For many years Research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human services professions supported social sciences researchers and human services professionals with a comprehensive, local and easy-to-use research guide. The work in this updated and expanded edition continues to assist novice researchers as well as more experienced researchers, postgraduate students and academics with a range of methodological decisions required in planning, designing, executing and reporting on their research endeavours.

Although many salient features of the previous four successful editions have been retained, exciting new features have been added, including material to support lecturers who teach research courses. The unique structure of the book, consisting of different sections highlighting methodological decisions common to both the qualitative and quantitative approaches, those unique to qualitative and quantitative research and those which combine these approaches, have been developed from decades of work with postgraduate students and practitioner-researchers. New content includes a focus on the growing impetus of ethical conduct in research with human participants; debates and developments in the field of big data sets; and the latest trends in thematic and narrative inquiry, as well as contemporary data collection methods.

The purpose of Research At Grass Roots is to accompany the novice researcher, in both the social sciences and human service professions, step by step through the research process. The description of the research process is probably unique in that this view has been developed over at least two decades through work with postgraduate students. The section for experienced researchers is less structured and discusses current topics of interest such as evaluation research, intervention research, participatory action research, and analysis of concepts such as evidence-based practice.

The interplay between scientific theory and research, and between research and professional practice, has once again been highlighted. This encompasses important debates for experienced researchers and practitioners, including crucial concepts for novice researchers to master as early as possible in their academic careers.

The section dealing with different models for combining quantitative and qualitative styles of research has been updated to include recent debates and developments in the field of mixed methods designs. Both sections dealing with qualitative and quantitative designs and analysis have been substantially revised and updated. We have included contributions from experienced researchers such as Prof. Willem Schurink, a qualitative researcher and doctoral supervisor, Prof. Wim Roestenburg, a senior academic and researcher, and Dr Allen Bartley, an international contributor and expert in statistical analysis. Prof. Minrie Greeff has again provided insight from her vast experience of research interviewing. Salient features of the previous three editions have been retained in order to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of current users of this very successful book.