Written by experienced researchers, PhD supervisors and examiners, it should prepare the reader for all that can go wrong when researching a PhD or any large research project. This book addresses this important, and usually hidden, aspect of research by providing students and researchers with insider insights, advice and lessons about the difficulties in the research process. Textbooks and journal articles on research methods are rarely of help regarding what to do when your research project goes off track. It will be invaluable for doctoral and more experienced researchers grappling with the realities of undertaking research. Arranged as a series of chapters interspersed with vignettes the researchers’ stories provide the reader with insights into different facets and stages of the research process from finding a supervisor thorough designing surveys and conducting interviews and analysing data, to re-writing and dealing with feedback.

The result is an engaging read and a helpful and reassuring guide to the research process.

Drawing on real life experiences, researchers from post graduate research students to experienced professors will benefit from these insider insights, advice and lessons about the practical difficulties and how they may be addressed. In this research methods book, novice and experienced researchers tell stories of when things went wrong in their research projects. Research can be a lonely path and there are myriad challenges and problems to face with any research project.

How to keep on track