ABSTRACT
There are often many paths that can be taken on a journey toward a single goal, and, while some paths may prove more efficient or interesting, it is nonetheless true that there is usually more than one way to get to a destination. Such is the case with research methods. For example, health communication scholars interested in increasing enrollment in cancer drug clinical trials may need to investigate patients’ attitudes toward clinical trials, explore physicians’ attitudes about offering clinical trial enrollment opportunities to patients, observe how oncologists communicate with patients about clinical trials, and determine the types of barriers physicians face to enrolling patients in clinical trials. All of these studies will help to answer important questions that might result in more effective interventions, but each yields very different types of information by way of very different types of investigations.
