This handbook provides comprehensive coverage of contemporary and developing Internet and online social research methods, spanning both quantitative and qualitative research applications.

Includes index.

Section I. The Internet as a research medium -- Chapter 1: The Internet as a research medium: an editorial introduction to the Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods / Ray Lee, Nigel Fielding and Grant Blank. Section II. Designing Internet research -- Chapter 2: The Ethics of Internet research / Rebecca Eynon, Jenny Fry and Ralph Schroeder -- Chapter 3: Understanding and Managing Legal Issues in Internet Research / Andrew Charlesworth -- Chapter 4: Research design and tools for Internet research / Claire Hewson and Dianna Laurent -- Chapter 5: General approaches to data quality and Internet generated data / Karsten Boye Rasmussen. Section III. Data capture using the Internet -- Chapter 6: Middleware for Distributed Data Management-Alvaro A.A. Fernandes -- Chapter 7: Distilling Digital Traces: Computational social science approaches to studying the Internet / Ted Welser, Marc Smith, Danyel Fisher and Eric Gleave -- Chapter 8: Analysing Social Networks via the Internet / Bernie Hogan -- Chapter 9: Nonreactive Data Collection on the Internet / Dietmar Janetzko. Section IV. The Internet survey -- Chapter 10: Overview: online surveys / Vasja Vehovar and Katja Lozar Manfreda -- Chapter 11: Sampling methods for Web and E-mail Surveys / Ronald Fricker -- Chapter 12: Internet survey design / Samuel Best and Brian Krueger -- Chapter 13: Internet survey software tools / Lars Kaczmirek. Section V. Virtual ethnography -- Chapter 14: Overview: Virtual ethnography: modes, varieties, affordances / Christine Hine -- Chapter 15: Internet-based Interviewing / Henrietta O'Connor, Clare Madge, Robert Shaw, Jane Wellens -- Chapter 16: Online focus groups / Ted Gaiser -- Chapter 17: Fieldnotes in public: using blogs for research / Nina Wakeford and Kris Cohen -- Chapter 18: Research Uses of Multi-user Virtual Environments / Ralph Schroeder and Jeremy Bailenson -- Chapter 19: Distributed Video Analysis in Social Research / Jon Hindmarsh. Section VI. The Internet as an archival resource -- Chapter 20: The Provision of Access to Quantitative Data for Secondary Analysis / Keith Cole, Louise Corti and Jo Wathan -- Chapter 21: Secondary Qualitative Analysis using Internet Resources / Patrick Carmichael -- Chapter 22: Finding and Investigating Geographical Data Online / David Martin, Samantha Cockings and Samuel Leung -- Chapter 23: Data Mining, Statistical Data Analysis, or Advanced Analytics: Methodology, Implementation, and Applied Techniques / Bert Little and Michael Schucking -- Chapter 24: Artificial Intelligence and the Internet-Ed Brent. Section VII. The future of social research on the Internet -- Chapter 25: Longitudinal Statistical Modelling on the Grid / Rob Crouchley and Rob Allan -- Chapter 26: Qualitative e-Social Science/Cyber-research / Nigel Fielding and Ray Lee -- Chapter 27: New Cartographies of 'Knowing Capitalism' and the Changing Jurisdictions of Empirical Sociology / Michael Hardey and Roger Burrows -- Chapter 28: The Internet and the Future of Social Science Research / Mike Fischer, Stephen Lyon and David Zeitlyn (Kent) -- Chapter 29: Online Research Methods and Social Theory / Grant Blank -- Section VIII -- Glossary of Key Terms.