The complex interactions between human and physical systems confronting social scientists and policymakers pose unique conceptual, methodological, and practical complications when ‘doing research’. Graduate students in a broad range of related fields need to learn how to tackle the discipline-specific issues of space, place, and scale as they propose and perform research in the spatial sciences. This practical textbook and overview blends plenty of concrete examples of spatial research and case studies to familiarize readers with the research process as it demystifies and exemplifies how to really do it. The appendix contains both completed and in-progress proposals for MA and PhD theses and dissertations. Emphasizing research as a learning and experiential process while providing students with the encouragement and skills needed for success in proposal writing, "Research Design and Proposal Writing in Spatial Science" can serve as a textbook for graduate-level research-design courses, as well as for undergraduate-level project-based spatial science courses.
Keywords: proposal writing, grant writing, research, geography, spatial science
Jay D. Gatrell is Dean of the College of Graduate and Professional Studies and member of the geography faculty. Previously, he served as associate dean for budget & research in the College of Arts & Sciences. Jay has held appointments as the social science education, interim sociology chair, and an administrative fellow. Additionally, he serves as the editor of Applied Geography (2008-present) and the Book Review Editor (2006-2010) for The Professional Geographer, series co-editor for Springer’s Geo-Technologies and the Environment, and on the editorial boards of The Professional Geographer (2005-2008), RSAI's Regional Science Policy & Practice (2008-present), Open Journal of Geography (2007-present), and The Industrial Geographer (2002-present). In 2007, Dr. Gatrell was recognized by the Association of American Geographers' Regional Development Planning Specialty Group as a Distinguished Scholar and was awarded ISU’s faculty award for the Community-based Scholarship.
Prior to coming to ISU, he held the position of Assistant Professor of Geography at Wright State University and served as a Faculty Associate at the WSU Center for Urban and Public Affairs during the 1999-2000 academic year. He earned a Ph.D. in geography from West Virginia University, M.A. in geography at The University of Toledo, and a B.S., magna cum laude, in political science from Eastern Michigan University. While in graduate school, he served as a teaching assistant (1994-1995 UT, 1996-1997 WVU), GIS research assistant/intern (1995-1996, UT GIS Center), and research assistant/associate for WV EPSCoR program (1997-1999).
