Research methods in information

Research Methods in Information. Edited by Alison Jane Pickard. London, UK: Facet Publishing, 2006. 324 pp. $25.00. (ISBN 0–262–60067–6) As in many professional fields, discussions in information studies often focus on tensions among theory, research, and practice. One aspect of this discourse, perennially, is the (somewhat artificial) researcher/practitioner divide, with its attendant disputes on the role of research-based education in a practical, skills-oriented profession. Articulating the role of research in the profession and the core of the information studies discipline has only been made more problematic by the relative novelty and subsequent proliferation of information as an important subject of study in fields as diverse as anthropology, business, and cognitive science. Furthermore, the multidisciplinary nature of what constitutes “information studies” demands familiarity with a wide array of approaches from history, behavioral and social sciences, and more recently, cultural studies. As a result, the role of research in the curriculum of information professionals often can engender contentious debate. While many texts, some even for information practitioners (e.g., Powell & Connaway, 2004), have addressed these issues, Pickard's awareness of the need for future information professionals to understand both the theory and practice of research, strong examples, and attention to the many research methods available make Research Methods in Information a welcome addition to the genre of research manuals. Many who are in the business of educating professionals would argue that even if practitioners are not expected to conduct research (even though they might very well do so in the context of program evaluation, grant writing, user studies, etc.), the professional always should be an informed consumer of it. As such, the professional ethos demands an informed engagement with the products and processes of scholarship. To these ends, Pickard's work provides a thorough overview of the most common methods information practitioner/researchers (and others in the field) are likely to need or encounter in their work. Although the cover description emphasizes the utility of the book for working professionals in library science, records management, knowledge management, and similar fields, the book is foremost a teaching text, aimed at graduate students in information programs in the United Kingdom (This last point will become germane later in this review.) The book begins by helping the reader conceptualize and begin the research endeavor, choose appropriate methods, analyze data, and present the results. There are several approaches that Pickard takes that make this book useful. She wisely brackets the necessary introduction to the major paradigms of research and their epistemological foundations into one chapter and the development of a theoretical framework into another while focusing the remainder of the book on the specifics of methods. This makes the book more useful than other canonical research manuals that interlace methodology and specific methods with theoretical framing, to the detriment of all. She also avoids regurgitating the by-now dated quantitative/qualitative debate by focusing instead on how each kind of research paradigm can be made stronger and more convincing through the researchers' emphasis on trustworthiness and rigor. Pickard helps the student through the process of thinking through why the research is being conducted. For example, she explains the purpose of a literature review and its multiple roles by walking the student through a concrete exercise in finding literature, assessing its claims, and weaving it into one's own argument. As an instructor who has often been left inarticulate and frustrated while explaining the construction of a literature review to students, I found her exercise extremely useful in surfacing techniques that had long ago become tacit for me. Most of the book is devoted to the explication of specific methods, the kinds of questions that can be answered with them, their strengths and weaknesses, and practical exercises. She makes a point of answering questions that often come up when teaching (e.g., What is the difference between ethnography and case study?) and how she has addressed such questions in her own classroom. The final few chapters of the book are devoted to data analysis and presentation, including software packages for quantitative and qualitative analysis. She focuses on the research dissertation, which perhaps is due to the British professional educational system in which Pickard teaches. An American library school or knowledge management program might demand a capstone or portfolio, which would require different presentation skills. This difference narrows the topic more than necessary; many information professionals will require a different set of presentation skills (e.g., graphs and charts, Powerpoint, and reports) than a research paper. A broader discussion of some of these issues and inclusion of some sources in the bibliography (Edward Tufte's work on data presentation and information design comes to mind.) would have been helpful. Pickard includes a brief, but important, section on research ethics. Readers outside of the British university system should remember that British research governance is not controlled by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) in the same way that American and Canadian universities are, and thus there is no discussion of the topic. Nevertheless, the discussion of ethics would have been strengthened enormously by more discussion of Great Britain's system of Research Ethics Committees and other considerations of institutional review (which are in flux as of this writing), even if students are not necessarily required to go through such review for their research. This systemic cultural difference appears in other guises in this chapter, such as in the discussion on informed consent; the British model is based on different underlying principles than those of the American system of informed consent (Beauchamp & Childress, 1973). Of course, research ethics is a vast subject, and there is only so much room for discussion. Thus, Pickard emphasizes those topics that will be of particular interest to students—protection of participants and data handling—but does not discuss misconduct in the collection and dissemination of data, data sharing, and authorship. Instructors outside the United Kingdom who use this text might want to supplement their discussion of research ethics with readings suited to their particular legal and institutional frameworks. A brief mention is made of some of the ethical questions raised by online research, but this subject should have been covered far more extensively. This brings up the largest weakness in the book, and it is a glaring one: the relative lack of attention paid to Web-based and other online methods. While brief mention is made of “virtual ethnography,” online focus groups, and online questionnaires, Pickard glosses over many of the issues that arise for both ethics and research reliability. For example, a number of studies have indicated that there may be differences in response rates and other indicators of research reliability between online and offline surveys (Couper, 2000; Yun & Trumbo, 2000). Information professionals also may be interested in exploring the use of social networking sites, virtual reality, and gaming environments; these are not mentioned. Unfortunately, these omissions already date the book. Despite these shortcomings, Pickard's book provides an accessible and practical manual for students (perhaps more so than for working professionals). The exercises and examples reinforce learning while the extensive bibliography invites the interested reader to further explore topics. Even experienced researchers will find this manual a useful reference.

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