field studies research articles

Skip navigation

World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

Field studies.

January 12, 2024 2024-01-12

• Email article
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Twitter

UX researchers are responsible for learning about users, their goals, challenges, and activities, and for bringing that understanding to the organization. If you notice gaps in your knowledge and you want to understand what user behavior is like in real life, then it might be time to leave the office to run a field study.

In This Article:

What is a field study, types of field studies, when is the best time to run a field study, when should you consider other methods, tips for planning field studies.

A field study is a type of context research that takes place in the user's natural environment (sometimes referred to as in situ , Latin for "in place") as opposed to a lab or an orchestrated setting.

Other research methods like secondary (desk) research , diary studies , unmoderated usability testing , remote - or lab-moderated (in-person) usability research  are often popular because they are either easier to set up or they are less resource-intensive (or both) compared to a field study. However, field studies can fill the gaps left by these other methods:

• Observing users in real scenarios will provide you with specific data that directly applies to your audience. Field studies that focus on specific tasks help researchers learn how to best support these tasks. For example, do people tend to use the product or service in the car? While checking in at a facility? At a kiosk? Field studies can reveal how well (or not well) the design supports realistic use cases.
• The context in which people do their tasks can reveal things you wouldn’t know to ask about, such as problems that crop up when new tools or processes are introduced into existing work practices. It also allows you to understand how well systems work in their normal context of use: when people are, say, distracted, in noisy places, or interacting with other people.

The range of possible field studies is very wide. Field studies can be either entirely immersive and open-ended or less immersive and more directed, involving prototypes or usage of specific existing systems.

Direct Observation

Direct observation  is a purely observational study in which the researcher is a “fly on the wall;" they do not intervene in the participants’ activities, nor do they ask any questions. This method is useful for conducting research into user processes — for instance, to help create natural task flows. It is also great for learning users' vocabularies and mental models , understanding businesses’ interactions with customers, and discovering common workarounds — for example by listening in on support calls, watching people moving through amusement parks, or observing sales staff and customers in stores.

Contextual Inquiry

Contextual inquiry  involves a combination of in-depth observation and interviews of a small sample of users to gain a robust understanding of work practices and behaviors. Most qualitative usability tests   in the field fall under this category.

Customer-Site Visits

Customer-site visits are a combination of direct observations and customer interviews, often led by the customer or client. For example, you might take a tour of a facility or walk through a system with them. These visits can help you understand usability issues that arise in particular industries or business contexts, or at certain scales.

Ethnography

Ethnography  requires complete immersion within a person’s or group’s natural setting for a sustained period, in some cases, living as a member of the group. It allows you to gain insight into mental models and social situations that can help products and services fit into people’s lives. This type of research is particularly helpful when your target audience lives in a culture or environment that is different from yours.

Field studies can be done at any time , but it often makes sense to do them before design (or redesign) begins, because such research can lead to fundamental shifts in understanding your users and can change what you would design for them. In particular, it makes sense to use these in the discovery phase of research, while you are still understanding the problem space.

Field studies can also be used in later stages of design or development, as an evaluative research technique . Sometimes this is referred to as “field testing” or “beta testing.” Field testing is a form of field research in which an existing prototype is utilized in its typical context.

If money were no object, we would probably all do much more field research. Unfortunately, field methods have not become cheaper at the same rate as other usability methods, and they can be challenging to facilitate. Beyond reasons of resource constraint, you might decide to stay out of the field in certain other cases.

Remote, Moderated Usability Research

With the advent of digital meeting tools and video chat, field studies can somewhat be facilitated remotely , with participants and facilitators each in their chosen locations. This remote, interactive approach can often be  cheaper and faster  than field or lab studies, since everyone avoids expensive and time-consuming travel to unfamiliar places. Being in your own space also offers comfort, familiar tools, and convenience.

Remote, moderated studies  make sense when:

• Your  participants are all over the map , and traveling to meet in person is too difficult or expensive.
• It’s important to get answers quickly and cheaply, and  you already understand the people, tasks, and contexts in depth .
• You need to conduct a few sessions at a time , for example when testing early designs with only a couple of users for each iteration.
• Many stakeholders or interested parties wish to observe the session , which would be impractical and disruptive during a field study, either by limiting rapport or literally crowding the room. These folks could be “hidden” from participants’ eyes with digital-meeting tools.

Still, remote moderated studies are often limited in how much external context is observable. In other words: you can’t see what the user’s camera doesn’t show you. That missing context is often important when you are trying to understand people and their environment, and extra steps need to be taken  to ensure these studies yield fruitful insights.

Lab Research (Including Traditional and XR or Simulation-Based Research)

You might wish to conduct in-person research in labs, conference rooms, or other spaces when:

• What you are testing or researching is particularly confidential, sensitive, or private.
• You need to record the session (but cannot do so remotely or in the users’ secured location).
• You have several observers who wish to observe these sessions and you can place them into an observer room with a one-way mirror.
• The scenario you need to study is impossible, impractical, or unethical to observe in person (for example: natural disasters, traumatic events, or high-risk scenarios), and must be simulated with extended-reality (XR) headsets or other technology.

While planning your field study , there are steps you can take to optimize your time spent observing users in their context. Ensure your research plan considers the following:

What Are Your Research Questions ?

Carefully consider what your team wants to learn, and how that (and other contextual factors) might factor into the field study’s setup.

• Participants: Who are your target users? Depending on the research method you use, you might need a professional recruiter or a team member to help you  screen and schedule  people.
• Setting: Go where your potential users are most likely doing the tasks you would like to observe: workplaces, schools, shopping centers, airports, and so on. Is there a specific environment or scenario that would be most realistic for your target users? Are there travel considerations (for you and the participants)? Do you have a private room where you can debrief with fellow researchers and observers?
• Timing: What time of day are these activities typically happening (or, alternatively, when in the customer journey)? Will you need to coordinate these sessions outside your normal working hours to accommodate participant schedules?
• Method: How much (or how little) do your participants reveal about their workflow? Does probing seem to significantly disrupt your users’ workflows? Will you need to prepare followup questions for after the observational portion to limit disruptions in users’ natural process? Or, are these questions better asked contextually, in the moment?

Who Is Accompanying You During the Field Study?

While there are certainly cases where a sole researcher will conduct field research alone, it’s far more common to be accompanied by other people, be it fellow researchers (either taking notes or running sessions concurrently) or observers.

Fellow Researchers

During a field study, side chatter can not only be distracting, but it can also bias the results of your study. Similarly, lack of alignment about research questions and intent behind studying tasks can result in researchers observing the wrong things or missing key details. To reduce chatter and increase alignment with others, consider having a research plan and facilitator guide available, with research questions clearly outlined. That way, researchers can not only follow quietly and confidently, but can run sessions in a consistent manner that reduces bias.

Decide whether to allow stakeholders to watch, and if so, what logistical constraints need to be communicated to them. Although it’s often  strategically important and desirable to involve stakeholders in observing user research , it’s not always possible with field studies. Sometimes observers won’t fit in the space, or they would make the research situation too intimidating or otherwise create an awkward situation for the participants. When that happens, you won’t get to observe the most natural behavior and you might not get the candid information that you need.

However, sometimes outside researchers can’t be left alone with participants as a matter of organizational policy, so observers  must  be present. In any case, consider having “slots” for observers to claim, and provide clear guidelines during signup to ensure observers know how to observe and how to help collect data , so they won’t  behave badly .

Do You Have the Right Permissions?

Make sure you have permission to run the study; not just from supervisors or participants, but also from the facility managers. When applicable, work with an ally onsite. When visiting a business, for example, you might need help recruiting, scheduling, reminding, rewarding, and briefing participants. An onsite helper can escort you, introduce you, and help you with equipment or space issues. You may need to get permission in advance to conduct research in public or commercial spaces.

When you encounter problems or behavior that you don’t understand around existing products or services, field studies can help you take a step back and find a new perspective, based on realistic user behavior in realistic contexts.

Doing research where people are can also be crucial to understanding whether new products and services will help, hinder, or fall flat for the people you aim to assist. Set aside assumptions and allow insights to reframe what you’re creating and how it will affect the experiences of the people you’re designing for.

Related Courses

User interviews.

Uncover in-depth, accurate insights about your users

User Research Methods: From Strategy to Requirements to Design

Pick the best UX research method for each stage in the design process

ResearchOps: Scaling User Research

Orchestrate and optimize research to amplify its impact

Related Topics

• Research Methods Research Methods

Learn More:

Please accept marketing cookies to view the embedded video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvYjOrwM2fI

4 Steps to Field Studies with Users

UX Researchers, We Like to Watch (UX Slogan #16)

Maria Rosala · 4 min

Field Studies vs. Diary Studies

What Are Contextual Inquiries?

Mayya Azarova · 3 min

Related Articles:

27 Tips and Tricks for Conducting Successful User Research in the Field

Susan Farrell and Mayya Azarova · 5 min

Context Methods: Study Guide

Kate Moran and Mayya Azarova · 4 min

Should You Run a Survey?

Maddie Brown · 6 min

Balancing Natural Behavior with Incentives and Accuracy in Diary Studies

Mayya Azarova · 6 min

6 Mistakes When Crafting Interview Questions

Maria Rosala · 5 min

Why Field-Study Sessions Go Wrong: 5 Common Problems

Mayya Azarova · 5 min

A guide to field studies

Last updated

18 April 2023

Reviewed by

Cathy Heath

Short on time? Get an AI generated summary of this article instead

Field studies allow researchers to observe and collect data in real-world settings. Unlike laboratory-based or traditional research methods, field studies enable researchers to investigate complex phenomena within their environment, providing a deeper understanding of the research context.

Researchers can use field studies to investigate a wide range of subjects, from the behavior of animals to the practices of businesses or the experiences of individuals in a particular setting.

Make research less tedious

Dovetail streamlines research to help you uncover and share actionable insights

• What is a field study?

A field study is a research method that involves conducting observations and collecting data in a natural setting. This method includes observing, interviewing, and interacting with participants in their environment, such as a workplace, community, or natural habitat.

Field studies can take many forms, from ethnographic studies involving extended periods of observation and using an anthropological lens to shorter-term studies focusing on specific behaviors or events. Regardless of its form, a successful field study requires careful planning, preparation, and execution to ensure the data collected is valid and reliable.

• How to plan a field study

Planning a field study is a critical first step in ensuring successful research. Here are some steps to follow when preparing your field study:

1. Define your research question

When developing a good research question , you should make it clear, concise, and specific. It should also be open-ended, allowing for various possible answers rather than a simple yes or no response. Your research question should also be relevant to the broader field of study and contribute new knowledge to the existing literature.

Once you have a defined research question, identify the key variables you need to study and the data you need to collect. It might involve developing a hypothesis or research framework outlining the relationships between different variables and how you’ll measure them in your study.

2. Identify your research site

A research site is a location where you’ll conduct your study and collect data. Here are the types of research sites to consider when planning a field study:

Natural habitats: For environmental or ecological research, you may need to conduct your study in a natural habitat, such as a forest, wetland, or coral reef.

Communities : If your research relates to social or cultural factors, you may need to study a particular community, such as a neighborhood, village, or city.

Organizations : For questions relating to organizational behavior or management, your location will be in a business environment, like a nonprofit or government agency.

Events : If your research question relates to a particular event, you may need to conduct your study at that event, such as, at a protest, festival, or natural disaster.

Ensure your research site represents the population you're studying. For example, if you're exploring cultural beliefs, ensure the community represents the larger population and you have access to a diverse group of participants.

3. Determine your data collection methods

Choosing a suitable method will depend on the research question, the type of data needed, and the characteristics of the participants. Here are some commonly used data collection methods in field studies:

Interviews : You can collect data on people's experiences, perspectives, and attitudes. In some instances, you can use phone or online interviews.

Observations : This method involves watching and recording behaviors and interactions in a specific setting. 

Surveys : By using a survey , you can easily standardize and tailor the questions to provide answers for your research. Respondents can complete the survey in person, by mail, or online.

Document analysis : Organizational reports, letters, diaries, public records, policies, or social media posts can be analyzed to gain context. 

When selecting data collection methods, consider factors such as the availability of participants, the ethical considerations involved, and the resources needed to carry out each method. For example, conducting interviews may require more time and resources than administering a survey.

4. Obtain necessary permissions

Depending on the research location and the nature of the study, you may require permission from local authorities, organizations, or individuals before conducting your research. 

This process is vital when working with human or animal subjects and conducting research in sensitive or protected environments.

Here are some steps you can take to obtain the necessary permissions:

Identify the relevant authorities , including local governments, regulatory bodies, research institutions, or private organizations, to obtain permission for your research.

Reach out to the relevant authorities to explain the nature of your study. Be ready to hand out detailed information about your research. 

If you're conducting research with human participants, you must have their consent . You'll also need to ensure the participants have the right to withdraw from the study at any time.

Obtain necessary permits from regulatory bodies or local authorities. For example, if you're conducting research in a protected area, you may need a research permit from the relevant government agency.

The process of obtaining permissions can be time-consuming, and failure to obtain the necessary permits can lead to legal and ethical issues.

• Examples of field research

Researchers can apply field research to a wide range of disciplines and phenomena. Here are some examples of field research in different fields:

Anthropology : Anthropologists use field research methods to study different communities' social and cultural practices. For instance, an anthropologist might conduct participant observation in a remote community to understand their customs, beliefs, and practices.

Ecology : Ecologists use field research methods to learn the behavior of organisms and their interactions with the environment. For example, an ecologist might conduct field research on the behavior of birds in their natural habitat to understand their feeding habits, nesting patterns, and migration.

Sociology : Sociologists may use field research methods to study social behavior and interactions. For instance, a sociologist might conduct participant observation in a workplace to understand organizational culture and communication dynamics.

Geography : Geographers use field research methods to study different regions’ physical and human contexts. For example, a geographer might conduct field research on the impact of climate change on a particular ecosystem, such as a forest or wetland.

Psychology : Psychologists use field research methods to study human behavior in natural settings. For instance, a psychologist might conduct field research on the effects of stress on students in a school setting.

Education : Researchers studying education may use field research methods to study teaching and learning in real-world settings. For example, you could use field research to test the effectiveness of a new teaching method in a classroom setting.

By using field research methods, researchers can gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of the natural world, human behavior, and social interaction theory and how they affect each other.

• Advantages of field research

Field research has several advantages over other research methods, including:

Authenticity : Field research conducted in natural settings allows researchers to observe and study real-life phenomena as it happens. This authenticity enhances the validity and accuracy of the data collected.

Flexibility : Field research methods are flexible and adaptable to different research contexts. Researchers can adjust their strategies to meet the specific needs of their research questions and participants and uncover new insights as the research unfolds.

Rich data : Field research provides rich and detailed data, often including contextual information that’s difficult to capture through other research methods. This depth of knowledge allows for a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the research topic.

Novel insights : Field research can lead to discoveries that may not be possible with other research methods. Observing and studying phenomena in natural settings can provide unique perspectives and new understandings of complex issues.

Field research methods can enhance the quality and validity of research findings and lead to new insights and discoveries that may not be possible with other research methods.

• Disadvantages of field research

While field research has several advantages, there are also some disadvantages that researchers need to consider, including:

Time-consuming : Researchers need to spend time in the field, possibly weeks or months, which can be challenging, especially if the research site is remote or requires travel.

Cost : Conducting field research can be costly, especially if the research site is remote or requires specialized equipment or materials.

Reliance on participants : It may be challenging to recruit participants, and various factors, such as personal circumstances, attitudes, and beliefs, may influence their participation.

Ethical considerations : Field research may raise ethical concerns, mainly if the research involves vulnerable populations or sensitive topics. 

Causality: Researchers may have little control over the environmental or contextual variables they are studying. This can make it difficult to establish causality and then generalize their results with previous research. 

Researchers must carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of field research and select the most appropriate research method based on their research question, participants, and context.

What is another name for field study?

Field study is also known as field research or fieldwork. These terms are often used interchangeably and refer to research methods that involve observing and collecting data in natural settings.

What is the difference between a field study and a case study?

Why is field study important.

Field study is critical because it allows researchers to study real-world phenomena in natural settings. This study can also lead to novel insights that may not be possible with other research methods.

Should you be using a customer insights hub?

Do you want to discover previous research faster?

Do you share your research findings with others?

Do you analyze research data?

Start for free today, add your research, and get to key insights faster

Editor’s picks

Last updated: 18 April 2023

Last updated: 27 February 2023

Last updated: 6 February 2023

Last updated: 15 January 2024

Last updated: 6 October 2023

Last updated: 5 February 2023

Last updated: 16 April 2023

Last updated: 7 March 2023

Last updated: 9 March 2023

Last updated: 12 December 2023

Last updated: 11 March 2024

Last updated: 13 May 2024

Latest articles

Related topics, .css-je19u9{-webkit-align-items:flex-end;-webkit-box-align:flex-end;-ms-flex-align:flex-end;align-items:flex-end;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;-webkit-box-flex-wrap:wrap;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;row-gap:0;text-align:center;max-width:671px;}@media (max-width: 1079px){.css-je19u9{max-width:400px;}.css-je19u9>span{white-space:pre;}}@media (max-width: 799px){.css-je19u9{max-width:400px;}.css-je19u9>span{white-space:pre;}} decide what to .css-1kiodld{max-height:56px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}@media (max-width: 1079px){.css-1kiodld{display:none;}} build next, decide what to build next.

Users report unexpectedly high data usage, especially during streaming sessions.

Users find it hard to navigate from the home page to relevant playlists in the app.

It would be great to have a sleep timer feature, especially for bedtime listening.

I need better filters to find the songs or artists I’m looking for.

Log in or sign up

Get started for free

Fieldwork for Data Collection: Preparation and Challenges

• First Online: 27 October 2022

Cite this chapter

• Md. Abul Hossen 4  

2468 Accesses

Field research is an important aspect of any empirical social study. Field research can be challenging, exciting as well as rewarding and daunting too. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the meaning and importance of field research and to provide a basic understanding to the new researcher who wants to conduct field research about the process of field research. While the chapter highlight the common field research practices, it will also discuss the potential tensions, dilemmas and challenges that may encounter during field research and the possible strategies needed to address them. This chapter argues that researcher should be sensitive and careful regarding reflexivity, positionality, and the relations of power during field research in order to conduct an emancipatory, democratic, and culturally sensitive field research. Such activity includes greater attention to the openness about the purpose of the research and activities undertaken, self-disclosure, mutual sharing of information, and explicit recognition of the expertise of the participant that they gained through lived experiences.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Davis, R. (1984). The fole of the Gorontological Nurse in the case of Elderly. Socioeconomic Planning, 19 (4), 279–288.

Article   Google Scholar  

Emerson, R. (2001). Contemporary field research: Perspective and Formulations . Waveland Pr. Inc.

Google Scholar  

Haraway, D. (1991).Siminascybrogs and women: The reinvention of nature. Routledge.

Harding, S. (1991). Whose science? Whose knowledge? Cornell University Press.

Hartsock, N. (1987). The feminist standpoint:Developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical Materialism. In Harding S(Ed.), Feminism and methodology (p.157–180). University of Indiana Press.

Herr, K., & Anderson, G. L. (2006). The action research dissertation: A guide for students and faculty . Sage Publications.

Israel, M., & Lain, H. (2006). Reseach ethics for social scientists: between ethical conduct and regulatory compliance . Sage.

Book   Google Scholar  

Kobayashi, A. (1994). Coloring the field: Gender, race and the politics of fieldwork. The Professional Geographer, 46 , 73–79.

Kosygina, L. (2005). Doing gender in research: Reflection on experience in field. The Qualitative Report, 10 (1), 87–95.

Lal, J. (1996). Situating locations: The politics of self, identity and other in living and writing the texts. In D. Wolfs (Ed.), Feminist diallemmas in fieldwork (pp. 185–214). Westview Press.

Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. (2006). Designing qualitative research . Sage.

Neuman, B. (2001). The knowledge gap: Implications for early education . University of Michigan Press.

Phoenix, A. (1994). Practising feminist research: The intersection of gender and ‘race’ in the research process. In M. Maynard & J. Purvis (Eds.), Researching women’s lives from a feminist perspective (pp. 49–71). Taylor and Francis limited.

Punch, K. F. (2005). Introduction to social research: Quantitative and qualitative approaches . London: Sage

Schatzman and Strauss. (1973). Development field work: A practical guide (p. 170). Sage.

Scott, S., Miller, F., & Lloyd, K. (2005). Doing fieldwork in development geography: Researh culture and research spaces in Vietnam. Geographical Research, 44 (1), 28–40.

Wahab, S. (2003). Creating knowledge collaboratively with female sex workers: Insights from a qualitative, feminist and participatory study. Qualitative Inquiry, 9 , 625–642.

Wax, M., & Wax, R. (1980). Fieldwork and the research process . John Wiley & Sons.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Social Work, Jagannath University, Dhaka, 1100, Bangladesh

Md. Abul Hossen

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Md. Abul Hossen .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Centre for Family and Child Studies, Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

M. Rezaul Islam

Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Niaz Ahmed Khan

Department of Social Work, School of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Rajendra Baikady

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Abul Hossen, M. (2022). Fieldwork for Data Collection: Preparation and Challenges. In: Islam, M.R., Khan, N.A., Baikady, R. (eds) Principles of Social Research Methodology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5441-2_33

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5441-2_33

Published : 27 October 2022

Publisher Name : Springer, Singapore

Print ISBN : 978-981-19-5219-7

Online ISBN : 978-981-19-5441-2

eBook Packages : Social Sciences

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Articles on Field research

Displaying all articles.

Things that go buzz in the night – our global study found there really are more insects out after dark

Mark Wong , The University of Western Australia and Raphael Didham , The University of Western Australia

By fact-checking Thoreau’s observations at Walden Pond, we showed how old diaries and specimens can inform modern research

Tara K. Miller , Boston University ; Abe Miller-Rushing , National Park Service , and Richard B. Primack , Boston University

One sentence in a book leads researchers to a species not seen in over 100 years

Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq , University of Gothenburg and Allison Perrigo , University of Gothenburg

Citizen scientists are filling research gaps created by the pandemic

Theresa Crimmins , University of Arizona ; Erin Posthumus , University of Arizona , and Kathleen Prudic , University of Arizona

From permafrost microbes to survivor songbirds – research projects are also victims of COVID-19  pandemic

Karen Lloyd , University of Tennessee ; Ellen Ketterson , Indiana University , and Miriah Kelly , Southern Connecticut State University

COVID-19 is eroding scientific field work – and our knowledge of how the world is changing

Richard B. Primack , Boston University and Casey Setash , Colorado State University

Caught on camera: The fossa, Madagascar’s elusive top predator

Asia Murphy , Penn State

Scientists join forces to save Puerto Rico’s ‘Monkey Island’

Alexandra Rosati , University of Michigan

Here’s the three-pronged approach we’re using in our own research to tackle the reproducibility issue

Ben Marwick , University of Washington and Zenobia Jacobs , University of Wollongong

Sludge, snags, and surreal animals: life aboard a voyage to study the abyss

Tim O'Hara , Museums Victoria Research Institute

Related Topics

• Climate change
• Scientific research
• Seasonal change

Top contributors

Professor of Biology, Boston University

Senior Curator of Marine Invertebrates, Museums Victoria Research Institute

Assistant Professor of Citizen and Data Science, University of Arizona

Associate Professor of Archaeology, University of Washington

PhD student in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University

Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan

PhD candidate, Penn State

Director, USA National Phenology Network, University of Arizona

Professor of Biology, Indiana University

Associate Professor of Microbiology, University of Tennessee

Assistant Professor of Environment, Geography & Marine Sciences, Southern Connecticut State University

Outreach Coordinator and Liaison to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, University of Arizona

Director of the Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, University of Gothenburg

Post-doc, University of Copenhagen

Science Coordinator, Acadia National Park, National Park Service

• X (Twitter)
• Unfollow topic Follow topic

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer
• QuestionPro

• Solutions Industries Gaming Automotive Sports and events Education Government Travel & Hospitality Financial Services Healthcare Cannabis Technology Use Case NPS+ Communities Audience Contactless surveys Mobile LivePolls Member Experience GDPR Positive People Science 360 Feedback Surveys
• Resources Blog eBooks Survey Templates Case Studies Training Help center

Home Market Research

What is Field Research: Definition, Methods, Examples and Advantages

What is Field Research?

Field research is defined as a qualitative method of data collection that aims to observe, interact and understand people while they are in a natural environment. For example, nature conservationists observe behavior of animals in their natural surroundings and the way they react to certain scenarios. In the same way, social scientists conducting field research may conduct interviews or observe people from a distance to understand how they behave in a social environment and how they react to situations around them.

Learn more about: Market Research

Field research encompasses a diverse range of social research methods including direct observation, limited participation, analysis of documents and other information, informal interviews, surveys etc. Although field research is generally characterized as qualitative research, it often involves multiple aspects of quantitative research in it.

Field research typically begins in a specific setting although the end objective of the study is to observe and analyze the specific behavior of a subject in that setting. The cause and effect of a certain behavior, though, is tough to analyze due to presence of multiple variables in a natural environment. Most of the data collection is based not entirely on cause and effect but mostly on correlation. While field research looks for correlation, the small sample size makes it difficult to establish a causal relationship between two or more variables.

LEARN ABOUT: Best Data Collection Tools

Methods of Field Research

Field research is typically conducted in 5 distinctive methods. They are:

• Direct Observation

In this method, the data is collected via an observational method or subjects in a natural environment. In this method, the behavior or outcome of situation is not interfered in any way by the researcher. The advantage of direct observation is that it offers contextual data on people management , situations, interactions and the surroundings. This method of field research is widely used in a public setting or environment but not in a private environment as it raises an ethical dilemma.

• Participant Observation

In this method of field research, the researcher is deeply involved in the research process, not just purely as an observer, but also as a participant. This method too is conducted in a natural environment but the only difference is the researcher gets involved in the discussions and can mould the direction of the discussions. In this method, researchers live in a comfortable environment with the participants of the research design , to make them comfortable and open up to in-depth discussions.

• Ethnography

Ethnography is an expanded observation of social research and social perspective and the cultural values of an  entire social setting. In ethnography, entire communities are observed objectively. For example,  if a researcher would like to understand how an Amazon tribe lives their life and operates, he/she may chose to observe them or live amongst them and silently observe their day-to-day behavior.

LEARN ABOUT: Behavioral Targeting

• Qualitative Interviews

Qualitative interviews are close-ended questions that are asked directly to the research subjects. The qualitative interviews could be either informal and conversational, semi-structured, standardized and open-ended or a mix of all the above three. This provides a wealth of data to the researcher that they can sort through. This also helps collect relational data. This method of field research can use a mix of one-on-one interviews, focus groups and text analysis .

LEARN ABOUT: Qualitative Interview

A case study research is an in-depth analysis of a person, situation or event. This method may look difficult to operate, however, it is one of the simplest ways of conducting research as it involves a deep dive and thorough understanding the data collection methods and inferring the data.

Steps in Conducting Field Research

Due to the nature of field research, the magnitude of timelines and costs involved, field research can be very tough to plan, implement and measure. Some basic steps in the management of field research are:

• Build the Right Team: To be able to conduct field research, having the right team is important. The role of the researcher and any ancillary team members is very important and defining the tasks they have to carry out with defined relevant milestones is important. It is important that the upper management too is vested in the field research for its success.
• Recruiting People for the Study: The success of the field research depends on the people that the study is being conducted on. Using sampling methods , it is important to derive the people that will be a part of the study.
• Data Collection Methodology: As spoken in length about above, data collection methods for field research are varied. They could be a mix of surveys, interviews, case studies and observation. All these methods have to be chalked out and the milestones for each method too have to be chalked out at the outset. For example, in the case of a survey, the survey design is important that it is created and tested even before the research begins.
• Site Visit: A site visit is important to the success of the field research and it is always conducted outside of traditional locations and in the actual natural environment of the respondent/s. Hence, planning a site visit alongwith the methods of data collection is important.
• Data Analysis: Analysis of the data that is collected is important to validate the premise of the field research and  decide the outcome of the field research.
• Communicating Results: Once the data is analyzed, it is important to communicate the results to the stakeholders of the research so that it could be actioned upon.

LEARN ABOUT: Research Process Steps

Field Research Notes

Keeping an ethnographic record is very important in conducting field research. Field notes make up one of the most important aspects of the ethnographic record. The process of field notes begins as the researcher is involved in the observational research process that is to be written down later.

Types of Field Research Notes

The four different kinds of field notes are:

• Job Notes: This method of taking notes is while the researcher is in the study. This could be in close proximity and in open sight with the subject in study. The notes here are short, concise and in condensed form that can be built on by the researcher later. Most researchers do not prefer this method though due to the fear of feeling that the respondent may not take them seriously.
• Field Notes Proper: These notes are to be expanded on immediately after the completion of events. The notes have to be detailed and the words have to be as close to possible as the subject being studied.
• Methodological Notes: These notes contain methods on the research methods used by the researcher, any new proposed research methods and the way to monitor their progress. Methodological notes can be kept with field notes or filed separately but they find their way to the end report of a study.
• Journals and Diaries: This method of field notes is an insight into the life of the researcher. This tracks all aspects of the researchers life and helps eliminate the Halo effect or any research bias that may have cropped up during the field research.

LEARN ABOUT: Causal Research

Reasons to Conduct Field Research

Field research has been commonly used in the 20th century in the social sciences. But in general, it takes a lot of time to conduct and complete, is expensive and in a lot of cases invasive. So why then is this commonly used and is preferred by researchers to validate data? We look at 4 major reasons:

• Overcoming lack of data: Field research resolves the major issue of gaps in data. Very often, there is limited to no data about a topic in study, especially in a specific environment analysis . The research problem might be known or suspected but there is no way to validate this without primary research and data. Conducting field research helps not only plug-in gaps in data but collect supporting material and hence is a preferred research method of researchers.
• Understanding context of the study: In many cases, the data collected is adequate but field research is still conducted. This helps gain insight into the existing data. For example, if the data states that horses from a stable farm generally win races because the horses are pedigreed and the stable owner hires the best jockeys. But conducting field research can throw light into other factors that influence the success like quality of fodder and care provided and conducive weather conditions.
• Increasing the quality of data: Since this research method uses more than one tool to collect data, the data is of higher quality. Inferences can be made from the data collected and can be statistically analyzed via the triangulation of data.
• Collecting ancillary data: Field research puts the researchers in a position of localized thinking which opens them new lines of thinking. This can help collect data that the study didn’t account to collect.

LEARN ABOUT: Behavioral Research

Examples of Field Research

Some examples of field research are:

• Decipher social metrics in a slum Purely by using observational methods and in-depth interviews, researchers can be part of a community to understand the social metrics and social hierarchy of a slum. This study can also understand the financial independence and day-to-day operational nuances of a slum. The analysis of this data can provide an insight into how different a slum is from structured societies.
• U nderstand the impact of sports on a child’s development This method of field research takes multiple years to conduct and the sample size can be very large. The data analysis of this research provides insights into how the kids of different geographical locations and backgrounds respond to sports and the impact of sports on their all round development.
• Study animal migration patterns Field research is used extensively to study flora and fauna. A major use case is scientists monitoring and studying animal migration patterns with the change of seasons. Field research helps collect data across years and that helps draw conclusions about how to safely expedite the safe passage of animals.

LEARN ABOUT:  Social Communication Questionnaire

Advantages of Field Research

The advantages of field research are:

• It is conducted in a real-world and natural environment where there is no tampering of variables and the environment is not doctored.
• Due to the study being conducted in a comfortable environment, data can be collected even about ancillary topics.
• The researcher gains a deep understanding into the research subjects due to the proximity to them and hence the research is extensive, thorough and accurate.

Disadvantages of Field Research

The disadvantages of field research are:

• The studies are expensive and time-consuming and can take years to complete.
• It is very difficult for the researcher to distance themselves from a bias in the research study.
• The notes have to be exactly what the researcher says but the nomenclature is very tough to follow.
• It is an interpretive method and this is subjective and entirely dependent on the ability of the researcher.
• In this method, it is impossible to control external variables and this constantly alters the nature of the research.

LEARN ABOUT: 12 Best Tools for Researchers

MORE LIKE THIS

CX Platform: Top 13 CX Platforms to Drive Customer Success

Jun 17, 2024

How to Know Whether Your Employee Initiatives are Working

How to Weighting Survey Data to Enhance Your Data Quality?

Jun 12, 2024

Stay Interviews: What Is It, How to Conduct, 15 Questions

Jun 11, 2024

Other categories

• Academic Research
• Artificial Intelligence
• Assessments
• Brand Awareness
• Case Studies
• Communities
• Consumer Insights
• Customer effort score
• Customer Engagement
• Customer Experience
• Customer Loyalty
• Customer Research
• Customer Satisfaction
• Employee Benefits
• Employee Engagement
• Employee Retention
• Friday Five
• General Data Protection Regulation
• Insights Hub
• Life@QuestionPro
• Market Research
• Mobile diaries
• Mobile Surveys
• New Features
• Online Communities
• Question Types
• Questionnaire
• QuestionPro Products
• Release Notes
• Research Tools and Apps
• Revenue at Risk
• Survey Templates
• Training Tips
• Tuesday CX Thoughts (TCXT)
• Uncategorized
• Video Learning Series
• What’s Coming Up
• Workforce Intelligence

United States Institute of Peace

Home ▶ Publications

Getting to the Source: The Importance of Field Research

An academic and intellectual decline is inevitable without a post-pandemic revival of fieldwork.

By: Alastair Reed, Ph.D. ;  Boglarka Bozsogi

Publication Type: Analysis

Travel restrictions and social distancing practices put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have largely ground field research to a halt. Fieldwork plays an essential but often underappreciated role in both understanding violent extremism and developing policy responses to it. It is vital, therefore, that funders and policymakers support the return of such important work in a post-pandemic world.

Fieldwork brings important local perspectives to the fore, helping to contextualize conflicts within their wider ecosystems and societal and cultural realities. This forces researchers to challenge their preconceptions and theoretical assumptions as they come face to face with the realities on the ground. And, perhaps most importantly, fieldwork brings to life the human dimension — the human suffering and resilience of the communities affected by violence and the motivations and drivers of the violent actors.

Without understanding the view from the ground, we will continue to struggle to understand violent extremism and develop effective policy responses. 

The Human Side

As many field researchers will admit, there is something about the smell and feel of a place that being on the ground provides and that reading reports and analyzing data cannot capture. On the ground, a researcher has the opportunity to diversify their primary sources and data. They can also better appreciate and absorb the context of the conflict. Without understanding the human side, the unique cultural and societal setting and the physical geography and climate, which together forge the contours within which the violence evolves, we can only have a partial understanding of the conflict ecosystem.

“The value of engagement with human beings cannot be underestimated,” Haroro Ingram, a senior research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University and member of the RESOLVE Research Advisory Council, told a recent RESOLVE Forum session.

Absorbing the context can help the researcher understand and interpret the collected data, but also to reinterpret what they learned from desk-based studies. The subjective experience of sharing is humbling; it offers an intellectual appreciation not only of the complexity on the ground but also of the breadth and depth of the literature and its gaps.

Researchers are only human and bring along preconceived perceptions, biases and assumptions — implicit or explicit — internalized from academic literature and media reports. Seeing the realities on the ground forces them to confront these preconceived assumptions and challenge, reinterpret or discard them. Theoretical explanations and conceptual analysis can only be tested when applied against the world they purport to explain. Field research gives us a chance to improve and develop our understanding, and a chance to glimpse the unknown unknowns, the missing factors that we cannot see or conceive from our academic ivory towers.

It is easy to overlook the human side — the victims of violence and conflict-affected communities that bear the brunt of the human tragedy of extremism — when researching a conflict from a distance. Observing and talking to the most affected communities reminds us of the horrors of war and the depths of depravity humanity can sink to. However, it also brings to light the human side of violent actors on all sides, an insight into the motivations and drivers that led them down the path to violence. Conflicts are ultimately about people; attempts to understand conflicts need to start with understanding the people that drive them. To do that, field researchers need to adopt a methodical approach, informed by the literature, and ensure their research and findings are triangulated, ethical and trustworthy.

“Mindanao, in the last 50 years, has experienced cycles of failed peace processes that international actors tried to support with a top-down understanding, often from a distance, in the absence of genuine bottom-up, grassroot perspectives,” said Ingram, who focuses his field research on the Middle East and Southeast Asia. “Since the most important actors in the grassroots population do not have electricity, let alone internet, the only effective outreach is getting to the source to build trust, engage with communities respectfully and learn of cultural subtleties through conversations. Collaborative effort, trust and the contribution to research can create actionable, nuanced and effective recommendations for policy and practice,” he added.

Contextual Understanding

Field research strengthens academic rigor, theories and methodologies, complements desk research and brings a different vantage point to understanding conflict. One constant risk in academic research is the tendency to be reductionist, and to focus on an isolated issue and miss the dynamic connections between it and its wider context. It can be appealing to zoom in on a particular violent extremist group and examine a singular aspect, such as ideology and group dynamics, rather than to see it as part of a complex ecosystem and dynamic processes. Conflict contexts often comprise multiple, interlinked armed actors, all influenced by and influencing each other. These contexts are further complicated by cross-cutting dynamics of ethnic, customary, kinship or religious dimensions.

Field research contextualizes the conflict and the issues that matter, helps understand drivers and motivations behind conflict actors and breaks free of embedded preconceptions. It can bring to life the unseen complexities: policemen fighting rebelling siblings, women fleeing insurgent cousins, parents losing children to armed groups, government officials persecuting family members as non-state actors. “People often said: ‘My brother joined that armed group, my cousin is in the police force,’” said Ingram, recalling conversations with locals in conflict areas that may seem, on the surface, to be absurd but that actually reflect a sober, clinical rational choice decision-making. Conflict ecosystems are invariably messy, counterintuitive and seemingly incomprehensible, yet remain the reality we seek to understand.

Sukanya Podder, defense studies senior lecturer at King’s College London and member of the RESOLVE Research Advisory Council, who also participated in the RESOLVE Forum session, conducted research in Mindanao, the Philippines, and Liberia where she focused on children and young people recruited into armed groups. Observing youth relationships with families and commanders in their communities, she was able to break free of preconceptions from media imagery and simplistic assumptions that children join community-based armed groups because they are drugged. Her fieldwork unearthed much more diverse motivations and choices: many children chose to join or decided to refrain of their own will.

Ethics and Safety

With any type of research, ethics and safety must be paramount. Fieldwork poses distinct challenges for each venue, context and participant. “Do no harm” should be the central principle of fieldwork planning to ensure the safety and integrity of researchers, respondents and their communities. Research fatigue is a growing issue that has negative implications on the quality of data. If respondents are wary about the benefits of research and are hesitant to participate, the authenticity of results is harder to determine. Researchers must be careful not to instrumentalize fieldwork and budget enough time and resources for in-depth quality research to produce authentic, reliable and valid data; this data should be periodically updated.

Getting approval from institutional review boards for fieldwork can often be challenging, and rightly so, but this rigor helps researchers address potential challenges and ensure the integrity of their research. While standards procedures, bureaucratic processes, reviews, clearances and preparations may seem taxing, they are indispensable for rich contributions of the highest integrity.  

Strengthening Research and Policy

The effectiveness and ultimate success — however we choose to measure it — of policy approaches to countering violent extremism depend on a thorough understanding of the phenomenon they try to address. Sound research should be the rock on which good policy is built. Podder’s research in West Africa has informed disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs with a nuanced understanding of the implications of different types of armed groups. Returnees from community-based armed groups or community defense groups found reintegration less problematic, as reconciliation could be locally administered through local, tribal judicial processes. Such findings from field research can avoid wasting money on programs that cannot yield the desired outcome.

Our understanding of violent extremism has benefitted from an interdisciplinary research field where each discipline and method, qualitative and quantitative, brings a new lens to gathering and analyzing data. Collectively, this cross-pollination of research methods has allowed us to see further than one approach alone ever could. Within a complementary and overlapping web of methods, fieldwork has an important but sometimes overlooked role to play. Without a post-pandemic revival of fieldwork, an academic and intellectual decline is inevitable.

Boglarka Bozsogi is executive coordination and network manager at the RESOLVE Network housed at USIP. 

Related Publications

Five Factors Shaping the Future of Egypt-Israel Relations

Thursday, June 13, 2024

By: Ambassador Hesham Youssef

The Gaza war has strained Egyptian-Israeli relations to an unprecedented level and raised questions about the future of their 1979 peace treaty that has been a cornerstone of Arab-Israeli peace. U.S. officials met recently in Cairo with their Israeli and Egyptian counterparts against a backdrop of mutually diminishing confidence between the two parties, particularly following Israel’s ground offensive in Rafah. This comes on the heels of a shooting incident between Israeli and Egyptian forces that left at least one Egyptian soldier dead, and Egypt joining South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Along with Qatar, Egypt is a key broker in the current Israel-Hamas cease-fire efforts and engages in extensive security cooperation with the U.S. and Israel.

Type: Question and Answer

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

Traumatic Decarbonization in Fragile States

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

By: Aditya Sarkar;  Benjamin Spatz;  Alex de Waal;  Jared Miller;  Tarun Gopalakrishnan

The process of decarbonization—that is, the replacement of fossil fuels with non-hydrocarbon-based forms of energy—is essential for meeting the climate goals articulated by international agreements. But in fragile, oil-dependent nations, where hydrocarbon revenues are often a key means of political control, decarbonization can spell the difference between peace and conflict. This report examines the consequences of the sudden loss of oil revenues for fragile, conflict-affected states and provides recommendations for policymakers on how to manage future decarbonization peacefully.

Type: Peaceworks

Conflict Analysis & Prevention ;  Economics ;  Environment ;  Fragility & Resilience

The Untapped Potential of Grassroots Peacebuilding in Papua New Guinea

Thursday, May 9, 2024

By: Gordon Peake, Ph.D. ;   Camilla Pohle ;   Zuabe Tinning

This past January, deadly riots in Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby, spilled over into other towns and cities across the nation. As the dust settled, many held the country’s struggling youth population responsible, at least partially, for kindling the widespread unrest. Papua New Guinea’s government responded by announcing ambitious plans to address a broad range of problems facing youth — a promising move.

Iran’s Attack and the New Escalatory Cycle in the Middle East

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

By: Robin Wright

The Middle East is entering a new phase after unprecedented attacks by Israel and Iran during the first two weeks of April. Robin Wright, a senior fellow at USIP and the Woodrow Wilson Center who has covered the region for a half century, explores what happened, the strategic implications, the political context and the divided world reaction.

Related Projects

RESOLVE Network; Researching Solutions to Violent Extremism

The RESOLVE Network  is a global consortium of researchers and research organizations in agreement that factors contributing to community vulnerability and resilience to violent extremism are contextual.

Violent Extremism

• Search Menu
• Sign in through your institution
• Advance articles
• Editor's Choice
• In Remembrance
• High-Impact Collection
• ASM History
• Author Guidelines
• Submission Site
• Open Access
• Why Publish with Us?
• About Journal of Mammalogy
• About the American Society of Mammalogists
• Editorial Board
• Advertising and Corporate Services
• Journals Career Network
• Self-Archiving Policy
• Dispatch Dates
• Journals on Oxford Academic
• Books on Oxford Academic

Article Contents

E cophysiology, s ocial s ystem, p opulation and c ommunity e cology, c onservation, f uture d irections, s upplementary d ata, a cknowledgments, l iterature c ited.

• < Previous

Long-term field studies of elephants: understanding the ecology and conservation of a long-lived ecosystem engineer

* Correspondent: [email protected]

Special Feature Editor was B arbara H. B lake .

• Article contents
• Figures & tables
• Supplementary Data

Herve Fritz, Long-term field studies of elephants: understanding the ecology and conservation of a long-lived ecosystem engineer, Journal of Mammalogy , Volume 98, Issue 3, 29 May 2017, Pages 603–611, https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyx023

• Permissions Icon Permissions

Elephants may live for > 60 years, so it is obvious that long-term studies are necessary if we are to understand their life histories. Here, I review long-term population studies, most based on individual elephants, to show the wealth of detailed mechanisms that such studies can reveal. This review is biased toward African savanna elephants, a reflection of existing long-term studies on elephants worldwide. Besides life histories, there are 2 aspects of elephant biology that are illuminated by long-term field studies (not necessarily those based on individual elephants). First is knowledge of spatial dynamics of populations that occur in response to environmental change (climatic or anthropogenic), such as density dependence that is associated with the distribution of surface water or responses to specific management decisions, and second is the effects these ecosystem engineers have on habitats, landscapes, other species, and ultimately on ecosystems. I also argue that these long-term data are crucial to inform conservation policies and associated management actions, such as changes in water-pumping strategies, landscape management, and control of elephant populations.

With an average generation time close to 25 years ( Wittemyer et al. 2013 ), elephants are very long-lived mammals. They also show a rich and complex social life and potentially have massive short- and long-term effects on their environment. To understand the subtle links they have with one another and the diversity of individual life histories, personalities, culture, and dialects requires time, a “lifetime, both human and elephant,” as Moss et al. (2011 :2) state in their book on the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in Kenya, which started in 1972 and which has stimulated many others to undertake long-term projects. To some extent, understanding elephant societies requires approaches similar to those used in ethnology or anthropology in studying human societies and their links with their environment. Studies of this type rarely feature snapshot information and instead require long periods of immersion by the researcher in the local environment. Similarly, one needs a sufficiently long time window to understand how these megaherbivores affect their environment through habitat modification ( Laws 1970 ; Guldemond and van Aarde 2008 ), tree mortality ( O’Connor et al. 2007 ), seed dispersal ( Sekar et al. 2015 ), and even water use ( Chamaillé-Jammes et al. 2007 ; Valeix et al. 2009 ), as well as how elephants adapt to these changes. The ripple effects on the functioning of their associated landscapes, foodwebs, herbivore communities, or ecosystems can be massive ( Fritz et al. 2002 , 2011 ; Skarpe et al. 2004 ; Pringle 2008 ; Haynes 2012 ), which gives rise to the idea of elephants as ecosystem engineers (sensu Jones et al. 1994 ). As elephants represent a living example of what may have happened when megafauna dominated all continents, describing and understanding their effect on ecosystems lies beyond the African and Southeast Asian realms (e.g., Bakker et al. 2016 and references therein).

Short-term studies, even very comprehensive ones, only give a snapshot of the ecological, social, and anthropogenic context of elephant life. Elephants have always fascinated humans, and there have been hundreds of short- to medium-term studies but also a few true long-term studies ( Wittemyer et al. 2013 ). Here, I consider as long-term studies those that followed individuals or populations or both for at least a decade. I include studies that may have had a focus on individuals for < 10 years but that studied whole populations for ≥ 10 years, as well as studies that may have been interrupted but total > 10 years of data. I also include studies of < 10 years that are combined with historical records that allow conclusions to be drawn from long-term longitudinal data. Two categories of studies can be broadly distinguished: those that originally focused on individual behavior and social systems, mostly driven by questions related to life-history strategies and population ecology, and those that focused on population parameters and community or ecosystem effects of elephants, clearly based on management questions.

Decades of long-term studies on elephants have resulted in numerous important insights into their ecophysiology, social behavior, and population dynamics which contributed to their conservation and conservation of their habitats. In this condensed review, I do not aim at being comprehensive, but instead will focus on selected studies. Although I draw examples from all 3 species, 2 African, the savanna elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) and the forest elephant ( Loxodonta cyclotis ), and 1 Asian, the Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ), there is a bias toward African savanna elephants on which most long-term studies have been done (see Supplementary Data SD1 for an overview of ongoing and past long-term studies). I include trade-offs between energy and behavior, such as for maternal care or individual social ranking, in the “Ecophysiology” section, which thus has a strong behavioral component. In the section “Social System,” I cover the very diverse topic of social structure (how individuals interact with each other) and illustrate with some results on social organization. The use of space and of key resources such as water and the role of spatial memory are examined in the section “Population and Community” as these often involve changes in spatial distribution and consequences for population dynamics. Mobility and resource selection also exemplify the response of populations to environmental change, particularly climate change. Similarly, the effects of the number of elephants and their behavior on the ecosystem, with consequences for both vegetation and other animals, are dealt with in the section “Population and Community.” The “Conservation” section includes examples of in-depth behavioral studies that are relevant to the interactions of elephants and humans. In this section, I also discuss the potential contribution of long-term studies for management of the various impacts of elephants on ecosystems. The “Cognition” section aims at illustrating the growing body of research on elephant memory and cognitive skills, for which long-term knowledge of individuals and interactions is paramount. The “Future Directions” section offers some topical research questions that require further attention. In each section, I have selectively illustrated some of the key research findings from long-term studies to show the diversity of in-depth knowledge that can only be drawn from long-term field studies.

Many physiological studies on elephants have been carried out in captivity, especially on Asian elephants, in particular in relation to reproduction and growth (reviewed by Sukumar 2003 ). For elephants, which have gestation periods of 620–680 days ( Lueders et al. 2012 ), the effects of environmental conditions on reproduction are likely to be complex. Their high level of cognitive ability and social communication doubtless also play a role in mitigating environmental stress. Therefore, long-term field studies are necessary to relate environmental and social context to breeding and foraging decisions, as well as to relate proximal physiological effects to ultimate fitness. Although yearly population counts recording changes in cohorts of various age classes may be useful in understanding population dynamics ( Young and van Aarde 2010 ), only long-term studies on individual elephants show how individual experience, knowledge, and social status interact to mediate ecophysiological and behavioral responses to environmental change.

In Amboseli National Park, elephant mothers that experienced dry conditions when their calves were ≤ 2 years old tended to show shorter than average time to next conception, which may be an adaptation to the greater risk of losing the calves due to poor body condition. However, mothers that did lose a calf during a drought (here defined as 2 consecutive dry years) were more likely to delay conception, presumably to recover body condition ( Lee and Moss 2011 ). Another difference that was seen was that individuals that started life in a dry year remained smaller than average and delayed their 1st reproduction. Females that experienced 2 dry years in early life tended to have shorter than average lives ( Lee and Moss 2011 ), which suggests a long-lasting effect of initial life conditions on physiology and ultimately on reproduction and survival—and hence on individual fitness. Without long-term field studies these environment–reproduction interactions would not have been discovered.

Combining noninvasive methods for assessing endocrine levels with long-term individual monitoring of adult elephants has brought insights into the determinants of reproductive effort. For example, being able to assess a progesterone metabolite (5α-pregnane-3-ol-20-one) in feces of adult females provided information on ovarian activity ( Foley et al. 2001 ; Wittemyer et al. 2007a ). Analysis of estrus and pregnancy rates in individually identified females showed that conception is related to good food resources for a given season (based on maximum levels of the normalized difference vegetation index) and also that there are more conceptions in good years (wetter and with higher vegetation index) than bad years ( Foley et al. 2001 ; Wittemyer et al. 2007a ).

An unusual feature of elephants is the existence of a male reproductive cycle, the musth, first described in domestic male Asian elephants ( Jainudeen et al. 1972 ). Although this cycle is well described for captive elephants, details on maturation, seasonality, and its implications for male reproduction in the wild were not well understood for many years ( Poole 1987 ). Now, though, it has been shown that musth is tightly correlated with testosterone levels in wild male savanna elephants ( Ganswindt et al. 2005 ). Further, a benefit of long-term studies is the demonstration that frequency of musth throughout the life of a male is correlated with the number of young sired ( Poole et al. 2011 ); however, this reproductive success comes with high physiological costs (stress) and physical risks (fights) which can only be sustained by older and larger males in good condition ( Ganswindt et al. 2005 ; Poole et al. 2011 ). Sources of variation in musth dynamics, such as age at first occurrence, effects of season, and environmental constraint, also require in-depth temporal studies. Variability in number of young sired and proportion of musth bulls in relation to climate and seasonality can only be assessed by long-term studies that can compare known males in different environments. An example of this is the work of Hall-Martin (1987) which compares elephant populations from Addo Elephant National Park in southern South Africa and Kruger National Park in northeastern South Africa. Males in Addo show a weak seasonality associated with less variable rainfall pattern, whereas in Kruger males show a more pronounced seasonality reflecting the sharp contrast in resource availability between the wet and dry seasons. Similarly, the social consequences of musth and the dynamics of male–male interactions require knowledge of the social status of each male and his previous reproductive experience. This can only be accessed through long-term studies of known individuals such as in Etosha National Park in Namibia, Amboseli, or Addo. The Etosha study shows that during dry years a linear hierarchy among males is apparent and controls access to resources, but this hierarchy vanishes in wet years, with more contests occurring ( O’Connell-Rodwell et al. 2011 ). The musth phase can temporarily disrupt dominance. That is because a small male in musth may drive off a large dominant male in a contest because a male in musth is much more aggressive (see review in Sukumar 2003 ). These patterns could be misleading in terms of interpreting male–male interactions without the context of an individual-based study ( O’Connell-Rodwell et al. 2011 ).

Because elephants have complex social structure and high cognitive abilities, understanding the complexity of their social behavior requires thorough long-term studies. Only with long-term studies of individuals it is possible to understand the factors that affect their decision-making and ultimately their individual fitness—factors such as social integration, kinship relationships, information transmission, and collective memory.

Savanna elephants use acoustic signals for mate-searching, male–male competition, and maintenance of social bonds ( Poole et al. 1988 ; Poole and Moss 1989 ). They detect low-frequency “seismic” calls—transmitted through both air and ground—over a range of several kilometers, and use them to mediate inter- and intragroup social encounters ( Poole et al. 1988 ; McComb et al. 2000 ; O’Connell-Rodwell et al. 2006 ). A female savanna elephant can know and recognize vocalizations of a mean of 14 different families, including about 100 adult females, enabling her to communicate effectively with over 20% of the population ( McComb et al. 2000 ). Using playback experiments (i.e., playing known sounds on loudspeakers to stimulate a reaction from focal animals) on well-known individuals and their families, McComb et al. (2001) showed that families with older matriarchs possess greater social networks or greater social confidence, or both, and are more successful in reproducing.

The role of experience, age, and dominance of the matriarch in elephant societies is crucial in many aspects of the group’s life. With age comes several advantages for family groups, such as the ability to perceive threats and behave in safe ways ( McComb et al. 2011b ). In Amboseli, experienced mothers allowed calves to overcome periods of stress, especially in relation to food shortage ( Moss et al. 2011 ). With dominance comes access to resource sites whenever needed, which has considerable influence on spatial distribution of the social units during the lean season ( Wittemyer et al. 2007b ). The matriarch, with her memory of routes and safe places as well as extended social network, is thus determinant in deciding on actions, such as whether to wait at key drinking or foraging places or whether to aggregate or not ( McComb et al. 2001 ; Wittemyer et al. 2007b ; McComb et al. 2011a ). In all dimensions, the behavior of matriarchs seems to be beneficial for individuals in the groups as well as for themselves; however, the true value of these decisions in terms of survival and reproduction, and hence individual fitness and inclusive fitness, can only be assessed with very long studies spanning more than the reproductive lifetime of a matriarch (such as those of Moss and Lee 2011a ).

In mammals in general, longevity and senescence are poorly understood, more so with regard to behavioral aging than for the effect of age on reproductive outputs. This is probably because the time after prime age is often restricted to very few years in most large mammals, leaving a short time for age-related behavioral changes to be expressed. Thus, with a long period of life after their reproductive prime, comparable to that in humans and other large primates, elephants represent a great opportunity for studying these changes ( Moss et al. 2011 ). Along similar lines, only long, continuous observations of known individuals in equally known contexts can identify the large diversity of gestures and postures (e.g., 83 ritualized displays reported in savanna elephants— Poole and Granli 2011 ) and the subtlety of acoustic communication ( O’Connell-Rodwell et al. 2007 ; McComb et al. 2011a ). Further, these long-term observations have allowed an in-depth understanding of the actual meaning of all these gestures and sounds, the context in which they are used, and associated behavioral responses ( Poole and Granli 2011 ).

Fusion–fission dynamics (the merging or splitting of groups) is a common feature of gregarious and social species. Thus, observed group size often depends on the mechanisms that cause individuals, or a group of individuals, to join or leave a group. In social species such as elephants, with multiple levels of social grouping and associations (i.e., “multitiered” sensu Wittemyer et al. 2005 ), ecological factors such as food abundance or social factors such as affiliative bonds could lead to fusion or fission ( Sukumar 2003 ; Moss and Lee 2011b ). Comparisons of well-studied elephant populations have shown differences between ecosystems in group size, with forest elephants having smaller groups than savanna elephants (reviewed in Sukumar 2003 ), and Asian elephants living in dry forest also showing smaller family units as well as looser bonds than the savanna elephant ( Fernando and Lande 2000 ; Vidya and Sukumar 2005 ). Individual-based studies confirm that individual savanna elephants are more connected to other individuals of their population than are Asian elephants. However, the level of association between individuals in the Asian elephant is much greater than the size of observed groups, which implies a multilevel society, though less structured than that of savanna elephants ( de Silva and Wittemyer 2012 ). Yet, only long-term studies allow the assessment of the relative roles of social, demographic, and environmental drivers of group size and fusion–fission dynamics. Several factors may lead to group fission, the most common ones being low rainfall associated with low food resource and high local competition for food; death of the matriarch; and birth of a calf, which may slow down the mother or create different resource needs ( Moss and Lee 2011b ). Fusion may be initiated by low competition for resources (in food-rich habitats). It also may be promoted by the need for small family units to join bigger groups for various reasons: to benefit from the leadership of older females, to gain anti-predator benefits ( Moss and Lee 2011b ), to increase mate-choice opportunities ( Poole and Moss 1989 ), or to enhance information transfer ( Lee and Moss 1999 ). The fusion of family groups is often favored by kinship, with kin more likely to associate than non-kin ( Wittemyer et al. 2009 ). In Amboseli, core groups were more likely to fuse with each other when the oldest females in each group were genetic relatives. The associations between core groups may actually persist for decades, even after the death of the original matriarch, as groups that share mitochondrial DNA haplotypes are more likely to fuse than groups that do not ( Archie et al. 2006 ). The relative influence of social or ecological factors is also dependent on ecosystem; for example, Amboseli elephants seem to be more influenced by social factors ( Moss and Lee 2011b ) than are elephants in the Samburu National Reserve (also in Kenya— Wittemyer et al. 2005 ). This may reflect the fact that the major swamp areas in Amboseli provide a good-quality, year-round resource, hence reducing the duration of the dry season, which differs considerably from the arid Samburu ecosystem. In forest elephants, the absence of seasonality and patchy distribution of fruiting trees may explain the small group size, mostly restricted to close family ties ( Fishlock and Lee 2013 ).

The social life of males is animated by the permanent quest for social dominance, which increases access to females and to water ( O’Connell-Rodwell 2015 ), and the bonding of “buddies” can serve as information exchange centers. Fusion–fission between individual males and groups of males also tends to be based on kinship and similar age classes, but older males play a pivotal role in social networks, suggesting that older males influence the cohesion of male social groups ( Chiyo et al. 2011a ). A genetic study on over 500 known individuals in Amboseli showed that males display courtship behavior and mating more frequently with non-kin females, which contributes to inbreeding avoidance ( Archie et al. 2007 ). This may reflect that the cost of reproduction for these males may be very high because of energy spent in male–male contests for acquiring dominance and access to reproduction and also for time spent in mate guarding. Relatedness between local males in Indian elephants may suggest some adaptive behavior that could further minimize aggression between males and the contest costs of acquiring dominance ( Vidya and Sukumar 2005 ).

Population dynamics in space and time.

Understanding population dynamics requires knowledge of age structure, age-dependent survival, age at first reproduction, and length of interbirth intervals, and in elephants all of these require long-term studies of individuals ( Gough and Kerley 2006 for Addo elephants). The fascination for elephants has generated a number of demographic studies (see Wittemyer et al. 2013 :table 2 for key demographic parameters). The estimated maximum intrinsic growth rate of elephants is about 7% ( Calef 1988 ), which is rarely reached except in populations recovering from severe poaching (7.1% in Tarangire National Park in Kenya— Foley and Faust 2010 ) or massive culling operations (6.6% in Kruger— Whyte 2001 ). Populations in more arid areas (< 400 mm annual rainfall) show much lower growth rates (Samburu, 2.9%— Wittemyer et al. 2013 ; Amboseli, 3.75%— Moss 2001 ). However, neither mean calving interval nor mortality seems to be correlated with average annual rainfall ( Wittemyer et al. 2013 ).

Useful data have been generated by long-term field studies with continuous monitoring of population numbers and distribution of elephants in space and time. Although these data do not give any insight into demographics processes, they represent unique sources of data for population modeling over large areas and can lead to understanding temporal and spatial dynamics ( Chamaillé-Jammes et al. 2008 ; Young et al. 2009 ). They also contribute substantially to our understanding of the spatial response of elephant populations to changes in resources ( Chamaillé-Jammes et al. 2007 ), in particular in a context of climate change and anthropogenic modification of landscapes. Recently, research on these topics has benefited immensely from the use of satellite collars ( Chamaillé-Jammes et al. 2013 ; Wall et al. 2013 ), although these studies do not yet span decades (but see Roever et al. 2013 ). Long-term continuous monitoring of populations is a major source of information that should be encouraged, especially for analyzing the effect of management initiatives. Using such data, Chamaillé-Jammes et al. (2007) showed the importance of waterholes in limiting elephant distribution, and ultimately their role in driving the population dynamics of elephants in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe through spatial trade-offs between acquisition of water and food ( Chamaillé-Jammes et al. 2014 ). In Kruger as well, long-term data showed the effect of closing waterholes on population dynamics: though the response of the population was complex, with elephants congregating in many areas, the broad-scale monitoring of elephant distribution over a large number of years still showed that riverine habitats were used more than other areas, and thus their integrity was of greater concern because of their cumulative number of hosted elephants ( Smit and Ferreira 2010 ).

Habitat change and ecosystem effects.

Elephants are often referred to as ecosystem engineers because of the level of influence they can have on the functioning of most components of their ecosystem, from vegetation dynamics to habitat structure, and structure and dynamics of herbivore communities. Elephants can alter plant diversity and are a major cause of loss of trees in savanna systems, especially of tall trees ( O’Connor et al. 2007 ; Asner and Levick 2012 ; Rutina and Moe 2014 ). These ecosystem-level effects have caused decades-long major debates over how to deal with these changes, especially in protected areas ( Laws 1970 ; O’Connor et al. 2007 ). However, these effects are often amplified or mediated by other factors, such as anthropogenic disturbances or local climate ( Guldemond and van Aarde 2008 ; Sankaran et al. 2013 ). The use of exclosures that exclude herbivores, especially those that exclude large herbivores, is valuable in developing an understanding of the effects of large herbivores on plant communities. Such exclosures can reveal the role of megaherbivores in shaping structure in plant heights, species composition, and other plant traits, information that can shed light on the mechanisms involved and on long-term demographic responses and the evolution of adaptive traits in plants. Durable commitments to maintain such long-term exclosures are needed. Long-term exclosure studies in Addo Elephant Park, Kruger National Park, and Laikipia (Kenya) have also shed light on effects of elephants on possible trajectories for landscape change, including community-wide changes in vegetation and on key vulnerable plant species ( Penzhorn et al. 1974 ; Sankaran et al. 2013 ; Wigley et al. 2014 , 2015 ). Similarly, elephants are known key seed dispersers ( Campos-Arceiz and Blake 2011 ), but assessing their effects on the maintenance of plant diversity and life history through seed dispersal not only requires experiments ( Sekar et al. 2015 ) but also long-term monitoring of landscapes ( Vijver et al. 1999 in Tarangire, Tanzania; Sukumar et al. 2005 in Mudumalai, India), and if possible in areas presenting contrasting levels of elephant use ( Cochrane 2003 ). Our ability to understand the effects of elephants on the dynamics of wooded savannas has been strengthened by repeated observations on browsing behavior of elephants, the impact of their browsing on plants, and the rate at which elephants fell trees ( Asner et al. 2015 ).

Elephants can have significant effects on the diversity and ecology of other animals, mostly indirectly through habitat modification, either negatively ( Cumming et al. 1997 ) or positively ( Skarpe et al. 2004 ; Valeix et al. 2011 ). They may affect other herbivores directly through interference or scramble competition ( Fritz et al. 2002 ; Valeix et al. 2009 ) or facilitation ( Makhabu et al. 2006 ). Studying these effects requires enough time to assess how habitat changes impact other organisms and how permanent is the signature of elephant effects. For instance a short-term benefit of habitat change (e.g., increase of forage through re-sprouting of lateral branches from broken stems or coppicing) could have long-term costs with loss of cover. Comparing data from sequences of years separated by an interval with no data may be adequate for investigating such questions, but long-term continuous tracking of changes is more likely to unravel processes ( Valeix et al. 2008 ), especially experimental studies using selective exclosures ( Young et al. 2005 ). For more thorough analyses on multiple facets of the influence of elephants, see du Toit et al. (2003) for Kruger, Sukumar (2011) for Asian elephants, Skarpe et al. (2014) for Chobe, and Fishlock and Breuer (2015) for forest elephants.

Elephants are emblematic of most challenges facing conservation. The 3 species have variable levels of vulnerability in various African subregions and in Asia, ranging from critically endangered to being of least concern ( Blanc 2008 ). Information on population parameters and conditions of recovery is therefore crucial. It is important that we pursue in-depth demographic studies on all elephant species in the largest possible array of ecosystems (see Turkalo et al. 2013 for forest elephant, Katugaha et al. 1999 and de Silva et al. 2011 for Asian elephants in Sri Lanka, and Sukumar 2003 in India). Elephant populations thrive in some well-managed protected areas while declining in others, but they also use large areas outside conservation areas (e.g., Graham et al. 2009 ), which creates conflicts in agricultural areas. Consequently, understanding the choices made by elephants that raid crops should give perspectives into the selection pressure driving them to take such a high-risk behavior (e.g., being shot as problem animals or subject to retaliatory killing). Long-term behavioral and genetic studies can provide the foundation for such understanding by looking at individual benefits of crop-raiding ( Chiyo et al. 2011b ). Because crops are a much higher quality food than wild plants for part of the year ( Sukumar 1990 ), the nutritional benefits of crop-raiding for male elephants translate into larger body size and ultimately greater fitness ( Chiyo et al. 2011b ). In parallel, long-term follow-up of people and practices involved at the interface is necessary to fully grasp the dynamics of the interactions and identify possible ways for coexistence ( Guerbois et al. 2012 ). A long-term experiment with beehive fences in northern Kenya has provided new insights into mitigation tactics ( King et al. 2011 ; Soltis et al. 2014 ). Several hundred people are killed by elephants each year, increasing the intensity of human–elephant conflicts ( Lamarque et al. 2009 ). It is mostly in areas with high human populations, in Asia in particular, that fatal encounters are most common, often associated with raids by elephants on village fields or granaries ( Sukumar 2003 ). Even though savanna elephants have been shown to discriminate potentially threatening human categories from non-threatening ones ( McComb et al. 2014 ), our understanding of causes and early warnings for dangerous encounters remain very fragmented and anecdotal.

In places where elephant populations are increasing in size, their impact on the local ecosystem is of concern to local conservationists and park managers, and managers seek options to best deal with a sometimes embarrassing ecosystem engineer that does not shape the system in line with the views of managers and local stakeholders ( Whyte et al. 1998 ). The benefits of long-term studies lie in shedding light on the effect of management practices. For instance, significant social disruption caused by culling has been documented through the long-term monitoring of individuals, with, for instance, young traumatized males killing other species, black rhinoceros ( Diceros bicornis ) in particular ( Poole 1989 ; Shannon et al. 2013 ). This is particularly true for translocated males ( Slotow et al. 2000 ). Social consequences of large-scale poaching has also been shown, with orphaned females that survive poaching raids tending to form less structured groups than orphaned females from other causes ( Gobush et al. 2009 ). On the ecosystem side, the use of botanical reserves (with elephant-proof exclosures) within elephant ranges inside protected areas also requires long-term commitments to assess how efficient it would be to preserve endemic and emblematic vegetation sensitive to elephants ( Lombard et al. 2001 ).

The cognitive abilities of elephants are high, and their intelligence has often been admired. They can memorize large amounts of information. For instance, they have the ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar individual sounds ( O’Connell-Rodwell et al. 2007 ), or threatening human voices ( McComb et al. 2014 ), and they are also able to keep track of out-of-sight family members ( Bates et al. 2007 ). The associated level of information exchange between individual elephants depends on the degree to which elephants distinguish between call types (such as alarms, greetings, bonding vocalizations); de Silva (2010) distinguishes 14 call types in Asian elephants, but also “combination calls” that combine several types of information within a call ( de Silva 2010 ). Ultimately, the relevance and use of this ability depends upon its significance to reproduction and survival, and hence this can only be understood through longitudinal studies of individuals. The amount of knowledge elephants have acquired during previous movements through an area seems to be used in navigating landscapes, and only long-term studies of individual spatial behavior can unravel the link between this acquired environmental knowledge and the behavioral adjustments they make, and then ultimately the transfer of information to other related individuals of the family or kin-related elephants ( Byrne and Bates 2011 ). There is a major challenge here for researchers; the combination of high mobility and high cognitive skills in elephants provides many possible adaptive responses to environmental changes (climatic or anthropogenic). New ideas for conservation areas have been proposed, such as open landscape conservation areas (i.e., without fences) and areas that are located in adjoining countries such as Trans-Frontiers Conservation Areas or other forms of megaparks ( van Aarde and Jackson 2007 ), which elephants could use in many different ways. Putting such concepts into action would require long-term monitoring if we are to understand the mechanisms underlying the success or failure of these initiatives to conserve elephant populations. This obviously also applies to populations of many other large and mobile mammals.

The areas of social cognition, information transfer, and behavioral manipulation of other individuals such as deception also require more investigation in order to show a clear link between the adaptive and fitness significance of elephant cognitive abilities and associated communication capabilities, social behaviors, and mobility. To my knowledge none of the existing long-term studies have adequately investigated the link between cognition and the memory of environmental features, although it has been partially explored. This is a major task for years to come, both for our understanding of the ecology of these megaherbivores as well as for their conservation. Indeed, the landscapes are likely to be increasingly reshaped by human activities, including conservation practices: some migration routes will be blocked and others opened, spatiotemporal dynamics of resource will be modified, and safe habitats may change attributes.

In the area of conservation, much more needs to be done on long-term mechanisms of coexistence between elephants and humans in shared landscapes. Indeed, a lot of attention has been paid to symptomatic remedies for human–elephant conflict, whereas coexistence requires integrating cultural, symbolic, and economic values of elephants with people and a better understanding of tolerance determinants. This implies an ethnographic approach to human–elephant interactions. From the elephant viewpoint, integrating human activities into their landscape and adapting to them requires predictable cues associated with disturbance and risk. Further, these cues should be easy to memorize and even to transfer between individuals and generations.

Because of their effect on the landscape, elephants have been described as ecosystem engineers—agents of habitat change that affect basic functions and processes of ecosystems. As illustrated previously, their role in changing the way the ecosystem functions goes beyond landscapes, and it requires long-term studies to track the likely consequences of these megaherbivores in the various foodwebs with which they are associated. Secondary production can indeed be massively influenced by elephants in savannas on poor soils ( Fritz et al. 2002 ). Elephants could even change the ecosystem identity in the sense of resilience theory, i.e., its functions, structure, and feedback ( Walker et al. 2004 ). Recent studies on the influence of megafauna call for even better understanding ( Bakker et al. 2016 ), because the presence of these elephants may fundamentally affect the trajectory of change of the systems they live in. Only long-term studies will give us the necessary insights.

Supplementary data are available at Journal of Mammalogy online.

Supplementary Data SD1. —Significant long-term studies on elephants.

I wish to thank C. Schradin, M. Festa-Bianchet, and 2 anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on the manuscript.

Archie , E. A. Moss C. J. Alberts , S. C . 2006 . The ties that bind: genetic relatedness predicts the fission and fusion of groups in wild African elephants ( Loxodonta africana ) . Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B. Biological Sciences 273 : 513 – 522 .

Google Scholar

Archie , E. A. et al.  2007 . Behavioural inbreeding avoidance in wild African elephants . Molecular Ecology 16 : 4138 – 4148 .

Asner , G. P. Levick S. R. . 2012 . Landscape-scale effects of herbivores on treefall in African savannas . Ecology Letters 15 : 1211 – 1217 .

Asner , G. P. Vaughn N. Smit I. P. J. Levick S. . 2015 . Ecosystem-scale effects of megafauna in African savannas . Ecography 38 : 001 – 013 .

Bakker , E. S. et al.  2016 . Combining paleo-data and modern exclosure experiments to assess the impact of megafauna extinctions on woody vegetation . Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 113 : 847 – 855 .

Bates , L. A. Sayialel K. Njiraini N. Poole J. H. Moss C. J. Byrne R. W. . 2007 . Elephants have expectations about the locations of out-of-sight family members . Biology Letters 4 : 34 – 36 .

Blanc , J . 2008 . Loxodonta africana . The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T12392A3339343 . http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/12392/0 . Accessed 21 December 2016.

Google Preview

Byrne , R. W. Bates L. A. . 2011 . Elephant cognition: what we know about what elephant know . Pp. 175 – 182 in The Amboseli elephants: a long-term perspective on a long-lived mammal ( C. J. Moss , H. Croze P. C. Lee , eds.). University of Chicago Press , Chicago, Illinois .

Calef , G. W . 1988 . Maximum rate of increase in the African elephant . African Journal of Ecology 26 : 323 – 327 .

Campos-Arceiz , A. Blake S. . 2011 . Megagardeners of the forest - the role of elephants in seed dispersal . Acta Oecologica 37 : 542 – 553 .

Chamaillé-Jammes , S. Fritz H. Valeix M. Murindagomo F. Clobert J. . 2008 . Resource variability, aggregation and density dependence: the local regulation of an African elephant population . Journal of Animal Ecology 77 : 135 – 144 .

Chamaillé-Jammes , S. Mtare G. Makuwe E. Fritz H. . 2013 . African elephants adjust speed in response to surface-water constraint on foraging during the dry-season . PLoS One 8 : e59164 .

Chamaillé-Jammes , S. Valeix M. Fritz H. . 2007 . Surface-water and intraspecific density mediate heterogeneity in landscape use by an increasing elephant population . Journal of Applied Ecology 44 : 625 – 633 .

Chamaillé-Jammes , S. Valeix M. Madzikanda H. Fritz H. . 2014 . Surface-water and elephant ecology: lessons from a waterhole-driven ecosystem, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe . Pp. 118 – 131 in African elephants and savanna heterogeneity ( C. Skarpe , J. T. du Toit S. R. Moe , eds.). Wiley-Blackwell, John Wiley & Sons , Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom .

Chiyo , P. I. et al.  2011a . Association patterns of African elephants in all-male groups: the role of age and genetic relatedness . Animal Behaviour 81 : 1093 – 1099 .

Chiyo , P. I. Lee P. C. Moss C. J. Archie E. A. Hollister-Smith J. A. Alberts S. C. . 2011b . No risk, no gain: effects of crop raiding and genetic diversity on body size in male elephants . Behavioral Ecology 22 : 552 – 558 .

Cochrane , E. P . 2003 . The need to be eaten: Balanites wilsoniana with and without elephant seed-dispersal . Journal of Tropical Ecology 19 : 579 – 589 .

Cumming , D. H. M. et al.  1997 . Elephants, woodlands and biodiversity in southern Africa . South African Journal of Science 93 : 231 – 236 .

de Silva , S . 2010 . Acoustic communication in the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus maximus . Behaviour 147 : 825 – 852 .

de Silva , S. Ranjeewa A. D. G. Weerakoon D. . 2011 . Demography of Asian elephants ( Elephas maximus ) at Uda Walawe National Park, Sri Lanka based on identified individuals . Biological Conservation 144 : 1742 – 1752 .

de Silva , S. Wittemyer G. . 2012 . A comparison of social organization in Asian elephants and African savannah elephants . International Journal of Primatology 33 : 1125 – 1141 .

du Toit , J. T. K. H. Rogers H. C. Biggs (eds.). 2003 . The Kruger experience: ecology and management of Savanna heterogeneity . Island Press , Washington, D.C .

Fernando , P. Lande R. . 2000 . Molecular genetic and behavioral analysis of social organization in the Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ) . Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 48 : 84 – 91 .

Fishlock , V. T. Breuer (eds.). 2015 . Studying forest elephants . Neuer Sportverlag , Stuttgart, Germany .

Fishlock , V. Lee P. C. . 2013 . Forest elephants: fission-fusion and social arenas . Animal Behaviour 85 : 357 – 363 .

Foley , C. H. A. Faust L. J. . 2010 . Rapid population growth in an elephant Loxodonta africana population recovering from poaching in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania . Oryx 44 : 205 – 212 .

Foley , C. A. H. Papageorge S. Wasser S. K. . 2001 . Noninvasive stress and reproductive measures of social and ecological pressures in free-ranging African elephants . Conservation Biology 15 : 1134 – 1142 .

Fritz , H. Duncan P. Gordon I. J. Illius A. W. . 2002 . Megaherbivores influence trophic guilds structure in African ungulate communities . Oecologia 131 : 620 – 625 .

Fritz , H. Loreau M. Chamaillé-Jammes S. Valeix M. Clobert J. . 2011 . A food web perspective on large herbivore community limitation . Ecography 34 : 196 – 202 .

Ganswindt , A. Rasmussen H. B. Heistermann M. Hodges J. K. . 2005 . The sexually active states of free-ranging male African elephants ( Loxodonta africana ): defining musth and non-musth using endocrinology, physical signals and behaviour . Hormones and Behavior 47 : 83 – 91 .

Gobush , K. Kerr B. Wasser S. . 2009 . Genetic relatedness and disrupted social structure in a poached population of African elephants . Molecular Ecology 18 : 722 – 734 .

Gough , K. F. Kerley G. I. H. . 2006 . Demography and population dynamics in the elephants Loxodonta africana of Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa: is there evidence of density dependent regulation? Oryx 40 : 434 – 441 .

Graham , M. D. Douglas-Hamilton I. Adams W. M. Lee P. C. . 2009 . The movement of African elephants in a human-dominated land-use mosaic . Animal Conservation 12 : 445 – 455 .

Guerbois , C. Chapanda E. Fritz H. . 2012 . Combining multi-scale socio-ecological approaches to understand the susceptibility of subsistence farmers to elephant crop raiding on the edge of a protected area . Journal of Applied Ecology 49 : 1149 – 1158 .

Guldemond , R. van Aarde R. J. . 2008 . A meta-analysis of the impact of African elephants on savanna vegetation . Journal of Wildlife Management 72 : 892 – 899 .

Hall-Martin , A. J . 1987 . Role of musth in the reproductive strategy of the African elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) . South African Journal of Science 83 : 617 – 620 .

Haynes , G . 2012 . Elephants (and extinct relatives) as earth-movers and ecosystem engineers . Geomorphology 157–158 : 99 – 107 .

Jainudeen , M. R. McKay G. M. Eisenberg J. F. . 1972 . Observations on musth in the domesticated Asiatic elephant . Mammalia 36 : 247 – 261 .

Jones , C. G. Lawton J. H. Shachak M. . 1994 . Organisms as ecosystem engineers . Oikos 69 : 373 – 386 .

Katugaha , H. I. E. de Silva M. Santiapillai C. . 1999 . A long-term study on the dynamics of the elephant ( Elephas maximus ) population in Ruhuna National Park, Sri Lanka . Biological Conservation 89 : 51 – 59 .

King , L. E. Douglas-Hamilton I. Vollrath F. . 2011 . Beehive fences as effective deterrents for crop-raiding elephants: field trials in northern Kenya . African Journal of Ecology 49 : 431 – 439 .

Lamarque , F. Anderson J. Fergusson R. Lagrange M. Osei-Owusu Y. Bakker L. . 2009 . Human-wildlife conflict in Africa: causes, consequences and management strategies . FAO Forestry Paper 157, FAO , Rome, Italy .

Laws , R. M . 1970 . Elephants as agents of habitat and landscape change in East Africa . Oikos 21 : 1 – 15 .

Lee , P. C. Moss C. J. . 1999 . The social context for learning and behavioural development among wild African elephants . Pp. 102 – 125 in Mammalian social learning: comparative and ecological perspectives ( H. O. Box and K. R. Gibson , eds.). Cambridge University Press , Cambridge, United Kingdom .

Lee , P. C. Moss C. J. . 2011 . Calf development and maternal rearing strategies . Pp. 224 – 236 in The Amboseli elephants: a long-term perspective on a long-lived mammal ( C. J. Moss , H. Croze P. C. Lee , eds.). University of Chicago Press , Chicago, Illinois .

Lombard , A. T. Johnson C. F. Cowling R. M. Pressey R. L. . 2001 . Protecting plants from elephants: botanical reserve scenarios within the Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa . Biological Conservation 102 : 191 – 203 .

Lueders , I. et al.  2012 . Gestating for 22 months: luteal development and pregnancy maintenance in elephants . Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B. Biological Sciences 279 : 3687 – 3696 .

Makhabu , S. W. Skarpe C. Hytteborn H. . 2006 . Elephant impact on shoot distribution on trees and on rebrowsing by smaller browsers . Acta Oecologica 30 : 136 – 146 .

McComb , K. Moss C. Durant S. M. L. , Baker Sayialel S. . 2001 . Matriarchs as repositories of social knowledge in African elephants . Science 292 : 491 – 494 .

McComb , K. Moss C. Sayialel S. Baker L. . 2000 . Unusually extensive networks of vocal recognition in African elephants . Animal Behaviour 59 : 1103 – 1109 .

McComb , K. Reby D. Moss C. . 2011a . Vocal communication and social knowledge in African elephants . Pp. 162 – 174 in The Amboseli elephants: a long-term perspective on a long-lived mammal ( C. J. Moss , H. Croze P. C. Lee , eds.). University of Chicago Press , Chicago, Illinois .

McComb , K. et al.  2011b . Leadership in elephants: the adaptive value of age . Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B. Biological Sciences 278 : 3270 – 3276 .

McComb , K. Shannon G. Sayialel K. N. Moss C. . 2014 . Elephants can determine ethnicity, gender, and age from acoustic cues in human voices . Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 11 : 5433 – 5438 .

Moss , C. J . 2001 . The demography of an African elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) population in Amboseli, Kenya . Journal of Zoology (London) 255 : 145 – 156 .

Moss , C. J. Croze H. Lee P. C. . 2011 . The Amboseli elephants: a long-term perspective on a long-lived mammal . University of Chicago Press , Chicago, Ilinois .

Moss , C. J. Lee P. C. . 2011a . Female reproductive strategies: individual life history . Pp. 187 – 204 in The Amboseli elephants: a long-term perspective on a long-lived mammal ( C. J. Moss , H. Croze P. C. Lee , eds.). University of Chicago Press , Chicago, Illinois .

Moss , C. J. Lee P. C. . 2011b . Female social dynamics: fidelity and flexibility . Pp. 205 – 223 in The Amboseli elephants: a long-term perspective on a long-lived mammal ( C. J. Moss , H. Croze P. C. Lee , eds.). University of Chicago Press , Chicago, Illinois .

O’Connell-Rodwell , C. E . 2015 . Elephant don: the politics of a pachyderm posse . University of Chicago Press , Chicago, Illinois .

O’Connell-Rodwell , C. E. et al.  2011 . Male African elephants ( Loxodonta africana ) queue when the stakes are high . Ethology Ecology & Evolution 23 : 388 – 397 .

O’Connell-Rodwell , C. E. Wood J. D. Kinzley C. Rodwell T. C. Poole J. H. Puria S. . 2007 . Wild African elephants ( Loxodonta africana ) discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar conspecific seismic alarm calls . Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 122 : 823 – 830 .

O’Connell-Rodwell , C. E. et al.  2006 . Wild elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) breeding herds respond to artificially transmitted seismic stimuli . Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 59 : 842 – 850 .

O’Connor , T. G. Goodman P. S. Clegg B. . 2007 . A functional hypothesis of the threat of local extirpation of woody plant species by elephant in Africa . Biological Conservation 136 : 29 – 345 .

Penzhorn , B. L. Robbertse P. J. Olivier M. C. . 1974 . The influence of the African elephant on the vegetation of Addo Elephant National Park . Koedoe 17 : 137 – 158 .

Poole , J. H . 1987 . Behavior in African elephants: the phenomenon of musth . Behaviour 102 : 283 – 316 .

Poole , J. H . 1989 . The effects of poaching on the age structures and social and reproductive patterns of selected East African elephant populations . Pp. 1 – 73 in The ivory trade and the future of the African elephant ( S. Cobb , ed.). Ivory Trade Review Group , Oxford, United Kingdom .

Poole , J. H. Granli P. . 2011 . Signals, gestures and behavior of African elephants . Pp. 109 – 124 in The Amboseli elephants: a long-term perspective on a long-lived mammal ( C. J. Moss , H. Croze P. C. Lee , eds.). University of Chicago Press , Chicago, Illinois .

Poole , J. H. Lee P. C. Njiraini N. Moss C. J. . 2011 . Longevity, competition, and musth: a long-term perspective on male reproductive strategies . Pp. 272 – 286 in The Amboseli elephants: a long-term perspective on a long-lived mammal ( C. J. Moss , H. Croze P. C. Lee , eds.). University of Chicago Press , Chicago, Illinois .

Poole , J. H. Moss C. J. . 1989 . Elephant mate searching: group dynamics and vocal and olfactory communication . Pp. 111 – 125 in The biology of large mammals in their environment ( J. A. Jewel and G. M. O. Maloyi , eds.). Clarendon Press , Oxford, United Kingdom .

Poole , J. H. Payne K. Langbauer W. R. Moss C. J. . 1988 . The social contexts of some very low-frequency calls of African elephants . Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 22 : 385 – 392 .

Pringle , R. M . 2008 . Elephant as agents of habitat creation for small vertebrates at the patch scale . Ecology 89 : 26 – 33 .

Roever , C. L. van Aarde R. J. Chase M. J. . 2013 . Incorporating mortality into habitat selection to identify secure and risky habitats for savannah elephants . Biological Conservation 164 : 98 – 106 .

Rutina , L. P. Moe S. R. . 2014 . Elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) disturbance to riparian woodland: effects on tree-species richness, diversity and functional redundancy . Ecosystems 17 : 1384 – 1396 .

Sankaran , M. Augustine D. J. Ratnam J. . 2013 . Native ungulates of diverse body sizes collectively regulate long-term woody plant demography and structure of a semi-arid savanna . Journal of Ecology 101 : 1389 – 1399 .

Sekar , N. Lee C.-L. Sukumar R. . 2015 . In the elephant’s seed shadow: the prospects of domestic bovids as replacement dispersers of three tropical Asian trees . Ecology 96 : 2093 – 2105 .

Shannon , G. et al.  2013 . Effects of social disruption in elephants persist decades after culling . Frontiers in Zoology 10 : 62 .

Skarpe , C. et al.  2004 . The return of the giants: ecological effects of an increasing elephant population . Ambio 33 : 276 – 282 .

Skarpe , C. du Toit J. T. Moe S. T. . 2014 . Elephants and savanna woodland ecosystems . Wiley-Blackwell, John Wiley & Sons , Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom .

Slotow , R. van Dyk G. Poole J. Page B. Klocke A. . 2000 . Older bull elephants control young males: orphaned male adolescents go on killing sprees if mature males aren’t around . Nature 408 : 425 – 426 .

Smit , I. P. J. Ferreira S. M. . 2010 . Management intervention affects river-bound spatial dynamics of elephants . Biological Conservation 143 : 2172 – 2181 .

Soltis , J. King L. E. Douglas-Hamilton I. Vollrath F. Savage A. . 2014 . African elephant alarm calls distinguish between threats from humans and bees . PLoS One 9 : e89403 .

Sukumar , R. 1990 . Ecology of the Asian elephant in southern India II. Feeding habits and crop raiding patterns . Journal of Tropical Ecology 6 : 33 – 53 .

Sukumar , R . 2003 . The living elephants: evolutionary ecology, behavior and conservation . Oxford University Press , New York .

Sukumar , R . 2011 . The story of Asia’s elephants . The Marg Foundation , Mumbai, India .

Sukumar , R. Suresh H. S. Dattaraja H. S. Srinidhi S. Nath C. . 2005 . The dynamics of a tropical dry forest in India: climate, fire, elephants and the evolution of life-history strategies . Pp. 510 – 529 in Biotic interactions in the tropics: their role in the maintenance of species diversity ( D. Burslem , P. Michelle S. Hartley , eds.). Cambridge University Press , Cambridge, United Kingdom .

Turkalo , A. K. Wrege P. H. Wittemyer G. . 2013 . Long-term monitoring of Dzanga Bai Forest elephants: forest clearing use patterns . PLoS One 8 : e85154f .

Valeix , M. Fritz H. Canévet V. Le Bel S. Madzikanda H. . 2009 . Do elephants prevent other African herbivores from using waterholes in the dry season? Biodiversity and Conservation 18 : 569 – 576 .

Valeix , M. Fritz H. Chamaillé-Jammes S. Bourgarel M. Murindagomo F. . 2008 . Fluctuations in abundance of large herbivore populations: insights into the influence of dry season rainfall and elephant numbers from long-term data . Animal Conservation 11 : 391 – 400 .

Valeix , M. Fritz H. Sabatier R. Murindagomo F. Cumming D. Duncan P. . 2011 . Elephant-induced structural changes in the vegetation and habitat selection by large herbivores in an African savanna . Biological Conservation 144 : 902 – 912 .

van Aarde , R. J. Jackson T. P. . 2007 . Megaparks for metapopulations: addressing the causes of locally high elephant numbers in South Africa . Biological Conservation 134 : 289 – 297 .

Vidya , T. N. C. Sukumar R. . 2005 . Social organization of the Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ) in southern India inferred from microsatellite DNA . Journal of Ethology 23 : 205 – 210 .

Vijver , C. A. D. M. van de Foley C. A. Olff H. . 1999 . Changes in the woody component of an East African Savanna during 25 years . Journal of Tropical Ecology 6 : 115 – 132 .

Walker , B. H. Holling C. S. Carpenter S. Kinzig A. . 2004 . Resilience, adaptability, and transformability in social-ecological systems . Ecology and Society 9 : 5 .

Wall , J. Wittemyer G. Klinkenberg B. LeMay V. Douglas-Hamilton I. . 2013 . Characterizing properties and drivers of long distance movements by elephants ( Loxodonta africana ) in the Gourma, Mali . Biological Conservation 157 : 60 – 68 .

Whyte , I . 2011 . Conservation management of Kruger National Park elephant population . Ph.D. dissertation , University of Pretoria , Pretoria, South Africa .

Whyte , I. van Aarde R. J. Pimm S. L. . 1998 . Managing the elephants of Kruger National Park . Animal Conservation 1 : 77 – 83 .

Wigley , B. J. Bond W. J. Fritz H. Coetsee C. . 2015 . Mammal browsers and rainfall affect Acacia leaf nutrient content, defense, and growth in South African savanna . Biotropica 47 : 190 – 200 .

Wigley , B. J. Fritz H. Coetsee C. Bond W. J. . 2014 . Herbivores shape woody plant communities in the Kruger National Park: lessons from three long-term exclosures . Koedoe 56 : Art. 1165 .

Wittemyer , G. Daballen D. Douglas-Hamilton I. . 2013 . Comparative demography of an at-risk African elephant population . PLoS One 8 : e53726 .

Wittemyer , G. Douglas-Hamilton I. Getz W. M. . 2005 . The socioecology of elephants: analysis of the processes creating multitiered social structures . Animal Behaviour 69 : 1357 – 1371 .

Wittemyer , G. Ganswindt A. Hodges K. . 2007a . The impact of ecological variability on the reproductive endocrinology of wild female African elephants . Hormones and Behavior 51 : 346 – 354 .

Wittemyer , G. Getz W. M. Vollrath F. Douglas-Hamilton I. . 2007b . Social dominance, seasonal movements, and spatial segregation in African elephants: a contribution to conservation behavior . Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 61 : 1919 – 1931 .

Wittemyer , G. et al.  2009 . Where sociality and relatedness diverge: the genetic basis for hierarchical social organization in African elephants . Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B. Biological Sciences 276 : 3513 – 3521 .

Young , K. D. Ferreira S. M. van Aarde R. J. . 2009 . The influence of increasing population size and vegetation productivity on elephant distribution in the Kruger National Park . Austral Ecology 34 : 329 – 342 .

Young , T. P. Palmer T. M. Gadd M. E. . 2005 . Competition and compensation among cattle, zebras, and elephants in a semi-arid savanna in Laikipia, Kenya . Biological Conservation 122 : 351 – 359 .

Young , K. D. van Aarde R. J. . 2010 . Density as an explanatory variable of movements and calf survival in savanna elephants across southern Africa . Journal of Animal Ecology 79 : 662 – 673 .

Author notes

Supplementary data.

Email alerts

Citing articles via.

• Recommend to your Library

Affiliations

• Online ISSN 1545-1542
• Print ISSN 0022-2372
• Copyright © 2024 American Society of Mammalogists
• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Institutional account management
• Rights and permissions
• Get help with access
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Qualitative study design: Field research

• Qualitative study design
• Phenomenology
• Grounded theory
• Ethnography
• Narrative inquiry
• Action research
• Case Studies

Field research

• Focus groups
• Observation
• Surveys & questionnaires
• Study Designs Home

To understand attitudes, practices, roles, organisations, groups, or behaviours in their natural setting

In a way you have probably done field research before – when you’ve been in a doctor’s waiting room, or on an aeroplane. Field research is at its core about observing and participating in social behaviour and trying to understand it. Qualitative field research takes these natural skills and curiosities and refines them to address and answer a research question The “field” is vast, consisting of numerous people, activities, events, and words. When undertaking field research, the researcher needs to determine the exact activities or practices that are of interest to the researcher to answer their research question. Instead of the more artificial environment of an interview or survey, field research lets researchers observe subtle communications, cues, or other events that they may not have anticipated or even measured otherwise.

Field research is often referred to interchangeably as “participant observation”. Participant observation is a type of field research where the researcher is an active participant in the everyday life, habits, or beliefs of the field alongside members. An example of this might be where a researcher goes into a hospital and works alongside hospital staff. A contrast to this is “direct observation”, a type of field research where the researcher observes members in the field but doesn’t actively participate. An example might be a researcher who sits at a hospital cafeteria and observes staff who may not realize they’re being studied.

You may be wondering what the difference is between ethnography and field research. The two terms are often used interchangeably, so it can be a really blurred line! Ethnography is about making sense of culture – it’s about making a detailed overview of the social group and organising your information. Field research is going out into the field – so describing “how” you’re going to conduct research. Ethnographical research can be field research (as in, you’re studying the culture of a hospital by observing within the hospital), or field research can be ethnographic (you’re observing staff in a hospital to see how staff handle crisis intervention). It’s a fine line between the two, and even experienced researchers can be unsure of the difference (or even use the terms interchangeably, depending on discipline), so when in doubt, it is best to talk to your supervisor or an experienced researcher in this discipline

Different studies may benefit from different degrees of researcher involvement. Ultimately, the researcher needs to be sensitive to the impact their presence might have on the data and on participants – and also aware of any ethical requirements around this study type, such as informed consent, duties to report (such as if the researcher observes criminal activities), and confidentiality and privacy of participants.

Observation, unstructured interviews

• Allows for observation in a natural setting
• Picks up on subtle cues
• Allows in depth exploration which contributes to a full appreciation of what’s being studied, including “whys” around human behaviour

Limitations

• Requires a high degree of sensitivity by the researcher to the impact of the research and their presence on participants and on the data
• Risk of reactivity, where research subjects may alter their behaviour from what it would have been normally as a result of being studied
• Ethical considerations involved in insider research
• Possible loss of objectivity

Example questions

How do student nurses integrate their training into care provision at end-of-life?

Example studies

• Barber-Parker, E. (2002). Integrating patient teaching into bedside patient care: a participant-observation study of hospital nurses.  Patient Education and Counselling, 48 ( 2): 107-113  
• Shikuku, D., Milimo, B., Ayebare, E., Gisore, P., & Gorrette, N. (2018). Practice and outcomes of neonatal resuscitation for newborns with birth asphyxia at Kakamega County General Hospital, Kenya: a direct observation study, BMC Pediatrics, 18 (1), doi: 10.1186/s12887-018-1127-6  

Babbie, E. (2008). The basics of social research (4th ed). Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth

• << Previous: Case Studies
• Next: Methods >>
• Last Updated: Jun 13, 2024 10:34 AM
• URL: https://deakin.libguides.com/qualitative-study-designs

Female and minority-identifying researchers face extra challenges in becoming field project leaders. Universities should be providing equivalent numbers of solutions.

field research

research@BSPH

The School’s research endeavors aim to improve the public’s health in the U.S. and throughout the world.

• Funding Opportunities and Support
• Faculty Innovation Award Winners

Conducting Research That Addresses Public Health Issues Worldwide

Systematic and rigorous inquiry allows us to discover the fundamental mechanisms and causes of disease and disparities. At our Office of Research ( research@BSPH), we translate that knowledge to develop, evaluate, and disseminate treatment and prevention strategies and inform public health practice. Research along this entire spectrum represents a fundamental mission of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

From laboratories at Baltimore’s Wolfe Street building, to Bangladesh maternity wards in densely   packed neighborhoods, to field studies in rural Botswana, Bloomberg School faculty lead research that directly addresses the most critical public health issues worldwide. Research spans from molecules to societies and relies on methodologies as diverse as bench science and epidemiology. That research is translated into impact, from discovering ways to eliminate malaria, increase healthy behavior, reduce the toll of chronic disease, improve the health of mothers and infants, or change the biology of aging.

120+ countries

engaged in research activity by BSPH faculty and teams.

of all federal grants and contracts awarded to schools of public health are awarded to BSPH. 

citations on  publications where BSPH was listed in the authors' affiliation in 2019-2023. 

 publications where BSPH was listed in the authors' affiliation in 2019-2023.

Departments

Our 10 departments offer faculty and students the flexibility to focus on a variety of public health disciplines

Centers and Institutes Directory

Our 80+ Centers and Institutes provide a unique combination of breadth and depth, and rich opportunities for collaboration

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) oversees two IRBs registered with the U.S. Office of Human Research Protections, IRB X and IRB FC, which meet weekly to review human subjects research applications for Bloomberg School faculty and students

Generosity helps our community think outside the traditional boundaries of public health, working across disciplines and industries, to translate research into innovative health interventions and practices

Introducing the research@BSPH Ecosystem

The   research@BSPH   ecosystem aims to foster an interdependent sense of community among faculty researchers, their research teams, administration, and staff that leverages knowledge and develops shared responses to challenges. The ultimate goal is to work collectively to reduce administrative and bureaucratic barriers related to conducting experiments, recruiting participants, analyzing data, hiring staff,   and more, so that faculty can focus on their core academic pursuits.

Research at the Bloomberg School is a team sport.

In order to provide  extensive guidance, infrastructure, and support in pursuit of its research mission,   research@BSPH  employs three core areas: strategy and development, implementation and impact, and integrity and oversight. Our exceptional research teams comprised of faculty, postdoctoral fellows, students, and committed staff are united in our collaborative, collegial, and entrepreneurial approach to problem solving. T he Bloomberg School ensures that our research is accomplished according to the highest ethical standards and complies with all regulatory requirements. In addition to our institutional review board (IRB) which provides oversight for human subjects research, basic science studies employee techniques to ensure the reproducibility of research. 

Research@BSPH in the News

Four bloomberg school faculty elected to national academy of medicine.

Considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, NAM membership recognizes outstanding professional achievements and commitment to service.

The Maryland Maternal Health Innovation Program Grant Renewed with Johns Hopkins

Lerner center for public health advocacy announces inaugural sommer klag advocacy impact award winners.

Bloomberg School faculty Nadia Akseer and Cass Crifasi selected winners at Advocacy Impact Awards Pitch Competition

• Browse All Articles
• Newsletter Sign-Up

Marketing →

• 07 May 2024
• Cold Call Podcast

Lessons in Business Innovation from Legendary Restaurant elBulli

Ferran Adrià, chef at legendary Barcelona-based restaurant elBulli, was facing two related decisions. First, he and his team must continue to develop new and different dishes for elBulli to guarantee a continuous stream of innovation, the cornerstone of the restaurant's success. But they also need to focus on growing the restaurant’s business. Can the team balance both objectives? Professor Michael I. Norton discusses the connections between creativity, emotions, rituals, and innovation – and how they can be applied to other domains – in the case, “elBulli: The Taste of Innovation,” and his new book, The Ritual Effect.

• 29 Feb 2024

Beyond Goals: David Beckham's Playbook for Mobilizing Star Talent

Reach soccer's pinnacle. Become a global brand. Buy a team. Sign Lionel Messi. David Beckham makes success look as easy as his epic free kicks. But leveraging world-class talent takes discipline and deft decision-making, as case studies by Anita Elberse reveal. What could other businesses learn from his ascent?

• 17 Jan 2024

Psychological Pricing Tactics to Fight the Inflation Blues

Inflation has slowed from the epic rates of 2021 and 2022, but many consumers still feel pinched. What will it take to encourage them to spend? Thoughtful pricing strategies that empower customers as they make purchasing decisions, says research by Elie Ofek.

• 05 Dec 2023

What Founders Get Wrong about Sales and Marketing

Which sales candidate is a startup’s ideal first hire? What marketing channels are best to invest in? How aggressively should an executive team align sales with customer success? Senior Lecturer Mark Roberge discusses how early-stage founders, sales leaders, and marketing executives can address these challenges as they grow their ventures in the case, “Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing Vignettes.”

Tommy Hilfiger’s Adaptive Clothing Line: Making Fashion Inclusive

In 2017, Tommy Hilfiger launched its adaptive fashion line to provide fashion apparel that aims to make dressing easier. By 2020, it was still a relatively unknown line in the U.S. and the Tommy Hilfiger team was continuing to learn more about how to serve these new customers. Should the team make adaptive clothing available beyond the U.S., or is a global expansion premature? Assistant Professor Elizabeth Keenan discusses the opportunities and challenges that accompanied the introduction of a new product line that effectively serves an entirely new customer while simultaneously starting a movement to provide fashion for all in the case, “Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive: Fashion for All.”

• Research & Ideas

Are Virtual Tours Still Worth It in Real Estate? Evidence from 75,000 Home Sales

Many real estate listings still feature videos and interactive tools that simulate the experience of walking through properties. But do they help homes sell faster? Research by Isamar Troncoso probes the post-pandemic value of virtual home tours.

• 17 Oct 2023

With Subscription Fatigue Setting In, Companies Need to Think Hard About Fees

Subscriptions are available for everything from dental floss to dog toys, but are consumers tiring of monthly fees? Elie Ofek says that subscription revenue can provide stability, but companies need to tread carefully or risk alienating customers.

• 29 Aug 2023

As Social Networks Get More Competitive, Which Ones Will Survive?

In early 2023, TikTok reached close to 1 billion users globally, placing it fourth behind the leading social networks: Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Meanwhile, competition in the market for videos had intensified. Can all four networks continue to attract audiences and creators? Felix Oberholzer-Gee discusses competition and imitation among social networks in his case “Hey, Insta & YouTube, Are You Watching TikTok?”

• 26 Jun 2023

Want to Leave a Lasting Impression on Customers? Don't Forget the (Proverbial) Fireworks

Some of the most successful customer experiences end with a bang. Julian De Freitas provides three tips to help businesses invest in the kind of memorable moments that will keep customers coming back.

• 31 May 2023

With Predictive Analytics, Companies Can Tap the Ultimate Opportunity: Customers’ Routines

Armed with more data than ever, many companies know what key customers need. But how many know exactly when they need it? An analysis of 2,000 ridesharing commuters by Eva Ascarza and colleagues shows what's possible for companies that can anticipate a customer's routine.

• 30 May 2023

Can AI Predict Whether Shoppers Would Pick Crest Over Colgate?

Is it the end of customer surveys? Definitely not, but research by Ayelet Israeli sheds light on the potential for generative AI to improve market research. But first, businesses will need to learn to harness the technology.

• 24 Apr 2023

What Does It Take to Build as Much Buzz as Booze? Inside the Epic Challenge of Cannabis-Infused Drinks

The market for cannabis products has exploded as more states legalize marijuana. But the path to success is rife with complexity as a case study about the beverage company Cann by Ayelet Israeli illustrates.

• 07 Apr 2023

When Celebrity ‘Crypto-Influencers’ Rake in Cash, Investors Lose Big

Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, and other entertainers have been accused of promoting crypto products on social media without disclosing conflicts. Research by Joseph Pacelli shows what can happen to eager investors who follow them.

• 10 Feb 2023

COVID-19 Lessons: Social Media Can Nudge More People to Get Vaccinated

Social networks have been criticized for spreading COVID-19 misinformation, but the platforms have also helped public health agencies spread the word on vaccines, says research by Michael Luca and colleagues. What does this mean for the next pandemic?

• 02 Feb 2023

Why We Still Need Twitter: How Social Media Holds Companies Accountable

Remember the viral video of the United passenger being removed from a plane? An analysis of Twitter activity and corporate misconduct by Jonas Heese and Joseph Pacelli reveals the power of social media to uncover questionable situations at companies.

• 06 Dec 2022

Latest Isn’t Always Greatest: Why Product Updates Capture Consumers

Consumers can't pass up a product update—even if there's no improvement. Research by Leslie John, Michael Norton, and Ximena Garcia-Rada illustrates the powerful allure of change. Are we really that naïve?

• 29 Nov 2022

How Much More Would Holiday Shoppers Pay to Wear Something Rare?

Economic worries will make pricing strategy even more critical this holiday season. Research by Chiara Farronato reveals the value that hip consumers see in hard-to-find products. Are companies simply making too many goods?

• 26 Oct 2022

How Paid Promos Take the Shine Off YouTube Stars (and Tips for Better Influencer Marketing)

Influencers aspire to turn "likes" into dollars through brand sponsorships, but these deals can erode their reputations, says research by Shunyuan Zhang. Marketers should seek out authentic voices on YouTube, not necessarily those with the most followers.

• 25 Oct 2022

Is Baseball Ready to Compete for the Next Generation of Fans?

With its slower pace and limited on-field action, major league baseball trails football in the US, basketball, and European soccer in revenue and popularity. Stephen Greyser discusses the state of "America's pastime."

• 18 Oct 2022

When Bias Creeps into AI, Managers Can Stop It by Asking the Right Questions

Even when companies actively try to prevent it, bias can sway algorithms and skew decision-making. Ayelet Israeli and Eva Ascarza offer a new approach to make artificial intelligence more accurate.

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Research Briefing
• Published: 10 June 2024

African savannah elephants call one another by ‘name’

Nature Ecology & Evolution ( 2024 ) Cite this article

922 Accesses

550 Altmetric

Metrics details

• Animal behaviour
• Behavioural ecology

Using a combination of machine learning and playback experiments in the field, we find that African savannah elephants address members of their family with individually specific, name-like calls. These ‘names’ are probably not imitative of the receiver’s calls, which is similar to human naming but unlike known phenomena in other animals.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

24,99 € / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles

111,21 € per year

only 9,27 € per issue

Buy this article

• Purchase on Springer Link
• Instant access to full article PDF

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

King, S. L. & Janik, V. M. Bottlenose dolphins can use learned vocal labels to address each other. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110 , 13216–13221 (2013). An article that shows that bottlenose dolphins address one another by copying the signature whistle of the addressee.

Article   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Balsby, T. J. S., Momberg, J. V. & Dabelsteen, T. Vocal imitation in parrots allows addressing of specific individuals in a dynamic communication network. PLoS ONE 7 , e49747 (2012). A paper revealing that orange-fronted conures (a New World parrot) respond more to contact calls that imitate their own calls.

Dingemanse, M., Blasi, D. E., Lupyan, G., Christiansen, M. H. & Monaghan, P. Arbitrariness, iconicity, and systematicity in language. Trends Cogn. Sci. 19 , 603–615 (2015). A review of the extent to which the structure of human words is inherently connected to their meaning.

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Poole, J. H., Tyack, P. L., Stoeger-Horwath, A. S. & Watwood, S. Elephants are capable of vocal learning. Nature 434 , 455–456 (2005). This paper provides evidence that African elephants are capable of vocal mimicry.

Article   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Wittemyer, G., Douglas-Hamilton, I. & Getz, W. M. The socioecology of elephants: analysis of the processes creating multitiered social structures. Anim. Behav. 69 , 1357–1371 (2005). This article reveals that female African savannah elephants have a hierarchically tiered, fission–fusion society.

Article   Google Scholar  

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Pardo, M. A. et al. African elephants address one another with individually specific name-like calls. Nat. Ecol. Evol . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02420-w (2024).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

African savannah elephants call one another by ‘name’. Nat Ecol Evol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02430-8

Download citation

Published : 10 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02430-8

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Study into health of wild mountain gorillas wins primate research award

Research to examine the health of wild, male mountain gorillas (gorilla beringei beringei) in Rwanda has received a prestigious grant from the International Primatological Society (IPS).

Nottingham Trent University PhD student, Eric Ndayishimiye, has been named as the first ever winner of the  Sebastían Ramírez Amaya Award for Fieldwork in Primatology for 2024.

The award was created in memory of Colombian primatologist Sebastían Ramírez Amaya who tragically lost his life conducting field research in Uganda for his own PhD project in 2022. It aims to encourage young researchers in primatology to pursue their professional dreams and contribute to primate research and conservation.

Eric, who sits within NTU’s School of Social Sciences, said: “I am delighted to be the first ever winner of the award. It is a huge encouragement for the fieldwork needed for my PhD research project which I have recently started.”

Eric’s research takes place in the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda where gorilla density is high, leading to an increase in meetings between groups. This can cause higher stress levels and reduced immune function.

Silverback dominant male gorillas in this population are particularly vulnerable to lethal disease and respiratory infections. Despite the possible connections between high group density, increased stress reactivity, and health and fitness, these links haven’t been investigated until now.

The study is in collaboration with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Rwanda, where Eric was previously a research officer and remains a research affiliate, and will use a range of data collection techniques including behavioural observations, hormone analysis and GPS tracking. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund is the world’s longest running gorilla research program dedicated to the protection, monitoring, and research of the endangered mountain gorilla and its habitat.

Eric completed his undergraduate degree at the National University of Rwanda and his master’s degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Chester, UK.

His master's research investigated human-wildlife conflicts targeting golden monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis kandti) that coexist with mountain gorillas . He also participated in various gorilla research projects during his time at the Fossey Fund, which focused on correlates of body size in both sexes and mating behavior in female gorillas .

Eric added: “My research seeks the understand the complex interaction between changes in group dynamics, challenges in the dominance hierarchy, social stress, physiology, and fitness in wild adult male gorillas.”

Dr Chris Young, NTU senior lecturer, Eric’s director of studies, and member of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Social Interaction , said “This is a great achievement for Eric and is very well deserved. The award of this grant will go towards helping us understand the links between immune function, stress physiology and behavior - a crucial step to inform conservation action plans.”

Professor Marina Cords, VP for Research, International Primatological Society, added: “On behalf of the IPS Research Committee and members, I am delighted to report that we easily identified an entirely deserving candidate for the first annual Sebastían Ramírez Amaya Award. Congratulations to Eric Ndayishimiye! We look forward to hearing about his research results.”

Notes for editors

About Nottingham Trent University

Nottingham Trent University (NTU) received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2021 for cultural heritage science research. It is the second time that NTU has been bestowed the honour of receiving a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its research, the first being in 2015 for leading-edge research on the safety and security of global citizens.

The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent. 86% of NTU’s research impact was assessed to be either world-leading or internationally excellent.

NTU was awarded The Times and The Sunday Times Modern University of the Year 2023 and ranked University of the Year in the Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023. It was awarded Outstanding Support for Students 2020 (Times Higher Education Awards), University of the Year 2019 (Guardian University Awards, UK Social Mobility Awards), Modern University of the Year 2018 (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide) and University of the Year 2017 (Times Higher Education Awards).

NTU is the 5 th largest UK institution by student numbers, with approximately 40,000 students and more than 4,400 staff located across five campuses. It has an international student population of 7,000 and an NTU community representing over 160 countries.

Since 2000, NTU has invested £570 million in tools, technology, buildings and facilities.

NTU is in the UK’s top 10 for number of applications and ranked first for accepted offers (2021 UCAS UG acceptance data). It is also among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and was the first UK university to sign the Social Mobility Pledge.

NTU is ranked the second most sustainable university in the world in the 2022 UI Green Metric University World Rankings (out of more than 900 participating universities).

• Category: Press office; Research; School of Social Sciences
• Category(s): Press office; Research ; School of Social Sciences

Related news

ntu.ac.uk/about-us/news/news-articles/2024/06/gorilla-health-research-wins-prize

MBE for NTU Covid-19 impact researcher

Nottingham Trent University (NTU) researcher Professor Rowena Hill has been awarded an MBE - Member of the British Empire - in the King’s Birthday Honours for her work to understand the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

ntu.ac.uk/about-us/news/news-articles/2024/06/mbe-for-ntu-covid-19-impact-researcher

Facially expressive people shown to be more likeable and socially successful

Increased use of facial expression – everything from smiles to eyebrow raises – leads to people being seen as more likeable, according to a large-scale study by Nottingham Trent University.

ntu.ac.uk/about-us/news/news-articles/2024/06/facially-expressive-people-shown-to-be-more-likeable-and-socially-successful

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Diagnostics (Basel)

Artificial Intelligence for Medical Diagnostics—Existing and Future AI Technology!

Associated data.

Not applicable.

We would like to express our gratitude to all authors who contributed to the Special Issue of “ Artificial Intelligence Advances for Medical Computer-Aided Diagnosis ” by providing their excellent and recent research findings for AI-based medical diagnosis. Furthermore, special thanks are extended to all reviewers who helped us to process an article in this Special Issue. Finally, we would like to express our deep and warm gratitude and respect to the editorial members working day and night on this Special Issue, providing the recent AI-based research studies to enrich the AI medical knowledge for the fourth industrial revolution.

Medical diagnostics is the process of evaluating medical conditions or diseases by analyzing symptoms, medical history, and test results. The goal of medical diagnostics is to determine the cause of a medical problem and make an accurate diagnosis to provide effective treatment. This can involve various diagnostic tests, such as imaging tests (e.g., X-rays, MRI, CT scans), blood tests, and biopsy procedures. The results of these tests help healthcare providers determine the best course of treatment for their patients. In addition to helping diagnose medical conditions, medical diagnostics can also be used to monitor the progress of a condition, assess the effectiveness of treatment, and detect potential health problems before they become serious. With the recent AI revolution, medical diagnostics could be improved to revolutionize the field of medical diagnostics by improving the prediction accuracy, speed, and efficiency of the diagnostic process. AI algorithms can analyze medical images (e.g., X-rays, MRIs, ultrasounds, CT scans, and DXAs) and assist healthcare providers in identifying and diagnosing diseases more accurately and quickly. AI can analyze large amounts of patient data, including medical 2D/3D imaging, bio-signals (e.g., ECG, EEG, EMG, and EHR), vital signs (e.g., body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure), demographic information, medical history, and laboratory test results. This could support decision making and provide accurate prediction results. This can help healthcare providers make more informed decisions about patient care. The diversity of the patient’s data in terms of multimodal data is an optimal smart solution that could provide better diagnostic decisions based on multiple findings in images, signals, text representation, etc. By integrating multiple data sources, healthcare providers can gain a more comprehensive understanding of a patient’s health and the underlying causes of their symptoms. The combination of multiple data sources can provide a more complete picture of a patient’s health, reducing the chance of misdiagnosis and improving the accuracy of diagnosis. Multimodal data can help healthcare providers monitor the progression of a condition over time, allowing for more effective treatment and management of chronic diseases. Meanwhile, using multimodal medical data, Explainable XAI-based healthcare providers can detect potential health problems earlier, before they become serious and potentially life-threatening [ 1 ]. Moreover, AI-powered Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSSs) could provide real-time assistance and support to make more informed decisions about patient care. XAI tools can automate routine tasks, freeing healthcare providers to focus on more complex patient care.

The future of AI-based medical diagnostics is likely to be characterized by continued growth and development as OpenAI [ 2 ]. More advanced AI technologies are being introduced into the research domain, such as quantum AI (QAI), to speed up the conventional training process and provide rapid diagnostics models [ 3 ]. Quantum computers have significantly more processing power than classical computers, and this could allow quantum AI algorithms to analyze vast amounts of medical data in real-time, leading to more accurate and efficient diagnoses. Quantum optimization algorithms can optimize decision-making processes in medical diagnostics, such as choosing the best course of treatment for a patient based on their medical history and other factors. Another concept is GAI or general AI, which is being used by different projects and companies, such as OpenAI’s DeepQA, IBM’s Watson, and Google’s DeepMind. The goal of GAI for medical diagnostics is to improve the accuracy, speed, and efficiency of medical diagnoses, as well as provide healthcare providers with valuable insights and support in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. By using AI algorithms to analyze vast amounts of medical data and identify patterns and relationships, general AI for medical diagnostics can transform the field of medicine, leading to improved patient outcomes and a more efficient and effective healthcare system. However, the development and deployment of AI in medical diagnostics are still in the early stages, and there are several technical, regulatory, and ethical challenges that must be overcome for the technology to reach its full potential. The first challenge is due to medical data quality and availability, where AI algorithms require large amounts of high-quality labeled data to be effective, and this can be a challenge in the medical field, where data are often fragmented, incomplete, unlabeled, or unavailable. Meanwhile, AI algorithms can be biased if they are trained on data that is not representative of the population they are intended to serve, leading to incorrect or unfair diagnoses. Another issue is about the use of GAI in medical diagnostics of a private and sensitive dataset, which raises some ethical questions, including data privacy, algorithmic transparency, and accountability for decisions made by AI algorithms. Even though some solutions with federated learning have recently been presented to solve such issues, the tool still needs more investigation to approve its capability for the medical research area. In addition, AI-based medical diagnostic tools are often developed by different companies and organizations, and there is a need for interoperability standards and protocols to ensure that these tools can work together effectively. AI-based techniques can analyze a patient’s medical history, genetics, and other factors to create personalized treatment plans, and this trend will likely continue to be developed in the future. However, AI-based medical diagnostics is an open research domain, and we highly recommend that researchers continue research to improve the final prediction accuracy and expedite the learning process. This will support the medical staff in hospitals and healthcare centers and even assist the industrial sector by providing novel smart solutions against epidemics or pandemics that suddenly appear and devastate communities worldwide.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) for the support of a wide range of research grants by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. RS-2022-00166402) to improve AI-based medical diagnostics.

Abbreviations

Funding Statement

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

• Higher Ed Gamma

The Power of a Story Arc in Scholarly Writing

Transforming research into riveting narratives.

By  Steven Mintz

You have / 5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in.

I recently sat outside to watch the Hudson Classical Theater’s production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) —a 90-minute romp through 38 plays and 154 sonnets. Part farce, but mainly playful, the performance combined comedy, spectacle and violence, with more than a few profound insights into Shakespeare’s contemporary relevance.

Sitting on the steps of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Manhattan’s Riverside Park, just 10 feet from the actors, you could see why the groundlings and stinkards loved the Bard’s works. How could one not be moved by the bawdy, gender-bending humor, the word play, the poetry, the histrionic overacting, the sword play and, of course, the plots about love, revenge, ambition, betrayal and power?

The crowd, though fewer than a hundred, consisting mainly of seniors and parents and their children, plus a surprising number of college students, roared, laughed and cried out as the instantly recognizable soliloquies passed by in rapid fire succession.

Not a high school English class version of Shakespeare, this was something quite different: a fun-filled frolic that celebrates the poetry of the Bard’s language, the complexities of his plots, and the drama, humor and tragedy that infuse his works.

There’s no doubt in my mind that this highly compressed approach to Shakespeare’s works can be as meaningful, in its own way, as a more traditional academic or theatrical approach.

A lively, abridged performance makes Shakespeare more approachable to a broader audience, including those who might find the original texts intimidating or difficult to understand. Through humor and highly dynamic acting, this approach captures the audience’s attention and makes the material especially engaging. This performance also encourages active audience participation, helping viewers connect emotionally with the characters and stories.

Even in an abbreviated form, the beauty of Shakespeare’s language and the power of his poetry are obvious, allowing audiences to appreciate his linguistic artistry. By succinctly conveying the complexities of Shakespeare’s plots, this mishmash of his works makes it easier for viewers to grasp the intricacies of the Bard’s storytelling. Without a doubt, this approach helps ensure his works remain a vital part of our collective heritage.

In a recent essay entitled "Can You Read a Book in a Quarter of an Hour?”, The New Yorker ’s Anthony Lane reviews a number of phone apps, like Blinkist, that allow users to boil down books into micro-synopses.

Not surprisingly, Lane focuses on what is lost when a work is condensed: The original work’s poetic language, rhythm and stylistic nuances. The author’s distinctive voice and tone. The text’s subtle layers of meaning, complex themes, cultural references and moral ambiguities. The work’s literary devices, including its use of metaphors, symbols, wit, irony and wordplay. The depth of characters, the plot’s intricacies, and the subtle dynamics of relationships. The work’s pacing and build-up of tension or suspense. And, perhaps most important of all, readers’ experience of the text—how readers’ imagination fills in gaps and interprets the work in light of their own emotions, interests and concerns.

Yet, I must confess, that with many works of nonfiction, including many histories, I try to abstract the arguments to a nutshell and extract the themes to their most succinct form. The goal: to construct a mental model, simplified in some respects, but also streamlined and made more straightforward. After all, if we were to try to grasp scholarship in its full complexity, we’d be overwhelmed by detail.

In fact, all too often, I’m afraid, one can summarize a nonfiction book’s claims in a few sentences without losing its essence. Indeed, one of my goals as an instructor is to try to help my student learn how to digest, distill, outline or summarize a book or essay’s thesis. The rest, to misquote Shakespeare, is evidence.

Let me be clear: The greatest works of nonfiction, like Plato’s Republic or Darwin’s On the Origin of Species , are as much works of literary craftsmanship as they are of philosophic or scientific argument, and need to be read with the same critical sensitivities as a novel. They demonstrate that rigorous works of humanistic or scientific inquiry and beautiful prose can coexist and complement one another.

Editors’ Picks

• UNC Fires Professor They Secretly Recorded
• University of Arts Closure Remains Shrouded in Mystery
• Trustees Vote to Dissolve University of Kentucky Senate

Thus, in The Republic , Plato uses dialogue, dialectics, storytelling, rich imagery and rhetoric, symbolic language, and allegories and myths, such as the Allegory of the Cave, the Myth of Er, and the story of the Ring of Gyges, to illustrate his philosophical points about justice, the ideal state, the nature of the soul and the theory of forms.

Somewhat similarly, Darwin’s classic is both a scientific argument and a work of literature thanks to its eloquent, even poetic, prose, use of metaphor, vivid descriptions and analogies, and engaging narrative with a clear beginning, middle and end. He not only supports his arguments with extensive empirical evidence drawn from his observations and research, he employs literary techniques to make his arguments more accessible to nonspecialists. His richly depicted observations of the natural world and his inclusion of sensory details, such as colors, shapes, and movements of animals and plants add a literary quality to his scientific narrative.

When I was at Columbia, my dean expressed deep concerns about the quality of doctoral students’ writing. Not that the grad students didn’t write clearly—of course, they did. But most didn’t write stylishly and elegantly. To address that challenge, I offered an intensive summer seminar on nonfiction writing and brought in editors from major academic presses to evaluate and comment on the students’ essays and dissertation chapters.

That seminar underscored the vital importance of narrative and synthesis in scholarly writing.

Works like Plato’s or Darwin’s craft arguments into narratives—transforming evidence and arguments into a coherent, engaging and meaningful stories. By weaving evidence into a compelling narrative, writers make complex ideas accessible, create coherence and continuity, provide context and meaning, and make arguments more persuasive.

In nonfiction, as in fiction, narratives need not be linear or chronological. Nonlinear narratives, using flashbacks and flash-forwards, can provide context and highlight connections between past and present. Starting in the middle of a narrative— In Media Res —and then filling in background and contextual information, can work as well in nonfiction as in fiction by hooking readers’ attention, prompting questions, creating mystery and suspense, encapsulating an argument’s essence, and developing themes and arguments in a dynamic and compelling way.

While I certainly wouldn’t recommend stream of consciousness or epistolary approaches, scholarly authors might consider other narrative strategies used by writers of fiction, like the “framed” narrative that includes multiple case studies within a broader narrative; the “quest” narrative, that begins with an objective and a progressive journey; and “parallel” narratives, where two or more narratives are told simultaneously, often intersecting or converging at key points, exposing contrasts or similarities between different storylines.

Reflective narratives, where the author reflects on the research process, providing insights and commentary, offer yet another strategy for creating a deeper understanding of one’s themes and conclusions.

A big challenge, especially for novice humanities scholars, is to transform one’s research into a compelling story with a narrative arc that takes into account alternative stories and interpretations.

A second lesson that I took away from the seminar was that serious scholarship, certainly in the humanities, is as much a matter of synthesis as of original research. It takes disparate pieces of evidence and existing arguments and theories, and constructs something new from them. Synthesis involves constructing coherent arguments that draw on a wide range of evidence and perspectives. It builds on previous scholarship by integrating past research with new findings.

Synthesis, in other words, connects the dots of knowledge. By erecting bridges between ideas and interlacing threads of thought, works of synthesis bring coherence to complexity and create clearer, more intelligible narratives. That’s the power of scholarly synthesis.

And yet, often, works of synthesis are dismissed as “textbookish”—as lacking in depth, richness and originality.

At its best, synthesis is essential to the practice of scholarship. By drawing on previous work, combining different pieces of evidence, theories and perspectives from multiple disciplines, and engaging with big questions, synthesis is what contributes to the construction of new understandings of a particular topic or field. It’s no accident that Bloom’s Taxonomy of levels of cognition places synthesis at the top of his hierarchy.

Synthesis is as important in humanities and social science classrooms as in scholarship. It encourages students to construct their own frameworks of analysis and understanding, and to see connections between different pieces of information and disparate theories and approaches.

Effective syntheses also connect academic research to real-world issues, making scholarship more relevant and applicable to everyday problems and societal challenges.

For most scholars, certainly for me, the most profound and shattering moment in writing comes when you suddenly happen upon the story line that gives an article or book coherence and conceptual unity—a narrative that one can latch on to and develop.

I first felt the pang of revelation when I unexpectedly realized that the history of the American family was not a linear story of “progress” or “adaptation” but instead a story of radically shifting paradigms, structures and power dynamics—a series of “domestic revolutions” when a patriarchal yet permeable conception of family gradually gave way to the emotionally intense, bounded, inward-turning nuclear family, and then to the extremely fragile units that dominate today, with their unachievably high expectations about affective and sexual fulfillment.

I felt this same spasm of surprise again when I abruptly understood that the history of American childhood involved two very different stories. There was the history of children—peer relations, kid cultures, play activities and their everyday experiences, which are shaped by highly specific chronological, class, ethnic, familial, gender, racial, religious and school contexts, and the history of childhood, an imaginary world constructed, in part, by adults, who want to protect, insulate, shelter or prepare children, and by kids themselves, who, as they age, seek more and more autonomy and who regard their own childhood as an odyssey of self-discovery and self-formation.

I underwent such an eye-opening experience yet again when I recognized that the history of modern adulthood might be understood in terms of the gradual construction, beginning in the late 19th century, of a conception of this life stage defined in opposition to childhood and youth—as mature and well-adjusted as opposed to youthful dependence and impulsiveness—into a postmodern conception of adulthood that lacks clear rules or markers.

If we want to raise students’ writing to the next level, we must show them how to transform their research into analytical narratives that combine storytelling techniques with thoughtful analysis. That requires instructors to teach the importance of a synthetic narrative structured around a story arc. Here’s how.

• Begin with a hook—a striking anecdote or anniversary or statistic that grabs the readers’ attention.
• Craft an overarching argument that speaks to a larger debate or controversy.
• Explain how this piece of writing will fill a gap in our understanding or refute, revise, modify, refine, test or confirm a widely shared opinion, myth, perspective or assumption.
• Interweave evidence, argument and theory as seamlessly as possible.
• Confront potential objections to the interpretation; assess counterarguments; and describe the evidences’ limitations.
• Reflect on the research findings’ implications.
• End with a kicker—a powerful concluding remark to leave a lasting impression.

Effective scholarly writing requires a narrative arc. This is what elevates academic research into a work that is coherent, compelling and engaging. So, help your students understand the power in storytelling, in crafting narratives that transform data to drama, that turn research into a compelling tale.

Steven Mintz is professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin and the author, most recently, of The Learning-Centered University: Making College a More Developmental, Transformational, and Equitable Experience.

Farm Bill Proposals Boost Research Facilities and HBCUs

But a political impasse over SNAP benefits could make the bill impossible to pass, at least in 2024.

Share This Article

More from higher ed gamma.

Navigating Life’s Layers of Complexity

What you can learn from this country’s premier chronicler of trauma and the broken heart.

Why We Should Worry About the Decline of American Intellectual History as a Field of Study

• Become a Member
• Sign up for Newsletters
• Learning & Assessment
• Diversity & Equity
• Career Development
• Labor & Unionization
• Shared Governance
• Academic Freedom
• Books & Publishing
• Financial Aid
• Residential Life
• Free Speech
• Physical & Mental Health
• Race & Ethnicity
• Sex & Gender
• Socioeconomics
• Traditional-Age
• Adult & Post-Traditional
• Teaching & Learning
• Artificial Intelligence
• Digital Publishing
• Data Analytics
• Administrative Tech
• Alternative Credentials
• Financial Health
• Cost-Cutting
• Revenue Strategies
• Academic Programs
• Physical Campuses
• Mergers & Collaboration
• Fundraising
• Research Universities
• Regional Public Universities
• Community Colleges
• Private Nonprofit Colleges
• Minority-Serving Institutions
• Religious Colleges
• Women's Colleges
• Specialized Colleges
• For-Profit Colleges
• Executive Leadership
• Trustees & Regents
• State Oversight
• Accreditation
• Politics & Elections
• Supreme Court
• Student Aid Policy
• Science & Research Policy
• State Policy
• Colleges & Localities
• Employee Satisfaction
• Remote & Flexible Work
• Staff Issues
• Study Abroad
• International Students in U.S.
• U.S. Colleges in the World
• Intellectual Affairs
• Seeking a Faculty Job
• Advancing in the Faculty
• Seeking an Administrative Job
• Advancing as an Administrator
• Beyond Transfer
• Call to Action
• Confessions of a Community College Dean
• Higher Ed Policy
• Just Explain It to Me!
• Just Visiting
• Law, Policy—and IT?
• Leadership & StratEDgy
• Leadership in Higher Education
• Learning Innovation
• Online: Trending Now
• Resident Scholar
• University of Venus
• Student Voice
• Academic Life
• Health & Wellness
• The College Experience
• Life After College
• Academic Minute
• Weekly Wisdom
• Reports & Data
• Quick Takes
• Advertising & Marketing
• Consulting Services
• Data & Insights
• Hiring & Jobs
• Event Partnerships

4 /5 Articles remaining this month.

Sign up for a free account or log in.

• Create Free Account