A living handbook on research methods in communication

The goal of this proposal is to help instructors and students of our research masters on communication to have an online tool to produce materials more advanced than classical, printed handbooks, in the sense that it is possible to have a way to edit and publish actualized information (definitions, concepts, examples, even lessons) easily accessible on a website, entries that can be modified, enhanced, completed when needed. Students would be given a resource to remind or secure knowledge, a place to come back in search of references. Students can, on the other hand, to ask for new entries, or suggest to modify the existing ones, depending on their needs, so they can have a continuously updated handbook at their disposal during their training period and beyond.

In a first moment, the addressees of this initiative are instructors. They will be provided with an online tool to produce and modify materials related to the courses they teach in our master programs and a platform to edit contents. They will be provided with technical instructions to proceed. At the end, the final addressees of the tools are the students of our masters, who will benefit from the Access to contents. Finally, since from a so-considered definitive version of the living handbook an open textbook can be produced (e.g., in pdf format) the addressees of this final output is the world-wide scholar community, specially those involved in teaching and learning research methods in communication. It is important, thus, to produce contents in the world-wide language of the scholar community: English. Even if the contents of the living handbook may be produced in whatever language of the three ones used in the Pompeu Fabra University, and in our master programs in communication (Catalan, Spanish and English) we consider important to publish this possible open textbook in English. We can considered, as well, a more-than-one language edition (e.g., Spanish and English) or even more than one edition of the textbook – for instance, if we consider interesting to reach the Spanish-language market.