Research<>Relevance in 2022

A new year, now what?

I don’t need to tell you that the social world is in the midst of upheaval: you are living it. At home and in our communities, at work, at school and university things are profoundly different from the pre-pandemic era. Clearly nothing will go back to normal. There is no going back, and normal is being re-defined by the day. As researchers, academics, methods faculty, research supervisors, and academic writers, we are far from immune. In fact, these changes mean we are needed more than ever! Rigorous empirical research and thoughtful interpretation are essential as we try to understand contemporary issues, find solutions to real problems, and communicate what we have learned. In other words, we need to be relevant, and demonstrate our relevance. Collectively, as a research community, we need to move beyond our proverbial ivory towers and contribute what we can to our hurting world.

“Relevance: A close connection with the subject you are discussing or the situation you are in. The fact of being valuable and useful to people in their lives and work”

— Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

In 2022 Methodspace will be a hub for resources, guidance, motivation, and thought-provoking discussion about these issues. You can find the series outlined here. Some key questions will underpin each month’s focus:

What problems and issues are most relevant to study right now? What merits scholarly attention? Who has a voice in the process of defining research problems?
What methodologies, methods, theories, are needed to study these problems? Do we need new approaches?
How do we communicate relevant findings in ways that help other scholars further or expand on the research - across disciplines, across the globe? How do we communicate relevant findings to professionals, practitioners, and/or the general public?

Let’s get started!

Follow Methodspace in January for diverse perspectives on research relevance with a rich collection of guest posts and video interviews.

Scholarly journals are a conduit for getting research out into the academic world. Editors and editorial board members from five SAGE journals have agreed to discuss research relevance: Research Ethics, Social Media + Society, Big Data & Society, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, and Journal of Mixed Methods. (FYI: The first four journals are open access as are selected articles from the Journal of Mixed Methods. Follow Methodspace to find video interviews posted throughout the month of January.) We will explore trends by looking at the most-read and most-cited articles in these journals.

Authors of new SAGE books will offer their ideas and tips about research relevance. You will find a video interview and guest posts from Mentors in Residence Frank Dane and Elliot Carhart, co-authors of Evaluating Research: Methodology for People Who Need to Read Research. In an interview with Kris Pasley, I will discuss the importance of emerging online methods and the new edition of Doing Qualitative Research Online. You can post your questions and participate in a live discussion on Twitter with Dahlia Remler and Gregg Van Ryzin, authors of Research Methods in Practice on January 27.