Internet Research Methods offers a concise, comprehensive guide to conducting research on the Internet providing a detailed explanation of all the main areas of Internet research. It distinguishes between primary research (using the Internet to recruit participants, to administer the research process and to collect results) and secondary research (using the Internet to access available material online). Internet Research Methods is designed for social science researchers and presents a user-friendly, practical guide that will be invaluable to both students and researchers who wish to incorporate the Internet into their research practice.

Table of Contents

Introduction What is the Internet? Is the Internet a Viable Research Tool? Equipment for Internet-Based Research How to Design and Implement an Internet Survey What Can Go Wrong? Case Studies Conclusions

Author Biography

Claire Hewson is Lecturer in Psychology at The Open University. She has a long-standing interest in using the Internet to carry out primary research, and has collected data using a range of IMR methods including surveys, psychometrics and experiments, to investigate issues in: commonsense understanding, particularly folk psychology; online assessment methods in an educational context; the validity of IMR methods. She was commissioned to lead a working party to produce the recent British Psychological Society (BPS) guidelines on ethics in Internet-mediated research (2013), has delivered a number of talks and training sessions on this and related topics, and has published more broadly in the area of IMR Education: B.A. and M.A. from Southeastern Louisiana University; Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. Areas of Expertise: Incorporation of language arts into high school and middle school science and math classes, grant writing, and editing. Notable Achievements: Recent book publications: Dr. Laurent has work published in The Encyclopedia of Women's Autobiography and authored Internet Research Methods: a practical guide for the social and behavioral sciences. Courses Taught: Freshman composition, 200-level survey literature courses, Methods for Literature, and occasionally Technical Writing. Other Information: Dr. Laurent was the team captain of the Gramminators, 2002 and 2003 Quiz Bowl champions. Carl Vogel, a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, is Senior Lecturer in Computational Linguistics and Director of the Centre for Computing and Language Studies at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin. His work in computational linguistics as a cognitive science frequently draws upon evidence abstracted from Internet accessed data, and accordingly he dwells on the accompanying research methodology issues. Vogel was on the Management Committee of the successful European COST Action IS1004: Web-based data-collection -- methodological challenges, solutions and implementations (WEBDATANET).