The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods

This handbook provides comprehensive coverage of contemporary and developing Internet and online social research methods, spanning both quantitative and

qualitative research applications.

The editors have brought together leading names in the field of online research to give a thoroughly up to date commentary on current debates. The chapters cover both methodological and procedural themes, offering readers a sophisticated treatment of the practice and uses of Internet and online research that is grounded in research methodology. Beginning with an examination of the significance of the Internet as a research medium, the book goes on to cover research design, data capture, the survey, virtual ethnography, and the internet as an archival resource, and concludes by looking at potential directions for the future of Internet and online research.

The Handbook of Internet and Online Research Methods will be welcomed by anyone interested in the contemporary practice of computer-mediated research and scholarship. Postgraduates, researchers and methodologists from dicsplines across the social sciences will find this an inavlauble source of reference.

Nigel Fielding, BA (Sussex) MA (Kent) PhD (LSE), is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a member of the Community of Experts of the European Science Foundation, and served on the Mixed Methods Research Association’s presidential task force on the future of mixed methods.

His interests in research methodology include mixed methods, socio-spatial methods, qualitative software, interview methods, field observation, and digitally-mediated fieldwork. Nigel has authored/edited 27 books, many in research methodology, including The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods, Sage, 2018 (second edition), with Grant Blank and Ray Lee.

Raymond M. Lee is Emeritus Professor of Social Research Methods at Royal Holloway University of London. He has written extensively about a range of methodological topics. These include the problems and issues involved in research on ‘sensitive’ topics, research in physically dangerous environments, the use of unobtrusive measures, and the role of new technologies in the research process.  His current research focuses on the historical development of interviewing techniques.

Grant Blank is Survey Research Fellow at Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford. He is a sociologist who studies the social and cultural impact of the Internet and other new communication media. He is also interested in cultural sociology, especially reviews and cultural evaluation.Grant began his career as an independent consultant based in Chicago Illinois specializing in research design, statistical analysis, and database design. He previously taught at American University in Washington DC. He completed his PhD on the sociology of reviews at the University of Chicago in 1999, and joined OII in 2010.