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General Issue with Section: Computer Assisted Multiple and Blended Research
Computer Assisted Multiple and Blended Research Methods
Edited by Eugenio De Gregorio (Sapienza University of Rome) and
Francesco Arcidiacono (University of Neuchâtel) with
Epilogue by Pat Bazeley (Research Support P/L and ACU)
ISBN 978-1-921348-04-4; ii + 132 pages; softcover; June 2008*
A special issue of International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches - vol 2/1
Mixed methods as a third methodological movement might have come of age, but it certainly hasn't yet reached maturity. While the focus of the literature to date has been on foundations and designs, several more 'growth spurts' from breakthroughs in conceptualisation and tools for implementation are needed. If analytic strategies will play a large part in these breakthroughs, developments in computing are likely to be major contributors to the process.
According to (Bazeley 2008), the integration of multiple research approaches in analysis typically involves one or more of the following processes:
- comparison or integration of results from separate analyses;
- employment of the results from analysis of one form of data in developing the design and/or analysis of another form of data;
- synthesis of data from a variety of sources for further interpretation;
- a combination of coded information from component data sources, to facilitate comparisons, and/or interpretation of one in the light of the other;
- conversion of information from one form to another (usually qualitative to quantitative coding);
- creation of blended variables to facilitate further analysis.
Papers in this issue provide examples of the ways in which computers can contribute to several multiple research approaches in analysis. In a field where analyses are limited, computer software's contribution to achieving integration in analysis is rarely reported. The examples and lessons learned by researchers reporting in Computer Assisted Multiple and Blended Research are of great value to mixed methodologists, CAQDAS researchers, practitioners, novice researchers and their supervisors alike.
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