Research Methodology and Design

This page will outline library resources to learn about seminal authors in research design and methodology, especially helpful for those in ERD-8400, week 8. 

• Mixed Methods Research: Creswell
• Action Research: Kurt Lewin
• Case Study: Yin or Stake
• Grounded Theory: Charmaz, Glaser, and Strauss, or Corbin and Strauss
• Narrative Inquiry: Connelly and Clandinin
• Phenomenology: van Manen or Moustakas

Please note that this list is not exhaustive; there may be additional seminal authors related to specific designs or disciplines. For more on the process of locating seminal works, see the Finding Seminal Works Guide.

To learn more about research methodology and design, see the Methodology & Design Guide.

FAQ: How do I find seminal works on qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research design?

Kurt Lewin is a seminal figure in Action Research. For additional resources see our Action Research page. 

Unfortunately, neither seminal text is available, however, have the following alternatives linked below.

Also see our Case Study page of the Research Methods & Design Guide.

Supplemental resources (especially books) are not necessarily in the Library, and might require that you obtain them through your local public or college library. You can search WorldCat.org to see if a library near you owns the book. Search for the book, then on the book summary page enter your ZIP code in the "Enter your location" box to see if any local libraries own the title. Alternatively, you might want to consider renting or purchasing this book through Amazon, or another online book vendor. Click here to view the options available from Amazon. 

To find other publications by Robert K. Yin, we recommend searching by author in NavigatorSearch. Click here to access a search limited to the author and full-text resources (articles, book chapters, reports, etc.). Finally, we recommend using SAGE Research Methods to locate full-text e-books on case study research. To access SAGE Research Methods, go to Research Resources and select A-Z Databases. 

External resources:

From the Google Scholar search results, please see Stake, R. E. (1978). The case study method in social inquiry. Educational researcher, 7(2), 5-8. (attached)

See below for Glaser, Staruss and Corbin. Also check out our NavigatorSearch results for Grounded Theory here. 

Charmaz is unfortunately not available, however we have secondary resources in this NavigatorSearch here. 

John W. Creswell is an American academic known for his work in mixed methods research. He has written numerous journal articles and books on mixed methods research, research methods, and qualitative research. He also founded the SAGE journal, the Journal of Mixed Methods Research.

We do not have the following book: Creswell, J.W., & Creswell, J.D. (2018). Research design: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE. 

• Doctoral students will have access to this text on their individual Bookshelf in Brightspace.
• Otherwise, please see the Google Books preview for this text to locate a chapter to request free of charge through our Interlibrary Loan Service.

Creswell has also authored Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Traditions available in the NU Library (1998 edition) . 

Unfortunately, the seminal text by both authors is not available. However, we do have a seminal text by Clandinin alone.

Please see our NavigatorSearch for Narrative Inquiry, here. 

See recommendations below: