This is the time of the year when people either make lists of what happened last year or lists of what they think will happen next year. Since my guess may be as good as the next person's, here is my list of the things I think are going to be more popular among social science researchers based in institutions of higher learning. Since I have only 5 trends instead of the more conventional list size of 10, I am also listing 5 'things I wish would become trends.' I created the fortune cookie graphic below using Comic Life 3 to modify a public domain internet photo. 5. Qualitative meta-articles I just mentioned in my last post the "Handbook of methods for synthesizing qualitative research" by Sandelowski and Barroso published way back in 2007. It seems like just about everything that can be meta-analyzed has been, so I expect that it is about the right time for qualitative meta studies to start to become more common. 4. vignette research including factorial survey and conjoint analysisThis is not a new or novel approach. It is of course something I am very personally invested in, but the real reason I think this is going to become more popular is that the Sage Green book on factorial survey by Katrin Auspurg has just been published. There was a conference in Ireland last summer devoted to FS, and Swedish researcher Lisa Wallander has in the past few years published several very clear and comprehensive articles, including a particularly nice review of literature. The biggest issue might be for people figuring out how to create vignettes. I hope to contribute more to that discussion during 2015. 3. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM)This is not the ultimate answer (I think that turned out to be '42') but is a technique that works some of the time when covariance based SEM is less appropriate. I continue to think that complex models, including HLM regression, mediator-moderator models, and multivariate approaches like SEM are the most appropriate methods for social science statistical modeling. More and more people are becoming aware of PLS-SEM, and there are now several software applications for model building. I think 2015 will be the year we will start to see it featured in areas beyond business and marketing research. 2. Mixed qualitative and quantitative research projects This 'trend' emerged several years ago, but I look for it to keep going up during 2015. I personally hope to see some more unique approaches to design and integration. 1. web-Based research softwareIt is no secret that I am a Dedoose user (and fan). I do not have the hours of experience (yet) that I do with some single license purchase programs but I am slowing moving toward nearly exclusive use of Dedoose whenever it makes sense. (I still use MS Word for a lot of first cycle coding.) Program cost, need to update (and update costs) and years of providing Windows-only products (most of the big ones finally have a Mac version - and a shout out to Hyperresearch for never abandoning Mac) gradually soured me on the license purchase products even though I still have current access to more than one. Additionally, for working with people at other institutions, the license purchase software programs rarely make sense. As far as quality differences among programs, it is my experience that people tend to advocate for whichever they were trained on (which tends to be whichever their university had a site license for, and there are some regional patterns in that). I do think there are some performance differences - and I'll go out on a limb and say that NVivo's handling of files may be better in some ways although on the minus side it creates potentially huge project files. What might set one of the big ones (including not just NVivo, but Atlas.ti and MAXQDA) apart in a meaningful way is being the first (after Dedoose) to offer a web-based low cost monthly subscription that works on any platform. But, by that time, Dedoose will be a few years ahead in that race.
I realize I addressed just qualitative software; I think the same thing is going to/is happening with quan/stats software. You can already buy a limited license for some of the popular programs, but it is my understanding that PLS-GUI and SmartPLS will both be web and subscription-based. I expect others to emerge. The big companies should be watching this closely. If you have hung along with me for this long, click on 'read more' and see some trends I'd like to see in 2015.
0 Comments
I am doing some reading and thinking about the process of ‘becoming’ a researcher as well as some additional reading to help fine tune a couple of upcoming conference presentations. Inevitably the comparison between qualitative research/approaches and quantitative research/approaches is discussed or suggested by many authors. I continue to resist either label and consider myself a mixed methods person although I think that a lot of people I know think of me as primarily one or the other depending on the context of our encounters.
More and more, I question the importance of paradigmatic distinctions and definitions because most people I’ve encountered do not think or plan their research using any assumptions, or putting a lot of thought toward issues of truth, reality, or how others view those. Frankly, for a lot of people, mathematical approaches including use inferential and descriptive statistics are just what they use to get a quick answer out of their data. If there was some equally quick and equally (seemingly) decisive way of getting an answer that was considered qualitative, I’m sure a lot of people would have no hesitation about giving it a try. On a side note, I am currently exploring metasynthesis and metasummary (Sandelowski and Barroso, 2007, Springer) and I am intrigued by how it is going to feel to assign effect sizes to qualitative findings. |
AuthorI am Sheryl L. Chatfield, Ph.D, C.T.R.S. I am a member of the faculty in the College of Public Health at Kent State University. I also Co-coordinate the Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research and I am a member of the Design Innovation Team at Kent State. Archives
February 2024
Categories
|