Demystifying Postgraduate Research

Jonathan Grix is Reader in Sport Policy and Politics at the University of Birmingham, UK.

• Introduction; 1 The nature of doctoral research: The nature of the doctoral process; Between contributing to knowledge and gaining qualifications; The right place to study; Matters of time; Before you start; Books on research and doctoral studies; 2 The 'nuts and bolts' of research: The tools and terminology of research; Key concepts in research: methods, methodology, theory, model, ideal type, typology and paradigms; Concepts and their abuse; Disciplines, discourses and interdisciplinarity; 3 Getting started: The literature review, research questions and hypotheses; Levels and units of analysis in research; Types of study; 4 Methods, fieldwork and stages of research: Methods: different types of enquiry; Triangulation: mixing methods and data; Fieldwork preparation; Stages of the Research Process: the story so far; 5 Supervision, the Viva and other Matters of Importance: Supervisors and supervisions; The viva; The Process of Writing a Thesis; Publication: Journals and Books; Ethics and piagiarism in research; Training and dissemination: postgraduate research training, seminars, conferences, workshops; Diverse experiences; The Utility of a PhD; Summary; Glossary of terms; Examples of referencing; Bibilography.