Methods News

Welcome to Methods News! Stay up-to-date by reading methods-related news items and blog posts, contribute to Methods News by sending us your article or subscribe to our mailing list to receive monthly updates.

Methods News aims to cover methodological developments in the social sciences and beyond, across all disciplines and sectors. Our articles include news stories from NCRM and its partners, plus updates and features from external organisations and individuals.


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Scientists are not superheroes, failure is a valid result

Concern has been growing in the past decade about published scientific claims that other laboratories can’t successfully replicate. Some of these studies are pretty silly – …

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NCRM training and events

To find out more about our training courses and events and to register please visit www.ncrm.ac.uk/training. New courses are continuously organised and added to the database. …

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Operationalising reflexivity - qualitative ethics in practice

Inspired by Guillemin and Gillam’s1  now classic article on reflexivity that introduced the seminal distinction between procedural ethics and ethics in practice, Tolich’s2 edited volume Qualitative …

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Is the educational What Works agenda working?

Knowing ‘what works’ in educational contexts, as in any of the social sciences, has always been problematic both in theory and in practice. The central idea …

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Implementing mixed mode surveys in Europe: opportunities and challenges

In February this year the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) hosted a meeting with survey research experts from different countries and backgrounds. The purpose …

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What is the impact of fieldwork effort on subpopulation estimates?

Over the last couple of years, NCRM has worked with TNS BMRB to derive a general model of the impact of fieldwork effort on those total …

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Putting data science in the service of social science

The rise of social media has been important; that is no great revelation. It has wrought profound social change, buffeted our institutions and altered, for many …

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It is all in the sample: report of the inquiry into the 2015 British general election

In the months and weeks leading up to the 2015 general election, the opinion polls told a consistent story; the Conservatives and Labour were tied in …