Methods Map
Use the Methods Map to browse the resources in SAGE Research Methods. Learn how methods are related and find definitions of key terms.
Understand the foundations of research methods
Where to begin?
SAGE Research Methods Foundations is edited by Paul Atkinson, Sara Delamont, Alexandru Cernat, Joseph W. Sakshaug & Richard A. Williams. It is the perfect companion for novice researchers and provides bite-size, introductory overviews to all the major methods topics to help get you on your way.
How do I get started?
A great way to kick-start your research journey is to look at the list of Foundation Entries. These give introductory overviews to major research methods, covering their history, development and critical debates surrounding them.
Choose the Foundation Entry most relevant to the method you want to learn about and you will be directed to what read next.
Want to learn about key methodologists?
Read our Pioneer entries to learn about the methods innovators. These biographical entries evaluate the lasting contributions of both classic figures and lesser-known researchers whose work had gone unrecognized, including female scholars and those of other ethnic backgrounds.
Browse by series
Having trouble navigating? One way to explore the rich and deep content included in Foundations is by using the series tool. We've organised entries into relevant categories, called series, according to their research method. This is an easy and great way to start exploring!
Browse Foundations
Not sure where to start? Check out our foundation entries on the most important subjects. Alternatively you canbrowse all.
Featured Content
Performance Ethnography
Abstract:A new genealogy of performance ethnography is offered. Six models of performance in the ethnography-theatrical paradigm are discussed. I trouble the meaning of several terms, including what is performance? What is theater? What is ethnography? A performance-centered ethnographic approach is participatory, intimate, precarious, embodied, grounded in circum... Read More
Featured Content
Writing and Reading Ethnography
Abstract:Ethnographic research is defined as much by its textual conventions as by its methods of data collection and analysis. Ethnographers reconstruct social worlds through their writing, and writing styles have varied between disciplines, generations of researchers, and theoretical orientations. There are important and long-standing parallels between ethnograp... Read More
Featured Content
Ethnographic Fieldwork
Abstract:Ethnographic fieldwork has a long history in anthropology, sociology, and related disciplines. Since the 1990s, the use of the term, and the methods of ethnography, has diversified. It is often used somewhat indiscriminately to refer to a very wide variety of qualitative research strategies. In this entry, however, the emphasis is on continuities and disc... Read More
Featured Content
Focus Groups
Abstract:Focus group discussions represent a useful way to bring people together to generate new insights and ideas about a research topic. The advantages of using focus groups include the potential to gain a rapid insight into how a topic is viewed and discussed from complementary or contrasting perspectives. Participants are invited to present their views in tur... Read More
Featured Content
Qualitative Evidence Synthesis
Abstract:Qualitative evidence synthesis can be defined as the systematic and thoughtful pulling together of research insights generated in primary qualitative research papers reporting on similar topics of interest. This entry introduces researchers from a range of different disciplines to the methodological area of meta-level qualitative research. It showcases th... Read More
Acknowledgements
For a full list of Foundations Editors & Associate Editors, and Editorial Board Members,click here
