use in planning and carrying out research in a variety of academic and professional environments. Each short text is written by leading researchers in each field, and provides the reader with a hands-on guide to what it is really like to do qualitative research in the field. Each book cross-references the other books in the kit, making this an invaluable tool for both teaching and for self-learning. Ideal for anyone in the social, health and educational studies fields, this is the perfect all-encompassing and detailed introduction to the practicalities of qualitative research. The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit contains the following titles Designing Qualitative Research Uwe Flick Designing Qualitative Research provides a comprehensive guide to devising an effective research design. Uwe Flick discusses each stage of the process of designing qualitative research in detail, including formulating a research question, selecting an appropriate strategy, conceptual framework and data source, and collecting and analyzing data. 1. What is qualitative research 2. From an idea to a research question 3. Sampling, selecting and Access 4. Qualitative research designs 5. Resources and stepping stones 6. Quality in qualitative research 7. Ethics in qualitative research 8. Verbal data 9. Ethnographic and visual data 10. Analysing qualitative data 11. Designing qualitative research - Some conclusions Doing Interviews Steinar Kvale Interviewing is an invaluable tool for the qualitative researcher. Steinar Kvale provides coverage of both the theoretical background and the practical aspects of the interview process, incorporating discussion of the wide variety of methods in interview based research and the different approaches to reading the data. Consideration is also given to the crucial issue of how to ensure scientific rigor. 1. Introduction to Interview Research 2. Epistemological Issues of Interviewing 3. Ethical Issues of Interviewing 4. Planning an Interview Study 5. Conducting an Interview 6. Interview Variations 7. Interview Quality 8. Transcribing Interviews 9. Analysing Interviews 10. Validation and Generalisation of Interview Knowledge 11. Reporting Interview Knowledge 12. Enhancing Interview Quality Doing Ethnographic and Observational Research Michael Angrosino Doing Ethnographic Research guides the reader through the whole research process, from site selection through the production of a final report, and provides an introduction to the variety of data collection techniques associated with ethnographic research. Illustrative case material is provided throughout to demonstrate how the guidelines set out here translate into real-life research situations. 1. Ethnography and Participant Observation 2. What Kinds of Topics Can Be Effectively and Efficiently Studied by Ethnographic Methods? 3. Selecting a Field Site 4. Data Collection in the Field 5. Focus on Observation 6. Analyzing Ethnographic Data 7. Strategies for Representing Ethnographic Data 8. Ethical Considerations 9. Ethnography for the Twenty-First Century Doing Focus Groups Rosaline Barbour Focus groups are an increasingly popular method for collecting qualitative data in the social sciences. Doing Focus Groups provides practical advice on planning and running such group successfully. Rose Barbour discusses the advantages and limitations of using group discussion and demonstrates effective methods for collecting and analysing data. 1. Introducing Focus Groups 2. Uses and Abuses of Focus Groups 3. Underpinnings of Focus Group Research 4. Research Design 5. Sampling 6. Practicalities of Planning and Running Focus Groups 7. Ethics and Engagement 8. Generating Data 9. Starting to Make Sense of Focus Group Data 10. Analytical Challenges in Focus Group Research Using Visual Data in Qualitative Research Marcus Banks Using Visual Data in Qualitative Research examines the wide range of uses of paintings, photographs, film, drawings and a host of other images in qualitative research. Marcus Banks discusses visual data produced by the researcher, and that produced by those under study, and provides a comprehensive introduction to the practice of visually-orientated research. 1. The place of visual data in social research: a brief history 2. Approaches to studying the visual 3.Visual methods and field research 4. Presenting visual research 5. Conclusion: images and social research Analyzing Qualitative Data Graham Gibbs Analyzing Qualitative Data outlines how to select the most appropriate tool for analysis and provides the reader with an awareness of the various challenges that are unique to interpreting the conceptual and subjective data generated in qualitative research. Graham Gibbs covers preparation of data, coding and categorizing, analyzing biographies and narratives, and discusses the use of computer assisted qualitative data analysis. 1. The Nature of Qualitative Analysis 2. Data preparation 3. Writing 4. Thematic coding and categorizing 5. Analysing biographies and narratives 6. Comparative Analysis 7. Analytic Quality and Ethics 8. Getting started with computer assisted qualitative data analysis 9. Searching and other analytic activities using software 10. Putting it all together Doing Conversation, Discourse and Document Analysis Tim Rapley Doing Conversation, Discourse and Document Analysis demonstrates how language-in-use can be researched, looking at a wide range of sources, including official documents, political debate, casual conversations, interviews and internet chat rooms. The issues that might be faced by those undertaking such research are tackled and practical solutions are explored. 1. Studying discourse 2. Generating an archive 3. Ethics and recording 'data' 4. The practicalities of recording 5. Transcribing audio and video materials 6. Exploring conversations 7. Exploring conversations about and with documents 8. Exploring conversations and discourse: some debates and dilemmas 9. Exploring documents 10. Studying discourse: some closing comments Managing Quality in Qualitative Research Uwe Flick The issue of quality in qualitative research is one that is often neglected. In Managing Quality in Qualitative Research attention is given to the fundamental question of how to define and assess the quality of research. Uwe Flick examines how to distinguish good research from bad research when it comes to teaching, planning, evaluating and publishing qualitative research. 1. How to manage, address and assess the quality of qualitative research 2. Standards, criteria, checklists and guidelines 3. Strategies of managing diversity 4. Concepts of Triangulation 5. Methodological Triangulation in Qualitative Research 6. Triangulation in Ethnography 7. Triangulation of Qualitative and Quantitative Research 8. How to Use Triangulation for managing quality - Practical Issues 9. Quality, Creativity, and Ethics: Different ways to ask the question 10.Managing Quality in qualitative research - a focus on process and transparency