Being a Researcher

Book excerpt: The book covers what it is to be a researcher, in that being a researcher is different to carrying out research. The book’s aim is to inform and support researchers at all stages of their research practice to understand what of themselves is important to research and how recognition of personal characteristics, skills, motivations, and experiences can enhance both the quality of the research and its enjoyment. It does this by showing the techniques of research practice and discussing that these form only part of what is necessary for research to be good research, and that these aspects can be better understood and cultivated to aid becoming, and maintain being, a good researcher. The work highlights the value and importance of the person/people carrying out the research, showing that whilst there are tasks and systematic approaches that must be used, research quality is elevated and enhanced by understanding that it is not only what a researcher does, but who a researcher is that is just as important. The book will be multidisciplinary in its approach by demonstrating that this is the case whatever approach to research is employed. As such, the text will be useful to objective researchers seeking a neutral observational stance, subjective researchers regarding themself as central to, and often, an instrument of, the research, and to researchers who strive to be both subjective and objective, as in mixed methods research. By exploring characteristics, values and practices of researchers across different research approaches and in different settings, the book will consider researchers who are successful in their research and who enjoy doing it, researchers doing research as a requirement of their institution, and researchers who learn to love research against their expectations. Its emphasis throughout is on the person rather than the methods of research, with the aim of equipping readers to nurture and encourage the researcher within them. Each chapter takes as its focus an aspect of being a researcher and considers it first in general and then in more detail across different approaches. Each chapter will include reflections and insights from researchers in different fields gathered from interviews with them and salient points will be highlighted in and summarised with a Key Points section at the end of each chapter.