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Preface

Welcome to the third edition of this book which has been fully updated and revised to include information about technological advances in research methods, useful websites, updated contact details of relevant organisations and a comprehensive list of research councils for postgraduate research funding. This book is a practical, down-to-earth guide for people who wish to conduct research. It is aimed at those new to research and assumes no prior knowledge of the issues covered. It will also appeal to those people who have already conducted some research and who are interested in finding out more about other research methods that are available to them.

For the purpose of this book, research is defined as the deliberate study of other people for the purposes of increasing understanding and/or adding to knowledge.

This deliberate study could cover many different areas. As a researcher, you might be interested in attitudes and behaviour – why do people think in a certain way and why do they behave in a certain way? Or you might be interested in numbers – how many people use a service? Perhaps you need to try to predict how this number of people could be increased so that you can obtain funding for your service. Or you might be fascinated by the personal history of a neighbour and have a burning desire to record her history and pass it on to others. (…)

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