The article examines the ethics and case law associated with the "works for hire" principle concerning institutional or researcher ownership of research data. Institutions are encouraged to clearly state their policies regarding ownership of data. Guidelines for such a policy are presented. (Author/DB)

Contends that sociologists confront criticism of the nature and ends of sociological research and ethical dilemmas in the study of social problems and people. Provides suggestions for ending neocolonial attitudes among social science researchers. (CFR)

Recent years have witnessed the rapid rise of a new educational research orthodoxy in the UK and the USA. Central to that orthodoxy are the assumptions that method can ensure objectivity in research, and that more objective 'safe' research to inform practice is needed. But educational research is a field made up of overlapping communities of…

Ethnographers find themselves among a family of researchers referred to as naturalists. This rather diverse family conducts research described by turns as qualitative, participant observational, case study, symbolic interactionist, phenomenological, constructivist, and interpretive. The focus of the ethnographer's inquiry is on the mundane,…

The key to the success of decision support systems will be the way that institutional researchers integrate the variety of specific and personal systems into a viable and coordinated institutionwide system. (Author/MLW)

Suggests a method for introducing university students to the notion that apparently straight-forward scientific research may contain ideological flaws. Explores researchers who have undertaken debates in their literature and classifies their ideologies as either aware or unaware. (Author/KC)

Addresses the problem of research formulation for the inexperienced. Provides a model for geographic research, and identifies types of research problems. Discusses problem definition utilizing both the inductive and deductive method; literature searches; the data base; and methodology. Explores the role of theory, the theorizing process, and…

The paper deals with the contribution of empirical psychology to the problems of instruction and proposes a conceptual framework to promote helpful interactions between experimenters and teachers of children with learning difficulties. Both groups share a common concern, the definition of tasks by testing instructions in action. (Author/DB)

University management is needed that is sensitive to the need for diversity; encourages autonomy among researchers; can communicate across the developing gap between management and researchers; and encourages both central, established research projects and more peripheral, exploratory ones. (Author/MSE)

The drawn ideas of inventors Edison and Bell are analyzed in a systematic way to help understand the inventive process and how inventors think. By storing sketches on a computer the researchers have been able to recreate the probable lines of reasoning used by the inventors. (KR)

Despite evidence that researchers seek information by intuitive, illogical means, librarians approach research in a static, product-oriented way. In performing searches for scholars, librarians need to understand the organic nature of research and facilitate online searching's capability to enhance that process. (CDD)

Discusses lack of integration between communication and educational technology research, and argues that theory and research must be reciprocal, that media research efforts will continue to produce limited observations without acknowledgement of commonality with communication, and that findings of previous media research need to be integrated…

The problems and usefulness of an evaluation plan used to evaluate the adult day care services at Parkside Human Services Corporation are examined in this report. After the initial agreed upon objectives of the evaluation are given, the basic problem of disagreement between practitioner and researcher on operation of the program during the…

Designed to assist in the study of techniques for and approaches to the evaluation of scientific research, this annotated bibliography of publications deals with qualitative and quantitative indicators of the quality of science. Entries are provided in the following categories: (1) bibliometric indicators of the quality of scientific research; (2)…

Although action research in education offers researchers and practitioners a clear and philosophically appealing way of making improvements, fostering learning, and developing the individual and the organization, adherents sometimes find themselves defending this type of research because it has been practiced without appropriate rigor. This book…