The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods, 2nd Edition

Online research methods are popular, dynamic and fast-changing. Following on from the great success of the first edition, published in 2008, The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods, Second Edition offers both updates of existing subject areas and new chapters covering more recent developments, such as social media, big data, data visualization and CAQDAS.

Bringing together the leading names in both qualitative and quantitative online research, this new edition is organised into nine sections:

1. Online Research Methods
2. Designing Online Research
3. Online Data Capture and Data Collection
4. The Online Survey
5. Digital Quantitative Analysis
6. Digital Text Analysis
7. Virtual Ethnography
8. Online Secondary Analysis: Resources and Methods
9. The Future of Online Social Research

The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods, Second Edition is an essential resource for anyone interested in the contemporary practice of computer-mediated research and scholarship.

Table of Contents

Part I – Online Research Methods
Chapter 1 – Online Research Methods in the Social Sciences: An Editorial Introduction

Part II – Designing Online Research
Chapter 2 – The Ethics of Online Research
Chapter 3 – Data Quality in Online Environments

Part III – Online Data Capture and Data Collection
Chapter 4 – Research Design and Tools for Online Research
Chapter 5 – Nonreactive Data Collection Online
Chapter 6 – What’s New? The Applications of Data Mining and Big Data in the Social Sciences
Chapter 7 – Of Instruments and Data: Social Media Uses, Abuses and Analysis
Chapter 8 – ‘Big Social Science’: Doing Big Data in the Social Sciences1

Part IV – The Online Survey
Chapter 9 – Overview: Online Surveys
Chapter 10 – Sampling Methods for Online Surveys
Chapter 11 – Online Survey Design
Chapter 12 – Online Survey Software
Chapter 13 – Improving the Effectiveness of Online Data Collection by Mixing Survey Modes

Part V – Digital Quantitative Analysis
Chapter 14 – Online Social Networks: Concepts for Data Collection and Analysis
Chapter 15 – Scale, Time, and Activity Patterns: Advanced Methods for the Analysis of Online Networks
Chapter 16 – Social Simulation and Online Research Methods
Chapter 17 – Games and Online Research Methods
Chapter 18 – Data Visualisation as an Emerging Tool for Online Research

Part VI – Digital Text Analysis
Chapter 19 – Online Tools for Content Analysis
Chapter 20 – Sentiment Analysis for Small and Big Data
Chapter 21 – Artificial Intelligence/Expert Systems and Online Research
Chapter 22 – The Blogosphere

Part VII – Virtual Ethnography
Chapter 23 – Ethnographies of Online Communities and Social Media: Modes, Varieties, Affordances
Chapter 24 – Online Interviewing
Chapter 25 – Online Focus Groups
Chapter 26 – Tools for Collaboration in Video-based Research
Chapter 27 – CAQDAS at a Crossroads: Affordances of Technology in an Online Environment

Part VIII – Online Secondary Analysis: Resources and Methods
Chapter 28 – Online Access to Quantitative Data Resources
Chapter 29 – Secondary Qualitative Analysis using Online Resources
Chapter 30 – Finding and Investigating Geographical Data Online
Chapter 31 – Mapping Spaces: Cartographic Representations of Online Data

Part IX – The Future of Online Social Research
Chapter 32 – Engaging Remote Marginalized Communities using Appropriate Online Research Methods
Chapter 33 – Web- and Phone-based Data Collection using Planned Missing Designs
Chapter 34 – Social Cartography and ‘Knowing Capitalism’: Critical Reflections on Social Research and the Geo-Spatial Web
Chapter 35 – Online Environments and the Future of Social Science Research
Chapter 36 – Online Research Methods and Social Theory