field work research projects

What Is A Field Project?

Table of Contents

Imagine taking your classroom learning and turning it into action. Field projects involve going out into the real world, collecting data, conducting research, or implementing solutions to actual problems faced by communities or organizations.

Think studying animal behavior in a nature reserve, surveying public health access in a rural village, or even creating a community art installation!

Why Are Field Projects Awesome?

Well, besides the adventure and hands-on experience, they:

Connect you to real-world issues: You’ll be tackling problems that matter, not just hypothetical ones.
Boost your skills: From research and communication to teamwork and problem-solving, field projects are a learning goldmine.
Make a difference: Your work can have a positive impact on communities and organizations, leaving a lasting legacy.

How To Choose Relevant Field Project Topics?

Picking a field project topic can feel overwhelming, but don’t worry! Here’s a roadmap to guide you:

Ignite Your Passion
Interests: What sparks your curiosity? From wildlife conservation to urban development, pick something that excites you.
Skills: Leverage your strengths! Are you a data whiz or a communication pro? Match your skills to project needs.
Explore Real-World Needs
Community: Talk to local organizations or governments about challenges they face.
News & Trends: Stay informed about current issues that need solutions.
Feasibility & Impact
Resources: Can you access the necessary data, equipment, and support?
Impact: Will your project leave a positive and sustainable mark?
Get Creative & Collaborate
Think outside the box: Unique ideas often lead to the most impactful projects.
Team up: Partner with others to share expertise and resources.
Refine & Seek Guidance
Consult professors , mentors, or experts in your field.
Make sure your project aligns with ethical considerations and any required approvals.

Remember: Choosing a relevant field project topic is a journey, not a destination. Embrace exploration, ask questions, and don’t be afraid to adjust your ideas as you learn more. Most importantly, choose something that makes you excited to make a difference!

Social Sciences

Assess access to education and propose improvements in underprivileged areas.
Document cultural traditions and practices facing preservation challenges.
Analyze the impact of social media on mental health in specific communities.
Evaluate the effectiveness of government programs for poverty reduction.
Explore economic opportunities and challenges in developing regions.

Business & Technology

Research consumer preferences and behaviors in emerging markets.
Analyze the impact of new technologies on specific industries or communities.
Develop digital solutions to improve healthcare access in underserved areas.
Assess the effectiveness of marketing campaigns for local businesses.
Evaluate the feasibility of renewable energy implementation in specific regions.

Arts & Humanities

Create public art installations that address social issues.
Conduct oral history interviews to document personal experiences.
Preserve and restore historical landmarks or cultural artifacts.
Develop educational programs using local arts and heritage.
Analyze the impact of globalization on cultural identity.
Design and implement educational gardens in schools or community centers.
Research and document the history of a specific neighborhood or community.
Analyze the impact of tourism on local culture and environment.
Organize community events that promote cultural understanding and exchange.
Create a documentary film highlighting a local issue or story.

Practical Tips For Field Projects

Planning & preparation.

Define clear goals & objectives: What do you want to achieve? How will you measure success?
Develop a detailed timeline: Break down your project into manageable tasks and set realistic deadlines.
Secure necessary permits & approvals: Research and obtain any required permissions for your project activities.
Gather resources & equipment: Ensure you have all the tools and materials needed for your data collection and analysis.
Build a solid team (optional): Consider collaborating with others to share expertise and workload.
Be organized & meticulous: Document everything! Take clear notes, photographs, and detailed measurements.
Maintain ethical considerations: Respect privacy, obtain informed consent, and minimize harm to participants and the environment.
Adapt to unexpected situations: Be flexible and prepared to adjust your methods or schedule as needed.
Stay safe: Familiarize yourself with potential risks and take necessary precautions.
Build relationships & collaborate: Engage with local communities and stakeholders to gain insights and support.

Data Analysis & Reporting

Organize & clean your data: Ensure accuracy and consistency before analysis.
Choose appropriate analysis methods: Select techniques that align with your research questions and data type.
Interpret results carefully: Avoid overgeneralizing and acknowledge limitations of your study.
Create clear & concise reports: Communicate your findings effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Disseminate your findings: Share your results through presentations, publications, or community outreach activities.
Start small and scale up: Begin with a manageable project and gradually increase complexity as you gain experience.
Document your learning journey: Reflect on challenges, successes, and lessons learned throughout the project.
Celebrate your achievements: Recognize your hard work and the impact you’ve made.
Network & connect: Build relationships with other field project enthusiasts and professionals.

Resources To Consider For Field Projects

Funding & support.

Grants: National Science Foundation (NSF), Fulbright Program, National Geographic Society, etc.
Crowdfunding: Platforms like Kickstarter or GoFundMe.
Universities & Research Institutions: Check departmental grants, fellowships, or research support offices.
Non-profit organizations: Explore funding opportunities related to your project’s area.

Data & Research Tools

Government Data: Open-source datasets from national and local agencies (e.g., USGS, EPA, Census Bureau).
Academic Databases: JSTOR, ScienceDirect, ERIC, etc. (often accessible through university library subscriptions).
Online Survey Tools: SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, Qualtrics.
Data Analysis Software: R, Python, STATA, SPSS.

Collaboration & Networking

Professional Associations: Connect with experts in your field through relevant organizations.
Community Groups & NGOs: Partner with local organizations to address community needs.
Online Forums & Communities: Find like-minded individuals and groups on platforms like ResearchGate, Reddit, or Facebook groups.

Learning & Training

Workshops & Conferences: Attend specialized workshops or conferences related to your project topic.
Online Courses: Platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udemy offer courses on research methods, data analysis, and field project management.
Mentorship Programs: Connect with experienced researchers or professionals for guidance and support.

Project Management & Dissemination

Project Management Software : Trello, Asana, Monday.com.
Presentation & Design Tools: Canva, Prezi, Microsoft Office suite.
Open-Access Journals & Publications: Consider publishing your research findings in relevant journals.
Community Outreach Events: Organize presentations, workshops, or public events to share your findings.

Additional Resources

Field Project Database: Directory of past and ongoing field projects for inspiration and learning (e.g., National Geographic Field School).
Research Guides & Manuals: Find helpful resources on research methods, ethics, and writing research papers (e.g., Purdue Online Writing Lab).
Online Libraries & Repositories: Access research papers, datasets, and other resources from institutions like World Bank, WHO, and UN.

Remember, this is just a starting point. Explore, network, and utilize resources relevant to your specific project and field. Good luck on your field project adventure!

Start planning your field project adventure today! Explore the inspiring topics, practical tips, and valuable resources provided here. Remember, the key lies in aligning your passion with real-world needs. Be prepared, be flexible, and most importantly, be excited to make a difference!

Step by Step Guide on The Best Way to Finance Car

The Best Way on How to Get Fund For Business to Grow it Efficiently

What is Field Research: Definition, Methods, Examples and Advantages

What is Field Research?

Field research is defined as a qualitative method of data collection that aims to observe, interact and understand people while they are in a natural environment. For example, nature conservationists observe behavior of animals in their natural surroundings and the way they react to certain scenarios. In the same way, social scientists conducting field research may conduct interviews or observe people from a distance to understand how they behave in a social environment and how they react to situations around them.

Learn more about: Market Research

Field research encompasses a diverse range of social research methods including direct observation, limited participation, analysis of documents and other information, informal interviews, surveys etc. Although field research is generally characterized as qualitative research, it often involves multiple aspects of quantitative research in it.

Field research typically begins in a specific setting although the end objective of the study is to observe and analyze the specific behavior of a subject in that setting. The cause and effect of a certain behavior, though, is tough to analyze due to presence of multiple variables in a natural environment. Most of the data collection is based not entirely on cause and effect but mostly on correlation. While field research looks for correlation, the small sample size makes it difficult to establish a causal relationship between two or more variables.

LEARN ABOUT: Best Data Collection Tools

Methods of Field Research

Field research is typically conducted in 5 distinctive methods. They are:

Direct Observation

In this method, the data is collected via an observational method or subjects in a natural environment. In this method, the behavior or outcome of situation is not interfered in any way by the researcher. The advantage of direct observation is that it offers contextual data on people management , situations, interactions and the surroundings. This method of field research is widely used in a public setting or environment but not in a private environment as it raises an ethical dilemma.

Participant Observation

In this method of field research, the researcher is deeply involved in the research process, not just purely as an observer, but also as a participant. This method too is conducted in a natural environment but the only difference is the researcher gets involved in the discussions and can mould the direction of the discussions. In this method, researchers live in a comfortable environment with the participants of the research design , to make them comfortable and open up to in-depth discussions.

Ethnography

Ethnography is an expanded observation of social research and social perspective and the cultural values of an entire social setting. In ethnography, entire communities are observed objectively. For example, if a researcher would like to understand how an Amazon tribe lives their life and operates, he/she may chose to observe them or live amongst them and silently observe their day-to-day behavior.

LEARN ABOUT: Behavioral Targeting

Qualitative Interviews

Qualitative interviews are close-ended questions that are asked directly to the research subjects. The qualitative interviews could be either informal and conversational, semi-structured, standardized and open-ended or a mix of all the above three. This provides a wealth of data to the researcher that they can sort through. This also helps collect relational data. This method of field research can use a mix of one-on-one interviews, focus groups and text analysis .

LEARN ABOUT: Qualitative Interview

A case study research is an in-depth analysis of a person, situation or event. This method may look difficult to operate, however, it is one of the simplest ways of conducting research as it involves a deep dive and thorough understanding the data collection methods and inferring the data.

Steps in Conducting Field Research

Due to the nature of field research, the magnitude of timelines and costs involved, field research can be very tough to plan, implement and measure. Some basic steps in the management of field research are:

Build the Right Team: To be able to conduct field research, having the right team is important. The role of the researcher and any ancillary team members is very important and defining the tasks they have to carry out with defined relevant milestones is important. It is important that the upper management too is vested in the field research for its success.
Recruiting People for the Study: The success of the field research depends on the people that the study is being conducted on. Using sampling methods , it is important to derive the people that will be a part of the study.
Data Collection Methodology: As spoken in length about above, data collection methods for field research are varied. They could be a mix of surveys, interviews, case studies and observation. All these methods have to be chalked out and the milestones for each method too have to be chalked out at the outset. For example, in the case of a survey, the survey design is important that it is created and tested even before the research begins.
Site Visit: A site visit is important to the success of the field research and it is always conducted outside of traditional locations and in the actual natural environment of the respondent/s. Hence, planning a site visit alongwith the methods of data collection is important.
Data Analysis: Analysis of the data that is collected is important to validate the premise of the field research and decide the outcome of the field research.
Communicating Results: Once the data is analyzed, it is important to communicate the results to the stakeholders of the research so that it could be actioned upon.

LEARN ABOUT: Research Process Steps

Field Research Notes

Keeping an ethnographic record is very important in conducting field research. Field notes make up one of the most important aspects of the ethnographic record. The process of field notes begins as the researcher is involved in the observational research process that is to be written down later.

Types of Field Research Notes

The four different kinds of field notes are:

Job Notes: This method of taking notes is while the researcher is in the study. This could be in close proximity and in open sight with the subject in study. The notes here are short, concise and in condensed form that can be built on by the researcher later. Most researchers do not prefer this method though due to the fear of feeling that the respondent may not take them seriously.
Field Notes Proper: These notes are to be expanded on immediately after the completion of events. The notes have to be detailed and the words have to be as close to possible as the subject being studied.
Methodological Notes: These notes contain methods on the research methods used by the researcher, any new proposed research methods and the way to monitor their progress. Methodological notes can be kept with field notes or filed separately but they find their way to the end report of a study.
Journals and Diaries: This method of field notes is an insight into the life of the researcher. This tracks all aspects of the researchers life and helps eliminate the Halo effect or any research bias that may have cropped up during the field research.

LEARN ABOUT: Causal Research

Reasons to Conduct Field Research

Field research has been commonly used in the 20th century in the social sciences. But in general, it takes a lot of time to conduct and complete, is expensive and in a lot of cases invasive. So why then is this commonly used and is preferred by researchers to validate data? We look at 4 major reasons:

Overcoming lack of data: Field research resolves the major issue of gaps in data. Very often, there is limited to no data about a topic in study, especially in a specific environment analysis . The research problem might be known or suspected but there is no way to validate this without primary research and data. Conducting field research helps not only plug-in gaps in data but collect supporting material and hence is a preferred research method of researchers.
Understanding context of the study: In many cases, the data collected is adequate but field research is still conducted. This helps gain insight into the existing data. For example, if the data states that horses from a stable farm generally win races because the horses are pedigreed and the stable owner hires the best jockeys. But conducting field research can throw light into other factors that influence the success like quality of fodder and care provided and conducive weather conditions.
Increasing the quality of data: Since this research method uses more than one tool to collect data, the data is of higher quality. Inferences can be made from the data collected and can be statistically analyzed via the triangulation of data.
Collecting ancillary data: Field research puts the researchers in a position of localized thinking which opens them new lines of thinking. This can help collect data that the study didn’t account to collect.

LEARN ABOUT: Behavioral Research

Examples of Field Research

Some examples of field research are:

Decipher social metrics in a slum Purely by using observational methods and in-depth interviews, researchers can be part of a community to understand the social metrics and social hierarchy of a slum. This study can also understand the financial independence and day-to-day operational nuances of a slum. The analysis of this data can provide an insight into how different a slum is from structured societies.
U nderstand the impact of sports on a child’s development This method of field research takes multiple years to conduct and the sample size can be very large. The data analysis of this research provides insights into how the kids of different geographical locations and backgrounds respond to sports and the impact of sports on their all round development.
Study animal migration patterns Field research is used extensively to study flora and fauna. A major use case is scientists monitoring and studying animal migration patterns with the change of seasons. Field research helps collect data across years and that helps draw conclusions about how to safely expedite the safe passage of animals.

LEARN ABOUT: Social Communication Questionnaire

Advantages of Field Research

The advantages of field research are:

It is conducted in a real-world and natural environment where there is no tampering of variables and the environment is not doctored.
Due to the study being conducted in a comfortable environment, data can be collected even about ancillary topics.
The researcher gains a deep understanding into the research subjects due to the proximity to them and hence the research is extensive, thorough and accurate.

Disadvantages of Field Research

The disadvantages of field research are:

The studies are expensive and time-consuming and can take years to complete.
It is very difficult for the researcher to distance themselves from a bias in the research study.
The notes have to be exactly what the researcher says but the nomenclature is very tough to follow.
It is an interpretive method and this is subjective and entirely dependent on the ability of the researcher.
In this method, it is impossible to control external variables and this constantly alters the nature of the research.

LEARN ABOUT: 12 Best Tools for Researchers

MORE LIKE THIS

21 Best Customer Advocacy Software for Customers in 2024

Apr 19, 2024

10 Quantitative Data Analysis Software for Every Data Scientist

Apr 18, 2024

11 Best Enterprise Feedback Management Software in 2024

17 Best Online Reputation Management Software in 2024

Apr 17, 2024

How to Conduct Field Research Study? – A Complete Guide

There is a challenge in undergoing a research which involves a vast understanding of the environment and the study of subjects staying in that environment. Although the outcome of this study will help fill in the gaps evidently seen in the literature but the process involves a lot of planning. How does one plan such a humongous research study? In this article, we will discuss how to conduct a field research and what are the different methods used to streamline the field study !

Research is much more than performing the experiment and analyzing results. It involves gathering raw data and understanding the subject of research in its environment. These type of researches are more elaborate and are the reason for producing real information on a large scale.

Table of Contents

What is Field Research?

Field research is a process where data is collected through a qualitative method. The objective of field study is to observe and interpret the subject of study in its natural environment. It is used in the field of study of humans and health care professions. Furthermore, it connects theory and practical research study by qualitatively analyzing the data.

Why to Conduct Field Study?

Field study allows researchers to identify and observe the subjects and helps draw correlations between subjects and surroundings, and how the surroundings may influence the behavior.

It gives an in-depth information on subjects because they are observed and analyzed for a long period of time.

Field study allows researchers to fill the gaps in data which can be understood by conducting in-depth primary research.

How is a Field Research different from a Lab Research?

Different methods of field study research.

There are four main types of methods for conducting a field research .

1. Ethnographic Field Notes

This type of field work is particularly associated with field work that records and analyzes culture, society or community. Most commonly this method of research is used in social anthropology, societies and communities.

2. Qualitative Interviews

Qualitative interviews give researchers detailed information. This vast information is segregated in order to make inferences related to the sample group. This data is gathered by conducting interviews either informally, conversationally or in an open ended interview.

3. Direct Observation

Researchers gather information on their subjects through close visual observation. The researcher can record the observations and events as field notes holistically without a guided protocol. This form of research approach is termed as unstructured observation. However, in a structured observation the researcher uses a guide or set protocols to observe people and events. Furthermore, in direct observation the observer is detached and does not obstruct the research setup. It does not work as an alternative method for conducting field research , and rather works as an initial approach to understand the behavior of the research. This type of method is extensively used in fields of sociology and anthropology wherein the researchers focus on recording social life details in a setting, community, or society.

4. Participant Observation

In this research method, the researcher takes part in the everyday life of the members chosen for observation. This gives the observer a better understanding of the study. Additionally, these observation notes are a primary type of data which the researchers later develop into detailed field notes.

Steps to Conduct a Field Study

1. identify and acquire researchers of the field.

It is essential to acquire researchers who are specialized in the field of research. Moreover, their experience in the field will help them undergo the further steps of conducting the field research .

2. Identify the topic of research

Post acquiring the researcher, they will work on identifying the topic of research. The researchers are responsible for deciding what topic of research to focus on based on the gaps observed in the existing research literature.

3. Identify the right method of research

After fine tuning the research topic, researchers define the right method to approach the aim and objectives of the research.

4. Visit the site of the study and collect data

Based on the objectives, the observations begin. Observers/Researchers go on field and start collecting data either by visual observation, interviews or staying along with the subjects and experiencing their surroundings to get an in-depth understanding.

5. Analyze the data acquired

The researchers undergo the process of data analysis once the data is collected.

6. Communicate the results

The researchers document a detailed field study report , explaining the data and its outcome. Giving the field study a suitable conclusion.

Advantages of Field Study

The major advantage of field study is that the results represent a greater variety of situations and environments. Researchers yield a detailed data analysis which can be used as primary data for many different research hypotheses. Furthermore, field research has the ability to find newer social facts which the setting or community and the participants may be unaware of. Most importantly, there usually is no tampering of data or variable, as data is collected from the natural setting.

Disadvantages of Field Study

Various methods of field study involve researchers conducting research study and immersing themselves on the research field to gather data. This collection of data can be expensive and time consuming. Moreover, the information acquired is usually undertaken through observation of small groups and this may lack understanding and implications to the larger group of study.

Did you ever conduct a field research? How did you find the process? Which type of field research method did you use? Let us know about it in the comment below.

Rate this article Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Enago Academy's Most Popular Articles

Diversity and Inclusion
Trending Now

The Silent Struggle: Confronting gender bias in science funding

In the 1990s, Dr. Katalin Kariko’s pioneering mRNA research seemed destined for obscurity, doomed by…

Addressing Barriers in Academia: Navigating unconscious biases in the Ph.D. journey

In the journey of academia, a Ph.D. marks a transitional phase, like that of a…

Reporting Research

Research Interviews: An effective and insightful way of data collection

Research interviews play a pivotal role in collecting data for various academic, scientific, and professional…

Planning Your Data Collection: Designing methods for effective research

Planning your research is very important to obtain desirable results. In research, the relevance of…

Manuscripts & Grants

Unraveling Research Population and Sample: Understanding their role in statistical inference

Research population and sample serve as the cornerstones of any scientific inquiry. They hold the…

Whichever Universe, It’s Not So STRANGE to Be a DOCTOR of Philosophy! (It’s a…

6 Tips to Get Back to Lab Work After a Long Career Break

9 Great Tools to Maintain Lab Notebook for Researchers

How to Write an Exceptional Research Scholarship Motivation Letter

Sign-up to read more

Subscribe for free to get unrestricted access to all our resources on research writing and academic publishing including:

2000+ blog articles
50+ Webinars
10+ Expert podcasts
50+ Infographics
10+ Checklists
Research Guides

We hate spam too. We promise to protect your privacy and never spam you.

I am looking for Editing/ Proofreading services for my manuscript Tentative date of next journal submission:

What should universities' stance be on AI tools in research and academic writing?

Field work is the process of observing and collecting data about people, cultures, and natural environments

Biology, Ecology, Geography

Loading ...

Field work is the process of observing and collecting data about people, cultures , and natural environments . Field work is conducted in the wild of our everyday surroundings rather than in the semi-controlled environments of a lab or classroom. This allows researchers to collect data about the dynamic places, people, and species around them. Field work enables students and researchers to examine the way scientific theories interact with real life. Field work is important in both the social and natural sciences . Social sciences , such as economics or history , focus on people, culture, and society . Natural sciences, such as biology or chemistry , focus on physical characteristics of nature and natural environments. Social Science In anthropology , a researcher may do ethnographic field work, studying and describing the customs of different communities and cultures. Ethnographic field work dramatically changed the purpose and methods of anthropology. Early anthropologists collected ethnographic data from outside sources, usually leaders of the group they were studying, and then compared it to their theories. With this information, anthropologists tried to explain the origins of the cultures customs. By the early 20th century, however, anthropologists began to spend long periods of time in a particular community or geographic area. Rather than relying on outside sources, the anthropologists themselves recorded the activities and customs of local people. They listened to the peoples stories and participated in daily events. Anthropologists became active field workers, experiencing the everyday life of their subjects in order to explain the purpose of local institutions and cultural beliefs and practices. The National Geographic Society supports a variety of social science researchers and projects that use field work as a method of collecting data. One of National Geographics Explorers-in-Residence, Dr. Wade Davis , is an ethnobotanist . An ethnobotanist is someone who studies how different cultures understand and use plants as food , medicine , and in religious ceremonies. Davis spent more than three years in Latin America collecting and studying the plants that different indigenous groups use in their daily lives.

Field work can be conducted by groups of people as well as one individual. Participants in National Geographics Enduring Voices Project conduct field work by visiting and documenting areas of the world where indigenous languages are in danger of becoming extinct . Field workers in the Enduring Voices Project have recorded indigenous languages in places as diverse as Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, and Siberia. Davis and the Enduring Voices Project use field work to document and preserve local knowledge so we may all better understand the diversity of human experiences around the globe. Natural Science Field work is also used to understand how natural environments function. A researcher in the field of ecology , for example, may conduct field work to understand how specific organisms , such as plants and animals, relate to one another and to their physical surroundings. The work of Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands is an important example of field work in the natural sciences . After observing that finch populations on different islands had different types of beaks , Darwin theorized that each type of beak was adapted to the birds environment and diet . These observations, along with many others made on his voyage around South America, would lead Darwin to propose his theory of evolution by natural selection , a pillar of modern biology . A number of National Geographic-supported researchers and projects conduct field work to better understand Earths natural environments . Dr. Jenny Daltry, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer in 2005, is a herpetologist , someone who studies reptiles and amphibians . Daltry has traveled to remote regions of Cambodia and the Caribbean, observing and documenting rare species such as the Siamese crocodile and the Antiguan racer snake, known as the rarest snake in the world. She spent more than 400 nights camping on the Caribbean island of Antigua in order to understand the snakes' habitat , behavior , and predators . Daltrys field work helped establish the Antiguan Racer Conservation Project, which has successfully reintroduced the snake into the wild. A field work team from the Ocean Now project, supported by National Geographic, is studying and cataloguing information about healthy coral reef ecosystems . They are doing research in the Southern Line Islands , a remote island chain in the central Pacific Ocean. The project aims to better understand how healthy reefs function in order to help conserve reefs that have been endangered by human activity and climate change . Field work in the natural sciences , like that conducted by Daltry and the Ocean Now project, document the importance, complexity , and fragility of Earths natural environments .

Field Work, One Cubic Foot at a Time Photographer David Liittschwager crafted a 1-square-foot metal cube and placed it in a range of ecosystemsland and water, tropical and temperate, freshwater and marine. Over several weeks at each location, Liittschwager and a team of biologists found, identified, and photographed small creatures that passed through the cube. The result of their field work is an inventory of ecosystem diversity at our planet's surface and just below. The photos of these smaller, often unseen, species are showcased in the February 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine.

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Illustrators

Educator reviewer, last updated.

October 19, 2023

User Permissions

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service .

Interactives

Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.

Related Resources

Human Relations Area Files

Cultural information for education and research, an introduction to fieldwork and ethnography.

Return to Teaching eHRAF: Tile View | Table View

View exercise overview

Francine barone, human relations area files at yale university, ethnographic fieldwork.

Ethnographic fieldwork is how anthropologists gather data. Fieldwork is the process of immersing oneself in as many aspects of the daily cultural lives of people as possible in order to study their behaviors and interactions. Nearly any setting or location can become “the field”: a village along the Amazon river, a large corporate office in Tokyo, a small neighborhood café in Seattle, or even a social networking site like Facebook.

Fieldwork takes time. Anthropologists enter the field location much like a newborn child. They may have trouble communicating until they have learned the local language. They will likely make mistakes, and locals will find them funny or strange. It can take months or years to begin to accustom themselves to the society or community within which they will live and learn. In the fieldwork process, anthropologists eventually piece together ideas about kinship, language, religion, politics, and economic systems, which allows them to build a picture of the society.

Ethnography

Ethnography can mean two things in anthropology:

a) the qualitative research methods employed during fieldwork b) the written descriptive and interpretive results of that research

Doing ethnography

The hallmark method of ethnographic field research in anthropology is known as participant-observation . This type of data-gathering is when the anthropologist records their experiences and observations while taking part in activities alongside local participants or informants in the field site. Anthropologists also engage in informal conversations, more formal interviews, surveys, or questionnaires, and create photos, sound or video recordings, as well as conduct historical or archival research into correspondence, public records, or reports, depending on their research area. Some anthropologists use quantitative methods when analyzing their research, such as producing statistics based on their findings.

Writing ethnography

Ethnographic writing differs from other types of academic, historical, journalistic, or travel writing about peoples and places. While ethnographers may also keep a fieldwork diary containing personal notes, ethnography is much more than a recounting of daily events. Ethnography engages with the theoretical foundations of anthropology and is written with cultural contextualization in mind, speaking to anthropology as a discipline as well as furnishing greater understanding of the cultural world that has been explored. The aim of ethnographic writing is to produce work that contributes to, and advances, the comparative interpretation of human cultures and societies.

An insider’s view

Ethnography is a collaborative effort between the ethnographer and their research participants. Anthropologists have ethical codes that guide their behavior in the field as they rely on relationships with others in order to conduct their research. In the ethnographic process, informants or key participants can help to induct the ethnographer into the society and explain its customs and ways.

Traditionally, anthropologists have attempted to arrive at an emic perspective or “insider’s point of view”. In other words, ethnographers wish to understand the structures, categories, and patterns of behavior as conceptualized by members of the culture they are studying. This is contrasted with etic models, which are analyses of cultural meaning as seen from the “outside” by an objective observer. This uneasy simplification of emic vs. etic gets at the heart of the paradox of doing ethnography: what people say they do, what they say they should do, and what they actually do, rarely – if ever – coincide.

Anthropologists today are increasingly aware of their own views and biases that they carry with them into the field from their home cultures, acknowledging wherever possible how this affects their methods and findings. Despite all of the best intentions, any practicing fieldworker can tell you that fieldwork is, at best, unpredictable. A reflexive approach to ethnography acknowledges that no researcher can be 100% objective, and that fieldwork constitutes an ongoing dialogue of consent and mutual respect between participants and the ethnographer.

Workbook Activity 1: The Fieldwork Experience

Read the following passages in eHRAF World Cultures that describe different aspects of fieldwork and conducting ethnography. Then, answer the questions.

Malinowski (1922) – Argonauts of the Western Pacific , Chapter 1, Section VII, pages 17-21 on participant-observation

What is “the imponderabilia of actual life”?
How does Malinowski suggest that ethnographers should observe and record this imponderabilia during fieldwork?
According to Malinowski, why is it good for the ethnographer to sometimes put aside their notebook and camera?

Stross (1971) – Aspects of Language Acquisition by Tzeltal Children , “Appendix B: The Fieldwork”, pages 201-202 on data collection in the field

List the kinds of research methods that the ethnographer used during fieldwork.
How did he familiarize himself with the field location?
Describe the relationship(s) that the ethnographer had with informants.
What unexpected problems did the ethnographer run into? How were they resolved?

Textor (1973) – Roster of the Gods , Appendix One, pages 855-858 on working with key informants

Describe the relationship between the ethnographer and his informants.
How critical were the informants to completing the ethnographic research?
Do you think that learning the local language is essential for doing fieldwork?

Landsman (1988) – Sovereignty and Symbol , pages 7-8 on taking notes with informants

How did the emotions of informants/research participants impact the ethnographer’s fieldnotes?
How were historical, archival, print, and photographic materials utilized in their study? How did informants assist with this?
How critical do you think informants are to conducting ethnographic research?

Hill (1972) – Rural Hausa: A Village and Setting , page 148 on the anatomy of poverty

What do you think the author means by “the poor are usually unobserved”?
Are there some types of insights that are difficult or impossible to ascertain through participant-observation? Why might this be the case?
How do you think anthropologists should deal with sensitive information or vulnerable members of a culture?

Workbook Activity 2: Thinking Ethnographically

How would you observe the following cultural practices ethnographically?

Shopping in a bookstore
Traveling by public transportation
Ordering takeout from your favorite restaurant
Having coffee with friends at Starbucks

Choose one of these or select your own scenario. Write a brief ethnographic account of everyday events. Consider methods such as participant-observation, interviews, surveys, and engaging with informants. If you are unable to participate in these activities face-to-face, simply try and imagine how you would describe them to an outsider not familiar with your culture.

Begin by recording your “field notes”, keeping track of everything that you see and do, and what you observe others saying and doing.

Then, describe what’s happening from both emic and etic perspectives.

For the emic perspective , consider the activity you are engaged in and how it is viewed in your own culture. What are the established “rules” or patterns of each interaction that make up the scene you have chosen?

For example, at a café, you might find that one of your friends buys coffee for the entire group, which is fairly typical among friends. If asked why they have done so, the buyer may simply reply that “it’s a nice thing to do”, and indicate that someone else would pay next time.

For the etic perspective , look beyond your notes and step outside your own cultural expectations. What over-arching structures, symbols, or meaning are at play in this setting?

For example, why do you think people really take turns buying rounds of drinks? What happens if one person never pays for the coffee? Due to the fact that such a person would not be considered a good friend, an etic analysis might find that coffee exchange is meaningful for building and sustaining friendship rather than being about money.

Hill, Polly. 1972. Rural Hausa: A Village and Setting. Cambridge, England: University Press. https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ms12-018 .

Landsman, Gail H. 1988. Sovereignty and Symbol: Indian-White Conflict at Ganienkeh. Albuquerque, N.Mex.: University of New Mexico Press. https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nm09-058

Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd. https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ol06-001 .

Stross, Brian. 1971. Aspects of Language Acquisition by Tzeltal Children. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms. https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nv09-010 .

Textor, Robert B. 1973. “Roster of the Gods: An Ethnography of the Supernatural in a Thai Village.” In Ethnography Series, 3, 44, 911 leaves. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files. https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ao07-011 .

United States Institute of Peace

Home ▶ Publications

Getting to the Source: The Importance of Field Research

An academic and intellectual decline is inevitable without a post-pandemic revival of fieldwork.

Wednesday, April 7, 2021 / By: Alastair Reed, Ph.D. ; Boglarka Bozsogi

Publication Type: Analysis

Travel restrictions and social distancing practices put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have largely ground field research to a halt. Fieldwork plays an essential but often underappreciated role in both understanding violent extremism and developing policy responses to it. It is vital, therefore, that funders and policymakers support the return of such important work in a post-pandemic world.

Students from the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies conduct a research field visit in Sri Lanka. November 2017. (Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies/Wikimedia Commons)

Fieldwork brings important local perspectives to the fore, helping to contextualize conflicts within their wider ecosystems and societal and cultural realities. This forces researchers to challenge their preconceptions and theoretical assumptions as they come face to face with the realities on the ground. And, perhaps most importantly, fieldwork brings to life the human dimension — the human suffering and resilience of the communities affected by violence and the motivations and drivers of the violent actors.

Without understanding the view from the ground, we will continue to struggle to understand violent extremism and develop effective policy responses.

The Human Side

As many field researchers will admit, there is something about the smell and feel of a place that being on the ground provides and that reading reports and analyzing data cannot capture. On the ground, a researcher has the opportunity to diversify their primary sources and data. They can also better appreciate and absorb the context of the conflict. Without understanding the human side, the unique cultural and societal setting and the physical geography and climate, which together forge the contours within which the violence evolves, we can only have a partial understanding of the conflict ecosystem.

“The value of engagement with human beings cannot be underestimated,” Haroro Ingram, a senior research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University and member of the RESOLVE Research Advisory Council, told a recent RESOLVE Forum session.

Absorbing the context can help the researcher understand and interpret the collected data, but also to reinterpret what they learned from desk-based studies. The subjective experience of sharing is humbling; it offers an intellectual appreciation not only of the complexity on the ground but also of the breadth and depth of the literature and its gaps.

Researchers are only human and bring along preconceived perceptions, biases and assumptions — implicit or explicit — internalized from academic literature and media reports. Seeing the realities on the ground forces them to confront these preconceived assumptions and challenge, reinterpret or discard them. Theoretical explanations and conceptual analysis can only be tested when applied against the world they purport to explain. Field research gives us a chance to improve and develop our understanding, and a chance to glimpse the unknown unknowns, the missing factors that we cannot see or conceive from our academic ivory towers.

It is easy to overlook the human side — the victims of violence and conflict-affected communities that bear the brunt of the human tragedy of extremism — when researching a conflict from a distance. Observing and talking to the most affected communities reminds us of the horrors of war and the depths of depravity humanity can sink to. However, it also brings to light the human side of violent actors on all sides, an insight into the motivations and drivers that led them down the path to violence. Conflicts are ultimately about people; attempts to understand conflicts need to start with understanding the people that drive them. To do that, field researchers need to adopt a methodical approach, informed by the literature, and ensure their research and findings are triangulated, ethical and trustworthy.

“Mindanao, in the last 50 years, has experienced cycles of failed peace processes that international actors tried to support with a top-down understanding, often from a distance, in the absence of genuine bottom-up, grassroot perspectives,” said Ingram, who focuses his field research on the Middle East and Southeast Asia. “Since the most important actors in the grassroots population do not have electricity, let alone internet, the only effective outreach is getting to the source to build trust, engage with communities respectfully and learn of cultural subtleties through conversations. Collaborative effort, trust and the contribution to research can create actionable, nuanced and effective recommendations for policy and practice,” he added.

Contextual Understanding

Field research strengthens academic rigor, theories and methodologies, complements desk research and brings a different vantage point to understanding conflict. One constant risk in academic research is the tendency to be reductionist, and to focus on an isolated issue and miss the dynamic connections between it and its wider context. It can be appealing to zoom in on a particular violent extremist group and examine a singular aspect, such as ideology and group dynamics, rather than to see it as part of a complex ecosystem and dynamic processes. Conflict contexts often comprise multiple, interlinked armed actors, all influenced by and influencing each other. These contexts are further complicated by cross-cutting dynamics of ethnic, customary, kinship or religious dimensions.

Field research contextualizes the conflict and the issues that matter, helps understand drivers and motivations behind conflict actors and breaks free of embedded preconceptions. It can bring to life the unseen complexities: policemen fighting rebelling siblings, women fleeing insurgent cousins, parents losing children to armed groups, government officials persecuting family members as non-state actors. “People often said: ‘My brother joined that armed group, my cousin is in the police force,’” said Ingram, recalling conversations with locals in conflict areas that may seem, on the surface, to be absurd but that actually reflect a sober, clinical rational choice decision-making. Conflict ecosystems are invariably messy, counterintuitive and seemingly incomprehensible, yet remain the reality we seek to understand.

Sukanya Podder, defense studies senior lecturer at King’s College London and member of the RESOLVE Research Advisory Council, who also participated in the RESOLVE Forum session, conducted research in Mindanao, the Philippines, and Liberia where she focused on children and young people recruited into armed groups. Observing youth relationships with families and commanders in their communities, she was able to break free of preconceptions from media imagery and simplistic assumptions that children join community-based armed groups because they are drugged. Her fieldwork unearthed much more diverse motivations and choices: many children chose to join or decided to refrain of their own will.

Ethics and Safety

With any type of research, ethics and safety must be paramount. Fieldwork poses distinct challenges for each venue, context and participant. “Do no harm” should be the central principle of fieldwork planning to ensure the safety and integrity of researchers, respondents and their communities. Research fatigue is a growing issue that has negative implications on the quality of data. If respondents are wary about the benefits of research and are hesitant to participate, the authenticity of results is harder to determine. Researchers must be careful not to instrumentalize fieldwork and budget enough time and resources for in-depth quality research to produce authentic, reliable and valid data; this data should be periodically updated.

Getting approval from institutional review boards for fieldwork can often be challenging, and rightly so, but this rigor helps researchers address potential challenges and ensure the integrity of their research. While standards procedures, bureaucratic processes, reviews, clearances and preparations may seem taxing, they are indispensable for rich contributions of the highest integrity.

Strengthening Research and Policy

The effectiveness and ultimate success — however we choose to measure it — of policy approaches to countering violent extremism depend on a thorough understanding of the phenomenon they try to address. Sound research should be the rock on which good policy is built. Podder’s research in West Africa has informed disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs with a nuanced understanding of the implications of different types of armed groups. Returnees from community-based armed groups or community defense groups found reintegration less problematic, as reconciliation could be locally administered through local, tribal judicial processes. Such findings from field research can avoid wasting money on programs that cannot yield the desired outcome.

Our understanding of violent extremism has benefitted from an interdisciplinary research field where each discipline and method, qualitative and quantitative, brings a new lens to gathering and analyzing data. Collectively, this cross-pollination of research methods has allowed us to see further than one approach alone ever could. Within a complementary and overlapping web of methods, fieldwork has an important but sometimes overlooked role to play. Without a post-pandemic revival of fieldwork, an academic and intellectual decline is inevitable.

Boglarka Bozsogi is executive coordination and network manager at the RESOLVE Network housed at USIP.

Related Publications

Iran’s Attack and the New Escalatory Cycle in the Middle East

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

By: Robin Wright

The Middle East is entering a new phase after unprecedented attacks by Israel and Iran during the first two weeks of April. Robin Wright, a senior fellow at USIP and the Woodrow Wilson Center who has covered the region for a half century, explores what happened, the strategic implications, the political context and the divided world reaction.

Type: Question and Answer

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

Why Peace Games? Insights from East Asia

Thursday, April 11, 2024

By: Andrew Scobell, Ph.D. ; Frank Aum

These days, Washington seems to be awash in war games, especially China-related ones. Yet, despite the dangers posed by a great power conflict, there are shockingly few peace games happening inside the Beltway outside the auspices of our home institution, the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Type: Analysis

Linking Early Warning and Early Response Networks to Curb Violence in West Africa

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

By: Nate Haken; Patricia Taft Nasri; Nikita Reece

A conflict early warning and early response (EWER) ecosystem has been developing in West Africa as multilateral organizations, governments, civil society groups, and others have established systems that detect threats and provide critical information to relevant authorities. Yet individual EWER systems are prone to a range of failures—from gaps in data to decision-making bottlenecks to response coordination breakdowns. This report argues that linking individual systems—a network-of-networks approach—can improve outcomes for people across West Africa and serve as a model for other conflict-affected regions around the world.

Type: Peaceworks

The Growing Flashpoints Between the U.S. and Iran

Tension between Washington and Tehran has been a growing undercurrent of the war in Gaza, even as both countries tried to prevent it from sparking a direct confrontation during the first six months of fighting. Robin Wright, a joint fellow at USIP and the Wilson Center, explores the evolving flashpoints in the world’s most volatile region as well as the challenges for U.S. diplomacy, the new triggers for a wider regional conflagration and the historical backdrop.

Related Projects

RESOLVE Network; Researching Solutions to Violent Extremism

The RESOLVE Network is a global consortium of researchers and research organizations in agreement that factors contributing to community vulnerability and resilience to violent extremism are contextual.

Violent Extremism

Search Menu
Author Guidelines
Submission Site
Open Access
About International Studies Review
About the International Studies Association
Editorial Board
Advertising and Corporate Services
Journals Career Network
Self-Archiving Policy
Dispatch Dates
Journals on Oxford Academic
Books on Oxford Academic

Article Contents

Introduction, what is fieldwork, purpose of fieldwork, physical safety, mental wellbeing and affect, ethical considerations, remote fieldwork, concluding thoughts, acknowledgments, funder information.

< Previous

Field Research: A Graduate Student's Guide

Article contents
Figures & tables
Supplementary Data

Ezgi Irgil, Anne-Kathrin Kreft, Myunghee Lee, Charmaine N Willis, Kelebogile Zvobgo, Field Research: A Graduate Student's Guide, International Studies Review , Volume 23, Issue 4, December 2021, Pages 1495–1517, https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viab023

Permissions Icon Permissions

What is field research? Is it just for qualitative scholars? Must it be done in a foreign country? How much time in the field is “enough”? A lack of disciplinary consensus on what constitutes “field research” or “fieldwork” has left graduate students in political science underinformed and thus underequipped to leverage site-intensive research to address issues of interest and urgency across the subfields. Uneven training in Ph.D. programs has also left early-career researchers underprepared for the logistics of fieldwork, from developing networks and effective sampling strategies to building respondents’ trust, and related issues of funding, physical safety, mental health, research ethics, and crisis response. Based on the experience of five junior scholars, this paper offers answers to questions that graduate students puzzle over, often without the benefit of others’ “lessons learned.” This practical guide engages theory and praxis, in support of an epistemologically and methodologically pluralistic discipline.

¿Qué es la investigación de campo? ¿Es solo para académicos cualitativos? ¿Debe realizarse en un país extranjero? ¿Cuánto tiempo en el terreno es “suficiente”? La falta de consenso disciplinario con respecto a qué constituye la “investigación de campo” o el “trabajo de campo” ha causado que los estudiantes de posgrado en ciencias políticas estén poco informados y, por lo tanto, capacitados de manera insuficiente para aprovechar la investigación exhaustiva en el sitio con el objetivo de abordar los asuntos urgentes y de interés en los subcampos. La capacitación desigual en los programas de doctorado también ha provocado que los investigadores en las primeras etapas de su carrera estén poco preparados para la logística del trabajo de campo, desde desarrollar redes y estrategias de muestreo efectivas hasta generar la confianza de las personas que facilitan la información, y las cuestiones relacionadas con la financiación, la seguridad física, la salud mental, la ética de la investigación y la respuesta a las situaciones de crisis. Con base en la experiencia de cinco académicos novatos, este artículo ofrece respuestas a las preguntas que desconciertan a los estudiantes de posgrado, a menudo, sin el beneficio de las “lecciones aprendidas” de otras personas. Esta guía práctica incluye teoría y praxis, en apoyo de una disciplina pluralista desde el punto de vista epistemológico y metodológico.

En quoi consiste la recherche de terain ? Est-elle uniquement réservée aux chercheurs qualitatifs ? Doit-elle être effectuée dans un pays étranger ? Combien de temps faut-il passer sur le terrain pour que ce soit « suffisant » ? Le manque de consensus disciplinaire sur ce qui constitue une « recherche de terrain » ou un « travail de terrain » a laissé les étudiants diplômés en sciences politiques sous-informés et donc sous-équipés pour tirer parti des recherches de terrain intensives afin d'aborder les questions d'intérêt et d'urgence dans les sous-domaines. L'inégalité de formation des programmes de doctorat a mené à une préparation insuffisante des chercheurs en début de carrière à la logistique du travail de terrain, qu'il s'agisse du développement de réseaux et de stratégies d’échantillonnage efficaces, de l'acquisition de la confiance des personnes interrogées ou des questions de financement, de sécurité physique, de santé mentale, d’éthique de recherche et de réponse aux crises qui y sont associées. Cet article s'appuie sur l'expérience de cinq jeunes chercheurs pour proposer des réponses aux questions que les étudiants diplômés se posent, souvent sans bénéficier des « enseignements tirés » par les autres. Ce guide pratique engage théorie et pratique en soutien à une discipline épistémologiquement et méthodologiquement pluraliste.

Days before embarking on her first field research trip, a Ph.D. student worries about whether she will be able to collect the qualitative data that she needs for her dissertation. Despite sending dozens of emails, she has received only a handful of responses to her interview requests. She wonders if she will be able to gain more traction in-country. Meanwhile, in the midst of drafting her thesis proposal, an M.A. student speculates about the feasibility of his project, given a modest budget. Thousands of miles away from home, a postdoc is concerned about their safety, as protests erupt outside their window and state security forces descend into the streets.

These anecdotes provide a small glimpse into the concerns of early-career researchers undertaking significant projects with a field research component. Many of these fieldwork-related concerns arise from an unfortunate shortage in curricular offerings for qualitative and mixed-method research in political science graduate programs ( Emmons and Moravcsik 2020 ), 1 as well as the scarcity of instructional materials for qualitative and mixed-method research, relative to those available for quantitative research ( Elman, Kapiszewski, and Kirilova 2015 ; Kapiszewski, MacLean, and Read 2015 ; Mosley 2013 ). A recent survey among the leading United States Political Science programs in Comparative Politics and International Relations found that among graduate students who have carried out international fieldwork, 62 percent had not received any formal fieldwork training and only 20 percent felt very or mostly prepared for their fieldwork ( Schwartz and Cronin-Furman 2020 , 7–8). This shortfall in training and instruction means that many young researchers are underprepared for the logistics of fieldwork, from developing networks and effective sampling strategies to building respondents’ trust. In addition, there is a notable lack of preparation around issues of funding, physical safety, mental health, research ethics, and crisis response. This is troubling, as field research is highly valued and, in some parts of the field, it is all but expected, for instance in comparative politics.

Beyond subfield-specific expectations, research that leverages multiple types of data and methods, including fieldwork, is one of the ways that scholars throughout the discipline can more fully answer questions of interest and urgency. Indeed, multimethod work, a critical means by which scholars can parse and evaluate causal pathways, is on the rise ( Weller and Barnes 2016 ). The growing appearance of multimethod research in leading journals and university presses makes adequate training and preparation all the more significant ( Seawright 2016 ; Nexon 2019 ).

We are five political scientists interested in providing graduate students and other early-career researchers helpful resources for field research that we lacked when we first began our work. Each of us has recently completed or will soon complete a Ph.D. at a United States or Swedish university, though we come from many different national backgrounds. We have conducted field research in our home countries and abroad. From Colombia and Guatemala to the United States, from Europe to Turkey, and throughout East and Southeast Asia, we have spanned the globe to investigate civil society activism and transitional justice in post-violence societies, conflict-related sexual violence, social movements, authoritarianism and contentious politics, and the everyday politics and interactions between refugees and host-country citizens.

While some of us have studied in departments that offer strong training in field research methods, most of us have had to self-teach, learning through trial and error. Some of us have also been fortunate to participate in short courses and workshops hosted by universities such as the Consortium for Qualitative Research Methods and interdisciplinary institutions such as the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Recognizing that these opportunities are not available to or feasible for all, and hoping to ease the concerns of our more junior colleagues, we decided to compile our experiences and recommendations for first-time field researchers.

Our experiences in the field differ in several key respects, from the time we spent in the field to the locations we visited, and how we conducted our research. The diversity of our experiences, we hope, will help us reach and assist the broadest possible swath of graduate students interested in field research. Some of us have spent as little as ten days in a given country or as much as several months, in some instances visiting a given field site location just once and in other instances returning several times. At times, we have been able to plan weeks and months in advance. Other times, we have quickly arranged focus groups and impromptu interviews. Other times still, we have completed interviews virtually, when research participants were in remote locations or when we ourselves were unable to travel, of note during the coronavirus pandemic. We have worked in countries where we are fluent or have professional proficiency in the language, and in countries where we have relied on interpreters. We have worked in settings with precarious security as well as in locations that feel as comfortable as home. Our guide is not intended to be prescriptive or exhaustive. What we offer is a set of experience-based suggestions to be implemented as deemed relevant and appropriate by the researcher and their advisor(s).

In terms of the types of research and data sources and collection, we have conducted archival research, interviews, focus groups, and ethnographies with diplomats, bureaucrats, military personnel, ex-combatants, civil society advocates, survivors of political violence, refugees, and ordinary citizens. We have grappled with ethical dilemmas, chief among them how to get useful data for our research projects in ways that exceed the minimal standards of human subjects’ research evaluation panels. Relatedly, we have contemplated how to use our platforms to give back to the individuals and communities who have so generously lent us their time and knowledge, and shared with us their personal and sometimes harrowing stories.

Our target audience is first and foremost graduate students and early-career researchers who are interested in possibly conducting fieldwork but who either (1) do not know the full potential or value of fieldwork, (2) know the potential and value of fieldwork but think that it is excessively cost-prohibitive or otherwise infeasible, or (3) who have the interest, the will, and the means but not necessarily the know-how. We also hope that this resource will be of value to graduate programs, as they endeavor to better support students interested in or already conducting field research. Further, we target instructional faculty and graduate advisors (and other institutional gatekeepers like journal and book reviewers), to show that fieldwork does not have to be year-long, to give just one example. Instead, the length of time spent in the field is a function of the aims and scope of a given project. We also seek to formalize and normalize the idea of remote field research, whether conducted because of security concerns in conflict zones, for instance, or because of health and safety concerns, like the Covid-19 pandemic. Accordingly, researchers in the field for shorter stints or who conduct fieldwork remotely should not be penalized.

We note that several excellent resources on fieldwork such as the bibliography compiled by Advancing Conflict Research (2020) catalogue an impressive list of articles addressing questions such as ethics, safety, mental health, reflexivity, and methods. Further resources can be found about the positionality of the researcher in the field while engaging vulnerable communities, such as in the research field of migration ( Jacobsen and Landau 2003 ; Carling, Bivand Erdal, and Ezzati 2014 ; Nowicka and Cieslik 2014 ; Zapata-Barrero and Yalaz 2019 ). However, little has been written beyond conflict-affected contexts, fragile settings, and vulnerable communities. Moreover, as we consulted different texts and resources, we found no comprehensive guide to fieldwork explicitly written with graduate students in mind. It is this gap that we aim to fill.

In this paper, we address five general categories of questions that graduate students puzzle over, often without the benefit of others’ “lessons learned.” First, What is field research? Is it just for qualitative scholars? Must it be conducted in a foreign country? How much time in the field is “enough”? Second, What is the purpose of fieldwork? When does it make sense to travel to a field site to collect data? How can fieldwork data be used? Third, What are the nuts and bolts? How does one get ready and how can one optimize limited time and financial resources? Fourth, How does one conduct fieldwork safely? What should a researcher do to keep themselves, research assistants, and research subjects safe? What measures should they take to protect their mental health? Fifth, How does one conduct ethical, beneficent field research?

Finally, the Covid-19 pandemic has impressed upon the discipline the volatility of research projects centered around in-person fieldwork. Lockdowns and closed borders left researchers sequestered at home and unable to travel, forced others to cut short any trips already begun, and unexpectedly confined others still to their fieldwork sites. Other factors that may necessitate a (spontaneous) readjustment of planned field research include natural disasters, a deteriorating security situation in the field site, researcher illness, and unexpected changes in personal circumstances. We, therefore, conclude with a section on the promise and potential pitfalls of remote (or virtual) fieldwork. Throughout this guide, we engage theory and praxis to support an epistemologically and methodologically pluralistic discipline.

The concept of “fieldwork” is not well defined in political science. While several symposia discuss the “nuts and bolts” of conducting research in the field within the pages of political science journals, few ever define it ( Ortbals and Rincker 2009 ; Hsueh, Jensenius, and Newsome 2014 ). Defining the concept of fieldwork is important because assumptions about what it is and what it is not underpin any suggestions for conducting it. A lack of disciplinary consensus about what constitutes “fieldwork,” we believe, explains the lack of a unified definition. Below, we discuss three areas of current disagreement about what “fieldwork” is, including the purpose of fieldwork, where it occurs, and how long it should be. We follow this by offering our definition of fieldwork.

First, we find that many in the discipline view fieldwork as squarely in the domain of qualitative research, whether interpretivist or positivist. However, field research can also serve quantitative projects—for example, by providing crucial context, supporting triangulation, or illustrating causal mechanisms. For instance, Kreft (2019) elaborated her theory of women's civil society mobilization in response to conflict-related sexual violence based on interviews she carried out in Colombia. She then examined cross-national patterns through statistical analysis. Conversely, Willis's research on the United States military in East Asia began with quantitative data collection and analysis of protest events before turning to fieldwork to understand why protests occurred in some instances but not others. Researchers can also find quantifiable data in the field that is otherwise unavailable to them at home ( Read 2006 ; Chambers-Ju 2014 ; Jensenius 2014 ). Accordingly, fieldwork is not in the domain of any particular epistemology or methodology as its purpose is to acquire data for further information.

Second, comparative politics and international relations scholars often opine that fieldwork requires leaving the country in which one's institution is based. Instead, we propose that what matters most is the nature of the research project, not the locale. For instance, some of us in the international relations subfield have interviewed representatives of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), whose headquarters are generally located in Global North countries. For someone pursuing a Ph.D. in the United States and writing on transnational advocacy networks, interviews with INGO representatives in New York certainly count as fieldwork ( Zvobgo 2020 ). Similarly, a graduate student who returns to her home country to interview refugees and native citizens is conducting a field study as much as a researcher for whom the context is wholly foreign. Such interviews can provide necessary insights and information that would not have been gained otherwise—one of the key reasons researchers conduct fieldwork in the first place. In other instances, conducting any in-person research is simply not possible, due to financial constraints, safety concerns, or other reasons. For example, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced many researchers to shift their face-to-face research plans to remote data collection, either over the phone or virtually ( Howlett 2021 , 2). For some research projects, gathering data through remote methods may yield the same if not similar information than in-person research ( Howlett 2021 , 3–4). As Howlett (2021 , 11) notes, digital platforms may offer researchers the ability to “embed ourselves in other contexts from a distance” and glimpse into our subjects’ lives in ways similar to in-person research. By adopting a broader definition of fieldwork, researchers can be more flexible in getting access to data sources and interacting with research subjects.

Third, there is a tendency, especially among comparativists, to only count fieldwork that spans the better part of a year; even “surgical strike” field research entails one to three months, according to some scholars ( Ortbals and Rincker 2009 ; Weiss, Hicken, and Kuhonta 2017 ). The emphasis on spending as much time as possible in the field is likely due to ethnographic research traditions, reflected in classics such as James Scott's Weapons of the Weak , which entail year-long stints of research. However, we suggest that the appropriate amount of time in the field should be assessed on a project-by-project basis. Some studies require the researcher to be in the field for long periods; others do not. For example, Willis's research on the discourse around the United States’ military presence in overseas host communities has required months in the field. By contrast, Kreft only needed ten days in New York to carry out interviews with diplomats and United Nations staff, in a context with which she already had some familiarity from a prior internship. Likewise, Zvobgo spent a couple of weeks in her field research sites, conducting interviews with directors and managers of prominent human rights nongovernmental organizations. This population is not so large as to require a whole month or even a few months. This has also been the case for Irgil, as she had spent one month in the field site conducting interviews with ordinary citizens. The goal of the project was to acquire information on citizens’ perceptions of refugees. As we discuss in the next section, when deciding how long to spend in the field, scholars must consider the information their project requires and consider the practicalities of fieldwork, notably cost.

Thus, we highlight three essential points in fieldwork and offer a definition accordingly: fieldwork involves acquiring information, using any set of appropriate data collection techniques, for qualitative, quantitative, or experimental analysis through embedded research whose location and duration is dependent on the project. We argue that adopting such a definition of “fieldwork” is necessary to include the multitude of forms fieldwork can take, including remote methods, whose value and challenges the Covid-19 pandemic has impressed upon the discipline.

When does a researcher need to conduct fieldwork? Fieldwork can be effective for (1) data collection, (2) theory building, and (3) theory testing. First, when a researcher is interested in a research topic, yet they could not find an available and/or reliable data source for the topic, fieldwork could provide the researcher with plenty of options. Some research agendas can require researchers to visit archives to review historical documents. For example, Greitens (2016) visited national archives in the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States to find historical documents about the development of coercive institutions in past authoritarian governments for her book, Dictators and Their Secret Police . Also, newly declassified archival documents can open new possibilities for researchers to examine restricted topics. To illustrate, thanks to the newly released archival records of the Chinese Communist Party's communications, and exchange of visits with the European communist world, Sarotte (2012) was able to study the Party's decision to crack down on Tiananmen protesters, which had previously been deemed as an unstudiable topic due to the limited data.

Other research agendas can require researchers to conduct (semistructured) in-depth interviews to understand human behavior or a situation more closely, for example, by revealing the meanings of concepts for people and showing how people perceive the world. For example, O'Brien and Li (2005) conducted in-depth interviews with activists, elites, and villagers to understand how these actors interact with each other and what are the outcomes of the interaction in contentious movements in rural China. Through research, they revealed that protests have deeply influenced all these actors’ minds, a fact not directly observable without in-depth interviews.

Finally, data collection through fieldwork should not be confined to qualitative data ( Jensenius 2014 ). While some quantitative datasets can be easily compiled or accessed through use of the internet or contact with data-collection agencies, other datasets can only be built or obtained through relationships with “gatekeepers” such as government officials, and thus require researchers to visit the field ( Jensenius 2014 ). Researchers can even collect their own quantitative datasets by launching surveys or quantifying data contained in archives. In a nutshell, fieldwork will allow researchers to use different techniques to collect and access original/primary data sources, whether these are qualitative, quantitative, or experimental in nature, and regardless of the intended method of analysis. 2

But fieldwork is not just for data collection as such. Researchers can accomplish two other fundamental elements of the research process: theory building and theory testing. When a researcher finds a case where existing theories about a phenomenon do not provide plausible explanations, they can build a theory through fieldwork ( Geddes 2003 ). Lee's experience provides a good example. When studying the rise of a protest movement in South Korea for her dissertation, Lee applied commonly discussed social movement theories, grievances, political opportunity, resource mobilization, and repression, to explain the movement's eruption and found that these theories do not offer a convincing explanation for the protest movement. She then moved on to fieldwork and conducted interviews with the movement participants to understand their motivations. Finally, through those interviews, she offered an alternative theory that the protest participants’ collective identity shaped during the authoritarian past played a unifying factor and eventually led them to participate in the movement. Her example shows that theorization can take place through careful review and rigorous inference during fieldwork.

Moreover, researchers can test their theory through fieldwork. Quantitative observational data has limitations in revealing causal mechanisms ( Esarey 2017 ). Therefore, many political scientists turn their attention to conducting field experiments or lab-in-the-field experiments to reveal causality ( Druckman et al. 2006 ; Beath, Christia, and Enikolopov 2013 ; Finseraas and Kotsadam 2017 ), or to leveraging in-depth insights or historical records gained through qualitative or archival research in process-tracing ( Collier 2011 ; Ricks and Liu 2018 ). Surveys and survey experiments may also be useful tools to substantiate a theoretical story or test a theory ( Marston 2020 ). Of course, for most Ph.D. students, especially those not affiliated with more extensive research projects, some of these options will be financially prohibitive.

A central concern for graduate students, especially those working with a small budget and limited time, is optimizing time in the field and integrating remote work. We offer three pieces of advice: have a plan, build in flexibility, and be strategic, focusing on collecting data that are unavailable at home. We also discuss working with local translators or research assistants. Before we turn to these more practical issues arising during fieldwork, we address a no less important issue: funding.

The challenge of securing funds is often overlooked in discussions of what constitutes field research. Months- or year-long in-person research can be cost-prohibitive, something academic gatekeepers must consider when evaluating “what counts” and “what is enough.” Unlike their predecessors, many graduate students today have a significant amount of debt and little savings. 3 Additionally, if researchers are not able to procure funding, they have to pay out of pocket and possibly take on more debt. Not only is in-person fieldwork costly, but researchers may also have to forego working while they are in the field, making long stretches in the field infeasible for some.

For researchers whose fieldwork involves travelling to another location, procuring funding via grants, fellowships, or other sources is a necessity, regardless of how long one plans to be in the field. A good mantra for applying for research funding is “apply early and often” ( Kelsky 2015 , 110). Funding applications take a considerable amount of time to prepare, from writing research statements to requesting letters of recommendation. Even adapting one's materials for different applications takes time. Not only is the application process itself time-consuming, but the time between applying for and receiving funds, if successful, can be quite long, from several months to a year. For example, after defending her prospectus in May 2019, Willis began applying to funding sources for her dissertation, all of which had deadlines between June and September. She received notifications between November and January; however, funds from her successful applications were not available until March and April, almost a year later. 4 Accordingly, we recommend applying for funding as early as possible; this not only increases one's chances of hitting the ground running in the field, but the application process can also help clarify the goals and parameters of one's research.

Graduate students should also apply often for funding opportunities. There are different types of funding for fieldwork: some are larger, more competitive grants such as the National Science Foundation Political Science Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant in the United States, others, including sources through one's own institution, are smaller. Some countries, like Sweden, boast a plethora of smaller funding agencies that disburse grants of 20,000–30,0000 Swedish Kronor (approx. 2,500–3,500 U.S. dollars) to Ph.D. students in the social sciences. Listings of potential funding sources are often found on various websites including those belonging to universities, professional organizations (such as the American Political Science Association or the European Consortium for Political Research), and governmental institutions dealing with foreign affairs. Once you have identified fellowships and grants for which you and your project are a good match, we highly recommend soliciting information and advice from colleagues who have successfully applied for them. This can include asking them to share their applications with you, and if possible, to have them, another colleague or set of colleagues read through your project description and research plan (especially for bigger awards) to ensure that you have made the best possible case for why you should be selected. While both large and small pots of funding are worth applying for, many researchers end up funding their fieldwork through several small grants or fellowships. One small award may not be sufficient to fund the entirety of one's fieldwork, but several may. For example, Willis's fieldwork in Japan and South Korea was supported through fellowships within each country. Similarly, Irgil was able to conduct her fieldwork abroad through two different and relatively smaller grants by applying to them each year.

Of course, situations vary in different countries with respect to what kinds of grants from what kinds of funders are available. An essential part of preparing for fieldwork is researching the funding landscape well in advance, even as early as the start of the Ph.D. We encourage first-time field researchers to be aware that universities and departments may themselves not be aware of the full range of possible funds available, so it is always a good idea to do your own research and watch research-related social media channels. The amount of funding needed thereby depends on the nature of one's project and how long one intends to be in the field. As we elaborate in the next section, scholars should think carefully about their project goals, the data required to meet those goals, and the requisite time to attain them. For some projects, even a couple of weeks in the field is sufficient to get the needed information.

Preparing to Enter “the field”

It is important to prepare for the field as much as possible. What kind of preparations do researchers need? For someone conducting interviews with NGO representatives, this might involve identifying the largest possible pool of potential respondents, securing their contact information, sending them study invitation letters, finding a mutually agreeable time to meet, and pulling together short biographies for each interviewee in order to use your time together most effectively. If you plan to travel to conduct interviews, you should reach out to potential respondents roughly four to six weeks prior to your arrival. For individuals who do not respond, you can follow up one to two weeks before you arrive and, if needed, once more when you are there. This is still no guarantee for success, of course. For Kreft, contacting potential interviewees in Colombia initially proved more challenging than anticipated, as many of the people she targeted did not respond to her emails. It turned out that many Colombians have a preference for communicating via phone or, in particular, WhatsApp. Some of those who responded to her emails sent in advance of her field trip asked her to simply be in touch once she was in the country, to set up appointments on short notice. This made planning and arranging her interview schedule more complicated. Therefore, a general piece of advice is to research your target population's preferred communication channels and mediums in the field site if email requests yield no or few responses.

In general, we note for the reader that contacting potential research participants should come after one has designed an interview questionnaire (plus an informed consent protocol) and sought and received, where applicable, approval from institutional review boards (IRBs) or other ethical review procedures in place (both at one's home institution/in the country of the home institution as well as in the country where one plans to conduct research if travelling abroad). The most obvious advantage of having the interview questionnaire in place and having secured all necessary institutional approvals before you start contacting potential interviewees is that you have a clearer idea of the universe of individuals you would like to interview, and for what purpose. Therefore, it is better to start sooner rather than later and be mindful of “high seasons,” when institutional and ethical review boards are receiving, processing, and making decisions on numerous proposals. It may take a few months for them to issue approvals.

On the subject of ethics and review panels, we encourage you to consider talking openly and honestly with your supervisors and/or funders about the situations where a written consent form may not be suitable and might need to be replaced with “verbal consent.” For instance, doing fieldwork in politically unstable contexts, highly scrutinized environments, or vulnerable communities, like refugees, might create obstacles for the interviewees as well as the researcher. The literature discusses the dilemma in offering the interviewees anonymity and requesting signed written consent in addition to the emphasis on total confidentiality ( Jacobsen and Landau 2003 ; Mackenzie, McDowell, and Pittaway 2007 ; Saunders, Kitzinger, and Kitzinger 2015 ). Therefore, in those situations, the researcher might need to take the initiative on how to act while doing the interviews as rigorously as possible. In her fieldwork, Irgil faced this situation as the political context of Turkey did not guarantee that there would not be any adverse consequences for interviewees on both sides of her story: citizens of Turkey and Syrian refugees. Consequently, she took hand-written notes and asked interviewees for their verbal consent in a safe interview atmosphere. This is something respondents greatly appreciated ( Irgil 2020 ).

Ethical considerations, of course, also affect the research design itself, with ramifications for fieldwork. When Kreft began developing her Ph.D. proposal to study women's political and civil society mobilization in response to conflict-related sexual violence, she initially aimed to recruit interviewees from the universe of victims of this violence, to examine variation among those who did and those who did not mobilize politically. As a result of deeper engagement with the literature on researching conflict-related sexual violence, conversations with senior colleagues who had interviewed victims, and critical self-reflection of her status as a researcher (with no background in psychology or social work), she decided to change focus and shift toward representatives of civil society organizations and victims’ associations. This constituted a major reconfiguration of her research design, from one geared toward identifying the factors that drive mobilization of victims toward using insights from interviews to understand better how those mobilize perceive and “make sense” of conflict-related sexual violence. Needless to say, this required alterations to research strategies and interview guides, including reassessing her planned fieldwork. Kreft's primary consideration was not to cause harm to her research participants, particularly in the form of re-traumatization. She opted to speak only with those women who on account of their work are used to speaking about conflict-related sexual violence. In no instance did she inquire about interviewees’ personal experiences with sexual violence, although several brought this up on their own during the interviews.

Finally, if you are conducting research in another country where you have less-than-professional fluency in the language, pre-fieldwork planning should include hiring a translator or research assistant, for example, through an online hiring platform like Upwork, or a local university. Your national embassy or consulate is another option; many diplomatic offices have lists of individuals who they have previously contracted. More generally, establishing contact with a local university can be beneficial, either in the form of a visiting researcher arrangement, which grants access to research groups and facilities like libraries or informally contacting individual researchers. The latter may have valuable insights into the local context, contacts to potential research participants, and they may even be able to recommend translators or research assistants. Kreft, for example, hired local research assistants recommended by researchers at a Bogotá-based university and remunerated them equivalent to the salary they would have received as graduate research assistants at the university, while also covering necessary travel expenses. Irgil, on the other hand, established contacts with native citizens and Syrian gatekeepers, who are shop owners in the area where she conducted her research because she had the opportunity to visit the fieldwork site multiple times.

Depending on the research agenda, researchers may visit national archives, local government offices, etc. Before visiting, researchers should contact these facilities and make sure the materials that they need are accessible. For example, Lee visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Archives to find the United States’ strategic evaluations on South Korea's dictator in the 1980s. Before her visit, she contacted librarians in the archives, telling them her visit plans and her research purpose. Librarians made suggestions on which categories she should start to review based on her research goal, and thus she was able to make a list of categories of the materials she needed, saving her a lot of her time.

Accessibility of and access to certain facilities/libraries can differ depending on locations/countries and types of facilities. Facilities in authoritarian countries might not be easily accessible to foreign researchers. Within democratic countries, some facilities are more restrictive than others. Situations like the pandemic or national holidays can also restrict accessibility. Therefore, researchers are well advised to do preliminary research on whether a certain facility opens during the time they visit and is accessible to researchers regardless of their citizenship status. Moreover, researchers must contact the staff of facilities to know whether identity verification is needed and if so, what kind of documents (photo I.D. or passport) should be exhibited.

Adapting to the Reality of the Field

Researchers need to be flexible because you may meet people you did not make appointments with, come across opportunities you did not expect, or stumble upon new ideas about collecting data in the field. These happenings will enrich your field experience and will ultimately be beneficial for your research. Similarly, researchers should not be discouraged by interviews that do not go according to plan; they present an opportunity to pursue relevant people who can provide an alternative path to your work. Note that planning ahead does not preclude fortuitous encounters or epiphanies. Rather, it provides a structure for them to happen.

If your fieldwork entails travelling abroad, you will also be able to recruit more interviewees once you arrive at your research site. In fact, you may have greater success in-country; not everyone is willing to respond to a cold email from an unknown researcher in a foreign country. In Irgil's fieldwork, she contacted store owners that are known in the area and who know the community. This eased her process of introduction into the community and recruiting interviewees. For Zvobgo, she had fewer than a dozen interviews scheduled when she travelled to Guatemala to study civil society activism and transitional justice since the internal armed conflict. But she was able to recruit additional participants in-country. Interviewees with whom she built a rapport connected her to other NGOs, government offices, and the United Nations country office, sometimes even making the call and scheduling interviews for her. Through snowball sampling, she was able to triple the number of participants. Likewise, snowball sampling was central to Kreft's recruitment of interview partners. Several of her interviewees connected her to highly relevant individuals she would never have been able to identify and contact based on web searches alone.

While in the field, you may nonetheless encounter obstacles that necessitate adjustments to your original plans. Once Kreft had arrived in Colombia, for example, it transpired quickly that carrying out in-person interviews in more remote/rural areas was near impossible given her means, as these were not easily accessible by bus/coach, further complicated by a complex security situation. Instead, she adjusted her research design and shifted her focus to the big cities, where most of the major civil society organizations are based. She complemented the in-person interviews carried out there with a smaller number of phone interviews with civil society activists in rural areas, and she was also able to meet a few activists operating in rural or otherwise inaccessible areas as they were visiting the major cities. The resulting focus on urban settings changed the kinds of generalizations she was able to make based on her fieldwork data and produced a somewhat different study than initially anticipated.

This also has been the case for Irgil, despite her prior arrangements with the Syrian gatekeepers, which required adjustments as in the case of Kreft. Irgil acquired research clearance one year before, during the interviews with native citizens, conducting the interviews with Syrian refugees. She also had her questionnaire ready based on the previously collected data and the media search she had conducted for over a year before travelling to the field site. As she was able to visit the field site multiple times, two months before conducting interviews with Syrian refugees, she developed a schedule with the Syrian gatekeepers and informants. Yet, once she was in the field, influenced by Turkey's recent political events and the policy of increasing control over Syrian refugees, half of the previously agreed informants changed their minds or did not want to participate in interviews. As Irgil was following the policies and the news related to Syrian refugees in Turkey closely, this did not come as that big of a surprise but challenged the previously developed strategy to recruit interviewees. Thus, she changed the strategy of finding interviewees in the field site, such as asking people, almost one by one, whether they would like to participate in the interview. Eventually, she could not find willing Syrian women refugees as she had planned, which resulted in a male-dominant sample. As researchers encounter such situations, it is essential to remind oneself that not everything can go according to plan, that “different” does not equate to “worse,” but that it is important to consider what changes to fieldwork data collection and sampling imply for the study's overall findings and the contribution it makes to the literature.

We should note that conducting interviews is very taxing—especially when opportunities multiply, as in Zvobgo's case. Depending on the project, each interview can take an hour, if not two or more. Hence, you should make a reasonable schedule: we recommend no more than two interviews per day. You do not want to have to cut off an interview because you need to rush to another one, whether the interviews are in-person or remote. And you do not want to be too exhausted to have a robust engagement with your respondent who is generously lending you their time. Limiting the number of interviews per day is also important to ensure that you can write comprehensive and meaningful fieldnotes, which becomes even more essential where it is not possible to audio-record your interviews. Also, be sure to remember to eat, stay hydrated, and try to get enough sleep.

Finally, whether to provide gifts or payments to the subject also requires adapting to the reality of the field. You must think about payments beforehand when you apply for IRB approval (or whatever other ethical review processes may be in place) since these applications usually contain questions about payments. Obviously, the first step is to carefully evaluate whether the gifts and payments provided can harm the subject or are likely to unduly affect the responses they will give in response to your questions. If that is not the case, you have to make payment decisions based on your budget, field situation, and difficulties in recruitment. Usually, payment of respondents is more common in survey research, whereas it is less common in interviews and focus groups.

Nevertheless, payment practices vary depending on the field and the target group. In some cases, it may become a custom to provide small gifts or payments when interviewing a certain group. In other cases, interviewees might be offended if they are provided with money. Therefore, knowing past practices and field situations is important. For example, Lee provided small coffee gift cards to one group while she did not to the other based on previous practices of other researchers. That is, for a particular group, it has become a custom for interviewers to pay interviewees. Sometimes, you may want to reimburse your subject's interview costs such as travel expenses and provide beverages and snacks during the conduct of research, as Kreft did when conducting focus groups in Colombia. To express your gratitude to your respondents, you can prepare small gifts such as your university memorabilia (e.g., notebooks and pens). Since past practices about payments can affect your interactions and interviews with a target group, you want to seek advice from your colleagues and other researchers who had experiences interacting with the target group. If you cannot find researchers who have this knowledge, you can search for published works on the target population to find if the authors share their interview experiences. You may also consider contacting the authors for advice before your interviews.

Researching Strategically

Distinguishing between things that can only be done in person at a particular site and things that can be accomplished later at home is vital. Prioritize the former over the latter. Lee's fieldwork experience serves as a good example. She studied a conservative protest movement called the Taegeukgi Rally in South Korea. She planned to conduct interviews with the rally participants to examine their motivations for participating. But she only had one month in South Korea. So, she focused on things that could only be done in the field: she went to the rally sites, she observed how protests proceeded, which tactics and chants were used, and she met participants and had some casual conversations with them. Then, she used the contacts she made while attending the rallies to create a social network to solicit interviews from ordinary protesters, her target population. She was able to recruit twenty-five interviewees through good rapport with the people she met. The actual interviews proceeded via phone after she returned to the United States. In a nutshell, we advise you not to be obsessed with finishing interviews in the field. Sometimes, it is more beneficial to use your time in the field to build relationships and networks.

Working With Assistants and Translators

A final consideration on logistics is working with research assistants or translators; it affects how you can carry out interviews, focus groups, etc. To what extent constant back-and-forth translation is necessary or advisable depends on the researcher's skills in the interview language and considerations about time and efficiency. For example, Kreft soon realized that she was generally able to follow along quite well during her interviews in Colombia. In order to avoid precious time being lost to translation, she had her research assistant follow the interview guide Kreft had developed, and interjected follow-up questions in Spanish or English (then to be translated) as they arose.

Irgil's and Zvobgo's interviews went a little differently. Irgil's Syrian refugee interviewees in Turkey were native Arabic speakers, and Zvobgo's interviewees in Guatemala were native Spanish speakers. Both Irgil and Zvobgo worked with research assistants. In Irgil's case, her assistant was a Syrian man, who was outside of the area. Meanwhile, Zvobgo's assistant was an undergraduate from her home institution with a Spanish language background. Irgil and Zvobgo began preparing their assistants a couple of months before entering the field, over Skype for Irgil and in-person for Zvobgo. They offered their assistants readings and other resources to provide them with the necessary background to work well. Both Irgil and Zvobgo's research assistants joined them in the interviews and actually did most of the speaking, introducing the principal investigator, explaining the research, and then asking the questions. In Zvobgo's case, interviewee responses were relayed via a professional interpreter whom she had also hired. After every interview, Irgil and Zvobgo and their respective assistants discussed the answers of the interviewees, potential improvements in phrasing, and elaborated on their hand-written interview notes. As a backup, Zvobgo, with the consent of her respondents, had accompanying audio recordings.

Researchers may carry out fieldwork in a country that is considerably less safe than what they are used to, a setting affected by conflict violence or high crime rates, for instance. Feelings of insecurity can be compounded by linguistic barriers, cultural particularities, and being far away from friends and family. Insecurity is also often gendered, differentially affecting women and raising the specter of unwanted sexual advances, street harassment, or even sexual assault ( Gifford and Hall-Clifford 2008 ; Mügge 2013 ). In a recent survey of Political Science graduate students in the United States, about half of those who had done fieldwork internationally reported having encountered safety issues in the field, (54 percent female, 47 percent male), and only 21 percent agreed that their Ph.D. programs had prepared them to carry out their fieldwork safely ( Schwartz and Cronin-Furman 2020 , 8–9).

Preventative measures scholars may adopt in an unsafe context may involve, at their most fundamental, adjustments to everyday routines and habits, restricting one's movements temporally and spatially. Reliance on gatekeepers may also necessitate adopting new strategies, such as a less vehement and cold rejection of unwanted sexual advances than one ordinarily would exhibit, as Mügge (2013) illustratively discusses. At the same time, a competitive academic job market, imperatives to collect novel and useful data, and harmful discourses surrounding dangerous fieldwork also, problematically, shape incentives for junior researchers to relax their own standards of what constitutes acceptable risk ( Gallien 2021 ).

Others have carefully collected a range of safety precautions that field researchers in fragile or conflict-affected settings may take before and during fieldwork ( Hilhorst et al. 2016 ). Therefore, we are more concise in our discussion of recommendations, focusing on the specific situations of graduate students. Apart from ensuring that supervisors and university administrators have the researcher's contact information in the field (and possibly also that of a local contact person), researchers can register with their country's embassy or foreign office and any crisis monitoring and prevention systems it has in place. That way, they will be informed of any possible unfolding emergencies and the authorities have a record of them being in the country.

It may also be advisable to set up more individualized safety protocols with one or two trusted individuals, such as friends, supervisors, or colleagues at home or in the fieldwork setting itself. The latter option makes sense in particular if one has an official affiliation with a local institution for the duration of the fieldwork, which is often advisable. Still, we would also recommend establishing relationships with local researchers in the absence of a formal affiliation. To keep others informed of her whereabouts, Kreft, for instance, made arrangements with her supervisors to be in touch via email at regular intervals to report on progress and wellbeing. This kept her supervisors in the loop, while an interruption in communication would have alerted them early if something were wrong. In addition, she announced planned trips to other parts of the country and granted her supervisors and a colleague at her home institution emergency reading access to her digital calendar. To most of her interviews, she was moreover accompanied by her local research assistant/translator. If the nature of the research, ethical considerations, and the safety situation allow, it might also be possible to bring a local friend along to interviews as an “assistant,” purely for safety reasons. This option needs to be carefully considered already in the planning stage and should, particularly in settings of fragility or if carrying out research on politically exposed individuals, be noted in any ethical and institutional review processes where these are required. Adequate compensation for such an assistant should be ensured. It may also be advisable to put in place an emergency plan, that is, choose emergency contacts back home and “in the field,” know whom to contact if something happens, and know how to get to the nearest hospital or clinic.

We would be remiss if we did not mention that, when in an unfamiliar context, one's safety radar may be misguided, so it is essential to listen to people who know the context. For example, locals can give advice on which means of transport are safe and which are not, a question that is of the utmost importance when traveling to appointments. For example, Kreft was warned that in Colombia regular taxis are often unsafe, especially if waved down in the streets, and that to get to her interviews safely, she should rely on a ride-share service. In one instance, a Colombian friend suggested that when there was no alternative to a regular taxi, Kreft should book through the app and share the order details, including the taxi registration number or license plate, with a friend. Likewise, sharing one's cell phone location with a trusted friend while traveling or when one feels unsafe may be a viable option. Finally, it is prudent to heed the safety recommendations and travel advisories provided by state authorities and embassies to determine when and where it is safe to travel. Especially if researchers have a responsibility not only for themselves but also for research assistants and research participants, safety must be a top priority.

This does not mean that a researcher should be careless in a context they know either. Of course, conducting fieldwork in a context that is known to the researcher offers many advantages. However, one should be prepared to encounter unwanted events too. For instance, Irgil has conducted fieldwork in her country of origin in a city she knows very well. Therefore, access to the site, moving around the site, and blending in has not been a problem; she also has the advantage of speaking the native language. Yet, she took notes of the streets she walked in, as she often returned from the field site after dark and thought she might get confused after a tiring day. She also established a closer relationship with two or three store owners in different parts of the field site if she needed something urgent, like running out of battery. Above all, one should always be aware of one's surroundings and use common sense. If something feels unsafe, chances are it is.

Fieldwork may negatively affect the researcher's mental health and mental wellbeing regardless of where one's “field” is, whether related to concerns about crime and insecurity, linguistic barriers, social isolation, or the practicalities of identifying, contacting and interviewing research participants. Coping with these different sources of stress can be both mentally and physically exhausting. Then there are the things you may hear, see and learn during the research itself, such as gruesome accounts of violence and suffering conveyed in interviews or archival documents one peruses. Kreft and Zvobgo have spoken with women victims of conflict-related sexual violence, who sometimes displayed strong emotions of pain and anger during the interviews. Likewise, Irgil and Willis have spoken with members of other vulnerable populations such as refugees and former sex workers ( Willis 2020 ).

Prior accounts ( Wood 2006 ; Loyle and Simoni 2017 ; Skjelsbæk 2018 ; Hummel and El Kurd 2020 ; Williamson et al. 2020 ; Schulz and Kreft 2021 ) show that it is natural for sensitive research and fieldwork challenges to affect or even (vicariously) traumatize the researcher. By removing researchers from their regular routines and support networks, fieldwork may also exacerbate existing mental health conditions ( Hummel and El Kurd 2020 ). Nonetheless, mental wellbeing is rarely incorporated into fieldwork courses and guidelines, where these exist at all. But even if you know to anticipate some sort of reaction, you rarely know what that reaction will be until you experience it. When researching sensitive or difficult topics, for example, reactions can include sadness, frustration, anger, fear, helplessness, and flashbacks to personal experiences of violence ( Williamson et al. 2020 ). For example, Kreft responded with episodic feelings of depression and both mental and physical exhaustion. But curiously, these reactions emerged most strongly after she had returned from fieldwork and in particular as she spent extended periods analyzing her interview data, reliving some of the more emotional scenes during the interviews and being confronted with accounts of (sexual) violence against women in a concentrated fashion. This is a crucial reminder that fieldwork does not end when one returns home; the after-effects may linger. Likewise, Zvobgo was physically and mentally drained upon her return from the field. Both Kreft and Zvobgo were unable to concentrate for long periods of time and experienced lower-than-normal levels of productivity for weeks afterward, patterns that formal and informal conversations with other scholars confirm to be common ( Schulz and Kreft 2021 ). Furthermore, the boundaries between “field” and “home” are blurred when conducting remote fieldwork ( Howlett 2021 , 11).

Nor are these adverse reactions limited to cases where the researcher has carried out the interviews themselves. Accounts of violence, pain, and suffering transported in reports, secondary literature, or other sources can evoke similar emotional stress, as Kreft experienced when engaging in a concentrated fashion with additional accounts of conflict-related sexual violence in Colombia and with the feminist literature on sexual and gender-based violence in the comfort of her Swedish office. This could also be applicable to Irgil's fieldwork as she interviewed refugees whose traumas have come out during the interviews or recall specific events triggered by the questions. Likewise, Lee has reviewed primary and secondary materials on North Korean defectors in the national archives and these materials contain violent, intense, emotional narratives.

Fortunately, there are several strategies to cope with and manage such adverse consequences. In a candid and insightful piece, other researchers have discussed the usefulness of distractions, sharing with colleagues, counseling, exercise, and, probably less advisable in the long term, comfort eating and drinking ( Williamson et al. 2020 ; see also Loyle and Simoni 2017 ; Hummel and El Kurd 2020 ). Our experiences largely tally with their observations. In this section, we explore some of these in more detail.

First, in the face of adverse consequences on your mental wellbeing, whether in the field or after your return, it is essential to be patient and generous with yourself. Negative effects on the researcher's mental wellbeing can hit in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. Even if you think that certain reactions are disproportionate or unwarranted at that specific moment, they may simply have been building up over a long time. They are legitimate. Second, the importance of taking breaks and finding distractions, whether that is exercise, socializing with friends, reading a good book, or watching a new series, cannot be overstated. It is easy to fall into a mode of thinking that you constantly have to be productive while you are “in the field,” to maximize your time. But as with all other areas in life, balance is key and rest is necessary. Taking your mind off your research and the research questions you puzzle over is also a good way to more fully soak up and appreciate the context in which you find yourself, in the case of in-person fieldwork, and about which you ultimately write.

Third, we cannot stress enough the importance of investing in social relations. Before going on fieldwork, researchers may want to consult others who have done it before them. Try to find (junior) scholars who have done fieldwork on similar kinds of topics or in the same country or countries you are planning to visit. Utilizing colleagues’ contacts and forging connections using social media are valuable strategies to expand your networks (in fact, this very paper is the result of a social media conversation and several of the authors have never met in person). Having been in the same situation before, most field researchers are, in our experience, generous with their time and advice. Before embarking on her first trip to Colombia, Kreft contacted other researchers in her immediate and extended network and received useful advice on questions such as how to move around Bogotá, whom to speak to, and how to find a research assistant. After completing her fieldwork, she has passed on her experiences to others who contacted her before their first fieldwork trip. Informal networks are, in the absence of more formalized fieldwork preparation, your best friend.

In the field, seeking the company of locals and of other researchers who are also doing fieldwork alleviates anxiety and makes fieldwork more enjoyable. Exchanging experiences, advice and potential interviewee contacts with peers can be extremely beneficial and make the many challenges inherent in fieldwork (on difficult topics) seem more manageable. While researchers conducting remote fieldwork may be physically isolated from other researchers, even connecting with others doing remote fieldwork may be comforting. And even when there are no precise solutions to be found, it is heartening or even cathartic to meet others who are in the same boat and with whom you can talk through your experiences. When Kreft shared some of her fieldwork-related struggles with another researcher she had just met in Bogotá and realized that they were encountering very similar challenges, it was like a weight was lifted off her shoulders. Similarly, peer support can help with readjustment after the fieldwork trip, even if it serves only to reassure you that a post-fieldwork dip in productivity and mental wellbeing is entirely natural. Bear in mind that certain challenges are part of the fieldwork experience and that they do not result from inadequacy on the part of the researcher.

Finally, we would like to stress a point made by Inger Skjelsbæk (2018 , 509) and which has not received sufficient attention: as a discipline, we need to take the question of researcher mental wellbeing more seriously—not only in graduate education, fieldwork preparation, and at conferences, but also in reflecting on how it affects the research process itself: “When strong emotions arise, through reading about, coding, or talking to people who have been impacted by [conflict-related sexual violence] (as victims or perpetrators), it may create a feeling of being unprofessional, nonscientific, and too subjective.”

We contend that this is a challenge not only for research on sensitive issues but also for fieldwork more generally. To what extent is it possible, and desirable, to uphold the image of the objective researcher during fieldwork, when we are at our foundation human beings? And going even further, how do the (anticipated) effects of our research on our wellbeing, and the safety precautions we take ( Gifford and Hall-Clifford 2008 ), affect the kinds of questions we ask, the kinds of places we visit and with whom we speak? How do they affect the methods we use and how we interpret our findings? An honest discussion of affective responses to our research in methods sections seems utopian, as emotionality in the research process continues to be silenced and relegated to the personal, often in gendered ways, which in turn is considered unconnected to the objective and scientific research process ( Jamar and Chappuis 2016 ). But as Gifford and Hall-Clifford (2008 , 26) aptly put it: “Graduate education should acknowledge the reality that fieldwork is scholarly but also intimately personal,” and we contend that the two shape each other. Therefore, we encourage political science as a discipline to reflect on researcher wellbeing and affective responses to fieldwork more carefully, and we see the need for methods courses that embrace a more holistic notion of the subjectivity of the researcher.

Interacting with people in the field is one of the most challenging yet rewarding parts of the work that we do, especially in comparison to impersonal, often tedious wrangling and analysis of quantitative data. Field researchers often make personal connections with their interviewees. Consequently, maintaining boundaries can be a bit tricky. Here, we recommend being honest with everyone with whom you interact without overstating the abilities of a researcher. This appears as a challenge in the field, particularly when you empathize with people and when they share profound parts of their lives with you for your research in addition to being “human subjects” ( Fujii 2012 ). For instance, when Irgil interviewed native citizens about the changes in their neighborhood following the arrival of Syrian refugees, many interviewees questioned what she would offer them in return for their participation. Irgil responded that her primary contribution would be her published work. She also noted, however, that academic papers can take a year, sometimes longer, to go through the peer-reviewed process and, once published, many studies have a limited audience. The Syrian refugees posed similar questions. Irgil responded not only with honesty but also, given this population's vulnerable status, she provided them contact information for NGOs with which they could connect if they needed help or answers to specific questions.

For her part, Zvobgo was very upfront with her interviewees about her role as a researcher: she recognized that she is not someone who is on the frontlines of the fight for human rights and transitional justice like they are. All she could/can do is use her platform to amplify their stories, bringing attention to their vital work through her future peer-reviewed publications. She also committed to sending them copies of the work, as electronic journal articles are often inaccessible due to paywalls and university press books are very expensive, especially for nonprofits. Interviewees were very receptive; some were even moved by the degree of self-awareness and the commitment to do right by them. In some cases, this prompted them to share even more, because they knew that the researcher was really there to listen and learn. This is something that junior scholars, and all scholars really, should always remember. We enter the field to be taught. Likewise, Kreft circulated among her interviewees Spanish-language versions of an academic article and a policy brief based on the fieldwork she had carried out in Colombia.

As researchers from the Global North, we recognize a possible power differential between us and our research subjects, and certainly an imbalance in power between the countries where we have been trained and some of the countries where we have done and continue to do field research, particularly in politically dynamic contexts ( Knott 2019 ). This is why we are so concerned with being open and transparent with everyone with whom we come into contact in the field and why we are committed to giving back to those who so generously lend us their time and knowledge. Knott (2019 , 148) summarizes this as “Reflexive openness is a form of transparency that is methodologically and ethically superior to providing access to data in its raw form, at least for qualitative data.”

We also recognize that academics, including in the social sciences and especially those hailing from countries in the Global North, have a long and troubled history of exploiting their power over others for the sake of their research—including failing to be upfront about their research goals, misrepresenting the on-the-ground realities of their field research sites (including remote fieldwork), and publishing essentializing, paternalistic, and damaging views and analyses of the people there. No one should build their career on the backs of others, least of all in a field concerned with the possession and exercise of power. Thus, it is highly crucial to acknowledge the power hierarchies between the researcher and the interviewees, and to reflect on them both in the field and beyond the field upon return.

A major challenge to conducting fieldwork is when researchers’ carefully planned designs do not go as planned due to unforeseen events outside of our control, such as pandemics, natural disasters, deteriorating security situations in the field, or even the researcher falling ill. As the Covid-19 pandemic has made painfully clear, researchers may face situations where in-person research is simply not possible. In some cases, researchers may be barred entry to their fieldwork site; in others, the ethical implications of entering the field greatly outweigh the importance of fieldwork. Such barriers to conducting in-person research require us to reconsider conventional notions of what constitutes fieldwork. Researchers may need to shift their data collection methods, for example, conducting interviews remotely instead of in person. Even while researchers are in the field, they may still need to carry out part of their interviews or surveys virtually or by phone. For example, Kreft (2020) carried out a small number of interviews remotely while she was based in Bogotá, because some of the women's civil society activists with whom she intended to speak were based in parts of the country that were difficult and/or dangerous to access.

Remote field research, which we define as the collection of data over the internet or over the phone where in-person fieldwork is not possible due to security, health or other risks, comes with its own sets of challenges. For one, there may be certain populations that researchers cannot reach remotely due to a lack of internet connectivity or technology such as cellphones and computers. In such instances, there will be a sampling bias toward individuals and groups that do have these resources, a point worth noting when scholars interpret their research findings. In the case of virtual research, the risk of online surveillance, hacking, or wiretapping may also produce reluctance on the part of interviewees to discuss sensitive issues that may compromise their safety. Researchers need to carefully consider how the use of digital technology may increase the risk to research participants and what changes to the research design and any interview guides this necessitates. In general, it is imperative that researchers reflect on how they can ethically use digital technology in their fieldwork ( Van Baalen 2018 ). Remote interviews may also be challenging to arrange for researchers who have not made connections in person with people in their community of interest.

Some of the serendipitous happenings we discussed earlier may also be less likely and snowball sampling more difficult. For example, in phone or virtual interviews, it is harder to build good rapport and trust with interviewees as compared to face-to-face interviews. Accordingly, researchers should be more careful in communicating with interviewees and creating a comfortable interview environment. Especially when dealing with sensitive topics, researchers may have to make several phone calls and sometimes have to open themselves to establishing trust with interviewees. Also, researchers must be careful in protecting interviewees in phone or virtual interviews when they deal with sensitive topics of countries interviewees reside in.

The inability to physically visit one's community of interest may also encourage scholars to critically reflect on how much time in the field is essential to completing their research and to consider creative, alternative means for accessing information to complete their projects. While data collection techniques such as face-to-face interviews and archival work in the field may be ideal in normal times, there exist other data sources that can provide comparably useful information. For example, in her research on the role of framing in the United States base politics, Willis found that social media accounts and websites yielded information useful to her project. Many archives across the world have also been digitized. Researchers may also consider crowdsourcing data from the field among their networks, as fellow academics tend to collect much more data in the field than they ever use in their published works. They may also elect to hire someone, perhaps a graduate student, in a city or a country where they cannot travel and have the individual access, scan, and send archival materials. This final suggestion may prove generally useful to researchers with limited time and financial resources.

Remote qualitative data collection techniques, while they will likely never be “the gold-standard,” also pose several advantages. These techniques may help researchers avoid some of the issues mentioned previously. Remote interviews, for example, are less time-consuming in terms of travel to the interview site ( Archibald et al. 2019 ). The implication is that researchers may have less fatigue from conducting interviews and/or may be able to conduct more interviews. For example, while Willis had little energy to do anything else after an in-person interview (or two) in a given day, she had much more energy after completing remote interviews. Second, remote fieldwork also helps researchers avoid potentially dangerous situations in the field mentioned previously. Lastly, remote fieldwork generally presents fewer financial barriers than in-person research ( Archibald et al. 2019 ). In that sense, considering remote qualitative data collection, a type of “fieldwork” may make fieldwork more accessible to a greater number of scholars.

Many of the substantive, methodological and practical challenges that arise during fieldwork can be anticipated. Proper preparation can help you hit the ground running once you enter your fieldwork destination, whether in-person or virtually. Nonetheless, there is no such thing as being perfectly prepared for the field. Some things will simply be beyond your control, and especially as a newcomer to field research, and you should be prepared for things to not go as planned. New questions will arise, interview participants may cancel appointments, and you might not get the answers you expected. Be ready to make adjustments to research plans, interview guides, or questionnaires. And, be mindful of your affective reactions to the overall fieldwork situation and be gentle with yourself.

We recommend approaching fieldwork as a learning experience as much as, or perhaps even more than, a data collection effort. This also applies to your research topic. While it is prudent always to exercise a healthy amount of skepticism about what people tell you and why, the participants in your research will likely have unique perspectives and knowledge that will challenge yours. Be an attentive listener and remember that they are experts of their own experiences.

We encourage more institutions to offer courses that cover field research preparation and planning, practical advice on safety and wellbeing, and discussion of ethics. Specifically, we align with Schwartz and Cronin-Furman's (2020 , 3) contention “that treating fieldwork preparation as the methodology will improve individual scholars’ experiences and research.” In this article, we outline a set of issue areas in which we think formal preparation is necessary, but we note that our discussion is by no means exhaustive. Formal fieldwork preparation should also extend beyond what we have covered in this article, such as issues of data security and preparing for nonqualitative fieldwork methods. We also note that field research is one area that has yet to be comprehensively addressed in conversations on diversity and equity in the political science discipline and the broader academic profession. In a recent article, Brielle Harbin (2021) begins to fill this gap by sharing her experiences conducting in-person election surveys as a Black woman in a conservative and predominantly white region of the United States and the challenges that she encountered. Beyond race and gender, citizenship, immigration status, one's Ph.D. institution and distance to the field also affect who is able to do what type of field research, where, and for how long. Future research should explore these and related questions in greater detail because limits on who is able to conduct field research constrict the sociological imagination of our field.

While Emmons and Moravcsik (2020) focus on leading Political Science Ph.D. programs in the United States, these trends likely obtain, both in lower ranked institutions in the broader United States as well as in graduate education throughout North America and Europe.

As all the authors have carried out qualitative fieldwork, this is the primary focus of this guide. This does not, however, mean that we exclude quantitative or experimental data collection from our definition of fieldwork.

There is great variation in graduate students’ financial situations, even in the Global North. For example, while higher education is tax-funded in most countries in Europe and Ph.D. students in countries such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Switzerland receive a comparatively generous full-time salary, healthcare and contributions to pension schemes, Ph.D. programs in other contexts like the United States and the United Kingdom have (high) enrollment fees and rely on scholarships, stipends, or departmental duties like teaching to (partially) offset these, while again others, such as Germany, are commonly financed by part-time (50 percent) employment at the university with tasks substantively unrelated to the dissertation. These different preconditions leave many Ph.D. students struggling financially and even incurring debt, while others are in a more comfortable financial position. Likewise, Ph.D. programs around the globe differ in structure, such as required coursework, duration and supervision relationships. Naturally, all of these factors have a bearing on the extent to which fieldwork is feasible. We acknowledge unequal preconditions across institutions and contexts, and trust that those Ph.D. students interested in pursuing fieldwork are best able to assess the structural and institutional context in which they operate and what this implies for how, when, and how long to carry out fieldwork.

In our experience, this is not only the general cycle for graduate students in North America, but also in Europe and likely elsewhere.

For helpful advice and feedback on earlier drafts, we wish to thank the editors and reviewers at International Studies Review , and Cassandra Emmons. We are also grateful to our interlocuters in Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Kenya, Norway, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, without whom this reflection on fieldwork would not have been possible. All authors contributed equally to this manuscript.

This material is based upon work supported by the Forskraftstiftelsen Theodor Adelswärds Minne, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation(KAW 2013.0178), National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program(DGE-1418060), Southeast Asia Research Group (Pre-Dissertation Fellowship), University at Albany (Initiatives for Women and the Benevolent Association), University of Missouri (John D. Bies International Travel Award Program and Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy), University of Southern California (Provost Fellowship in the Social Sciences), Vetenskapsrådet(Diarienummer 2019-06298), Wilhelm och Martina Lundgrens Vetenskapsfond(2016-1102; 2018-2272), and William & Mary (Global Research Institute Pre-doctoral Fellowship).

Advancing Conflict Research . 2020 . The ARC Bibliography . Accessed September 6, 2020, https://advancingconflictresearch.com/resources-1 .

Google Scholar

Google Preview

Archibald Mandy M. , Ambagtsheer Rachel C. , Casey Mavourneen G. , Lawless Michael . 2019 . “ Using Zoom Videoconferencing for Qualitative Data Collection: Perceptions and Experiences of Researchers and Participants .” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 18 : 1 – 18 .

Beath Andrew , Christia Fotini , Enikolopov Ruben . 2013 . “ Empowering Women Through Development Aid: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Afghanistan .” American Political Science Review 107 ( 3 ): 540 – 57 .

Carling Jorgen , Erdal Marta Bivand , Ezzati Rojan . 2014 . “ Beyond the Insider–Outsider Divide in Migration Research .” Migration Studies 2 ( 1 ): 36 – 54 .

Chambers-Ju Christopher . 2014 . “ Data Collection, Opportunity Costs, and Problem Solving: Lessons from Field Research on Teachers’ Unions in Latin America .” P.S.: Political Science & Politics 47 ( 2 ): 405 – 9 .

Collier David . 2011 . “ Understanding Process Tracing .” P.S.: Political Science and Politics 44 ( 4 ): 823 – 30 .

Druckman James N. , Green Donald P. , Kuklinski James H. , Lupia Arthur . 2006 . “ The Growth and Development of Experimental Research in Political Science .” American Political Science Review 100 ( 4 ): 627 – 35 .

Elman Colin , Kapiszewski Diana , Kirilova Dessislava . 2015 . “ Learning Through Research: Using Data to Train Undergraduates in Qualitative Methods .” P.S.: Political Science & Politics 48 ( 1 ): 39 – 43 .

Emmons Cassandra V. , Moravcsik Andrew M. . 2020 . “ Graduate Qualitative Methods Training in Political Science: A Disciplinary Crisis .” P.S.: Political Science & Politics 53 ( 2 ): 258 – 64 .

Esarey Justin. 2017 . “ Causal Inference with Observational Data .” In Analytics, Policy, and Governance , edited by Bachner Jennifer , Hill Kathryn Wagner , Ginsberg Benjamin , 40 – 66 . New Haven : Yale University Press .

Finseraas Henning , Kotsadam Andreas . 2017 . “ Does Personal Contact with Ethnic Minorities Affect anti-immigrant Sentiments? Evidence from a Field Experiment .” European Journal of Political Research 56 : 703 – 22 .

Fujii Lee Ann . 2012 . “ Research Ethics 101: Dilemmas and Responsibilities .” P.S.: Political Science & Politics 45 ( 4 ): 717 – 23 .

Gallien Max . 2021 . “ Solitary Decision-Making and Fieldwork Safety .” In The Companion to Peace and Conflict Fieldwork , edited by Ginty Roger Mac , Brett Roddy , Vogel Birte , 163 – 74 . Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan .

Geddes Barbara . 2003 . Paradigms and Sand Castles: Theory Building and Research Design in Comparative Politics . Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press .

Gifford Lindsay , Hall-Clifford Rachel . 2008 . “ From Catcalls to Kidnapping: Towards an Open Dialogue on the Fieldwork Experiences of Graduate Women .” Anthropology News 49 ( 6 ): 26 – 7 .

Greitens Sheena C. 2016 . Dictators and Their Secret Police: Coercive Institutions and State Violence . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press .

Harbin Brielle M. 2021 . “ Who's Able to Do Political Science Work? My Experience with Exit Polling and What It Reveals about Issues of Race and Equity .” PS: Political Science & Politics 54 ( 1 ): 144 – 6 .

Hilhorst Dorothea , Hogson Lucy , Jansen Bram , Mena Rodrigo Fluhmann . 2016 . Security Guidelines for Field Research in Complex, Remote and Hazardous Places . Accessed August 25, 2020, http://hdl.handle.net/1765/93256 .

Howlett Marnie. 2021 . “ Looking At the ‘Field’ Through a Zoom Lens: Methodological Reflections on Conducting Online Research During a Global Pandemic .” Qualitative Research . Online first .

Hsueh Roselyn , Jensenius Francesca Refsum , Newsome Akasemi . 2014 . “ Fieldwork in Political Science: Encountering Challenges and Crafting Solutions: Introduction .” PS: Political Science & Politics 47 ( 2 ): 391 – 3 .

Hummel Calla , El Kurd Dana . 2020 . “ Mental Health and Fieldwork .” P.S.: Political Science & Politics 54 ( 1 ): 121 – 5 .

Irgil Ezgi. 2020 . “ Broadening the Positionality in Migration Studies: Assigned Insider Category .” Migration Studies . Online first .

Jacobsen Karen , Landau Lauren B. . 2003 . “ The Dual Imperative in Refugee Research: Some Methodological and Ethical Considerations in Social Science Research on Forced Migration .” Disasters 27 ( 3 ): 185 – 206 .

Jamar Astrid , Chappuis Fairlie . 2016 . “ Conventions of Silence: Emotions and Knowledge Production in War-Affected Research Environments .” Parcours Anthropologiques 11 : 95 – 117 .

Jensenius Francesca R. 2014 . “ The Fieldwork of Quantitative Data Collection .” P.S.: Political Science & Politics 47 ( 2 ): 402 – 4 .

Kapiszewski Diana , MacLean Lauren M. , Read Benjamin L. . 2015 . Field Research in Political Science: Practices and Principles . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press .

Kelsky Karen . 2015 . The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job . New York : Three Rivers Press .

Knott Eleanor . 2019 . “ Beyond the Field: Ethics After Fieldwork in Politically Dynamic Contexts .” Perspectives on Politics 17 ( 1 ): 140 – 53 .

Kreft Anne-Kathrin . 2019 . “ Responding to Sexual Violence: Women's Mobilization in War .” Journal of Peace Research 56 ( 2 ): 220 – 33 .

Kreft Anne-Kathrin . 2020 . “ Civil Society Perspectives on Sexual Violence in Conflict: Patriarchy and War Strategy in Colombia .” International Affairs 96 ( 2 ): 457 – 78 .

Loyle Cyanne E. , Simoni Alicia . 2017 . “ Researching Under Fire: Political Science and Researcher Trauma .” P.S.: Political Science & Politics 50 ( 1 ): 141 – 5 .

Mackenzie Catriona , McDowell Christopher , Pittaway Eileen . 2007 . “ Beyond ‘do No Harm’: The Challenge of Constructing Ethical Relationships in Refugee Research .” Journal of Refugee Studies 20 ( 2 ): 299 – 319 .

Marston Jerome F. 2020 . “ Resisting Displacement: Leveraging Interpersonal Ties to Remain Despite Criminal Violence in Medellín, Colombia .” Comparative Political Studies 53 ( 13 ): 1995 – 2028 .

Mosley Layna , ed. 2013 . Interview Research in Political Science . Ithaca : Cornell University Press .

Mügge Liza M. 2013 . “ Sexually Harassed by Gatekeepers: Reflections on Fieldwork in Surinam and Turkey .” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 16 ( 6 ): 541 – 6 .

Nexon Daniel. 2019 . International Studies Quarterly (ISQ) 2019 Annual Editorial Report . Accessed August 25, 2020, https://www.isanet.org/Portals/0/Documents/ISQ/2019_ISQ%20Report.pdf?ver = 2019-11-06-103524-300 .

Nowicka Magdalena , Cieslik Anna . 2014 . “ Beyond Methodological Nationalism in Insider Research with Migrants .” Migration Studies 2 ( 1 ): 1 – 15 .

O'Brien Kevin J. , Li Lianjiang . 2005 . “ Popular Contention and Its Impact in Rural China .” Comparative Political Studies 38 ( 3 ): 235 – 59 .

Ortbals Candice D. , Rincker Meg E. . 2009 . “ Fieldwork, Identities, and Intersectionality: Negotiating Gender, Race, Class, Religion, Nationality, and Age in the Research Field Abroad: Editors’ Introduction .” P.S.: Political Science & Politics 42 ( 2 ): 287 – 90 .

Read Benjamin. 2006 . “ Site-intensive Methods: Fenno and Scott in Search of Coalition .” Qualitative & Multi-method Research 4 ( 2 ): 10 – 3 .

Ricks Jacob I. , Liu Amy H. . 2018 . “ Process-Tracing Research Designs: A Practical Guide .” P.S.: Political Science & Politics 51 ( 4 ): 842 – 6 .

Sarotte Mary E. 2012 . “ China's Fear of Contagion: Tiananmen Square and the Power of the European Example .” International Security 37 ( 2 ): 156 – 82 .

Saunders Benjamin , Kitzinger Jenny , Kitzinger Celia . 2015 . “ Anonymizing Interview Data: Challenges and Compromise in Practice .” Qualitative Research 15 ( 5 ): 616 – 32 .

Schulz Philipp , Kreft Anne-Kathrin . 2021 . “ Researching Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: A Conversation Between Early Career Researchers .” International Feminist Journal of Politics . Advance online access .

Schwartz Stephanie , Cronin-Furman Kate . 2020 . “ Ill-Prepared: International Fieldwork Methods Training in Political Science .” Working Paper .

Seawright Jason . 2016 . “ Better Multimethod Design: The Promise of Integrative Multimethod Research .” Security Studies 25 ( 1 ): 42 – 9 .

Skjelsbæk Inger . 2018 . “ Silence Breakers in War and Peace: Research on Gender and Violence with an Ethics of Engagement .” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender , State & Society 25 ( 4 ): 496 – 520 .

Van Baalen Sebastian . 2018 . “ ‘Google Wants to Know Your Location’: The Ethical Challenges of Fieldwork in the Digital Age .” Research Ethics 14 ( 4 ): 1 – 17 .

Weiss Meredith L. , Hicken Allen , Kuhonta Eric Martinez . 2017 . “ Political Science Field Research & Ethics: Introduction .” The American Political Science Association—Comparative Democratization Newsletter 15 ( 3 ): 3 – 5 .

Weller Nicholas , Barnes Jeb . 2016 . “ Pathway Analysis and the Search for Causal Mechanisms .” Sociological Methods & Research 45 ( 3 ): 424 – 57 .

Williamson Emma , Gregory Alison , Abrahams Hilary , Aghtaie Nadia , Walker Sarah-Jane , Hester Marianne . 2020 . “ Secondary Trauma: Emotional Safety in Sensitive Research .” Journal of Academic Ethics 18 ( 1 ): 55 – 70 .

Willis Charmaine . 2020 . “ Revealing Hidden Injustices: The Filipino Struggle Against U.S. Military Presence .” Minds of the Movement (blog). October 27, 2020, https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/blog_post/revealing-hidden-injustices-the-filipino-struggle-against-u-s-military-presence/ .

Wood Elizabeth Jean . 2006 . “ The Ethical Challenges of Field Research in Conflict Zones .” Qualitative Sociology 29 ( 3 ): 373 – 86 .

Zapata-Barrero Ricard , Yalaz Evren . 2019 . “ Qualitative Migration Research Ethics: Mapping the Core Challenges .” GRITIM-UPF Working Paper Series No. 42 .

Zvobgo Kelebogile . 2020 . “ Demanding Truth: The Global Transitional Justice Network and the Creation of Truth Commissions .” International Studies Quarterly 64 ( 3 ): 609 – 25 .

Email alerts

Citing articles via.

Recommend to your Library

Affiliations

Online ISSN 1468-2486
Print ISSN 1521-9488
Copyright © 2024 International Studies Association
About Oxford Academic
Publish journals with us
University press partners
What we publish
New features
Open access
Institutional account management
Rights and permissions
Get help with access
Accessibility
Advertising
Media enquiries
Oxford University Press
Oxford Languages
University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
Cookie settings
Cookie policy
Privacy policy
Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Principles of Social Research Methodology pp 463–470 Cite as

Fieldwork for Data Collection: Preparation and Challenges

Md. Abul Hossen 4
First Online: 27 October 2022

2112 Accesses

Field research is an important aspect of any empirical social study. Field research can be challenging, exciting as well as rewarding and daunting too. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the meaning and importance of field research and to provide a basic understanding to the new researcher who wants to conduct field research about the process of field research. While the chapter highlight the common field research practices, it will also discuss the potential tensions, dilemmas and challenges that may encounter during field research and the possible strategies needed to address them. This chapter argues that researcher should be sensitive and careful regarding reflexivity, positionality, and the relations of power during field research in order to conduct an emancipatory, democratic, and culturally sensitive field research. Such activity includes greater attention to the openness about the purpose of the research and activities undertaken, self-disclosure, mutual sharing of information, and explicit recognition of the expertise of the participant that they gained through lived experiences.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Buying options

Available as PDF
Read on any device
Instant download
Own it forever
Available as EPUB and PDF
Compact, lightweight edition
Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
Free shipping worldwide - see info
Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Davis, R. (1984). The fole of the Gorontological Nurse in the case of Elderly. Socioeconomic Planning, 19 (4), 279–288.

Article Google Scholar

Emerson, R. (2001). Contemporary field research: Perspective and Formulations . Waveland Pr. Inc.

Google Scholar

Haraway, D. (1991).Siminascybrogs and women: The reinvention of nature. Routledge.

Harding, S. (1991). Whose science? Whose knowledge? Cornell University Press.

Hartsock, N. (1987). The feminist standpoint:Developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical Materialism. In Harding S(Ed.), Feminism and methodology (p.157–180). University of Indiana Press.

Herr, K., & Anderson, G. L. (2006). The action research dissertation: A guide for students and faculty . Sage Publications.

Israel, M., & Lain, H. (2006). Reseach ethics for social scientists: between ethical conduct and regulatory compliance . Sage.

Book Google Scholar

Kobayashi, A. (1994). Coloring the field: Gender, race and the politics of fieldwork. The Professional Geographer, 46 , 73–79.

Kosygina, L. (2005). Doing gender in research: Reflection on experience in field. The Qualitative Report, 10 (1), 87–95.

Lal, J. (1996). Situating locations: The politics of self, identity and other in living and writing the texts. In D. Wolfs (Ed.), Feminist diallemmas in fieldwork (pp. 185–214). Westview Press.

Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. (2006). Designing qualitative research . Sage.

Neuman, B. (2001). The knowledge gap: Implications for early education . University of Michigan Press.

Phoenix, A. (1994). Practising feminist research: The intersection of gender and ‘race’ in the research process. In M. Maynard & J. Purvis (Eds.), Researching women’s lives from a feminist perspective (pp. 49–71). Taylor and Francis limited.

Punch, K. F. (2005). Introduction to social research: Quantitative and qualitative approaches . London: Sage

Schatzman and Strauss. (1973). Development field work: A practical guide (p. 170). Sage.

Scott, S., Miller, F., & Lloyd, K. (2005). Doing fieldwork in development geography: Researh culture and research spaces in Vietnam. Geographical Research, 44 (1), 28–40.

Wahab, S. (2003). Creating knowledge collaboratively with female sex workers: Insights from a qualitative, feminist and participatory study. Qualitative Inquiry, 9 , 625–642.

Wax, M., & Wax, R. (1980). Fieldwork and the research process . John Wiley & Sons.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Social Work, Jagannath University, Dhaka, 1100, Bangladesh

Md. Abul Hossen

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Md. Abul Hossen .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Centre for Family and Child Studies, Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

M. Rezaul Islam

Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Niaz Ahmed Khan

Department of Social Work, School of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Rajendra Baikady

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter.

Abul Hossen, M. (2022). Fieldwork for Data Collection: Preparation and Challenges. In: Islam, M.R., Khan, N.A., Baikady, R. (eds) Principles of Social Research Methodology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5441-2_33

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5441-2_33

Published : 27 October 2022

Publisher Name : Springer, Singapore

Print ISBN : 978-981-19-5219-7

Online ISBN : 978-981-19-5441-2

eBook Packages : Social Sciences

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Find a journal
Track your research

Home • Knowledge hub • What is Fieldwork in Market Research?

What is Fieldwork in Market Research?

Definition of Fieldwork

Fieldwork in market research refers to the collection of primary data directly from the source or field. This involves various techniques such as surveys, interviews, observations, and experiments conducted with targeted groups or individuals. The main aim of fieldwork is to gather raw data, providing firsthand, in-depth, and accurate information about customers’ behaviors, attitudes, preferences, or any other aspects needed for the study. This data is then used to make informed decisions or predictions about the market.

History of Fieldwork

The history of fieldwork in market research is as old as the history of market research itself. It dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries when businesses began recognizing the need for informed decisions based on customers’ perspectives. The modern practice of fieldwork, as part of the market research process, took shape after World War II, when there was increased competition in the market, leading to the need for more detailed consumer insights.

Initial fieldwork methodologies were very traditional, heavily relying on door-to-door surveys and in-person interviews. As technology advanced, fieldwork methodologies have also evolved significantly. They now incorporate online surveys, telephone interviews, video interviews, social media analytics, mobile data collection, etc., allowing researchers to reach larger and more diverse audiences.

Surveys : One of the most common types of fieldwork. They can be conducted face-to-face, via telephone, or online. For instance, a beverage company could survey consumers about their flavor preferences for new product development.
Interviews : These can be structured (with pre-defined questions) or unstructured (more open-ended). An example could be a car manufacturer conducting face-to-face interviews to understand consumers’ thoughts on their latest car model.
Observations : Here, the researcher observes consumers in their natural settings. An example could be a clothing retailer observing consumer behavior in their store to understand how they interact with different product displays.
Experiments : These are typically set up in controlled environments to test specific variables. For instance, a restaurant might experiment with different menu designs to see which results in higher sales.

Is the term fieldwork in market research known by any other names?

The term “fieldwork” in market research is often interchangeably used with several other terms, depending on the context and specific methods used. Some of these include:

Primary Research : This term is used because fieldwork involves collecting original or primary data that has not been previously gathered. However, primary research also includes other techniques like experiments and content analysis, which may or may not be considered fieldwork, depending on their design.
Data Collection : This is a more general term that refers to gathering information. Fieldwork is a type of data collection that occurs directly from the source or field.
Ethnographic Research : While technically a type of fieldwork, this term is often used when the research involves immersive observation of the subject in their natural environment over extended periods.
Survey Research : This term is commonly used when fieldwork primarily involves using surveys to gather information from a sample of individuals.

It’s important to note that while these terms often overlap with the concept of fieldwork in market research, they each have their nuances and specificities. Hence, the appropriate term to use would depend on the context and the precise nature of the research being conducted.

Fieldwork Use Cases

Fieldwork in market research has a broad spectrum of applications across various industries. Here are some common use cases:

Product Development : Companies often conduct fieldwork to gather insights about consumer preferences and needs, which can guide the development of new products or services.
Brand Positioning : Fieldwork helps understand consumers’ perceptions of a brand and its competitors, assisting in devising effective positioning strategies.
Customer Satisfaction : By gathering firsthand data from customers, businesses can gauge the level of customer satisfaction and identify areas of improvement.
Advertising Testing : Fieldwork can be used to test the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, with feedback used to optimize future efforts.
Market Segmentation : Fieldwork helps in identifying different customer groups based on their behaviors, attitudes, and needs, aiding in the creation of targeted marketing strategies.

Fieldwork is a vital component of market research, offering a direct line to consumer insights and behaviors. Its robust methodologies, adaptable to changing market and technological conditions, make it a reliable tool for any business looking to succeed in its market.

Trends in Fieldwork in Market Research

As an integral part of market research, fieldwork is continually evolving, keeping pace with technological advancements and changing consumer behaviors. Some notable trends shaping the future of fieldwork include:

Mobile Fieldwork : As smartphones become ubiquitous, they play a key role in shaping fieldwork methodologies. Mobile surveys are gaining traction thanks to their convenience and the ability to reach a broader audience. These surveys allow respondents to provide data in real-time, anywhere, at any time, providing researchers with immediate, valuable insights. An added advantage is leveraging smartphone features like geolocation and multimedia capabilities, enriching the data collected.
Social Media Analytics : Social media platforms have become a goldmine of consumer behavior data. As consumers share their preferences, opinions, and experiences on these platforms, they leave a trail of valuable data points. By observing and analyzing these interactions, researchers can gain profound insights into consumer sentiments and trends. This practice is growing rapidly due to its potential to provide unfiltered, authentic, and timely data.
AI and Machine Learning in Fieldwork : AI and machine learning technologies are revolutionizing fieldwork data processing and analysis. They provide sophisticated tools to handle large and complex data sets, reducing the time and effort traditionally required for data analysis. These technologies can uncover hidden patterns, predict trends, and provide deeper insights, thus enhancing the value derived from fieldwork. With the increase in computational power and the availability of big data, the role of AI and machine learning in fieldwork is set to expand.

These trends are evidence of an exciting evolution in the field of market research. Embracing these changes will enable researchers to conduct fieldwork more efficiently, effectively and deliver more accurate and actionable insights. As market research continues to evolve, it will be intriguing to see how these trends will further shape the future of fieldwork.

Challenges in Fieldwork in Market Research

While fieldwork plays a crucial role in market research, it has its hurdles. Understanding these challenges can help refine strategies and lead to more effective data collection and analysis. Here are some common challenges faced by researchers:

Data Quality : One of the foremost challenges in fieldwork is ensuring the quality of the data collected. Several factors can affect this:

Respondent Fatigue : This occurs when respondents become tired or bored during data collection, leading to hurried or careless responses, thus affecting the data’s reliability.
Bias : Bias can creep in from various sources – from the researcher’s side (e.g., leading questions) or from the respondent’s side (e.g., social desirability bias where respondents answer in a way they believe is socially acceptable rather than being truthful). Managing these biases is crucial to obtaining accurate data.
Dishonesty : Some respondents may provide false information, either deliberately or unintentionally. Such misinformation can skew the research results.

Ethical Considerations : Fieldwork must be conducted responsibly, respecting participants’ rights and privacy:

Privacy : Protecting respondent privacy is critical, especially with data protection regulations like GDPR. Researchers must ensure that personal data is collected, stored, and used ethically and legally.
Informed Consent : Researchers must ensure respondents understand the purpose of the research, what their participation involves, and their rights, including the right to withdraw from the study at any time without repercussions.
Sensitive Topics or Vulnerable Populations : Extra care must be taken when dealing with sensitive topics or vulnerable populations, such as children or people with disabilities. Appropriate measures should be implemented to ensure their comfort and safety during the research process.

Conducting Fieldwork in Rural Versus Urban Areas

Fieldwork in both rural and urban settings has its unique set of opportunities and challenges, given the differences in these environments.

Urban Areas:

Urban areas generally have a higher population density, diverse demographics, and better connectivity. This makes it easier to find and reach target respondents for fieldwork. However, urban respondents may have higher expectations for incentives or maybe less available due to busy lifestyles. There could also be more distractions, potentially affecting data quality.

Rural Areas:

Rural areas, on the other hand, may pose logistical challenges due to lower population density, less developed infrastructure, and potentially greater geographical distances between respondents. However, rural populations may be more available and willing to participate in fieldwork studies. It is also important to be aware of cultural and social norms, which may vary greatly from urban areas, and to adapt research methods accordingly.

Conducting Fieldwork in Multiple Countries

Fieldwork across different countries provides the opportunity to gather diverse and rich data. It enables comparative studies and offers insights into different markets. However, it also comes with its own set of challenges:

Cultural Differences : Different countries have different cultural norms, values, and behaviors, which could affect the conduct and interpretation of fieldwork. Ensuring cultural sensitivity and understanding these differences is vital for successful fieldwork.
Language Barriers : Communication can be challenging if the researchers and respondents do not share a common language. It may be necessary to hire local fieldworkers or translators.
Legal and Ethical Considerations : Different countries may have different laws and regulations around data collection, privacy, and research ethics. It is important to understand and comply with these.
Logistical Challenges : Time zones, travel arrangements, and scheduling can all present logistical difficulties when conducting fieldwork across multiple countries.

To overcome these challenges, careful planning, adequate resources, cultural training, and collaboration with local partners can be beneficial. By taking into account these considerations, fieldwork in different geographical and cultural contexts can yield valuable insights.

Key Considerations for Brands Conducting Fieldwork Research

Fieldwork can provide invaluable insights for brands, but it’s essential to approach it thoughtfully. Here are some crucial considerations:

Defining Clear Objectives : The first step in any research initiative is to clearly outline what you hope to learn. The objectives of the fieldwork must be defined upfront to guide the design of the research methodology.
Selection of Appropriate Methodology : Depending on the research objectives, brands should choose the right mix of fieldwork methods – surveys, interviews, observations, etc. The chosen methods should effectively gather the required information and be feasible in the given context.
Sample Selection : Brands must determine who they will include in their fieldwork research. The sample should represent the population they want to make inferences about. Proper sample selection ensures the reliability and validity of the study.
Training of Fieldworkers : The quality of data collected heavily relies on the skills of the researchers. Brands need to ensure that fieldwork researchers are adequately trained to conduct the research ethically and effectively, minimizing bias.
Data Analysis : The data collected during fieldwork needs to be appropriately analyzed to derive meaningful insights. This might require statistical expertise and the use of appropriate data analysis tools.
Respecting Privacy and Ethical Considerations : Brands must conduct their fieldwork per ethical guidelines and respect participants’ privacy. They need to ensure informed consent, anonymity, and data protection.
Budget and Timeline : Brands must consider their resources in terms of budget and timeline. Fieldwork can be time-consuming and potentially expensive depending on the scale, so proper planning is necessary to ensure efficiency.
Incorporating Findings into Strategy : Finally, brands should plan how to use the insights gathered from fieldwork. The findings should inform decision-making, strategy development, and improvement initiatives.

By considering these factors, brands can ensure their fieldwork research is effective, efficient, and beneficial to their strategic goals.

The Advantage of Partnering with a Market Research Company

Choosing to collaborate with a market research agency, particularly one as established as Kadence International, can be a strategic decision for brands for several reasons:

Expertise : Market research agencies like Kadence bring a wealth of expertise in various research methodologies, including fieldwork. We know how to design effective research studies, choose appropriate data collection methods, select representative samples, and analyze data to derive meaningful insights.
Experience Across Markets : Kadence International, with its global footprint, has experience conducting research in diverse markets. We understand cultural nuances, local market dynamics, and regional consumer behavior, which can be invaluable in multinational research.
Access to Tools and Technologies : Market research agencies often have access to advanced research tools and technologies. This can range from sophisticated data analysis software to mobile or online survey platforms. These tools can enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the research.
Time and Resource Efficiency : Conducting fieldwork can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. By outsourcing this task to a market research agency, brands can focus on their core competencies. Also, agencies often have established processes and resources to conduct research more quickly and efficiently.
Impartiality : An external agency can bring an objective perspective to the research. They can minimize biases that may inadvertently creep into internally conducted research.
Actionable Recommendations : Beyond data collection and analysis, market research agencies often provide actionable recommendations based on their findings. They can help translate research insights into strategic implications, making it easier for brands to apply the learnings.

Partnering with a market research agency like Kadence International can enhance the quality, efficiency, and impact of fieldwork research, driving informed decision-making and strategic success for brands.

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

First Name *
Last Name *
Business Email *

Helping brands uncover valuable insights

We’ve been working with Kadence on a couple of strategic projects, which influenced our product roadmap roll-out within the region. Their work has been exceptional in providing me the insights that I need. Senior Marketing Executive Arla Foods

Kadence’s reports give us the insight, conclusion and recommended execution needed to give us a different perspective, which provided us with an opportunity to relook at our go to market strategy in a different direction which we are now reaping the benefits from. Sales & Marketing Bridgestone

Kadence helped us not only conduct a thorough and insightful piece of research, its interpretation of the data provided many useful and unexpected good-news stories that we were able to use in our communications and interactions with government bodies. General Manager PR -Internal Communications & Government Affairs Mitsubishi

Kadence team is more like a partner to us. We have run a number of projects together and … the pro-activeness, out of the box thinking and delivering in spite of tight deadlines are some of the key reasons we always reach out to them. Vital Strategies

Kadence were an excellent partner on this project; they took time to really understand our business challenges, and developed a research approach that would tackle the exam question from all directions. The impact of the work is still being felt now, several years later. Customer Intelligence Director Wall Street Journal

Get In Touch

" (Required) " indicates required fields

Privacy Overview

Teaching & Learning

Education Excellence
Professional development
Case studies
Teaching toolkits
MicroCPD-UCL
Assessment resources
Student partnership
Generative AI Hub
Community Engaged Learning
UCL Student Success

Supporting students to undertake remote fieldwork

Practical tips and resources to support student fieldwork and research projects while avoiding in-person activity.

The words Teaching toolkits ucl arena centre on a blue background

26 October 2020

This toolkit is for staff responsible for supporting students faced with adapting their research projects to avoid any requirement for in-person activity.

It provides practical tips, and signposts to resources, on how to develop remote approaches to fieldwork, including:

Alternative data collection and analysis
Research methods from other disciplines
Digital collaboration
Project ethics

Benefits of fieldwork

Fieldwork can benefit a student’s learning experience in many ways:

develops observational and analytical skills;
takes students to places they would not normally experience;
facilitates experiential learning through a focus on the real world – comparing real examples with model or idealized examples in textbooks;
encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning;
experiencing ‘real’ research through fieldwork, particularly residential fieldwork, allows concentrated study of a topic not usually possible with the normal timetable structure;
develops a respect for the research environment;
develops personal skills, such as teamwork, leadership and responsibility;
breaks down barriers – fieldwork often facilitates more relaxed social contact between students and their peers and between students and staff.

Source: Based on Gold et al. (1991, 25–6) and Livingstone et al. (1998, 3)

Whether remote or in-person, work-based learning, professional practice and engaging in research processes adds another layer of learning for students which are impossible without exposure to field-based experiences.

Supporting remote approaches to fieldwork

1. Consider alternative data collection or analysis methods, many of which, can be applied across disciplines.

Alternative data collection methods may need adjusting and contextualising to the students’ specific case, but there are some general remote approaches which could be adopted across the disciplines:

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of secondary data and archival data
Meta-analysis of published studies
Systematic literature review
Internet mediated research

Carrying out Qualitative Research Under Lockdown : Practical and Ethical Considerations - an LSE blog post (April 2020)

Conducting User Research While People Must Stay at Home Because of Coronavirus - UK Government guidance (April 2020)

Researchers from across the globe discuss the issues surrounding research and data collection during the Covid-19 situation in this 1hour 30-minute webinar from Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in July 2020.

Doing Fieldwork in a Pandemic (crowd-sourced document) - produced by Deborah Lupton at the University of New South Wales. This document was initially directed at ways for how to turn fieldwork that was initially planned as using face-to-face methods into a more ‘hands-off’ mode. However, people have added useful material about ‘born digital’ research (content already generated on the internet by online interactions), which provides an alternative source of social research materials. This kind of document can support students in developing new ways of researching in their areas.

For student projects where some data collection has already started, students may be worried that their projects are at risk. Is this really the case? Could alternative/additional data analysis procedures be applied or is sufficient data available for a more limited analysis? To what extent could this be acknowledged in the dissertation?

The National Centre for Research Methods offers good student podcasts on using secondary data .

Find and re-use data deposited by UCL researchers, e.g. on the Figshare Repository .

Open access data archives: The University of Essex hosts the UK Data Achive which contains the UK's largest digital collection of social sciences and population research data.

Remote methods and approaches are being used in new research about COVID 19. Consider whether some of these could be adopted as part of students’ remote fieldwork approaches:

COVID-19 trackers can also provide students with some ideas of how qualitative and quantitative methods are currently being used in remote contexts.

COVID-19 Research Project Tracker by UKCDR & GloPID-R : UKCDR and GloPID-R have developed a live database of funded research projects on COVID-19 that will help funders and researchers identify gaps and opportunities and inform future research investments or coordination needs. Relevant for all researchers, from novice to expert.
COVID-19 Social Science Research Tracker : This international list tracks new research about COVID 19, including published findings, pre-prints, projects underway, and projects at least at proposal stage.
Inter-university Consortiums for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) : a new repository of data examining the impact of the novel coronavirus global pandemic. This repository is a free, self-publishing option for researchers to share COVID-19 related data.is a repository for data examining the social, behavioral, public health, and economic impact of the novel coronavirus global pandemic. Deposits can include all data, annotated program code, command files, and documentation necessary to understand the data collection and/or replicate research findings.

Internet-mediated research has been around for some time. It involves research approaches which make use of internet-based communication such as emailing, instant-messaging (e.g. Whatapp) and social media (Facebook, Twitter etc.). Students may use these mediums as research phenomena in their own right or as tools for data collection.

Key issues and considerations in adopting approaches from internet-mediated research are the ethical concerns around consent, privacy and identity of those participating.

Making the move to this type of research practice would be learning curve for students but a valuable one which would enable a host of transferable skills learning around information, society and data science.

UK Research Integrity Office’s guidance on good practice in Internet-mediated research . ESRC guidance on internet-mediated research .

Further information

Fieldwork activity in taught or MRes programmes, 2021-2 2

Moving teaching research methods online [case study]

Online teaching: guidance, tips and platforms

Education case studies

Funnelback feed: https://cms-feed.ucl.ac.uk/s/search.json?collection=drupal-teaching-lear... Double click the feed URL above to edit

Teaching Toolkits

Understanding Qualitative Field Work

Narration audio (MP3)

Narration audio (OGG)

2. What is fieldwork?

Fieldwork is an integral part of qualitative research. Originating in anthropology and sociology, fieldwork has become a recognised method in health sciences in recent years. Fieldwork involves going into a natural setting to understand people within that context i.e. understanding people in their everyday natural setting. A field worker is comparable to a child who learns by observing and engaging in the activities within their environment.

Fieldwork can be used to gain an understanding of people's experiences within a context, how a culture works/influences health care practices and the multifaceted relationships within the work environment. For example, if you want to research how care is delivered and received in a secure mental health unit, the most reliable way to do this is to observe the environment itself and the experiences of individuals within it.

Fieldwork is not itself a research methodology, rather there several research methodologies and methods in qualitative research that utilise fieldwork. These include, but not limited to ethnography, discourse analysis and conversation analysis.

This resource will focus predominately on ethnography and observations, but many of the principles of fieldwork are universal to the other methodologies too.

Click on each title to see a definition and how fieldwork might be used to support this methodology.

Build your Research Protocol Sheet.

Ethnography

Direct Observation

Qualitative Interviews

Participant Observation

Ethnography:

Direct observation:, qualitative interview:, participant observation:, case study:, qualitative fieldwork protocol form.

This example of a Qualitative Fieldwork Protocol Form will be completed by you as you progress through this resource. You can save/print the finished form at the end.

Innovative water solutions from Western farmers and ranchers

LOR’s 2024 Field Work initiative will invest another estimated $100,000 into research led by farmers and ranchers that explores innovative approaches to using water in agriculture.

A s the Mountain West faces the worst drought in the past 1,200 years, demand for agricultural food products is expected to increase by as much as 98 percent by 2050, putting Western farmers and ranchers on the frontlines of the fight to solve water challenges. Too often, however, funding for innovative techniques that might improve water usage is hard to access and slow to reach the experts on the ground. That’s why LOR launched Field Work in 2023—and why we are excited to continue our search for innovation in 2024.

Through Field Work, farmers and ranchers in rural parts of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming are eligible for up to $10,000 to implement creative water projects on their land (think: improved water efficiency, water reliability, water quality, crop yield or crop diversification, and labor efficiency). Our goal is to get money quickly into the hands of the people in the field and on the ranch who have the most innovative solutions.

Over three weeks in February 2023, LOR received more than 250 proposals from producers across all five states where we work. In the spring, we selected the 61 most innovative projects , investing a total of $538,802 into research led by farmers and ranchers.

These folks are the experimenters, tinkerers, innovators, and iterators who—while Western states agonize over how to resolve antiquated water compacts—have been finding ways to eke out a living from the land. They’re people who have a vested interest in finding ways to use water more effectively—for their own operations and for the good of the West. Ultimately, we hope their research reveals the best solutions for using water efficiently to grow food and sustain thriving communities in the West while in the grip of desperate drought.

Learn about the 61 Field Work projects from 2023.

Field Work 2024

While we continue to learn from the projects we supported in 2023, LOR is excited to search for more innovative solutions from farmers and ranchers in 2024. With generous support from CoBank , LOR is pleased to offer another round of funding to support approximately 10 farmers and ranchers implementing creative solutions to water-related challenges on their land.

This year, we focus even more on identifying the best research questions and most innovative solutions. Creative, out-of-the-box, and novel ideas will be most likely to receive funding this year. You can learn more about Field Work 2024 in our FAQs.

LOR is no longer accepting project proposals. Applicants will be notified about decisions by April 20. If you would like to stay in touch about Field Work, please email [email protected] with Field Work in the subject line.

By using use this site or clicking "I Agree," you agree that LOR and our partners may use cookies and some personal data for personalization and analytics. Read our Privacy Policy .

BECOME A MEMBER
ONLINE PORTAL

NEWS@ASOR E-NEWSLETTER

ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY E-NEWSLETTER

PAST ASOR NEWS, MONTH BY MONTH

ASOR LEGACY CIRCLE MEMBERS

LIFETIME HONOR ROLL OF DONORS

FY23 HONOR ROLL OF DONORS

ASOR ANNUAL MEETING

CCAP 2023: Searching for the Islamic History of Herod’s Great City

Veronica Morriss, 2023 Eric and Carol Meyers Fieldwork Scholarship Recipient

Caesarea is one of the best known and most researched sites in Israel. It’s famous for Herod the Great’s imposing harbor, the Roman hippodrome and theater, the grand Byzantine octagonal church, and its massive Crusader walls. Caesarea has an extensive history of groundbreaking archaeological research, and numerous excavation teams are usually working at the site at once, uncovering the ancient city, one meter at a time.

While the extensive Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader remains at the site have captured popular imagination and been the primary target for most excavations, the city’s role during the early Islamic era is not well understood—and the port played a more important role in Islamic history than it is given credit for.

The situation at Caesarea mirrors that of research throughout the Levantine coast. The archaeology of the early Islamic period is often neglected due to a combination of factors, including a bias in site selection and a predilection for Classical sites. These biases and gaps in the data have led to debates about the nature of settlement and trade along the coastal region and whether they declined following the Islamic conquest in the 7 th century CE. However, over the last several decades, scholars working throughout the region have begun to question the evidence underlying decline narratives and have produced new evidence that creates a more nuanced and dynamic picture of the era.

In part, this reimagining of the Byzantine-Islamic tradition has inspired our research at Caesarea. According to historical sources, Caesarea played an important role during the Islamic conquest and was targeted by the early caliphs and their forces due to the city’s port and its prominent role in Byzantine trade and logistics. Though Caesarea lost its role as capital of the Byzantine province Palaestina Prima after its capture in 640/1 CE, it continued to be inhabited and was tied into the eastern Mediterranean trade networks and the defense of the coast.

As part of the Caesarea Coastal Archaeology Project, our team has been exploring several regions of the ancient city, with a primary focus on those that might have Islamic-era remains. My work has been focused on the area south of the Roman theater, just outside of the park. We chose this area (Area FZ) to get a stratigraphic record of the southernmost end of the city near the Byzantine wall. We were also hoping to find traces of the Byzantine-Islamic fortress that was identified during the mid-20 th century Italian excavation in the defunct theater.

Gaming dice.

Last year, we uncovered structural remains and material culture that attest to a complex history of mixed use for the area. While we cannot discuss everything that we discovered prior to publication and reporting to the Israel Antiquities Authority, the finds this year point to significant Crusader-era use of this section of the city, as well as Byzantine-Islamic transitional layers, and a thick deposit of amphorae and storage jars. Tantalizing finds from earlier periods include six-sided gaming dice, carved bone hair pins, spindle whorls, dozens of coins, and even a horse skeleton—which many of the students were excited to uncover, having taken zooarchaeology courses at their universities.

In addition to searching for evidence of an under-represented portion of Israel’s history, our project is focused on training the next generation of archaeologists. Students had a chance to practice careful excavation methods in the field, tagging and recording artifacts, making section drawings, creating 3D models using photogrammetry, and conducting off-shore underwater surveys—which for many of the students was the highlight of the season. Considering it was hot and humid, it was a luxury to be digging a stone’s throw from the Mediterranean!

It was a great season, and we look forward to returning with our team next year to further explore Caesarea’s lost history.

Want to help more students and early career archaeologists get into the field? Donate to the cause today by selecting “Excavation Scholarships” as your gift purpose!

BROWSE THE NEWS ARCHIVE

FOA Webinar: Allison Thomason
March Fellowship Madness: Thank You
Fieldwork Report: Veronica Morriss
Digital Humanities Internship

American Society of Overseas Research The James F. Strange Center 209 Commerce Street Alexandria, VA 22314

E-mail: [email protected]

COVID-19 Update: Please consider making payments or gifts on our secure Online Portal . Please e-mail [email protected] if you have questions or need help.

The Right Places Locations Atlanta Boston Chicago - Downtown Chicago - Suburbs Dallas Denver Fort Lee, NJ LA - Orange County Minneapolis New York City Phoenix San Francisco Seattle
The Right People Recruiting Recruiting Experience: Medical Research Recruiting Experience: Consumer Research Recruiting Experience: B2B Research Exploratory Period
The Right Support Research Services Virtual Market Research Mock Jury Research Global Research Management Medical Device Usability Transcription CX/UX Research
About Careers Downloadables Blog Contact Start My Research Join a Focus Group

https://4146062.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/4146062/blogs/2023/20230203-time-saving-strategies/02032023-time-saving-strategies.png

Market Research Support Services

Time Saving Strategies for Market Research Project Management

As the demands of market research become more intense, you may find yourself struggling to balance your workload and meet tight deadlines. But the good news is, you're not alone. Many professionals just like you are facing similar challenges, and luckily, we can all benefit from each other’s success.

Gone are the days when the crunch was just a quarterly event. In today's industry, it can strike at any moment. We’ve compiled tips and tricks from industry experts to help you move forward with confidence and succeed in the ever-evolving market research landscape.

We all have big dreams and ambitious projects, but it's not always easy to take the steps needed to make them a reality. By embracing strategies for asking the right questions, tips for finding valuable industry partners , and techniques for maximizing your time, you'll be able to thrive in the market research crunch and achieve your goals with ease.

SETTING A STRONG FOUNDATION: 5 QUESTIONS TO ASK

When time is short, you really want to know how to ask the right questions to get the right answers. These questions serve as the foundation for your project, helping to clarify scope, timeline, goals, objectives, and potential challenges. Here are some questions to consider:

QUESTION 1: Are all parties involved confident in meeting the deadline?

PRO TIP: Be realistic about the deadline and work towards meeting expectations. Delivering on time is essential for both you and your clients. As “yes people,” we care about our clients, and want to deliver for them, but having expectations and meeting those expectations are equally important.

QUESTION 2: Will all materials be ready on schedule?

PRO TIP: Clear communication is key to avoiding delays and ensuring respect for all parties involved. Be sure to have open and honest dialogue throughout the project to understand how changes may impact the overall project.

Flexibility is key when changes occur, but make sure to communicate with the right people. Encourage everyone to understand the impact of delays and maintain clear communication throughout the project.

QUESTION 3: What can be adjusted or changed to meet the deadline?

PRO TIP: As a problem-solving industry, we excel at delivering projects under pressure. Our expertise in executing projects during crunch time involves riding the ups and downs of tight deadlines. We often face intense pressure as we come up with solutions, but also celebrate wins and project completion. Being flexible and able to adjust is key in an industry that can change rapidly.

QUESTION 4: What strategies have proven successful in the past?

PRO TIP: Invest in your network and never be afraid to ask for help. Your network should be diverse and bring a variety of experiences and perspectives to the table.

QUESTION 5: Who has helped on previous projects and how can they assist in the present?

PRO TIP: Create an internal system to document past projects and experiences. This will allow you to build on previous successes and make the most of the expertise and resources available to you.

Want this as a PDF? Download our guide to Thriving in the MRX Crunch. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(4146062, 'e52e5816-cc1d-471f-bf3f-e75f85eabf51', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"});

Partners in progress: choosing valuable partners and industry experts.

When you're working with tight deadlines, it’s important to choose valuable partners and experts who bring key elements to the table. To ensure a successful collaboration, teamwork is key – just like in a relay race where each contributor must complete their part for the team to cross the finish line.

TRUST AND RESPECT

The first and most important consideration is trust and respect. You want to work with a vendor who treats you, your colleagues, and their teams with respect, just as you would expect to be treated. It's also essential to ensure that the partner you choose can be trusted with confidential information , whether it's about new marketing plans, a new product launch, updates to an app, or dealing with customer or respondent information. Building trust from the moment you meet someone is crucial, and it starts with a positive attitude and an open mind.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

When evaluating potential partners, it's important to consider their ability to offset weaknesses with strengths. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses is vital, but it's equally important to find a partner who can fill in the gaps in your expertise. This will result in a stronger team that can tackle any challenges together. The ideal partner should find joy in doing things you don't enjoy, as everyone brings unique strengths to the table.

PRO TIP: Instead of looking for just a vendor, aim to find a "partner in success." This type of relationship is one where both parties have a shared goal and work together to achieve it. Your partner should be someone you feel comfortable working with, who adapts to changing circumstances, and who is always looking for solutions and cheering you on to the finish line.

Think of your partnership as an orchestra , where each person brings their own musical talents to the ensemble. When these talents are combined, they create beautiful music that is greater than the sum of its parts. By finding a partner who complements your skills and strengths, you can achieve more success than you would on your own.

COMPATIBILITY

Another crucial consideration is compatibility. You'll be spending a lot of time working with this partner, so it's essential to ensure that you have compatible work styles, goals, and desired outcomes. It's also important to identify any values or issues that could hinder your collaboration. Compatibility is key , and it's important to remember that you're asking for help and that your partner is there to support you in reaching your goals.

PRO TIP: Partnering with the right people can make all the difference in achieving success. Priscilla McKinney , a renowned business and marketing leader, emphasizes the importance of building a network that works for you. According to her, the key to successful sales is not to directly sell to your network, but to sell through it. This approach not only allows for the cultivation of strong, mutually beneficial relationships, but also opens new avenues for growth and opportunities. By leveraging the resources and connections of your network, you can be led to unexpected sources of help and new pieces of the puzzle that will ultimately bring you closer to your goals.

COMMON GOAL

It's essential to ensure that everyone involved has their eyes on the same prize. Everyone involved should have something to gain and something to lose, and it's crucial to ensure that the end goal is clear and aligned. Having a common goal is crucial for a successful collaboration, and it's important to work with partners who share your vision and are committed to reaching the same destination.

PRO TIP: Words matter. Choosing the right words can have a significant impact on your business relationships. Instead of searching for vendors, consider seeking out partners. A true partner should be someone you can rely on, who makes the collaboration process effortless, adaptable, solution-oriented, and shares the same objectives as you. Find someone who not only asks the right questions, but also cheers you on as you work towards a common goal.

PROVEN TIME-SAVING STRATEGIES FOR BUSY INSIGHTS PROFESSIONALS

Staying productive and efficient can be a challenge, especially in a fast-paced industry. To help you stay on track, we’ve compiled some of our favorite time-saving strategies that have proven to be effective. Whether you’re a seasoned fieldworker or just starting out, these tips are sure to help you get the most out of your day.

EISENHOWER BOX

Our first strategy is the Eisenhower Box. This method helps you prioritize tasks by categorizing them into four quadrants: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and not urgent or important. By using this framework, you can focus on tasks that are integral to the success of your projects and avoid wasting time on tasks that are less important.

THE IVY LEE METHOD

The Ivy Lee Method is a simple yet effective way to manage your to-do list. All you need to do is establish six priorities or tasks for the next day and write them down before you leave work. When you arrive the next day, start checking off tasks in the order that you wrote them down. This method helps you prioritize tasks and ensures that you make progress on your most important goals each day.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

There are numerous options available for project management systems, and finding the right one can be a challenge. If you haven't yet tried a cloud-based project management system, we suggest giving it a go. Popular choices include Asana , Trello , and Basecamp . These systems offer a single platform for team members to input data, work together, and monitor progress. Additionally, they provide the flexibility to quickly reorganize tasks and objectives as required.

PROPER DELEGATION

Delegation can be a powerful tool for maximizing your productivity, but many people struggle with it. According to a study of 332 companies, nearly half of them reported concerns about delegation practices. If you’re one of these people, don’t worry, you’re not alone. The key to successful delegation is choosing the right partner, letting go of responsibility, and having patience. When you delegate tasks to someone you trust, you’ll be able to get more done in less time and reach the finish line sooner.

TAKE A BREAK

It's important to take breaks while working, not only to re-stimulate the brain but also to recharge the body. We all know the importance of keeping our phones charged, but what about taking a break for ourselves? Taking regular breaks is crucial for overall wellbeing, productivity and creativity. It can be as simple as plugging in your phone, but sometimes it's hard to prioritize yourself.

Here are a few techniques to help you take a break and make the most of it:

POMODORO TECHNIQUE

The Pomodoro Technique is a popular time management technique that can help you be more productive and take regular breaks. The technique requires setting a timer for 25 minutes of focused work, followed by a 5-minute break. If 25 minutes seems like too much, start with a shorter time, such as 2-3 minutes, and gradually increase it. The goal is to build momentum and motivate yourself to keep working.

WORKSTATION POPCORN

Change of scenery can also be an effective way to take a break and recharge your brain. The idea behind "Workstation Popcorn" is to break down your tasks into smaller sections and complete each section in a different location. This can be a cafe, a park, a coffee shop, or even different rooms in your home. The goal is to have a clear stopping and starting point for each location, which can help you be more productive and also provide you with a fresh perspective.

FINAL THOUGHTS: NAVIGATING TIGHT DEADLINES WITH EASE

And with that, we have reached the end of our journey to success! We've explored the essential questions to ask to set your project up for success, charted a roadmap for finding valuable partners, uncovered time-saving strategies to help you keep pace, and reminded you of the importance of taking a well-deserved break.

Let's be real, tight deadlines aren't going anywhere, but we hope that the tips and tricks shared in this blog will help you tackle them with ease and enable you to deliver quality results every time.

And, in case you're feeling inspired to go further, try out the strategies and techniques for yourself and see the positive impact it can have on your projects. Don't forget to download our complete guide for a reference on your path to success!

Focus on the Research. We’ll do the Rest.

Your support system for getting the right people in the right place to conduct research that matters.

happy Fieldwork employee greeting clients

The Right Places

Market Research Environments & Facilities that Support Your Unique Needs

So that you can conduct research that matters.

We provide flexible options that can accommodate your research at our place, your place, or anywhere in between.

No matter where the research takes you, we offer environments equipped with the tools, technology, and on-site support that maximizes your chances of getting quality results.

Explore All Locations

Fieldwork's New York market research facility

In-Person Facilities

Explore our first class U.S. facilities and discover how we go the extra mile to support your in-person market research efforts.

Virtual Market Research

Access the latest technology, easy-to-use tools, and full-service support to run an effective virtual research project.

Everywhere Else

Need alternative options? Place the facility where you need it. Find out how we can help you conduct research – anywhere.

Global Research

From time zone management to a single point of contact, get the service you need to take your research international.

With Fieldwork, we know to expect top-notch recruiting and client service that is exceptional.

Their team anticipates our every need before we arrive and takes such good care of the respondents, our clients, and us while we are there. I’m so thankful for the peace of mind I have when working with them – it’s invaluable.

The Right People

Human-Centric Recruiting For Better Data and Useful Market Research Insights

We work tirelessly to build and improve our databases, innovate our recruitment methods, and implement forward-thinking strategies to prevent project hiccups.

We are meticulous in ensuring that respondents are accurately and ethically recruited, arrive on time, and are eager to participate.

Explore Our Recruiting Capabilities

Smart Practices

To find your ideal participant, we implement creative respondent engagement, sophisticated secure database technology, networking, and online pre-screening.

Multi-Step Process

To ensure accuracy and engagement, participants go through a multi-step process.

Extensive Bandwidth

To meet your needs, our recruitment spans the US.

market research participant waiting for a focus group

Participating in Market Research

Use Your Voice to Make an Impact

Our clients couldn’t be the best at what they do without your voice. Earn incentives while offering your thoughts on services and products that can impact your life, community, and world.

The Concierge for the Market Research Industry

What started as one modest suite 40 years ago has grown into a network of facilities, extensive recruiting capabilities, and expertise in qualitative research management that puts the needs of our clients first.

Consider us your end-to-end support system that allows you to focus on what matters – the research.

Learn More About Our History

Clients Supported in Gaining Insights

Environments

Years in Industry

Recruiting Specialists

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Fieldwork on several occasions.

They knock it out of the park every time. From strong recruiting, proactive project managers, and an incredibly hospitable on-site team, they are an easy choice for me.

The Right Support

Specializing in Meeting Your Needs

At Fieldwork, you’ll have a partner that understands that your research is unique to you. Our qualitative field management solutions range from meeting the needs of mock trials to medical device testing.

UX/CX Research

Enhance your UX/CX testing with expert blind recruitment, device distribution, NDA management, and robust security measures for a tailored and streamlined experience.

Mock Jury Research

Immerse yourself in a realistic courtroom environment with representative sample recruitment, effective juror management, comprehensive recording, and seamless trial simulations.

Medical Device Testing

Optimize your human factors testing with flexible medical simulations, rigorous privacy standards, extensive user testing expertise, and specialized recruitment.

Dedicated to You

Pushing Qualitative Research Management Forward

Free up time to focus on what matters by following best practices that prioritize bringing ease to conducting qualitative research.

Read Our Blog

Explore our blog for tips from industry leaders and best practices for improving your market research.

Explore Our Resource Downloads

Whether you need a checklist to streamline project workflow or a comprehensive guide for qualitative best practices, we got you.

room being set for a market research focus group

End-to-End Market Research Support

Get the comprehensive support you need to conduct impactful research.

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

Publications
Our Methods
Short Reads
Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

Data Quality in International Polling

Q: each year, pew research center conducts polls in dozens of countries. how does the center conduct surveys in so many different places.

To conduct its international polls, Pew Research Center works closely with experienced social and political research organizations to identify and manage local polling firms in each country included in our surveys. Working closely with our research partners, we carefully evaluate local vendors and select only those partners that meet our requirements for rigorous fieldwork procedures and thorough quality control.

Our top commitment is to data quality, a multifaceted concept that involves careful attention at every phase of the survey process, from drawing the sample to conducting the interviews to processing a dataset and beyond. This also means constantly staying abreast of emerging technologies and developing best practices.

Q: Once you have selected a local polling partner, what role do you play in conducting the survey?

As a practical matter, Pew Research Center has to rely on research partners to organize and manage field operations. But the Center is involved in every phase of the research. We develop the survey questionnaire, actively collaborate on the sampling plan and carefully evaluate the quality of the data produced. We have found that the protocols governing how interviewers conduct a survey are especially important for ensuring that a survey accurately represents the attitudes of the public and key subgroups, and so we pay a good deal of attention to designing rigorous protocols.

Q: What kind of information do you need to gather to monitor data quality from afar?

We remain in regular contact with our research partners — the professional research firms we hire to help identify, coordinate and oversee the extensive network of local vendors — as well as with the local vendors themselves. We also have a comprehensive process for confirming that a local firm understands and can execute the required sampling plan and fieldwork procedures.

The information we collect to do this includes:

a detailed account of the method for choosing respondents (the sample design) and the challenges faced during fieldwork; extensive documentation of the population statistics used to evaluate sample performance, or in less formal terms, an understanding of the population targets that the fieldwork team is trying to hit (e.g., the share of men and women) and how successful they were in that effort. In the U.S., for comparison, these population statistics would be based on the work of the U.S. Census Bureau;
records for each interview of the interviewer who conducted it, as well as the supervisor overseeing that interviewer and, if applicable, the person who entered the resulting data permitting a retrospective investigation of unusual patterns in the data;
extensive logistical details for each interview, including time of day, location, duration and presence of others; and
data on all contacts made to complete the survey, including households that did not respond to the survey invitation and people who refused to participate.

Q: How involved is Pew Research Center in training the interviewers conducting the surveys?

Over time, we have become more involved in this phase of a project. Mainly, we want to be certain that interviewers are familiar and comfortable with the questionnaire and fieldwork protocols, and that they understand why they must follow project guidelines. It is not always logistically possible for us to directly observe interviewer training in multiple countries, but we are working to develop innovative solutions. For example, we regularly observe training sessions via video conferencing platforms. For other projects where travel is possible, we try to arrange a centralized gathering of field supervisors from different countries so that our staff can observe the training in person.

Q: How does Pew Research Center oversee a survey project once it is in the field?

During fieldwork, we require local vendors to track multiple quality-control measures of interview and interviewer quality. For instance, a set percentage of the interviews need to be actively supervised. Second, in face-to-face surveys, a random subset of each interviewer’s interviews may be “back-checked.” This requires a colleague in the survey firm to check with a respondent – in person or by phone – and verify that the interview took place. Several survey questions are asked again to confirm answers. Depending upon data privacy laws and consent, interviews in some countries are recorded as a quality-control tool. Another tactic is to monitor the percentage of interviews conducted by any given interviewer. This helps minimize the impact any single interviewer may have on the quality of the final dataset.

We also ask local polling firms to report, at predetermined times during the field period, on the total number of interviews completed, the regional distribution of interviews, the mix of respondents by key demographic characteristics and a detailed breakdown of AAPOR disposition codes . When possible, we ask for this information to be broken down by interviewer.

We examine interim datasets at predetermined intervals. Each data point provides information on how well interviewers are following the survey plan and the instructions for randomly selecting respondents.

Q: Have you ever encountered instances where interviewers did not follow the plan? If so, what did you do?

There have been cases where fieldwork updates suggest that one or more interviewers were not following proper protocols – but this is certainly not the norm. In such cases, however, we pause that person’s fieldwork and request additional information about the interviewer’s performance, such as length of interviews and the time of and between interviews. We try to recreate an interviewer’s daily work log and determine if the interviewer is conducting interviews appropriately, given the survey’s length and (for face-to-face surveys) the country’s geography.

In a few instances, the evidence may suggest that an interviewer has fabricated responses or not randomly selected respondents as required. We require that interviewers suspected of misconduct have their work closely investigated by the local firm and, if the data collected are compromised and re-training is not an option, that interviewer will be dismissed from the project and the data they collected discarded. Those deleted cases, whenever possible, will be re-fielded by new staff. In most instances, our investigations reveal well-intentioned interviewers who encountered challenges in the field. Typically, we correct the problem by re-emphasizing the importance of our fieldwork and survey procedures.

Q: After fieldwork is completed, what steps does Pew Research Center take to ensure the quality of survey data?

The dataset is first reviewed by our research partners, firms that have been hired specifically for their considerable experience in polling in relevant countries and for their established relationships with local firms. Our research partners alert us if they suspect, or if reviews suggest, that fieldwork procedures were not followed. In that case, we work with the local firm to address the issue. Our partners are our first line of review.

Once we receive a dataset, we then implement a range of quality-control procedures. We pay special attention to the paradata for all completed interviews. We look specifically for suspicious patterns in interview length, location and time, as well as per-interviewer workload and success rate. We take a closer look at the responses recorded by a specific interviewer if we find anomalies that cannot be logically explained, and search for inconsistent responses, extreme values and duplicate records. This review process is iterative. Even if a first analysis of the paradata raises no concerns, we go back and delve more deeply into the paradata if we subsequently find curious patterns in the responses to survey questions.

Q: Do you look for duplicate records, and what does their presence indicate?

One of many ways survey data quality can be impacted is by the inclusion of duplicate records – where one set of responses is included more than once. This could be unintentional, an accident of programming or data entry. Alternately, it could be intentional fraud, a case of an employee – whether interviewer, supervisor or company executive – intentionally cutting corners to meet sample requirements, avoid hassles or lower costs.

We currently check for interviews in which there is a 100% match across all variables (including the demographic questions) and cases in which there is a 100% match across only the substantive variables. We also examine the data at a lower match threshold, taking precautions to ensure that interviews are in fact unique and meet our quality standards. We do detect duplicate records in some cases, though they normally account for 1% or less of a sample. Our standard assumption is that these are an indication of an error or low-quality interviewing, and we tend to discard them.

It is difficult to determine if a duplicate record is due to intentional fraud, even after extensive investigation. The biggest problem with identifying falsified data of any kind is that no smoking gun in the dataset usually exists. Falsified data could take any form, not just a straight (or near) duplication of answers. Interviewers looking to cut corners could invent respondents altogether, or interview friends rather than the selected respondents. Because of this, when we suspect a problem with a dataset, we analyze all available data – including paradata, substantive data, data on interviewers and contact data – to evaluate what might have gone wrong. We then work with our research partners to closely investigate what happened and how best to address the issue to successfully move the project to completion.

When it comes to all elements of data quality in our international and cross-national survey projects, our preference is to learn as much as we can to inform decision-making so future projects are better positioned to develop more collaborative relationships with local partners and produce high-quality comparative data.

INTERNATIONAL SURVEYS

Other research methods, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Fresh data delivered Saturday mornings

1615 L St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries

Research Topics

Age & Generations
Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Economy & Work
Family & Relationships
Gender & LGBTQ
Immigration & Migration
International Affairs
Internet & Technology
Methodological Research
News Habits & Media
Non-U.S. Governments
Other Topics
Politics & Policy
Race & Ethnicity
Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

Terms & Conditions

Cookie Settings

Reprints, Permissions & Use Policy

Suggestions or feedback?

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Machine learning
Social justice
Black holes
Classes and programs

Departments

Aeronautics and Astronautics
Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Architecture
Political Science
Mechanical Engineering

Centers, Labs, & Programs

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Lincoln Laboratory
School of Architecture + Planning
School of Engineering
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Sloan School of Management
School of Science
MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

Researching extreme environments

Press contact :, media download.

Emma Bullock smiles while near the back of a boat and wearing waterproof gear, with the ocean and sky in background.

*Terms of Use:

Images for download on the MIT News office website are made available to non-commercial entities, press and the general public under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license . You may not alter the images provided, other than to crop them to size. A credit line must be used when reproducing images; if one is not provided below, credit the images to "MIT."

Previous image Next image

A quick scan of Emma Bullock’s CV reads like those of many other MIT graduate students: She has served as a teaching assistant, written several papers, garnered grants from prestigious organizations, and acquired extensive lab and programming skills. But one skill sets her apart: “fieldwork experience and survival training for Arctic research.”

That’s because Bullock, a doctoral student in chemical oceanography at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), spends significant time collecting samples in the Arctic Circle for her research. Working in such an extreme environment requires comprehensive training in everything from Arctic gear usage and driving on unpaved roads to handling wildlife encounters — like the curious polar bear that got into her team’s research equipment.

To date, she has ventured to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, five times, where she typically spends long days — from 5:00 a.m. to 11 p.m. — collecting and processing samples from Simpson Lagoon. Her work focuses on Arctic environmental changes, particularly the effects of permafrost thaw on mercury levels in groundwater.

“Even though I am doing foundational science, I can link it directly to communities in that region that are going to be impacted by the changes that we are seeing,” she says. “As the mercury escapes from the permafrost, it has the potential to impact not just Arctic communities but also anyone who eats fish in the entire world.”

Weathering a storm of setbacks

Growing up in rural Vermont, Bullock spent a lot of time outside, and she attributes her strong interest in environmental studies to her love of nature as a child. Despite her conviction about a career path involving the environment, her path to the Institute has not been easy. In fact, Bullock weathered several challenges and setbacks on the road to MIT.

As an undergraduate at Haverford College, Bullock quickly recognized that she did not have the same advantages as other students. She realized that her biggest challenge in pursuing an academic career was her socioeconomic background. She says, “In Vermont, the cost of living is a bit lower than a lot of other areas. So, I didn’t quite realize until I got to undergrad that I was not as middle-class as I thought.” Bullock had learned financial prudence from her parents, which informed many of the decisions she made as a student. She says, “I didn’t have a phone in undergrad because it was a choice between getting a good laptop that I could do research on or a phone. And so I went with the laptop.”

Bullock majored in chemistry because Haverford did not offer an environmental science major. To gain experience in environmental research, she joined the lab of Helen White, focusing on the use of silicone bands as passive samplers of volatile organic compounds in honeybee hives. A pivotal moment occurred when Bullock identified errors in a collaborative project. She says, “[Dr. White and I] brought the information about flawed statistical tests to the collaborators, who were all men. They were not happy with that. They made comments that they did not like being told how to do chemistry by women.”

White sat Bullock down and explained the pervasiveness of sexism in this field. “She said, ‘You have to remember that it is not you. You are a good scientist. You are capable,’” Bullock recalls. That experience strengthened her resolve to become an environmental scientist. “The way that Dr. Helen White approached dealing with this problem made me want to stick in the STEM field, and in the environmental and geochemistry fields specifically. It made me realize that we need more women in these fields,” she says.

As she reached the end of college, Bullock knew that she wanted to continue her educational journey in environmental science. “Environmental science impacts the world around us in such visible ways, especially now with climate change,” she says. She submitted applications to many graduate programs, including to MIT, which was White’s alma mater, but was rejected by all of them.

Undeterred, Bullock decided to get more research experience. She took a position as a lab technician at the Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, where she studied methane emissions from seagrass beds — her first foray into chemical oceanography. A year later, she applied to graduate schools again and was accepted by nearly all of the programs, including MIT. She hopes her experience can serve as a lesson for future applicants. “Just because you get rejected the first time does not mean that you’re not a good candidate. It just means that you may not have the right experience or that you didn’t understand the application process correctly,” she says.

Understanding the ocean through the lens of chemistry

Ultimately, Bullock chose MIT because she was most interested in the specific scientific projects within the program and liked the sense of community. “It is a very unique program because we have the opportunity to take classes at MIT and access to the resources that MIT has, but we also perform research at Woods Hole,” she says. Some people warned her about the cutthroat nature of the Institute, but Bullock has found the exact opposite to be a true. “A lot of people think of MIT, and they think it is one of those top tier schools, so it must be competitive. My experience in this program is that it is very collaborative because our research is so individual and unique that you really can’t be competitive. What you are doing is so different from any other student,” she says.

Bullock joined the group of Matthew Charette, senior scientist and director of the WHOI Sea Grant Program , which investigates the ocean through a chemical lens by characterizing the Arctic groundwater sampled during field campaigns in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Bullock analyzes mercury and biotoxic methylmercury levels impacted by permafrost thaw, which is already affecting the health of Arctic communities. For comparison, Bullock points to mercury-based dental fillings, which have been the subject of scientific scrutiny for health impacts. She says, “You get more mercury by eating sushi and tuna and salmon than you would by having a mercury-based dental filling.”

Promoting environmental advocacy

Bullock has been recognized as an Arctic PASSION Ambassador for her work in the historically underresearched Arctic region. As part of this program, she was invited to participate in a “sharing circle,” which connected early-career scientists with Indigenous community members, and then empowered them to pass what they learned about the importance of Arctic research onto their communities. This experience has been the highlight of her PhD journey so far. She says, “It was small enough, and the people there were invested enough in the issues that we got to have very interesting, dynamic conversations, which doesn’t always happen at typical conferences.”

Bullock has also spearheaded her own form of environmental activism via a project called en-justice , which she launched in September 2023. Through a website and a traveling art exhibit, the project showcases portraits and interviews of lesser-known environmental advocates that “have arguably done more for the environment but are not as famous” as household names like Greta Thunberg and Leonardo DiCaprio.

“They are doing things like going to town halls, arguing with politicians, getting petitions signed … the very nitty-gritty type work. I wanted to create a platform that highlighted some of these people from around the country but also inspired people in their own communities to try and make a change,” she says. Bullock has also written an op-ed for the WHOI magazine, Oceanus , and has served as a staff writer for the MIT-WHOI Joint Program newsletter, “ Through the Porthole .”

After she graduates this year, Bullock plans to continue her focus on the Arctic. She says, “I find Arctic research very interesting, and there are so many unanswered research questions.” She also aspires to foster further interactions like the sharing circle.

“Trying to find a way where I can help facilitate Arctic communities and researchers in terms of finding each other and finding common interests would be a dream role. But I don’t know if that job exists,” Bullock says. Given her track record of overcoming obstacles, odds are, she will turn these aspirations into reality.

Share this news article on:

Bringing the environment to the forefront of engineering

Three people wearing life jackets and hard hats look at the ocean aboard a boat.

Featured video: Investigating our blue ocean planet

Sylas Horowitz stands by the edge of a lake holding their remotely operated vehicle.

Responsive design meets responsibility for the planet’s future

Designing exploratory robots that collect data for marine scientists

Previous item Next item

More MIT News

Olivia Rosenstein stands with arms folded in front of a large piece of lab equipment

The many-body dynamics of cold atoms and cross-country running

Read full story →

Heather Paxson leans on a railing and smiles for the camera.

Heather Paxson named associate dean for faculty of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

David Barber stands in an MIT office and holds an AED device up to the camera. The device’s touchscreen display is illuminated.

Preparing MIT’s campus for cardiac emergencies

A person plays chess. A techy overlay says “AI.”

To build a better AI helper, start by modeling the irrational behavior of humans

Santiago Borrego and Unyime Usua stand outdoors in front of a brick wall, each holding out an oyster shell.

Advancing technology for aquaculture

Illustration showing a city skyline next to an ocean with clouds above it. Single red lines arch over the city and over the ocean, and blue arrows swirl below and across the lines.

Using deep learning to image the Earth’s planetary boundary layer

More news on MIT News homepage →

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, USA

Map (opens in new window)
Events (opens in new window)
People (opens in new window)
Careers (opens in new window)
Accessibility
Social Media Hub
MIT on Facebook
MIT on YouTube
MIT on Instagram

IMAGES

How to Do a Research Project: Step-by-Step Process
Stages of fieldwork research method
How to Conduct Field Research Study?
What is Field Research: Definition, Methods, Examples and Advantages
Field Research in an Undergraduate Field Camp
How to Conduct Field Research Study?

VIDEO

From Field Work to Millionaire by dancing! #shorts
field work #forestrystudents #agristudy #agriculturestudent #polybags#soil#soiltips #soils #soilwork
Field work + more work? #disclife #discgolf #discgolfer #discgolfshorts #playdiscgolf
#fieldwork #fieldworker #africa #researchinafrica
10 science project ideas/ science fair projects/best science fair projects
field work👩‍🌾#fieldwork #field #labour #labourpain #agricultural #agritech #forestrystudy #forester

COMMENTS

Top 25 Field Project Topics [Updated]
Table of Contents. Imagine taking your classroom learning and turning it into action. Field projects involve going out into the real world, collecting data, conducting research, or implementing solutions to actual problems faced by communities or organizations. Think studying animal behavior in a nature reserve, surveying public health access ...
What is Field Research: Definition, Methods, Examples and Advantages
Field research is defined as a qualitative method of data collection that aims to observe, interact and understand people while they are in a natural environment. This article talks about the reasons to conduct field research and their methods and steps. This article also talks about examples of field research and the advantages and disadvantages of this research method.
How to Conduct Field Research Study?
It is essential to acquire researchers who are specialized in the field of research. Moreover, their experience in the field will help them undergo the further steps of conducting the field research. 2. Identify the topic of research. Post acquiring the researcher, they will work on identifying the topic of research.
Field Work
Field work is the process of observing and collecting data about people, cultures, and natural environments.Field work is conducted in the wild of our everyday surroundings rather than in the semi-controlled environments of a lab or classroom. This allows researchers to collect data about the dynamic places, people, and species around them. Field work enables students and researchers to ...
An Introduction to Fieldwork and Ethnography
a) the qualitative research methods employed during fieldwork b) the written descriptive and interpretive results of that research. Doing ethnography. The hallmark method of ethnographic field research in anthropology is known as participant-observation. This type of data-gathering is when the anthropologist records their experiences and ...
Fieldwork Ready: An Introductory Guide to Field Research for ...
wildlife research that any investigator should be familiar with. These are intended as a guide upon which you can and should build further skills. For those of you who are already experienced in the field, this book should help you think more deeply about how and why you do field research, and hopefully, to improve upon your skills and knowledge.
Getting to the Source: The Importance of Field Research
Travel restrictions and social distancing practices put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have largely ground field research to a halt. Fieldwork plays an essential but often underappreciated role in both understanding violent extremism and developing policy responses to it. It is vital, therefore, that funders and policymakers support the return of such important work in a post ...
Field Research: A Graduate Student's Guide
Finally, the Covid-19 pandemic has impressed upon the discipline the volatility of research projects centered around in-person fieldwork. Lockdowns and closed borders left researchers sequestered at home and unable to travel, forced others to cut short any trips already begun, and unexpectedly confined others still to their fieldwork sites.
(PDF) Field Research: A Graduate Student's Guide
A lack of disciplinary consensus on what constitutes "field research" or "fieldwork" has left graduate students in political science underinformed and thus underequipped to leverage site ...
Fieldwork for Data Collection: Preparation and Challenges
Abstract. Field research is an important aspect of any empirical social study. Field research can be challenging, exciting as well as rewarding and daunting too. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the meaning and importance of field research and to provide a basic understanding to the new researcher who wants to conduct field research ...
Fieldwork Ready: An Introductory Guide to Field Research for
chapters cover fieldwork planning and experimental design. The introductory chapter gives a clear, widely applicable overview of project design and emphasises its importance before commencing fieldwork. This chapter presents 13 questions that can be used as a planning tool to develop any research project or proposal. The second
Download Fieldwork's Ultimate Market Research Project Checklist
Customizable Checklists for Any Project. In research, the details matter. With these versatile planning pages, you can ensure everything is accounted for throughout the duration of the project. Download our FREE checklist to keep your projects running smoothly from beginning to end.
What is Fieldwork in Market Research?
Fieldwork in market research refers to the collection of primary data directly from the source or field. This involves various techniques such as surveys, interviews, observations, and experiments conducted with targeted groups or individuals. The main aim of fieldwork is to gather raw data, providing firsthand, in-depth, and accurate ...
6 Steps to Plan and Prepare for Field Research
Plan your research logistics and budget. 4. Recruit and select your research participants. 5. Prepare your research materials and protocols. 6. Conduct a pilot study. Be the first to add your ...
PDF Introduction to Qualitative Field Research
data for their projects. Field research is sometimes used in the search for cause-and-effect relationships. The primary reason for engaging in field research is to answer ques-tions. Without research questions, the researcher—particularly one at the beginning of his or her career—most likely would be adrift in the setting
Supporting students to undertake remote fieldwork
Practical tips and resources to support student fieldwork and research projects while avoiding in-person activity. 26 October 2020 . This toolkit is for staff responsible for supporting students faced with adapting their research projects to avoid any requirement for in-person activity. It provides practical tips, and signposts to resources, on ...
What Does a Field Researcher Do? (With Skills and Salary)
A field researcher is a professional who conducts research and collects data outside of laboratory settings. They can work in a variety of fields, including biology, anthropology, sociology or political science. They may collect data for universities, research institutions, think tanks, government agencies or private companies.
Understanding Qualitative Field Work
2. What is fieldwork? Fieldwork is an integral part of qualitative research. Originating in anthropology and sociology, fieldwork has become a recognised method in health sciences in recent years. Fieldwork involves going into a natural setting to understand people within that context i.e. understanding people in their everyday natural setting.
How to Set Up for Success in Field Research
By Lauren Purkhiser, Design Research Specialist. "In the field" means being away from the studio engaged in practical work in a natural environment, like a home, factory floor, or a remote research facility. We'll walk through three phases universally feed the ebb and flow of fieldwork. Planning, Prepping, and Fielding.
Field Work. Preparing for and executing field work
Photo by Lilianna Bagnoli, 2017-18 Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar, New Delhi Time Spent in the Field. Note: Fulbright grant recipients receive grants to carry out research projects for a ...
Fieldwork Project Guidelines
Fieldwork Project Guidelines. September 17, 2021. Jennifer Estes. National University of Singapore. Learning Objectives: By the time students have completed the project, they should be able to: Employ qualitative research methods. Formulate an argument about the topic they researched. Apply anthropological concepts to analyze data.
Fieldwork Opportunities
Information about fieldwork opportunities, both Brown-sponsored and other possibilities, is provided each year through a combination of e-mails and meetings. Fieldwork opportunities are also frequently posted on the Joukowsky Institute's blog. Most projects accept applications in the January-April before the summer in question, but interested ...
Field Work
This year, we focus even more on identifying the best research questions and most innovative solutions. Creative, out-of-the-box, and novel ideas will be most likely to receive funding this year. You can learn more about Field Work 2024 in our FAQs. LOR is no longer accepting project proposals. Applicants will be notified about decisions by ...
Global Research Management
Experience Global Research Excellence with Our Dedicated Support. Our experienced team provides exceptional support at every step of your global research journey. Go Global. Fieldwork provides market research field management across the globe. We work with vetted research studios and recruiters and handle projects from beginning to end.
Fieldwork Report: Veronica Morriss
Read the 2023 ASOR Fieldwork Report from Veronica Morriss, who helped excavate at the site of Caesarea in Israel. ... As part of the Caesarea Coastal Archaeology Project, our team has been exploring several regions of the ancient city, with a primary focus on those that might have Islamic-era remains. ... and her research focuses on the ...
Time Saving Strategies for Market Research Project Management
The technique requires setting a timer for 25 minutes of focused work, followed by a 5-minute break. If 25 minutes seems like too much, start with a shorter time, such as 2-3 minutes, and gradually increase it. The goal is to build momentum and motivate yourself to keep working.
Market Research Facilities
The Concierge for the Market Research Industry. What started as one modest suite 40 years ago has grown into a network of facilities, extensive recruiting capabilities, and expertise in qualitative research management that puts the needs of our clients first. Consider us your end-to-end support system that allows you to focus on what matters ...
Data Quality in International Polling
Q: How involved is Pew Research Center in training the interviewers conducting the surveys? Over time, we have become more involved in this phase of a project. Mainly, we want to be certain that interviewers are familiar and comfortable with the questionnaire and fieldwork protocols, and that they understand why they must follow project guidelines.
PDF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
challenges, and revolutionize STEM through distinctive and inclusive education, projects, and research. WPI's project-based curriculum engages undergraduates in solving important scientific, technological, and societal problems throughout their education and at more than 50 project centers around the world.
Researching extreme environments
But one skill sets her apart: "fieldwork experience and survival training for Arctic research." That's because Bullock, a doctoral student in chemical oceanography at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), spends significant time collecting samples in the Arctic Circle for her research. Working in such an extreme environment ...

Top 25 Field Project Topics [Updated]

What Is A Field Project?

Why Are Field Projects Awesome?

How To Choose Relevant Field Project Topics?

Top 25 Field Project Topics: Category Wise

Social Sciences

Business & Technology

Arts & Humanities

Practical Tips For Field Projects

Data Analysis & Reporting

Resources To Consider For Field Projects

Data & Research Tools

Collaboration & Networking

Learning & Training

Project Management & Dissemination

Additional Resources

Related Posts

Step by Step Guide on The Best Way to Finance Car

The Best Way on How to Get Fund For Business to Grow it Efficiently

What is Field Research: Definition, Methods, Examples and Advantages

What is Field Research?

Methods of Field Research

Steps in Conducting Field Research

Field Research Notes

Types of Field Research Notes

Reasons to Conduct Field Research

Examples of Field Research

Advantages of Field Research

Disadvantages of Field Research

MORE LIKE THIS

21 Best Customer Advocacy Software for Customers in 2024

10 Quantitative Data Analysis Software for Every Data Scientist

11 Best Enterprise Feedback Management Software in 2024

17 Best Online Reputation Management Software in 2024

Other categories

How to Conduct Field Research Study? – A Complete Guide

What is Field Research?

Why to Conduct Field Study?

How is a Field Research different from a Lab Research?

1. Ethnographic Field Notes

2. Qualitative Interviews

3. Direct Observation

4. Participant Observation

Steps to Conduct a Field Study

2. Identify the topic of research

3. Identify the right method of research

4. Visit the site of the study and collect data

5. Analyze the data acquired

6. Communicate the results

Advantages of Field Study

Disadvantages of Field Study

Enago Academy's Most Popular Articles

The Silent Struggle: Confronting gender bias in science funding

Addressing Barriers in Academia: Navigating unconscious biases in the Ph.D. journey

Research Interviews: An effective and insightful way of data collection

Planning Your Data Collection: Designing methods for effective research

Unraveling Research Population and Sample: Understanding their role in statistical inference

Loading ...

Media Credits

Illustrators

User Permissions

Interactives

Related Resources

Human Relations Area Files

View exercise overview

Ethnography

Doing ethnography

Writing ethnography

An insider’s view

Workbook Activity 1: The Fieldwork Experience

Workbook Activity 2: Thinking Ethnographically

United States Institute of Peace

Getting to the Source: The Importance of Field Research

The Human Side

Contextual Understanding

Ethics and Safety

Strengthening Research and Policy

Related Publications

Iran’s Attack and the New Escalatory Cycle in the Middle East

Why Peace Games? Insights from East Asia