How does the application of research in settings affect appropriate methods? This is the third edition of a well-respected text intended to address research needs in applied settings and guide non-academic or early researchers who are interested in research with ‘real world’impacts. The author Colin Robson brings his own particular life history to this engaging and useful handbook, together with the tensions experienced by a former biological and experimental scientist who discovers himself to be a ‘closet realist’(Robson 2002, xi). We think it is fair to say that he is torn at times between critical realism and a deeply embedded positivist past, so that psychological methods seem to occupy a greater proportion of the book than sociologically informed research approaches. He is also undecided about the extent to which research can be designed and undertaken without the underpinning theory of methodology. This recurrent concern about whether theory is necessary for ‘good’research could perhaps allude to design-based research (Anderson and Shattuck 2012, 24), which offers a ‘combined focus on theory building and practical effective applications’.

In this new edition, Robson includes a chapter on mixed methods (or, as Robson prefers to describe them, multi-strategy designs); an increased emphasis on ethical issues, in line with greater awareness of the rights of research respondents, including children and vulnerable adults; coverage of evidence-based approaches, in response to the increased role of evaluative and action research both inside and outside academic contexts; and enhanced web resource links and internet-based research methods, reflecting the burgeoning and widespread use of technologies. Discussion of specialist statistical software is moved to an appendix to signal that engagement requires expert guidance.