When Research Goes Off the Rails

David L. Streiner is Senior Scientist at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.Souraya Sidani is Canada Research Chair, Tier One, in Health Interventions Design and Evaluation at Toronto Metropolitan University.

• Going Off the Rails: An Introduction I. Ethics Approval 1. When Mountains Move Too Slowly 2. The Ethics of Sex Research on the Internet 3. When Safeguards Become Straitjackets: How Ethics Research Board Requirements Might Contribute to Ethical Dilemmas in Studies with Marginalized Populations 4. Going Off the Rails for “Love or Money”: Implementation Issues Related to Payment of Research Participants in an Addiction-Research Project II. Accessing the Participants 5. Frailty, Thy Name Is Macho 6. Power in Numbers: Research with Families in Long-Term Care 7. Getting the Wrong Gatekeeper 8. Breaking into Court 9. The RDC Archipelago, Scott Veldhuizen III. Recruitment and Retention 10. Small Colleges and Small n’s 11. Mitigating the Impact of External Forces 12. A Trip to the School of Hard Knocks: Recruiting Participants from Health Service Agencies for Qualitative Studies of Aging 13. All Aboard!: Using Community Leaders to Keep Clinical Researchers on Track 14. Changing Horses in Midstream: Transforming a Study to Address Recruitment Problems 15. When Cost Meets Efficiency: Rethinking Ways to Sample a Rare Population 16. The Story Is in the Numbers 17. Strategies for Retaining Participants in Longitudinal Research with Economically Disadvantaged and Ethnically Diverse Samples 18. Culturally Specific Strategies for Retention and Adherence to Physical Activity Interventions in Hispanic Women IV. Study Implementation 19. When a Beautiful Intervention Meets Ugly Reality: Implementing an Intervention in the Real World 20. When Saving Blood Goes Wrong 21. PDA = Pretty Darned Awful: The Trials and Tribulations of Running Trials of PDAs 22. When Sugar Is Not So Sweet: Camera Shyness and Intentional Cointervention Almost Derail a Study 23. Placebo Problems: Power and Persecution, or Paranoia?, V. Data Collection 24. Revisiting Traditional Survey Methodology to Recruit and Survey Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Older Adults 25. Technology: Help or Hindrance? 26. Hoist on Our Own Postcard 27. On the Finer Points of Handling Googlies: Reflections on Hits, Near Misses, and Full-Blown Swings at the Air in Large, Population-Based Studies Involving School, Parents, and Children 28. Pets, Pies, and Videotape: Conducting In-Home Observational Research with Late-Life Intergenerational Families 29. Underfunded but Not Undone 30. Community-Based Participatory Research: A Lesson in Humility 31. Where Did All the Bodies Go? 32. Measures for Improving Measures VI. Data Analysis 33. Drowsing Over Data: When Less Is More 34. Bigger Is Not Always Better: Adventures in the World of Survey Data Analysis 35. Taking Aim at a Moving Target: When a Study Changes in the Middle 36. Lack of Normative Data as an Obstacle to Neuropsychological Assessment 37. These Data Do Not Computeynne MacLean, Mechthild Meyer, Alma Estable, Anita Kothari, and Nancy Edwards 38. Avoiding Data Disasters and Other Pitfalls 39. When Interpretation Goes Awry: The Impact of Interim Testing VII. Collaboration 40. What Happened to Cooperation and Collaboration? 41. Presto! It’s Gone: When a Study Ceases to Exist Right before Your Eyes 42. Building Stakeholder Capacity to Enhance Effectiveness in Participatory Program Evaluation VIII. Final Thoughts 43. Sometimes It Is the Researcher, Not the Research, That Goes “Off the Rails”: The Value of Clear, Complete, and Precise Information in Scientific Reports 44. A Healthy Dose of Realism

This unique, thorough guide offers inspiring testimony about how to persevere in the face of unexpected setbacks when designing or implementing a study. Contributors describe the untold story of research--the real-world intrusions that almost never make it into the publication of record. Topics include the ethical review process, recruitment contingencies with formal and informal gatekeepers, missteps in data collection and analysis, roadblocks and detours when implementing the study, and conflicts and personality factors associated with collaboration and intervention. The cautionary yet inspiring vignettes will resonate with experienced researchers and will appeal to graduate students just learning the ropes. This text will enliven a standard research methods course with a wonderful collection of stories from the front lines.--Gregory J. Meyer, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Toledo Most books for social and behavioral science researchers assume that faithfully following certain protocols will produce useful results. In contrast, this book shows that the unexpected almost always strikes. There is as much to learn from these real-world situations of research gone awry as from textbook examples of 'perfect' designs that lead to straightforward results. The underlying message of all of the chapters is that serious mishaps are best avoided by focusing on prevention. Drawing on diverse studies using different designs in multiple disciplines, the book illustrates broadly applicable approaches to navigating the vicissitudes of research and evaluation practice.--Henry M. Levin, PhD, William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University; David Jacks Professor of Education and Economics (Emeritus), Stanford University Nobody told us this stuff! This is the information that is missing in graduate courses and professional texts on research methods, experimental design, and statistics. From distinguished interdisciplinary editors and contributors, this book fills an extremely important niche. It should be required reading for all graduate students considering a career in the health and social sciences. It will be extremely valuable to experienced researchers, knowledge brokers, and policy makers in the health and social service fields.--Charles E. Cunningham, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences and Jack Laidlaw Chair in Patient-Centred Health Care, McMaster University, CanadaIn typical 'Streineresque' style, this book is easy to read, grounded in reality, and solution oriented. The contributors use accessible language, which makes reading the book feel like you are having an informal dialogue with colleagues. Social science researchers experiencing challenges at various stages of project implementation, graduate students who want to avoid and learn from mistakes made by others, and reviewers of grant proposals or manuscripts who are in a position to help others keep their research on track should seriously consider making this book a 'must read.'--Lucyna M. Lach, MSW, PhD, School of Social Work, McGill University, Canada This book is a useful reference that could help you anticipate potential problems when planning your thesis or dissertation study.--Amanda L. Garrett, graduate student, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln-An eye-opening text that pushes the reader to think about solutions to real world problems that occur in the field as one performs research....An essential read for new researchers and will be thought-provoking for those in the field....As a graduate student new to the field, I found this book useful for exploring the realities of research....The text reads more like a novel than a traditional scholarly text, which is a welcome addition to the reading list of most doctoral students. This text would be excellent material to pair with a traditional textbook for a research design course....Regardless of your position, social researchers will find the honest discussion of research problems and solutions to be an enlightening and interesting read.--Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 5/28/2013