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Resources for Fieldworkers

Appendix F for:
H. Russell Bernard 2006. Research Methods in Anthropology. 4th edition. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press
 
Codes of Ethics

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Software

Direct Observation

This kind of software turns a hand-held computer into a data-entry and data-management tool. You can program the keys (or use a mouse or computer pen as the input device) to record events according to your own codes. This eliminates the need for checklists and coding sheets when you do direct observation, which lets you keep your eyes on the action. The Observer, from Noldus Information Technology, has been available for many years. It was reviewed by Ice (2004) in Field Methods.

 

Statistics Packages

There are many excellent packages available. Before buying a stats package, find out if your campus has a site license for one or more of the following programs. If you do have to buy a program of your own, check the Internet sites for student prices. Here are the Internet addresses for some of the most widely used stats packages.

 

Voice Recognition Software

VR software is not new, but recent advances have made it useful for fieldworkers who need to transcribe mountains of text.

 

Anthropac

Anthropac contains a suite of programs for collecting and analyzing data on cultural domains. There are routines for collecting and analyzing free lists, pile sorts, triads, paired comparisons, and ratings. The tools for analysis include multidimensional scaling, hierarchical clustering, property fitting (PROFIT), factor analysis, correspondence analysis, and quadratic assignment. Anthropac is the only program that includes a complete consensus analysis routine. The complete program costs $30, plus shipping, for students.

 

Small-N Analysis

 

Programs for QDA, Content Analysis, KWIC, etc. Counters, etc.

There are many programs available, including Atlas/ti,   NVivo and N6, The Ethnograph, Code-A-Text and C-I-Said, WordStat and QDA Miner, MAXqda, Kwalitan, EZ-Text and AnSWR, Qualrus, TextQuest, TAMS Analyzer, Concordance, and others. Each of these programs has special features. QDA (qualitative data analysis) programs, like Atlas/ti and NVivo, are geared toward research in the grounded-theory tradition. Programs like TextQuest, Aquad, and WordStat are for research in the content-analysis tradition. Look for reviews of these programs on the Internet and in journals and play with the downloadable demos to decide which is the right program for you.

Remember, a statistics package will help you run tests on data, but you have to interpret and explain the output. Similarly, a text management package will facilitate text analysis but it won’t do text analysis. That’s a job that only you can do.

The other programs, with more features, have free, downloadable demos. Many programs written for Windows will run on a Mac with Virtual PC or a special card installed.

For discussions of text analysis and comparisons of programs see Lewins & Silver Jun 05' text and Harald Klein's info page.

The General Inquirer is not available commercially, but its developers have been making it available to academic users.

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GPS

The Global Positioning System, or GPS, was developed by the U. S. Department of Defense. It relies on 24 satellites with worldwide coverage. A simple GPS unit, for under $200, can access the system and tell you, within 3 meters, your position on the Earth's surface. You’ll pay more if you want color maps and if you want to download a lot of material.

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Handheld Computers

This technology is fast converging with telephone service and with Internet service. Software and hardware options are being developed very quickly. For a review of some hardware options, see Greene, P. D. 2001. Handheld computers as tools for writing and managing field data. Field Methods 13:181-197.

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Journals that Publish Articles about Research Methods

There are dozens of journals that publish articles on research methods in the social sciences. The journals listed here are devoted primarily to research methods.

Qualitative Methods

  • Forum: Qualitative Sozialforschung (FQS) – a free interdisciplinary, multilingual, online journal devoted to qualitative research in the social sciences.
  • Qualitative Research and Qualitative Inquiry – two journals from Sage Publications devoted exclusively to the discussion of and the promotion of qualitative methods in social science.
  • Journal of Contemporary Ethnography – founded in 1972, does not focus on methods, but publishes research based on qualitative methods. Many articles in this journal contain information about the methods and techniques used in the research.

 

Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

  • Field Methods – an interdisciplinary journal devoted to articles about methods for collecting, analyzing, and presenting data about human thought and human behavior in the natural world.
  • Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique – publishes articles on research methods in French and English. Contents of current and back issues are also available.
  • Administrative Science Quarterly (ASQ) – published by the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. The journal has mostly quantitative articles but has a long history of publishing articles on qualitative research methods, beginning with a now-classic special issue in 1979 edited by John Van Maanen. The special issue was published as a book and is a valuable resource (Van Maanen 1983).
  • Organizational Research Methods – focuses entirely on research methods for studies of organizations.

 

Quantitative Methods

  • Public Opinion Quarterly (POQ) – is published by Oxford University Press. This is where you go to learn the latest on writing good questionnaires, on techniques for interviewing, on training interviewers, and so on.

  • Sociological Methodology – a book-length regular publication, sponsored by the American Sociological Association and published by Blackwell's. Just enter the name of the journal to see contents of recent volumes.

  • Sociological Methods and Research (SMR) – a quarterly, interdisciplinary journal that publishes articles by methodologists from across the spectrum of social science.

  • Psychological Methods – devoted to methods in psychology and published by the American Psychological Association. Its focus is on new methods of measurement and statistical analysis.

  • Social Science Research (SSR) – an interdisciplinary journal that publishes papers in all areas of quantitative social research and has many papers on research methods.

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Data Editing

A text editor, as compared to a word processor, is best for working with files of numerical data. A text editor, for example, doesn’t put page breaks into a file unless you tell it to. With a good text editor, you can search and replace things in a range of columns, for example—something you can't do with a word processor.

  • KEDIT (for Windows) – a dead ringer for the IBM mainframe editor, XEDIT, so anyone who grew up on that one will recognize the commands right away.
  • Emacs – free software for Windows and Mac.

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Digital Recorders and Transcribing Machines

Many online stores (like bestbuy.com, and etronics.com, officeworld.com, overstock.com, bizrate.com, amazon.com, etc.) carry an array of digital recorders and transcribing machines.

Reviews

  • QUALRS-L – is the qualitative research listserv. To subscribe, send
    the message “sub QUALRS-L yourname” to
    QUALRS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU. Click HERE for an archive of messages.
  • The QUAL-SOFTWARE list – has discussions of both hardware and software for collecting and analyzing text and video. Click HERE for an archive of messages.
  • The CAQDAS Networking Project – brings together information on computer-assisted qualitative data analysis. You can look through the archives of these lists and find discussions about digital recording technology, tape recorders, transcribing machines, and other devices that support the collection and analysis of qualitative data. For example, a recent innovation is the Belkin Voice Recorder for iPod. This device turns the iPod (4th-generation) into a digital voice recorder. For the 3rd-generation iPod, the Belkin Universal Microphone Adapter lets you plug in a microphone with a 3.5mm plug.
  • You can look through the archives of these lists and find discussions about digital recording technology, tape recorders, transcribing machines and other devices that support the collection and analysis of qualitative data. Another good source of information are the product reviews in PC World magazine.

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Computer-Assisted Interviewing

Computer-assisted interviewing began with CATI, or computer-assisted telephone interviewing. More recently, technology for CASI (computer-assisted self-interviewing) and CAPI (computer-assisted personal interviewing) have been developed. Very recently, we’ve seen the development of hardware and software for MCAPI, or mobile CAPI using handheld computers. For reviews of handheld computers see Consumer Research and Handheld Computer Depot.

Mobile Survey Work

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Data Storage

Back up your data in several places. A plug-and-play external hard drive is one way to go, but don’t rely entirely on anything that you can lose in an airport or drop off a boat. Online storage may be available at no cost at your university. If not, a limited amount of backup online (30mb in 2005) is available free at briefcase.yahoo.com. Many companies offer massive online data storage, with tools for automating your backup. For more information, see reviews of online backup facilities.

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