Research Methods in Physical Activity

fifth edition: Jerry R. Thomas, Jack K. Nelson, Stephen J. Silverman. Human Kinetics 2005. 456 pages hardback, large format. ISBN 0-7360-5620-3

Many people without formal training mistake the nature of research, its purpose and method, supposing that its object is to support existing belief, particularly their own. Published research which runs counter to their belief is rejected. An example: weight training must improve your performance in sport – obvious, isn't it? So when a study shows that it increases strength but without a concomitant performance gain, the believers conclude, not that the old theory has been superseded, but that the research must be flawed.

If they‘d read this book, then these people might be persuaded to start from a different point of view. For a start, the object of research is ‘to determine how things are as compared to how they might be ' – which eliminates the role of a tenaciously-held prior belief system. The research will be systematic, logical, empirical, reductive and replicable.

Probably the hardest part is identifying a researchable problem. Then, after reading the available literature you might find that what you wanted to do has been done already – but that you've been pointed in another direction where the scenery is just as attractive. Confirming a theory is often more satisfying than disproving an existing one, and may lead us towards the underlying mechanisms. Results can explain why something happened, not merely that it did : ‘Look for basic causes, not just effects'.

The review of existing literature which any prospective research must compile and write can (as readers of this journal will know) become a useful piece of research in its own right. In this book the veriest novice is catered for, but the more experienced can gain something. Ethics, statistics, analysis and surveys are covered with equal thoroughness and skill. One of the principal ethical dilemmas facing research today concerns the pressure to produce results that favour the commercial success of the people providing your funding. Corporations employ researchers to come up with the right result for the marketing campaign. Every kind of research – historical, philosophic, experimental, qualitative – is offered here, along with detailed advice on writing the paper – or what Americans call the report.

The text is a model of what it advocates: it is clear, scientific and appropriate. It eschews jargon and is readable to the point of actual enjoyment, despite the fact that some of the material is unavoidably difficult – statistical research, relationships among variables, and other quite heavy stuff. Indeed, the three pages on avoiding circumlocution and jargon (‘in my opinion it is not an unjustifiable assumption that' = ‘I think'), essentials of good writing, and examples of unclear writing, are excellent. The writers of this book practise what they preach, but my experience of people's wish to sound impressive leads me to suppose that few others will.

There are appendices with random numbers and sample informed-consent forms, 16 pages of references, and good author and subject indexes.

The authors, recognising that students will probably respond to a little lighthearted joshing, have peppered the text with a range of humorous material, jokes and photos. Some of them are very funny and some aren't quite as witty as the authors think. There's the classic computer error in which the students' locker numbers got printed in the column for IQs, with the result that the students with the highest locker numbers got the best grades; quotes about perfect correlation (‘It's like déjà vu all over again'); and a rather laboured two pages on memory span throughout life. But on the whole it's erring on the right side: the lecturers who included jokes usually got my vote.

Ramin Minovi