Times of (post) health crisis, global unrest, and political turmoil, a reliance on conventional methods, which potentially lack radical imagination and future orientation, experimentation, and open-endedness, might not be enough. Furthermore, within the discourses of conventional qualitative inquiry, methodological subjects are often seen as…

Social researchers have been adapting methods and practices in response to COVID-19. In the wake of these adaptations, but still in the midst of intersecting crises that the pandemic has exacerbated or shifted (e.g. health-social-political-economic), researchers face a future suffused with methodological uncertainties. This paper presents a…

In this article, the authors address some of the scientific challenges associated with using observation as a research method. The authors ask how researchers contextualise and understand observation in terms of its theoretical underpinnings and how it is conducted. Using a vignette in the kindergarten context, the authors explore how observation…

This article considers the multiple relations that emerge from and between Facebook commenters, as well as between commenters, researchers, and the research project during recruitment. To do so, we draw on our experiences of recruiting individuals who have concerns about or are opposed to a range of recent social and legal changes in…

This paper looks at the tension between the desire to claim predictive ability for Agent-Based Models (ABMs) and its extreme difficulty for social and ecological systems, suggesting that this is the main cause for the continuance of a rhetoric of prediction that is at odds with what is achievable. Following others, it recommends that it is better…

In this study, we introduce a critical assessment of methodological assumptions made by researchers when using correspondence tests to measure ethnic discrimination. We aim to investigate whether (1) the order in which the applications are sent out, between the test and control person, (2) the conducted matched triad tests, in comparison to…

Linking survey and social media data has gained popularity. However, obtaining consent from respondents to link social media is a known challenge. Using data from a nationally representative survey of the U.K. this study investigated whether respondents' a) activity frequency, b) activity variety and c) technical skills with smartphones are…

Research has documented numerous barriers to recruitment of marginalized individuals, including historic exploitation, distrust, and accessibility. Such challenges are commonly observed among racial minorities, unhoused individuals, and individuals with lower socioeconomic statuses. Public health researchers have led investigations on ways to…

This paper will explore the dichotomy of direction and stimulus through a reflection on arts-based methods used in a research study into post-industrial communities in South Wales and consider whether in participatory processes, a catalyst for artistic creativity could become construed as researcher-led control over the activities. Through an…

This paper argues that methodological uncertainty, such as that experienced by the social research community through the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2022) is, and has always been, a vital part of the research landscape. Whilst recognising the many damaging effects of the uncertainties of the pandemic on research and researchers, we home in on the…

Three quantitative methods are compared for their ability to understand different COVID-19 fatality ratios in 33 OECD countries. Linear regression provides a limited overview without sensitivity to the diversity of cases. Cluster Analysis and Dynamic Patterns Synthesis (DPS) gives scrutiny to the granularity of case similarities and differences,…

Despite their many benefits, longitudinal studies are much less common than one-time data collection or pre-post intervention designs. One reason for their scarcity is that longitudinal studies introduce requirements and challenges that non-longitudinal studies do not. One of the biggest challenges is participant attrition. In order to help…

Mailing campaigns are a way to keep longitudinal survey respondents engaged. While mailings usually include a survey answer request, sometimes respondents are contacted between-waves to update contact information or simply to keep respondent contact. Research on the actual impact of these between-wave contacts on response rates is scarce. This…

Previous research extensively studied reasons for and ways to avoid low response rates, but it largely ignored the primary research issue of the degree to which response rates matter, which we address. Methodological survey research on response rates has been concerned with how to increase responsiveness and with the effects of response rates on…

The global scale of COVID-19 has constrained academics from conducting much person-facing research. Reactively, trend is increasing for digital-based methodologies capturing already existing online data. Scholars often 'scrape' user-postings from internet forums using coding algorithms and text capture tools, before analysing data, drawing…