Alan Bryman is to Research Methods as Paganini to the violin: he makes a daunting, complex field accessible, informative, enlarging and pleasurable. This is already "required reading" in the field. The new edition is so good that it is now "required reading" on pain of death. Chris Rojek, Professor of Sociology and Culture, Brunel University Perfectly organised and precisely written, Bryman's Social Research Methods remains the essential text for anyone interested in how to do social research. The book will continue to underpin research methods teaching across the social sciences, and to shape, guide, and spur on the work of current and future generations of social researchers. Richard Giulianotti, Professor of Sociology, Durham University Alan Bryman is one of the very few working social researchers who are as comfortable with qualitative research as quantitative. That he can communicate clearly his enthusiasm and expertise in decent prose, with a sensitive eye to the student experience, is a bonus. This new, fourth edition of Social Research Methods can only enhance the reputation of its predecessors. As a one-stop, authoritative handbook, there are no serious competitors. Richard Jenkins, Professor of Sociology, University of Sheffield