Happy New Year 2015

Welcome back to The Research Companion. Here’s hoping 2015 is a great year for you.

I’ve just signed the contract to write the second edition of The Research Companion book, so over the next few months there will be blog posts here focusing on:
– reviewer feedback (which has been amazingly helpful)
– reflections on where the book’s being updated/expanded
– exploring in more depth some of the topics the book covers.

This will include how-to guides on asking questions; writing skills; applying for funding; tools and resources for different methodological approaches; real life researcher dilemmas for you to give feedback on; and guest posts from researchers at all levels world-wide sharing their research experiences, hacks and tips. If there is anything you would like to see covered here please get in touch or leave a comment below.

I’ve recently updated the resources page so be sure to check out the different links to groups, archives and organisations that might be relevant to your work. I’m always interested in hearing about social, health and development resources, websites, blogs, associations and similar world-wide so if there’s anything you regularly use that should be on the resource page please let me know.

Over on Facebook our Research Companion group continues to grow with members from all over the world. Every day you’ll find resources for research, stories about studying, links to useful blogs and websites, information on courses and funding opportunities. And stuff to make you smile. Throughout January you can share your goals for the year. And all year round you can ask for assistance with any work you’re doing, promote events or activities you’re involved with, or just connect with others involved in social or health research and development. Come join us!

[Illustration for this post is from a 1959 Russian New Year greeting card. More of these can be found here]