Introduction As early-career researchers studying the end of life, we recognise that scholarly activity in the field of death studies -an umbrella term for research spanning all aspects of death, dying and bereavement, including end of life care -is growing in popularity. Since we completed our PhDs (less than 7 years ago), the number of U.K. universities offering courses on deathrelated topics has increased, mailing lists and online chat groups have multiplied, and the range of international

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... minars and conferences addressing topics in the field is expanding. This mounting interest in death studies makes this an opportune time to consider the methodological issues that doing research on death, dying, and bereavement present. Mortality is a flagship journal in this interdisciplinary field. Read by both academics and practitioners, and with an increasingly international authorship and audience, it is an ideal space to consider contemporary methodological issues and challenges. As editors of this special issue we have brought together a range of articles written by researchers which foreground and explore in detail matters pertaining to the study of death. As a collection, the articles seek to generate discussion about techniques, practices and socio-cultural contexts of death research, and the implications that these have for knowledge production. Moreover, Mortality Special Issue Vol 22 (2) May 2017 2 they intend to stimulate reflection on what is particular about engaging in death-related research specificallyteasing out key issues from more generic ongoing discussions about doing 'sensitive' (usually qualitative) research. In doing so, they offer practical tips and guidancewith the authors including key points and summary boxes at the end of each article. By placing these articles together and in dialogue with one another, we hope to encourage further substantive publications that deal with methodological aspects of death research, and that can continue these conversations. If we look at the genealogy of death studies (in English-speaking nations at least), there is a history of key periods of academic reflection and activity. For example, in the late 1960s and early 1970s (in the United States in particular), we saw a plethora of research in the field which produced seminal works that are still regularly cited in research, teaching and professional education today (e.g.