The links between losing a job and and a person's mental health is of considerable interest not just to the individuals affected but to health professionals, researchers and policy makers. For researchers, there are interesting opportunities to use panel studies, where people are interviewed repeatedly over time, to look more closely at the links between the two. But along with the opportunities come challenges in measuring and analysing those links accurately. In this podcast Professor Fiona Steele talks to Christine Garrington about new research by the LEMMA 3 node of the NCRM examining at the issue of selection bias when analysing panel data to look at the links between unemployment and mental health.

The advent of a wide range of new data sources and digital research methods has created a plethora of opportunities for social science researchers to undertake innovative and impactful research. At the NCRM-funded node TALISMAN, researchers are using new data and technologies to look at a range of geography-related real world issues, with the aim of generating new and powerful methods to help address key policy questions. In this podcast TALISMAN Director Professor Mark Birkin talks about some of the node's work and explains why he wants more researchers to seize the new research opportunities available to them.

How do surgical trainees learn to operate on real patients without increasing patient risks? How do surgeons come to make critical decisions during operations? How have new technologies changed learning and decision making? These are some of the questions being addressed in one research project at the NCRM-funded node, MODE based at the Institute of Education. Dr Jeff Bezemer talks to Christine Garrington how digital technology is being used to look at these questions and ultimately how he believes it could improve the decision-making and training processes in the operating theatre.

In an era in which social life is increasingly played out online, innovative digital research methods are providing new ways of asking questions and generating data. But with exciting new opportunities come a number of complex challenges. In this podcast researchers from the NCRM-funded project Digital Methods as Mainstream Methodologies talk to Christine Garrington about a new network that is trying build capacity in the research community to address the opportunities and challenges that digitally inspired methods present for social research.

The appropriate place for Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM) in modern healthcare continues to be a hot topic in policy circles as well as amongst health practitioners. In this NCRM podcast Patrick Sturgis talks to Chris Garrington about new research funded by the Wellcome Trust, which appears to show widespread public belief that homeopathic remedies are effective.

From the arguments for and against undercover research to an explosion in interest in online research, these are exciting but challenging time for researchers undertaking qualitative research. Increasing ethical regulation of social research also means it is crucial that researchers understand and engage with ethical issues as they emerge throughout the process of their work. In a new book, What are Qualitative Research Ethics? Dr Rose Wiles from NCRM offers an accessible overview of the field, identifying the key issues that researchers are likely to face, and the everyday ethical dilemmas that researchers encounter. In our latest NCRM podcast Dr Wiles talks to Chris Garrington about ethics and discusses the framework proposed in her book to help researchers deal with those dilemmas.

Small area estimation methodologies are widely used across a variety of disciplines and there is growing interest and demand from policy makers in making more effective use of them. Adam Whitworth from the University of Sheffield talks to Chris Garrington about the NCRM-funded network set up to try to improve consensus and increase understanding in this important area.

Should social science researchers embrace social media and, if they do, what are the implications for our methods and practice? Gareth Morrell from NatCen Social Research talks to Chris Garrington about the NCRM-funded network exploring this question.

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