Market Research: Your Tool for Effective Communication

We've all heard (perhaps too many times) that we live in a global economy, where change has become constant, that we are bombarded by a multitude of messages and, as a result, suffer from a common ailment: information overload. While advances in technology have had a major role in bringing us to this point, they also provide us with the tools to fight back. No longer passive victims, we are now in charge. We search for the information we want and—with the flick of the remote control, a click of the mouse or by just tuning out—we delete what we don't want. For consumers of information, this works. For communicators, this doesn't.

Hayes, Michaela. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Research>Marketing

Measurement at the Speed of Business  

Who has time to do communication audits anymore? Only the lucky few. The author shows ways to find out everything you need to know, just as fast as you need to know it.

Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2005). Articles>Research>Methods>Surveys

A Meta-Analysis of Journal Articles Intersecting Issues of Internet and Gender    

The propagation and mainstream acceptance of the Internet has become a hot topic addressed in media, business, and scholarly environments. The gender implications of technology are studied in various ways across the disciplines of communications, gender studies, and technology and society. This study overviews and summarizes articles dealing with gender implications of the Internet in journals in these fields. The analysis identified 132 articles during the period of 1995-2003 in 28 publications in which frequencies, trends, and potential gaps were assessed using quantitative and qualitative meta-analysis. Most of the research in this area is being done in technology publications (59.7% of articles). Women's usage of the Internet is the most frequently studied level of participation. Results indicates that the survey method was the most predominant, but various qualitative methods are often employed. Notable themes included those of equal access yet unequal participation, the existence of both negative and positive aspects of the Internet, and the dichotomy of online/offline activities. The purpose of this study was to encourage interest in performing continued research on this topic as women's Internet access meets and exceeds that of men.

Royal, Cindy. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2005). Articles>Research>Technology>Gender

Obtaining Reprints--The Effects of Self-Addressed Return Labels    

This article compares the response rates for obtaining journal reprints from colleagues when the requests are made using postcards with or without a self-addressed return label. Higher response rates were obtained from the cards with the self-addressed return labels, and more women responded than did men, but these differences were not statistically significant.

Hartley, James. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2002). Articles>Research>Collaboration>Gender

Panel Discussion: STC-Sponsored Research in Progress  

This panel discussion reports on technical communication research in progress that is being sponsored by the STC. The research topics include an assessment of intentional learning techniques applied in an online environment, rhetorical study of the writing of a 19th century woman scientist, and a survey of the teaching of research methods in technical communication graduate programs. The researchers use both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Sanders, Scott P. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Research>TC

The Peter Effect in Early Experimental Education Research    

One of the signatures of scientific writing is its ability to present the claims of science as if they were "untouched by human hands." In the early years of experimental education, researchers achieved this by adopting a citational practice that led to the sedimentation of their cardinal method, the analysis of variance, and their standard for statistical significance, 0.05. This essentially divorces their statistical framework from its historical conditions of production. Researchers suppressed their own agency through the use of passive voice and nominalization. With their own agency out of the way, they imbued the methods, results, and presentational devices themselves with the active agency of the situation through the use of personification. Such a depiction creates the impression that the researchers and audience stand on equal epistemic ground as interested witnesses to the autonomous activity of a third party, the method, which churns out the brute facts of science.

Little, Joseph. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>Research>Statistics>Education

Planning for User Research Success

Planning is crucial if you want your user research efforts to be effective. You need to think about what information you need to gather, and why, before embarking on any research. Good planning, well communicated to the client or project, and followed by careful implementation will ensure your research is effective.

Szuc, Daniel and Gerry Gaffney. Apogee (2005). Articles>Usability>Research

Practitioners: What Research Should STC Fund to Help You at Work?  

This panel discussion is an open forum moderated by the STC Research Grants Committee; its goal is to elicit and discuss suggestions from STC members for research areas and topics the STC should sponsor. The input will help guide the members of the Research Grants Committee as they decide which research proposals to approve during the next year.

Rosenbaum, Stephanie L. and Janice C. 'Ginny' Redish. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Research>TC

Problems and Joys of Reading Research Papers for Practitioner Purposes  

Discusses reasons that practitioners read research papers and the obstacles that they face when reading research papers. Jarrett provides several examples and suggestions for improving the accessibility of research papers for practitioners. Her suggestions include writing clear titles, ensuring that the abstract states the study population and limitations of the study, and ensuring that the conclusions are written clearly. She also discusses her criteria for determining whether or not a research paper is relevant to her work.

Jarrett, Caroline. Journal of Usability Studies (2007). Articles>Publishing>Research>Writing

Promoting Access to Public Research Data for Scientific, Economic, and Social Development    

Access to and sharing of data are essential for the conduct and advancement of science. This article argues that publicly funded research data should be openly available to the maximum extent possible. To seize upon advancements of cyberinfrastructure and the explosion of data in a range of scientific disciplines, this access to and sharing of publicly funded data must be advanced within an international framework, beyond technological solutions. The authors, members of an OECD Follow-up Group, present their research findings, based closely on their report to OECD, on key issues in data access, as well as operating principles and management aspects necessary to successful data access regimes.

Arzberger, P., P. Schroeder, A. Beaulieu, G. Bowker, K. Casey, L. Laaksonen, D. Moorman, P. Uhlir and P. Wouters. Data Science Journal (2004). Articles>Publishing>Research>Scientific Communication

Protecting the Voices of Our Research: Appropriately Verifying Qualitative Data    

Although discussion of composition research methods over the last 10 years has culminated in Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) guidelines, these guidelines do not include procedures for verifying qualitative data. Such procedures would entail having a third party check to some degree that the researcher spent the time claimed at the site and that the subjects did what was described and said what was quoted in the published research. This commentary reviews federal policies on research misconduct and government and professional association responses to data faking, noting the additional danger of incompetent investigations of research misconduct. Arguing that the discipline should take appropriate measures to verify qualitative data, I recommend a two-tiered approach.

Cross, Geoffrey A. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2004). Articles>Research>Methods

Quality Control in Scholarly Publishing on the Web  

As scholars and researchers, we are often called upon to separate the high-quality materials from the bad. What are the methods by which quality control is established and what are the indicators that allow a user to recognize the good materials?

Arms, William Y. Journal of Electronic Publishing (2002). Articles>Publishing>Research>Online

Reducing Reliance on Superstition

Probably the most well-known article in the fields of usability, user interface design and user experience is Miller’s 1956 paper entitled 'The magical number seven, plus or minus two.' It is incredible how this article has lasted for over 40 years, and still seems to influence many design decisions. More recent, better research is available, but not being used.

Bailey, Robert. Human Factors International (2000). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Research>Cognitive Psychology

Research And Technology Stem Overview  

The Research and Technology stem offers 47 sessions in the areas of usability, online documentation, hypertext and multimedia, the Internet, advancing technology, and academic research--including a few miscellaneous topics. As much as possible, the sessions in each area have been scheduled in different time slots.

Dean, Morris. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Usability>Research>Education

Research and Technology Stem Overview  

It's always interesting looking back at the evolution of a profession. By reviewing the past, you can gain new and important insight for the future. how to plan for multinational considerations, from document translation to user interfaces.

See, Edward J.P. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Technology>Research

Research Methods Course Work for Students Specializing in Business and Technical Communication    

Research activity is an integral component in the formation of professions. Evidence shows that business and technical communication specialists conduct research in both academic and practitioner career fields. In other disciplines, course work has been recognized as the primary means for preparing students to conduct and consume research. Yet, no publications document the status of research methods course work for U.S. students specializing in business and technical communication. This study provides a descriptive basis for assessing three areas in those courses: research methods topics, required readings, and teaching or assessment methods. An analysis of the results leads to a proposed agenda for preparing students specializing in business and technical communication for their future work roles in both academe and industry.

Campbell, Kim Sydow. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2000). Articles>Education>Research

Research Opportunities in the US Patent Record    

Although scarcely explored to date, US patent records provide numerous opportunities for research in technical and scientific communication. This article reviews disciplinary research that taps this rich archive of information, describes ways in which patents act as moral and social barometers to technological change, and provides readers with a brief guide to basic information needed to initiate research using patent records.

Durack, Katherine T. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>Research>Technology

Research Techniques For Technical Communicators  

Research in technical communication is similar to, yet often pragmatically different from, research in the sciences or the humanities. Researchers may gather information for practical writing projects and/or conduct long-term experiments to increase knowledge about a subject. They are required to use electronic media to discover printed sources, simulations, and demonstrations, yet they are encouraged to do much work 'on their own,' without electronic assistance. To work within technology, science, and communication, technical communicators need to develop a variety of qualitative and quantitative research skills.

Porter, Lynnette R. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Research>TC

Researching Internet-Based Populations: Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Survey Research, Online Questionnaire Authoring Software Packages, and Web Survey Services

This article examines some advantages and disadvantages of conducting online survey research. It explores current features, issues, pricing, and limitations associated with products and services, such as online questionnaire features and services to facilitate the online survey process, such as those offered by web survey businesses. The review shows that current online survey products and services can vary considerably in terms of available features, consumer costs, and limitations. It is concluded that online survey researchers should conduct a careful assessment of their research goals, research timeline, and financial situation before choosing a specific product or service.

Wright, Kevin B. JCMC (2005). Articles>Research>Methods>Surveys

Reviews in Biological Sciences published in Current Science: Ex Ante Versus Ex Post Facto Micro-Scientometrics

During 1990–2002, the journal Current Science has published 291 review articles: biological sciences 135, medical sciences 53, physical sciences 31, chemical sciences 30, agricultural sciences 27, and geological sciences 15. Author synchronous self-references in each biological sciences review article and diachronous Science Citation Index (SCI) citations per review article have correlation 0.4. Recency for synchronous self-references was six years and one month, whereas half-life considering diachronous SCI citations was two years and five months. Review articles receiving ten or more SCI citations are identified. Editors of science journals may take into consideration recency while approving review submissions.

Kalyane, V.L., Anil Kumar, Anil Sagar, Anjali Prabhu, C.R. Gaderao, E.R.Prakasan, Lalit Mohan, Nita Bhaskar, Rajiv Gupta, Sanjay Kumar Singh and Vijai Kumar. International Journal for Technical Communication (2008). Articles>Research>Publishing

The Rising Power of Research in the Boardroom

Reputation risk has become an increasingly important item on the boardroom agenda. Conscientious and/or beleaguered company directors are turning to research for a sense of the health of their world and, in turn, the measure of the responsibilities they must assume. Like a ‘wellperson clinic,’ objective and independent research is increasingly being used to test perceptions and expectations and monitor the weak signals or murmurs that may either support them or destroy them in the years, if not months, ahead. For the reluctant directors out there, new-style regulation is ensuring that being pessimistic is no way to run a company. Beyond tarnished personal reputations, the penalties for poor risk management and oversight can range from unlimited fines and censure to imprisonment.

Macleod, Sandra. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Research

Scholarly Information Architecture, 1989-2015  

If we were to start from scratch today to design a quality-controlled archive and distribution system for scientific and technical information, it could take a very different form from what has evolved in the past decade from pre-existing print infrastructure. Ultimately, we might expect some form of global knowledge network for research communications. Over the next decade, there are many technical and non-technical issues to address along the way, everything from identifying optimal formats and protocols for rendering, indexing, linking, querying, accessing, mining, and transmitting the information, to identifying sociological, legal, financial, and political obstacles to realization of ideal systems. What near-term advances can we expect in automated classification systems, authoring tools, and next-generation document formats to facilitate efficient data mining and long-term archival stability? How will the information be authenticated and quality controlled? What differences should be expected in the realization of these systems for different scientific research fields? Can recent technological advances provide not only more efficient means of accessing and navigating the information, but also more cost-effective means of authentication and quality control? Relevant experiences from open electronic distribution of research materials in physics and related disciplines during the past decade are used to illuminate these questions, and some of their implications for proposals to improve the implementation of peer review are then discussed.

Ginsparg, P. Data Science Journal (2004). Articles>Information Design>Research

Scientific Articles in Internet Homepages: Assumptions Upon Lay Audiences    

This article studies a set of scientific/technical articles published in Internet homepages. Focusing upon current trends on genre theory and the functional approach deployed by Halliday and Martin [1], linguistic features and schematic structure are analyzed in relation to more standard genres. The structural analysis suggests that these kind of texts imaginatively realize and assume the standpoint and main tenets of a lay audience that just consumes specific genres, most being analogous to the persuasive, manipulative, amusement-oriented genres of TV news stories, tabloids, and commercials. It is pondered that much of the "technological utopianism" (term used by Kling [2] surrounding the ever increasingly standardized Internet discourse turns the Internet into a productive vehicle to sustain technoscience as modern myth by spreading and forging that utopian imagery into the audience's consciousness, and that scientists are taking fruitful advantage of the utopian, futurist, and often sensationalist accounts of the Internet as a formidable frame to advertise themselves and the deeds achieved in their laboratories.

Gonzalez-Pueyo, Isabel and Alicia Redrado. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>Research>Publishing>Online