Resource Planning for Applied Research

  • Leonard Bickman
Chapter
Part of the Social Psychological Applications to Social Issues book series (SPAS, volume 2)

Abstract

Most books on research methods do not discuss the resources needed to conduct the research, nor is this topic usually covered in courses on research. However, applied research requires consideration of the realistic constraints on the research process. This chapter is intended to assist the researcher in dealing with the constraints imposed by limited resources common in almost all research. Before making final decisions about the specific design to use and the type of data collection procedures to employ, the investigator must take into account the resources available and the constraints on these resources. Planning and care in implementing the research can be as important as the research questions asked. This chapter will describe how to consider resource questions before making final design and data collection decisions. In particular, this chapter will consider the following resources:

  • Data. What are the sources of information needed and how will they be obtained?

  • Time. How much time is required to conduct the entire research project and its elements?

  • Personnel. How many researchers are needed and what are their skills?

  • Money. How much money is needed to plan and implement the research and in what categories It should be noted that this chapter, because of space limitations, cannot deal with the critical issue of where and how to obtain resources to conduct applied research. The reader is directed to other sources, such as Baron’s chapter in The Compleat Academic (1987), or the APA Guide to Research Support (Herring, 1987).

Keywords

Resource Planning Clock Time Time Budget Calendar Time Primary Data Collection 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1992

Authors and Affiliations

  • Leonard Bickman
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Psychology and Human DevelopmentVanderbilt UniversityNashvilleUSA

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