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Full Description
Research Methods for Construction will help you instil rigour into your problem-solving, and into your reports and publications. It will be of value to construction, surveying, architecture and civil engineering students undertaking research, whether for bachelors and masters degree dissertations, or for masters and doctoral research degree theses. Now in its Fourth Edition, this remains one of the few books to provide guidance on research formulation, methodologies, and methods specifically for construction students. Three main sections Producing a Proposal, Executing the Research and Reporting the Results discuss the key issues in research and examine the primary approaches, both qualitative and quantitative. The methods adopted for scientific and engineering experiments, model building and simulations are discussed, as well as those employed for research into management, social and economic issues.
The authors examine the requirements for data and analysis, including the important statistical considerations and a range of qualitative techniques that enable construction researchers to appreciate what needs to be evaluated in devising how research may be carried out effectively and efficiently. This new edition has been updated to reflect current debates and concerns, including ethical issues, legislation and codes of practice concerning the collection, processing, storage, use and disposal of data. Pressures of time and funding to carry out the empirical work all too often lead to a lack of attention to how the study should be done and why. The authors address the importance of explaining the philosophical approach adopted (ontology, epistemology) and the consequent methodology. They advocate close scrutiny of the methods available for appropriateness, both academically and practically. The fundamental theme of the book remains to facilitate a researcher s informed and justified selection of a philosophical paradigm and of appropriate methods to execute the research.
Contents
Preface to Third Edition viii Preface to Second Edition x Part 1 Producing a Proposal 1 1 Introduction 3 The concept of research 3 Classifications of research 7 Theories and paradigms 12 Research styles 20 Quantitative and qualitative approaches 26 Where to begin 30 Summary 32 References 32 2 Topic for Study 35 Selection of a topic 35 Writing the proposal 42 Summary 50 References 50 Part 2 Executing the Research 51 3 Initial Research 53 The research process 53 Initial search 60 Assembling the theoretical framework 66 Philosophy and methodology 67 Theoretical models and constructs 73 Proper referencing 77 Summary 77 References 78 4 Approaches to Empirical Work 81 Role of experience 81 Research design 83 Qualitative approaches 91 Quantitative approaches 97 Experimental design (including experiments and quasi-experiments) 102 Case study research 110 Modelling 114 Simulation 118 Summary 121 References 121 5 Hypotheses 125 Essentials of a valid hypothesis 125 Roles of hypotheses 129 Objective testing of hypotheses 130 Role of sampling 131 Common statistical measures 133 Null hypotheses 141 Validities 143 Summary 145 References 146 6 Data Collection 147 Data requirements 147 Collecting data from respondents 150 Sampling 159 Sample size 163 Scales of measurement 167 Obtaining data 175 Summary 183 References 183 7 Data Analysis 186 Analysing data 186 Plotting data 191 Statistical methods 194 Non-parametric tests 194 Parametric tests 202 Other analytical techniques 225 Summary 242 References 242 8 Ethics in Research 246 The concepts of morals and ethics 246 Research ethics 249 Data analysis, intellectual property and data protection 256 Summary 259 References 259 Part 3 Reporting the Results 261 9 Results, Inferences and Conclusions 263 Requirements for valid results 263 Potential sources of error 264 Reliability 265 Results 266 Inferences 270 Conclusions 276 Summary 279 References 279 10 Reports and Presentations 281 Report production 281 Communication 282 Contents of the report 284 Oral presentation 293 Summary 294 Index 295
