1,721,078 research outputs found
Writing your thesis.
Full text linkIntroduction, Post-positivist approaches to research, Sourcing information for your thesis
Sources for a politicised practice of women's personal development education
Full text linkIn this chapter I argue that, in the drive to subvert the gender status quo and bring about gender justice, women's personal development education should not be abandoned. It should, however, be reconstituted and radically politicised, by taking on board feminist poststructuralist insights about the human subject and the social world. Such insights challenge the liberal humanist models of the person which dominate most approaches to adult education, including women's personal development education In turn, these models have much in common with mainstream psychology. In attending to the personal, we need to recognise the restrictive nature of the dominant frameworks which shape our thinking about the personal and the emotional
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Post-Positivist Approaches to Research
Full text linkThis chapter outlines the philosophical thinking behind this book. Take your time reading it and don't be put off if you encounter words and terms that are unfamiliar to you. These terms will become clearer as you read on. The chapter outlines the background and assumptions for many of the techniques and suggestions put forward in later chapters. Without some knowledge of philosophy or context, technique can become an empty process. Philosophy provides principles that can act as a guide when procedural advice does not address a particular issue. You might like to read this chapter at the start of your thesis process, But it is likely that you will dip into it from time to time, as certain questions arise out of the process of researching and writing the thesis.
In this chapter, we briefly examine positivist ideas about research: what they are, where they come from, why they dominate the general view of research and why there is a need to move beyond their limitations. We go on to discuss the alternatives that exists for doing social research, which are associated with the post-positivist stance
Doing a Review of Literature
Full text linkA Literature review is an in-depth examination of the significant material in books, journals and other sources relating to your topic. The aim is to explore what is already known on the topic and to introduce the main thinkers/writers in the area. A review helps you and your readers to acquire an understanding of your topic. It sets the scene for your research, placing your research question in context. The review is therefore a part of your academic development - of becoming expert on your topic. It is usually presented at the beginning of a thesis, after the introduction, and generally takes up about a third to a half of the word allocation of the thesis. In short theses this will probably be just one chapter, but in longer theses, the literature review runs to two, even three chapters. The best way to see how it is done is to look at other theses, which can be consulted in the university library
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Methodology: Analysing Qualitative Data and Writing up your Findings
Full text linkYou have collected data or sourced it in documents. Now that you have it, you need to analyse it in order to produce findings. Much of what we offer in the way of practicalities in this chapter could be characterised as strategies for analysis, rather than shoulds (cf Richardson, 1990: 32). There are, however, some shoulds, such as the need to be sysematic and organised, and to present evidence to back up your findings. We make this clear when we discuss these processes
Methodology: Collecting Data
Full text linkMethodology refers to a 'perspective' of broad theoretically informed approach to research, which stems from the researcher's epistemological stance or philosophical/political position. Methodology is how researchers make their epistemology and theoretical stance work for them in their research. You might, for example, decide that any research you do should be as participatory as possible . You might decide to do action research with a group, whereby the group does research on a problem that it identifies, and in the process, tries to come up with a solution to the problem. By its nature, such a methodology is also participative
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