Methods Sections

This week, students are working on drafts of the methods section for our paper. As I tell my doctoral students, this section of the dissertation (or journal article) needs to be so precise, another researcher can pick it up and run your study for you. It therefore reads almost like a recipe, covering everything methodologically from A to Z.

For example, it does not help/inform another researcher to read the following:

'Participants included 50 students from a local high school.'

Conversely, the following statement is quite informative:

'A convenience sample of 50 students meeting study inclusion criteria was taken from the local high school best replicating the population. Inclusion criteria were: 1) ---------- 2) -------- and 3) --------. The sample was obtained over the course of two researcher visits to the high school. Upon receiving IRB, School Board, and Principal permission (see Appendix A, for permissions), the researcher presented an overview of the study and the requirements for participation during two after-school sessions identified by Principal and researcher as frequented by the majority of students. See Appendix B for the script used by the researcher in recruiting participants at both of these sessions. The researcher then used a pencil/paper sign up process following each afterschool presentation and next contacted those students expressing an interest in participating via email, to check that students met inclusion criteria and to direct students as to how to proceed with study participation.'

Once again, the devil is in the details ;-)

AES