Methods News

Welcome to Methods News! Stay up-to-date by reading methods-related news items and blog posts, contribute to Methods News by sending us your article or subscribe to our mailing list to receive monthly updates.

Methods News aims to cover methodological developments in the social sciences and beyond, across all disciplines and sectors. Our articles include news stories from NCRM and its partners, plus updates and features from external organisations and individuals.


Blog
What is facet methodology?

Facet methodology is a creative approach to researching that aims to create insights into our social world. It is an approach developed by a team of …

Blog
Reproducibility: or why science is not alchemy

Contrary to popular understandings, alchemy was not just wacky medieval wizards trying to turn lead into gold or to create a panacea that would allow them …

Blog
When and how to deliberate online

At the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), our Centre for Deliberative Research approaches deliberation as a spectrum of involvement. Each project is different, but …

Blog
To share or not to share: code sharing in social science

In this blog we highlight the benefits and challenges of creating and sharing reusable code.  It is based on a session held at the …

Blog
How we created new research ethics resources that are freely available online

At the end of October 2021, I finished working on a European Commission (EC) research ethics project. The project was called PRO-RES, short for "Promoting integrity …

Blog
Why ethnography?

Ethnography, or participant observation, is a field-based practice based on sharing in our interlocutors’ everyday life with the aim of understanding the world from their perspective. …

Blog
Questionnaire design: avoiding the pitfalls in web survey software

The research community is currently fortunate to have a large number of high-quality web survey software packages. For example, Capterra (sourced 19 December 2021), shows …

Blog
The (non-)probability survey debate explained

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have learned a lot about how the global spread of the virus has impacted people’s lives. Surveys have …