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Qual Quant (2012) 46:14931504
DOI 10.1007/s11135-011-9463-8
Michael Crowe Lorraine Sheppard
Published online: 18 March 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract The mind maps represent the authors concept of research methods at this time. The major aspects, rather than a complete picture, of research methods are illustrated in seven distinct areas: research problem, research design, sampling techniques, ethical matters, data collection, data analysis, and report ndings. Brief descriptions explain the mind maps and why items were placed in certain areas where as traditionally they may have been placed else where. The mind maps show that although decisions made in one area of research methods may affect decisions made in another, there is no pre-determined connection between each area and the research design chosen. The mind maps can be used to as a guide to teach, supervise, and chart a way though the concepts of research methods and may help to produce more robust research.
Keywords Research methods Research design Research ethics
Data collection Data analysis Publishing
1 Introduction
As part of a study into research methods, for teaching and research purposes, it was dif-cult to conceptualise the whole topic so that it could be fully explored for the research and explained to research students. Although research methods information is readily available in text books, journals, and websites there was nothing available that brought the information
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11135-011-9463-8
Web End =10.1007/s11135-011-9463-8 ) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
M. Crowe (B) L. Sheppard
James Cook University, Townsville, Australia e-mail: [email protected]: http://www.jcu.edu.au
L. Sheppard
University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Mind mapping research methods
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into a coherent, easy to manage whole. As a result, it was decided to use mind maps to visualise the complexities and extent of research methods.
Mind maps were chosen because they can represent ideas that are linked around a central theme. There are also very few rules to creating mind maps and it has been said that the main rule is simply to bring your brain and imagination (Buzan and Abbott 2005). It is this lack of rules that makes creating mind maps an easy and natural method of organising and visualising complex data, such...