Historically, social researchers have shown a willingness to exploit new technologies to enhance, facilitate and support their various activities. However, arguably no other technological development has influenced the landscape of social research as rapidly and fundamentally as the Internet. This collection avoids both uncritical embrace and wholesale dismissal by considering some of the key literature in the field of Internet research methods.
Volume One: Core Issues, Debates and Controversies in Internet Research introduces themes and issues that run across all four volumes such as: epistemology, ontology and methodology in the online world; access, social divisions and the 'digital divide'; and the ethics of online research.
Volume Two: Taking Research Online - Internet Survey and Sampling addresses the range of resources, digital archives and Internet-based data sources that exist online from relatively straightforward and practical guides to such material through to more polemical pieces which consider problems relating to the use, access and analysis of online data and resources.
Volume Three: Taking Research Online - Qualitative Approaches considers the broad range of approaches to conducting researching via or 'in' the Internet. The focus is on conventional methods that have been 'taken online', and which in doing so, have become transformed in scope and character.
Volume Four: Research 'On' and 'In' the Internet - Investigating the Online World follows logically from that which precedes it in exploring how social research has been 'taken online', not simply through the deployment of existing methods and techniques via the Internet, but in researchers' increasing recognition and investigation of the online world as a sphere of human interaction - a socio-cultural arena to be explored 'from the desktop' as it were.
VOLUME ONE: CORE ISSUES, DEBATES AND CONTROVERSIES IN INTERNET RESEARCH
Life in Virtual Worlds - T.L. Taylor
Plural Existence, Multimodalities and Other Online Research Challenges
Internet as Culture and Cultural Artefact - Christine Hine
Power Issues in Internet Research - Chris Mann and Fiona Stewart
In the Flesh or Online? Exploring Qualitative Research Methodologies - Wendy Seymour
Authenticity and Identity in Internet Contexts - Christine Hine
Online Inquiry of Public Selves - Kendal Broad and Kristin Joos
Methodological Considerations
Epistemological Dimensions in Qualitative Research - Nalita James and Hugh Busher
The Construction of Knowledge Online
Research Design and Tools for Internet Research - Claire Hewson and Dianna Laurent
How the Internet Is Changing the Implementation of Traditional Research Methods, People's Daily Lives and the Way in Which Developmental Scientists Conduct Research - Jaap Denissen, Linus Neumann and Maarten van Zalk
Ethical Dilemmas in Research on Internet Communities - Sarah Flicker, Dave Haans and Harvey Skinner
Encountering Distressing Information in Online Research - Susannah Stern
A Consideration of Legal and Ethical Responsibilities
Developing a Geographers' Agenda for Online Research Ethics - Clare Madge
The Ethics of Internet Research - Rebecca Enyon, Jenny Fry and Ralph Schroeder
Ethics in Online Research - Kate Orton-Johnson
Evaluating the ESRC Framework for Research Ethics Categorization of Risk
Understanding and Managing Legal Issues in Internet Research - Andrew Charlesworth
Some Additional Challenges for Online Researchers - Ted Gaiser and Anthony Schreiner
The Displacement of Time and Space in Online Research - Nalita James and Hugh Busher
The Question Concerning (Internet) Time - Susa Leong et al
The Cultural Dimensions of Online Communication - Shani Orgad
A Study of Breast Cancer Patients' Internet Spaces
Gradations in Digital Inclusion - Sonia Livingstone and Ellen Helsper
Children, Young People and the Digital Divide
VOLUME TWO: TAKING RESEARCH ONLINE: INTERNET SURVEYS AND SAMPLING
Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet Research Surveys - Ronald Fricker and Matthias Schonlau
Evidence from the Literature
Overview - Vasja Vehovar and Katja Lozar Manfreda
Online Surveys
Internet Survey Design - Samuel Best and Brian Krueger
Writing Survey Questions - Valerie Sue and Lois Ritter
Designing and Developing the Survey Instrument - Valerie Sue and Lois Ritter
Web Survey Design - Kevin Shropshire, James Hawdon and James White
Balancing Measurement, Response and Topical Interest
Design of Web Questionnaires - Vera Toepoel et al
An Information-Processing Perspective for the Effect of Response Categories
Design of Web Questionnaires - Vera Toepoel, Marcel Das and Arthur van Soest
The Effects of the Number of Items per Screen
Using Questionnaire Design to Fight Non-Response Bias in Web Surveys - Paula Vicente and Elizabeth Reis
Sensitive Questions in Online Surveys - Elisabeth Coutts and Ben Jann
Experimental Results for Randomized Response Technique (RRT) and the Unmatched Count Technique (UCT)
Designing Scalar Questions for Web Surveys - Leah Melani Christian, Nicholas Parsons and Don Dilman
Sampling Methods for Web and E-Mail Surveys - Ronald Fricker
Representativeness in Online Surveys through Stratified Samples - Jörg Blasius and Maurice Brandt
Selection Bias in Web Surveys and the Use of Propensity Scores - Matthias Schonlau et al
'Web-Based Network Sampling' Efficiency and Efficacy of Respondent-Driven Sampling for Online Research - Cyprian Wejnert and Douglas Heckathorn
Name-Based Cluster Sampling - Douglas Ferguson
How to Increase Response Rates in List-Based Web Survey Samples - Florian Keusch
Comparing Response Rates from Web and Mail Surveys - Tse-Hua Shih and Xitao Fan
A Meta-Analysis
The Mode Effect in Mixed-Mode Surveys - Beng Börkan
Mail and Web Surveys
Web and Mail Surveys - Weiwei Lin and Gregg van Ryzin
An Experimental Comparison of Methods for Non-Profit Research
VOLUME THREE: TAKING RESEARCH ONLINE: QUALITATIVE APPROACHES
The Virtual Objects of Ethnography - Christine Hine
Engaging with Research Participants Online - Nalita James and Hugh Busher
Method, Methodology and New Media - Alison Powell
Digital Ethnography - Dhiraj Murthy
An Examination of the Use of New Technologies for Social Research
Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication - Angela Cora Garcia et al
The Method of Netnography - Robert Kozinets
Internet-Based Interviewing - Henrietta O'Connor et al
Credibility, Authenticity and Voice - Nalita James and Hugh Busher
Dilemmas in Online Interviewing
Benefits of Participating in Internet Interviews - Cheryl Tatano Beck
Women Helping Women
Evaluating Internet Interviews with Gay Men - Russel Ayling and Avril Mewse
Researching Shyness - Susie Scott
A Contradiction in Terms?
Conducting Intensive Interviews Using E-Mail - Judith McCoyd and Toba Schwaber Kerson
A Serendipitous Comparative Opportunity
Using E-Mail for Data Collection - Ted Gaiser and Anthony Schreiner
Virtual Fieldwork Using Access Grid - Nigel Fielding
Researching Online Populations - Kate Stewart and Matthew Williams
The Use of Online Focus Groups for Social Research
Doing Synchronous Online Focus Groups with Young People - Fiona Fox, Marianne Morris and Nichola Rumsey
Methodological Reflections
Data Analysis - Robert Kozinets
Analysis of Thin Online Interview Data - Richard Kitto and John Barnett
Toward a Sequential Hierarchical Language-Based Approach
Distributed Video Analysis in Social Research - Jon Hindmarsh
Smartphones - Mika Raento, Antti Oulasvirta and Nathan Eagle
An Emerging Tool for Social Scientists
VOLUME FOUR: RESEARCH 'ON' AND 'IN' THE INTERNET: INVESTIGATING THE ONLINE WORLD
The World of Web 2.0 - Ted Gaiser and Anthony Schreiner
Blogs, Wikis and Websites
Sociology and, of and in Web 2.0 - David Beer and Roger Burrows
Some Initial Considerations
New Avenues for Sociological Inquiry - Laura Robinson and Jeremy Schulz
Evolving Forms of Ethnographic Practice
Interview and Internet Forums - Clive Seale et al
A Comparison of Two Sources of Qualitative Data
'Entering the Blogosphere' - Nicholas Hookway
Some Strategies for Using Blogs in Social Research
The Psychology of Blogging - Laura Gurak and Smiljana Antonijevic
You, Me and Everyone in between
Weblogs, Traditional Sources Online and Political Participation - Homero Gil De Zúñiga, Eulàlia Puig-I-Abril and Rojas
An Assessment of How the Internet Is Changing the Political Environment
Mapping the Norwegian Blogosphere - Hallvard Moe
Methodological Challenges in Internationalizing Internet Research
Mapping the Australian Networked Public Sphere - Axel Bruns et al
Internet Political Discussions in the Arab World - Eisa Al Nashmi et al
A Look at Online Forums from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan
Online Petitions - Helen Briassoulis
New Tools of Secondary Analysis?
Ambient Affiliation - Michele Zappavinga
The Linguistic Perspective on Twitter
Mining the Internet for Linguistic and Social Data - Nelya Koteyko
An Analysis of 'Carbon Compounds' in Web Feeds
Sociology of Hyperlink Networks of Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Twitter - Chien-leng Hsu and Han Woo Park
A Case Study of South Korea
'Piling on Layers of Understanding' - Vanessa Dirksen, Ard Huizing and Bas Smit
The Use of Connective Ethnography for the Study of (Online) Work Practices
Towards Ethnography of Television on the Internet - Christine Hine
A Mobile Strategy for Exploring Mundane Interpretive Activities
Backstage with the Knowledge Boys and Girls - Drew Ross
Goffman and Distributed Agency in an Organic Online Community
Emotional Reflexivity in Contemporary Friendships - Mary Homes
Understanding It Using Elias and Facebook Etiquette
The Online Support Group as a Community - Wyke Stommel and Tom Koole
A Micro-Analysis of the Interaction with a New Member
The Presentation of 'Pro-Anorexia' in Online Group Interactions - Jeff Gavin, Karen Rodham and Helen Poyer
