Doing Real World Research in Sports Studies

Traditional research methods textbooks tend to present an idealized and simplistic picture of the research process. This ground-breaking text however, features leading international sport researchers explaining how they actually carried out their real life research projects, highlighting the practical day-to-day problems, false starts and setbacks that are a normal part of the research process.

This book focuses on ten pieces of research that have made a distinctive and valuable contribution to the study of sport. For each one the author of that research explains how the project was conducted and the issues that they faced. In addition, each piece of research has a commentary from a leading sport scholar outlining why it is regarded as being an important contribution to the discipline of sport studies and how that research can inform studies being carried out today.

Contributors to the book describe how in their own real life research projects, they

• initially conceptualized and defined their research projects
• secured funding and/or sponsorship from relevant bodies
• handled enforced changes to the research plans
• confronted/overcame obstacles presented by outside bodies
• managed inter-personal/emotional relationships in the research encounter
• managed possible threats to their personal safety or physical integrity
• managed good luck, bad luck and serendipitous findings
• dealt with favourable and hostile media reaction to research findings.

Doing Real World Research in Sport Studies enables students and researchers to develop a more realistic understanding of what the research process actually involves. It charts the development of key research projects in sport and should be essential reading for any sport research methods course.

Andy Smith is Professor of Sport and Physical Activity and Associate Head of the Department of Sport and Physical Activity at Edge Hill university, where he is also Director of the Social Science of Sport Research Group. He is Co-Editor of the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics.

Ivan Waddington is a Visiting Professor at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, and the University of Chester. He is a recognised expert on drug use in sport and is the author of Sport, Health and Drugs and co-author of An Introduction to Drugs in Sport (with Andy Smith).