This volume is the first of two volumes that address the most recent ten years (1997-2006) of focus group studies and research literature. Volume one provides coverage of the arts and humanities, social sciences, and the nonmedical sciences, and volume two concentrates on the medical and health sciences. These volumes cover the English-language academic literature (books, chapters in books, journal articles, and significant pamphlets) available in libraries via interlibrary loan and online.

A variety of materials are included: instructional guides, handbooks, reference works, textbooks, and academic journal literature. In Focus Groups, Volume I, the following subject disciplines have been considered: in the arts and humanities—linguistics, music, religion, and sports and leisure studies; in the social sciences—anthropology, business, cartography, communication, demography, education, law, library science, political science, psychology, and sociology; and in the non-medical sciences—agriculture, biology, engineering, environmental sciences, and physics. The selected entries have a minimum of four pages, and include 29 books, 50 book chapters, 349 articles, and 10 pamphlets, for a total of 438 entries.

An appendix includes the titles of the 245 journals cited, along with the appropriate entry numbers for each. Author and subject indexes provide access to the contents, with the subject index providing access to unique terms. The detailed contents pages are designed to enable the reader to quickly find appropriate entries through the use of extensive and detailed subheadings.