I've been doing some research into what people in Britain think of doctors, the ones who work in general practice, the first call for medical care, and comparing this with the situation in a couple of other countries. I want to talk about the rationale behind what I decided to do. Now I had to set up my programme of research in three different countries so I approached postgraduates in my field in overseas departments, contacting them by email, to organise things for me at their end. I thought I would have trouble recruiting help but in fact everyone was very willing and sometimes their tutors got involved too. I had to give my helpers clear instructions about what kind of sample population I wanted them to use. I decided that people under 18 should be excluded because most of them are students or looking for their first job, and also I decided at this stage just to focus on men who were in employment, and set up something for people who didn't have jobs and for employed women later on as a separate investigation.