I’m a leading independent researcher, author, teacher and speaker specialising in research methods, particularly creative methods, and research ethics.

With over 23 years’ experience as an independent researcher I now teach doctoral students and staff at higher education institutions worldwide. I am also a prolific academic author with over 25 titles; notably Creative Research Methods: A Practical Guide and Research and Evaluation for Busy Students and Practitioners, both in their second editions. Besides my regular blogs and videos, I also write comics and fiction. In 2021, at the age of 56, I was diagnosed Autistic. I think my neurodiversity explains my lifelong fascination with, and ability to focus on, words, language and writing.

I am fascinated with research methods and am always happy to discuss this on Twitter, where I am @DrHelenKara. I often post on #CRMethods and hold regular Twitter chats at #CRMethodsChat.

Click if you would like to know more about my writing or my teaching, or to see a list of all my research projects. You can view my Amazon page, my Google Scholar page, and my ORCID iD.

I am a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester.

Why might I be useful to you?

Perhaps you’re an academic preparing a funding bid which would benefit from an experienced independent partner, or needing to outsource some existing research work, or wanting an externally run workshop for your research methods course, or seeking a keynote speaker for a conference.

You could be from a third sector organisation wanting to set up your own research ethics committee.

Or someone I haven’t thought of…

Whichever, please do get in touch. I’m always happy to discuss potential paid work, with no charge for an initial discussion.