Book review: Doing qualitative research in a digital world
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| Author | Colin Andrew Sharp |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X211010823 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
2021, Vol. 21(3) 182 –184
https://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X211010823
Evaluation Journal of Australasia
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1035719X211010823
journals.sagepub.com/home/evj
Book eview
T. M. Paulus and J. N. Lester, Doing qualitative research in a digital world. Los Angeles, CA:
SAGE, 2022. AU$86.40 (paperback). AU$80.18 (E-book at Booktopia). 377 pp. AU$80.30
(Vital Source). ISBN 9781544321578.
Reviewed by: Colin Andrew Sharp , PERSONAL Research and Evaluation, Australia
Conducting and reporting evaluations can be stressful, especially in the context of the
global pandemic (Maloney, 2020). With the COVID-19 restrictions, evaluators had a
problem in common with researchers and teachers: How to make the most of the digi-
tal environment of our clients in gathering data and communicating. The new SAGE
book Doing Qualitative Research in a Digital World (Paulus & Lester, 2022) should
be a useful resource in adapting our data collection and analyses to the continuing digi-
tal context.
According to the authors’ Preface, there should be sufficient overlap of methodol-
ogy for evaluation practitioners and teachers:
We have written this book for not only those who are learning about qualitative research but
also those who teach research methods courses, as well as those who have been doing
qualitative research for some time and who wish to learn more about how new technologies
continue to transform our research practices. This includes researchers in the social sciences,
humanities, industry, and academia; program evaluators; and those who may draw upon
both quantitative and qualitative sources of data in their work. Both authors come from
applied fields education and health sciences and have made an effort to make this a practical
guide. (Paulus & Lester, 2022, p. xx, italics added)
Chapter 1 leads off with some of the philosophical and methodological considera-
tions concerning the relationship between technology and society, extending the work
of their earlier book (Paulus et al., 2014) regarding the bases of the digital tools avail-
able. Chapter 2 opens with ‘what is qualitative research?’ which introduces several
qualitative research methodologies, with the associated distinguished authors, and
how they can be used in qualitative research design and align with the type and pur-
pose of the investigative or evaluative inquiry. Thereafter, in Chapters 3–9, they delve
into the relevant software and tools for uses from workflow management, to literature
review, through data collection and analysis to reporting. One of the most useful
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EVJ0010.1177/1035719X211010823Evaluation Journal of AustralasiaBook review
book-review
2021
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