In this book, the editors present a collection of papers by academics from diverse disciplines specialising in research on interpersonal communication. The book is intended to fill an obvious gap in the available literature, since it focuses explicitly on the ways in which researchers from different disciplines investigate interpersonal communication. The contributions are organised around five principal themes, namely, Concepts of Interpersonal Communication, Methods of Observation, Transcription Procedures, Data Analysis, and Research Applications; each of these themes represents a particular issue which must be addressed by any researcher working on conversation. In addition, the sections are prefaced by linking chapters written by the editors, which highlight the topic of each section and evaluate the different approaches represented by the individual chapters. In this way the book is intended to provide an integrated and structured interdisciplinary approach to the study of interpersonal communication.