1. Why do we conduct research?
We undertake research when we wish to:
investigate an idea
look into an issue
solve a problem
make an argument in relation to what others have written.

2. Research in the Social Sciences
Social science research is concerned with people and their life contexts and with philosophical questions relating to the nature of knowledge and truth, values and being which support human judgments and activities.
Social science research differs from research in the natural sciences as a result of its focus on people-individuals and groups-and their behavior within cultures and organizations that vary widely socially and historically. There is unpredictability in the behavior of human beings.

3. Research in the Social Sciences
Social science research cannot develop similar powerful solutions (as natural sciences) to social problems since the mind enables individuals and groups to take decisions that vary with widely different motives.
Human experience is characterized by complexity, and social science researchers need to resist the temptation to impose unnecessary order through the application of ‘one size fits all’ theories.

4. Researchers require many life skills such as:
personal time management
enlisting others to work with you
organizational skills to assemble data and arrange it for easy retrieval
fascination with detail during the phase of immersion in data
curiosity and creativity to notice the meaning and patterns that emerge from it

5. Researchers require many life skills such as:
synthesizing ideas and constructing and testing out theories
reflexive self-awareness to employ your own impact on the material you are analyzing
presenting reports both in writing and orally which have sufficient persuasive power to command attention.

6. How do we conduct research for our research papers?
We seek to use materials beyond our personal resources: a combination of primary research and secondary research.
Primary research: the study of a subject through firsthand investigation, such as analyzing a literary or historical text, a film, or a performance, conducting a survey or an interview or carrying out a lab experiment.
Secondary research: the examination of studies that other researchers have made of a subject. Examples: articles and books about political issues, historical events, scientific debates or literary works.

7. Main activities that you need to undertake while writing a research paper:
discovering, assessing and assimilating others’ research
then articulating your own ideas clearly and persuasively.

8. DON’T FORGET
-A research paper is a form of written communication. Like other kinds of nonfiction writing-letters, memos, reports, essays, articles, books-it should present info and ideas clearly and effectively.
-You should not let the mechanics of gathering source materials, taking notes and documenting sources make you forget to apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired through previous writing experiences.

9. STEP I: SELECTING YOUR TOPIC
come across a topic by chance
begin studying a topic because the data or the research site are conveniently available.
Social obligations: to change the status quo, excitement about data decided on the topic.
Curiosity: general curiosity as the main reason for selecting a particular topic. Intrigued by a facet of social life and want to learn about it.
Using the self as a starting point: direct personal experience becomes the starting point of your research.

10. TIPS for Choosing your Research Topic
Narrow down your topic
find a topic that is appropriate to your theory and data and is workable.
give yourself plenty of time to think through and rethink your choice of a topic.
look for a subject or an issue that will continue to engage you throughout research and writing.
consult library materials and other print and electronic info resources to refine the topic and to see if sufficient work has been done on the subject to make it a viable topic for the research paper.

11. Don’t forget:
It is usually tempting to select a very broad topic. By including every aspect of a problem that you can think of you hope the show of the breadth of knowledge and/or to impress your professors.
BUT your aim should be to say a lot about a little problem; not a little about a lot.

12. STEP 2: Finding a puzzle/ forming research questions
What I am really trying to find out? More specifically what puzzle I am trying to solve?
3 questions that may generate the intellectual puzzle:
-how or why did X develop? (a developmental puzzle)
-How does X work? (a mechanical puzzle)
-What causes X or what influence does X have on Y? (A causal puzzle)

13. STEP 2: Finding a puzzle/ forming research questions
It is impossible to solve all these puzzles, so which puzzle do you choose? The following are some further questions that are worth asking:
-which puzzle most interests me?
-which puzzle most relates to issues on which I already have some theoretical, substantive, or practical background?
-which puzzle would generate questions that could be answered using my own researches and with readily available data?

14. The role of research questions:
1. they organize the project and give it direction and coherence.
2. they limit the project showing its boundaries.
3. they keep the researcher focused.
4. they provide a framework when you write up your research.
5.they point to the methods and data that will be needed.

15. STEP 3: Literature Review
Contents of a literature review
What do we already know about the topic?
What do you have to say critically about what is already known?
Has anyone else ever done anything exactly the same?
Has anyone else done anything that is related?
Where does your work fit in with what has gone before?
Why is your research worth doing in the light of what has already been done?

16. STEP 3: Literature Review
Preparing a literature search
What discipline(s) relate to my main topic?
How can I focus my topic to make my search more precise?
What are the main indexes and abstracts relevant to my topic?
What meand of recording will be most efficient for many tasks such as cross referencing?

17. STEP 3: Literature Review
Where will I find the literature?
Bibliographies in the literature you read
Online searches on the Web
The social sciences citation index

18. STEP 3: Literature Review
TIPS for reviewing the literature
Show respect for the literature: Your single-minded pursuit of your narrow research should not disrespect for earlier research or disconnect your work from the wider debate.
Be focused and critical: after some initial research know what you are looking for.

19. STEP 3: Literature Review
Avoid mere description (!): You need to focus on those studies that are relevant to your research question. By the end of the literature review, the reader should think “this is the exact study that needs to be done to move knowledge in the field a little further.’ Background literature can be described in a sentence, but by contrast most relevant studies need to be critiqued rather than reported.

20. STEP 4: Collecting Your Data
Resources (primary and secondary) -Books -Articles in periodicals -Sound or video recordings -Databases -Indexes and bibliographies -newspapers -statistical data

21. STEP 4: Collecting Your Data
How to collect your data? (Qualitative and Quantitative Methods) Quantitative and statistical methods as positivist aspired to realism, objectivity, causal explanation and universal truth VS. Qualitative interpretative, value-laden, contextual.

22. STEP 4: Collecting Your Data
Qualitative Research:
The qualitative tradition was initially characterized by its opposition to the strict research designs demanded in most quantitative work.
-The hope was that somehow meaning would emerge by itself from such in-depth exposure to the field.

23. STEP 4: Collecting Your Data
Ethical Issues while collecting your data:
As a result of its focus on people, ethical issues are centrally important in social science research. Knowledge confers power, so in collecting data researchers need to be guided by principles of respect for persons and obtaining informed consent. The publication of outcomes confronts social science researchers with the need to consider the possible impact of their reports on the people who have been part of it.

24. STEP 4: Collecting Your Data
Field research: is essentially a matter of immersing oneself in a naturally occurring set of events to gain firsthand knowledge of the situation.
First any researcher (no matter how unstructured or inductive) comes to fieldwork with some orienting ideas.
The beauty of qualitative research is that its rich data can offer the opportunity to change focus as the ongoing analysis suggests.

25. STEP 4: Collecting Your Data
Different Methods in Qualitative Research:
participant observation
in-depth interviews
focus groups

26. STEP 4: Collecting Your Data
Ethical Issues while collecting your data:
The logic and necessity of protecting the dignity and safety of the research participants is widely accepted among social scientists today
Ex: Nazi used concentration camp victims as guinea pigs in medical experiments.
399 African-American men infected by syphilis unknowingly became participants in a medical experiment that lasted nearly 40 years until finally exposed in early 70s.

27. STEP 4: Collecting Your Data
The role of theory in your research and in collecting your data:
Theory refers to analytic relevance of your empirical work to more general questions being debated in your field.
Theoretical choices may be influenced by reading of what other academics have published (quite effective if you do not want to reinvent the wheel again) certain ideas may be normatively accepted in the field and your research could build on the existing knowledge.

28. STEP 4: Collecting Your Data
Find a settled theoretical orientation: Research is never only about methods. Find a theoretical approach that makes sense to you and could provide a basis for inference and data analysis.

29. STEP 4: Collecting Your Data
Depending on your theory, your data possibilities vary:
e.g.: Livingston (1987) social research on city streets.
Viewing a street: Data possibilities
1-official statistics(traffic flow, accidents)
2.interviews (how people cope with rush hours)
3.observation from a tower (viewing geometric shapes)
4.observation/video at street level (how people organize their movements)

30. STEP 4: Collecting Your Data
Each of different ways of looking involves basic theoretical as well as methodological decisions.
If we are attached to social theories that see the world in terms of correlations between social facts we are most likely to consider gathering official statistics.
By contrast if we think that social meaning or perceptions are important, we may be tempted by the interview study.
Point is that none of this data more true than others all depends on our research question and are theoretically informed.

31. STEP 5: Data Analysis and Writing
Anyone who has done qualitative data analysis will tell you that writing and analysis coexist.
Analysis of data provides a method for organizing and eventually writing the dissertation again writing and analysis not spate and sequential but are intertwined and simultaneous.
To do effective data analysis you must know your data, good social science writing embedded in the data. To ensure that data grows out of the data become intimately familiar with every bit of info that your research generates.

32. STEP 5: Data Analysis and Writing
Data analysis can be enjoyable. Sitting down and piecing together the different bits and pieces of interviews and observations into a coherent work can be an exhilarating creative process.
Begin data analysis early-don’t be deflected away from early data analysis by literature reviews and the exigencies of data gathering. If you haven’t got any data yourself at an early stage try analyzing someone else’s data

33. STEP 5: Data Analysis and Writing
Originality:
An original contribution to knowledge is a very shaded term-it does not mean an enormous breakthrough shift in your discipline. Instead it demonstrates that you have a good grasp of how research is normally done in your field that you can do what Kuhn calls normal science.
that you have something to say which your peers will want to listen
that you are aware of what is being discovered argued about written and published by your academic community across the world.

34. STEP 5: Data Analysis and Writing
Definition of Plagiarism
Derived from the Latin word plagiaries (“kidnapper”), to plagiarize means “to commit literary theft” and to “present as new and original and idea or product derived from an existing source”
Using another person’s ideas, info, or expressions as your own to get a better grade or gain some other advantage constitutes fraud.

35. STEP 5: Data Analysis and Writing
Unintentional plagiarism
The purpose of a research paper is to synthesize previous research with your ideas on the subject, so you should feel free to use other person’s words, facts, and thoughts in your research paper but the material you borrow must not be presented as if it were your own creation.
Presenting an author’s exact wording without marking it as a quotation is plagiarism, even if you cite the source.

36. Response Paper
The aim of writing a response paper is to make you consider carefully what you think or feel about something you've read.
A response paper demonstrates your comprehension of the material and your ability to think critically about it.
Good response papers will help you become a better reader and writer, and they will also help make discussions lively and focused

37. Response Paper
What did you think of these readings? What did you find interesting, wrong-headed, surprising, or thought-provoking about the readings?
Be specific!
Ask questions!
Situate author’s opinions in the scientific or critical context from which they are derived. Relate his or her opinions to that context.

38. Response Paper
Agree and disagree by providing explanations, arguments and examples.
Even though response essays are based on opinion-making all arguments should be elaborate and somehow justified.
Provide objective and critical information rather than a set of personal impressions.
Express your own opinion and support it by any evidence.

39. Scholarly Journals World politics World Politics Review
Comparative politics  
Social politics
Cultural politics
National minority politics  
Nationalism & ethnic politics

40. Scholarly Journals Nations and Nationalism Nationalities Papers
Nationalism & ethnic politics
Studies in ethnicity and nationalism
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
International Migration
International Migration Review
Diaspora

41. Scholarly Journals Cultural anthropology Social anthropology
American journal of sociology
Canadian review of sociology and anthropology  
Economic sociology
International journal of comparative sociology
Cultural studies