The investigation of the interactions between human and physical systems poses unique conceptual, methodological, and practical challenges. This book establishes a spatial science framework for policymakers, social scientists, and environmental researchers as they explore and analyze complex problems. The authors provide guidance for scientists, writers, and students across a broad range of fields on how to tackle discipline-specific issues of space, place, and scale as they propose and conduct research in the spatial sciences. This practical textbook and overview blends plenty of concrete examples of spatial research and case studies to familiarize readers with the research process, demystifying and illustrating how it is actually done. The appendix contains both completed and in-progress proposals for MA and PhD theses and dissertations, as well as successful research grants. By emphasizing research as a learning and experiential process, while providing students with the encouragement and skills needed for success in proposal writing, "Research Design and Proposal Writing in Spatial Science" can serve as a textbook for research-design or project-based courses at the upper-division undergraduate and graduate level.
A fine book. This is one of those monographs where I thought it would be OK. Perhaps interesting.
Actually this was excellent. Firstly, it offered a strong interdisciplinary presentation of spatial science, moving from the social sciences (geography) through to the experimental sciences (biology).
The presentation of research design is terrific. The chapter on literature reviews is a solid introductory guide. But most importantly, this book connects research design, research questions and research methods.
Excellent. Well written. The examples of proposals presented at the end of the book are also evocative.