Dear Elaine - Ok, I'll weigh in and say the obvious, one needs to be trained in the appropriate research techniques. I didn't check your website (as I didn't see one posted in your signature line) to find out what your qualifications are in this area. I would say that most often, social science researchers are trained in their graduate degree programs at universities. In that venue, researchers build the contacts required to submit grants to support their researching efforts. . . very few people just start in as full-blown researchers without doing a degree (in my world). I do know some excellent journalists who are researchers who have learned outside of their degrees and do professionally support themselves via their efforts but they have international names and international reputations as well. It's a bit obvious but if one is situated outside of the academic world it is a puzzle. But few people just 'do research' - mostly it's build the network to write the grant to be funded to 'do research' - part of a long process. Not like working the test tubes in the Biology lab, where one can be a full time technician without the advanced degree (if one so chooses). Cheers, Denise ===== "Stupidity is not just a lack of content; it's also a process" Denise N. Rall, Sustainable Forestry Mentoring Coordinator & PhD student, School of EnvironSciMgmt, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW, 2480 Australia Phone +61-2-6624-8627 Fax +61-2-6624-8637 Office (Tuesdays) (02) 6620 3577 Mob 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/edu/research/deniserall/index.html __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com