Editorial

Abstract

The number of research approaches, methods, skills and presentation formats available to a researcher could influence how prolific and productive he or she would be. Notwithstanding, our experience in this journal as well as other journals  indicates that quantitative survey research is overwhelmingly favoured in the Social and Management Science fields to the utter neglect of other useful and relevant approaches, methods and presentation formats (Moses, 2020). Though it is expected that quantitative survey designs should be popular with Social Scientists, by limiting all our research activities to this, we limit ourselves. And the truth is that even when a researcher collects large data by survey, it may be possible to present some quantitatively, some qualitatively, some as just data and others as short communication, map, research letter or technical paper.

Qualitative data is richer, time consuming, and less amenable to generalization whereas quantitative data is more efficient and better for testing hypotheses, but may miss contextual data (Warren, 2020). There are times to separate them and there are also times to combine them, time to strip a paper of all statistical encumbrances and time to give a paper wings with statistics; time to express an opinion based on existing data and time to comment on a published work.

To avail oneself of the opportunities inherent in using diverse methods and designs, the first logical step would be to know the options available and the journals that accept them. In this edition, a range of available options accepted by this journal and some other reputable journals on the publishing websites of Springer, Elsevier, Emerald, Taylor and Francis, Sage, IGI Global, Sabinet Publishers and Common Ground Research Network are presented below:

Research paper: This refers to a category of research articles presenting any type of research undertaken by an author or authors for the purpose of constructing or testing of a model or framework, action research, testing of data or validation of constructs, market research or surveys, empirical, scientific or clinical research. Each of the various types listed here would have some major or minor differences even when they grow from the same original data. For instance, in clinical research, experiments may require controls and this is possible not only in Psychology but in all other Social Science disciplines. Media Studies researchers commonly employ content analysis method, yet other social scientists studying manifest content of communication such as annual reports, historical documents, diaries and other publications can also adopt this method.