Sequential Research with Special References to the Scandinavian Project Metropolitan

Abstract

MacMullen (1977), in describing traveling problems in the Roman Empire, recently concluded that travels at that time were time-consuming, expensive, and risky. It so happens that his three adjectives are also applicable to sequential or longitudinal studies. They are almost by definition more time-demanding than other studies simply because they become more thrilling the longer you are willing to wait. They may not be more expensive per published page than other studies, but they need the attention of financing institutions for a long time, and their total cost will easily add up to some million crowns or at least ten times the cost of a crosssectional study of the same sample size. Sequential research is also risky in the sense that its survival depends more than that of other research on a steady state of neutral or favorable attitudes among the general public, in the government, and in parliament.