Study.methodology

Popularizing Nanoscience: Study methodology

Study Methodology
Data Collection

Data collected on-line using ABI Inform/Proquest and Lexis/Nexis data base.

1986 as starting point for data collection, based on pilot study results.

Data set

newspaper and news magazines consistent with data sets established by similar projects in the literature (see e.g., Friedman, et al., p. 8 for widest coverage).

In addition, newspapers from geographical areas cited as "top 10 nanotechnology development areas" (Stuart, 2003) were added.

Specifically, we are working from 19 American newspapers, 3 Canadian papers, 5 American news magazines, and one Canadian news magazine.

Search Terms

nanoscience, nanotechnology, scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy, nanolithography, self assembly, and nanostructure to select articles from the data base.

Number

there were 58 articles in our data set

Categorization

Topic Code	Description
Social Context	Prestigue/bias: who conducted, funded research, where conducted, published
Method	How research was conducted, research design and procedures
Theory/Agent	Why effects occurred, properties of causal agents, underlying mechanisms
Data/Statistics	What was observed in the reported study or statistical tests
Related Research	Replication of or connections with other results
Relevance	Importance or applicability of findings

Topic code categories (adapted from Zimmerman et. al. 2001, p. 40)

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