<p>This article highlights some ethical considerations and practicalities that arose when conducting research with men in relation to decision making and seeking help for a sexually transmitted infection (STI). The aim of the study was to explore, using a grounded theory approach, the processes involved in making the decision to seek help. The main issues that arose were in relation to seeking permission and gaining approval, obtaining informed consent and susceptibility to harm. The interview itself and the concept of the researcher as a tool of data collection also gave rise to ethical issues. These issues have implications for the conduct of sensitive research with men and highlight the need for more overt reporting of the ethical issues and practical considerations that arise when planning and conducting research.</p>

<p>Grounded theory has existed for more than 40 years and has proved a successful and rigorous general inductive research method. However, it is apparent in the literature that novice researchers, or those new to interpretative studies, struggle to understand and defend the use of existing knowledge and the literature in a grounded theory study. While the engagement with and the role of the literature in grounded theory are documented in many texts, there are apparently contradictory perspectives. In addition, for the novice researcher undertaking grounded theory in an era of evidence-based practice, it can be a considerable challenge to understand and defend the role of the literature, substantive knowledge of the area and the place of a theoretical framework in grounded theory. The purpose of this paper is to consider these issues using salient arguments in the literature to guide novice researchers in considering their theoretical and philosophical positions.</p>

<p>When a new book introducing readers to the research process is published, I ask myself why the need for another one and what is new about it. It certainly is a challenge for anyone writing on this subject in a market already saturated with textbooks aimed at helping students to do research.</p>

<p>The novelist EM Forster wrote in the preface to A Passage to India: ‘It is by chance, more than any peculiar devotion, that determines a man in his choice of medium, when he finds himself possessed by the obscure impulse towards creation.’ On the other hand, JK Rowling’s Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter believes that it is our choices and not our ability that makes us what we are. When I joined the University of Ulster after completing my PhD, I was asked to teach research to undergraduates. Now, 17 years later, I am still researching and teaching research. It may look as if time has stood still. Yet the opportunity (or chance, according to Forster) that was presented to me was a godsend. Research has provided me with new and different ways to look at the world. Each research tradition or approach looks at phenomena from a different perspective. It is fascinating to see how researchers are busy seeking the ‘truth’, which they often claim to find, but which remains elusive. What is most rewarding is that each new study is a learning experience.</p>