RES101P

METHODS OF RESEARCH

LECTURE 1
WHAT IS RESEARCH?
 WHAT IS RESEARCH?
▪ Any kind of investigation that is
intended to uncover interesting or
new facts.

✓ Acquire knowledge
✓ Develop understanding
✓ Collect facts (data)
✓ Interpret the collected data

▪ It involves finding out about things

that no-one else knew either.

Walliman, W. (2011). Research Methods. New York, USA: Routledge.

 RESEARCH METHODS

▪ A range of tools and

techniques for doing research.

▪ Provide the ways to collect,

sort and analyze information
so that a conclusion could
be made.

▪ A conclusion becomes VALID

to other people if a right sort of
methods are used.

Walliman, W. (2011). Research Methods. New York, USA: Routledge.

IMPORTANCE OF DOING A RESEARCH
▪ You are taking this research “Imagination is
methods course because you more important
than knowledge”.
need to graduate. That’s TRUE. – Albert Einstein

▪ But “research methods” is about

studying and learning a
process.

▪ Helps in shaping the world, i.e. gain

a better understanding
▪ Cultural diversity
▪ Human rights
▪ Disease prevention
▪ Climate change
TYPES OF RESEARCH
1. Correlational research
▪ Systematic or statistical study without cause and effect
(experimental and survey)

2. Descriptive research
▪ Discover new meaning, what exists, etc

3. Ethnographic research
▪ In-depth study on culture and members of the culture

4. Experimental research
▪ An objective, systematic, controlled investigation
TYPES OF RESEARCH
5. Exploratory research
▪ Informal such as informal discussions with people (interviews)

6. Grounded research
▪ Discover what problems exist in a given social environment

7. Historical research
▪ Analysis of events occurred in the past

8. Phenomenological research
▪ Describe an experience as it is actually lived by the person
PURE vs APPLIED REASEARCH

Basic (Pure) research Applied research

▪ Driven by a scientist’s ▪ Seeks to solve practical
curiosity or interest problems, e.g. cure illness; and
develop innovative technologies
▪ Main motivation: expand ▪ Main motivation: create or invent
man’s knowledge something
▪ Discoveries have NO ▪ Discoveries have commercial
commercial value value
PURE vs APPLIED RESEARCH
▪ Is the following questions can be answered by doing a pure
research or an applied research?
▪ How did the universe begin? Pure
▪ How to improve agricultural crop production? Applied
▪ How to treat or cure a specific disease? Applied

▪ What are protons, neutrons, and electrons composed of? Pure

▪ How do simple molds reproduce? Pure
▪ How to improve the energy efficiency of homes, car, etc.?
Applied
PURE vs APPLIED RESEARCH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzPW5msevJ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h924kiLlvA0
QUANTITATIVE vs QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Quantitative research
▪ Systematic empirical investigation via
statistical, mathematical, or
computational techniques
▪ Use scientific method
▪ Advantages:
✓ Researcher can measure and
analyze data
✓ More objective about findings
✓ Data are validated by experiments
that test hypothesis
▪ Disadvantages:
➢ The context of the study is ignored
➢ Does not study things in a natural
setting
➢ The higher the population sample,
the more accuracy needed
Qualitative research
▪ Deals with those difficult or impossible to
quantify (e.g. beliefs, meanings, attributes,
etc.)
▪ Why and how (surveys)
▪ Advantages:
✓ ok with complex studies
✓ fewer assumptions on data collected
✓ more depth understanding (not
bounded by a quantity)
✓ data in own words or way
▪ Disadvantages:
➢ More difficult to validate the data
➢ More subjectivity
➢ Data overload
➢ Time consuming
WHAT IS A THESIS?
✓ A thesis is a proposition. (It makes a point)

✓ A thesis offers an argument. (It suggests an answer to

some issue or question)

✓ The argument of the thesis (It attempts to

should be maintained. validate that answer)

▪ The following are NOT a thesis:

х A chronology or other description
of a situation (i.e. history)
х A large statistical study
х An essay expressing a point of
view or an opinion
WHAT IS A UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH?

✓ Under supervision of a mentor/advisor (e.g. professor)

✓ Students gain confidence and independence (work with

minor supervision)
✓ Students participate in an ongoing research project (professor’s
interest to investigate)
THESIS VS RESEARCH PROJECT

▪ A mistake: Everything that a student is Research

project
working on is a component of their thesis.

▪ Only those that directly inform the Thesis

thesis question should be incorporated
into the thesis.

▪ Remember: Your research is more than your

thesis, BUT your thesis should never be
about more than the question that you
propose to resolve
CHOOSING A RESEARCH TOPIC

Define a RESEARCH PROBLEM!

▪ Research problem is the reason
why you do your research

▪ This will generate

▪ Subject of the research
▪ Aims and objectives
▪ Kind of data to be collected
▪ Kind of analysis to provide
answers/conclusions
CHOOSING A RESEARCH TOPIC

✓ What are you going to do?

✓ Why are you going to do it?

✓ How are you going to do it?

✓ When are you going to do it?

▪ The answers to these questions will provide a framework for

the actual doing of the research.
 THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Walliman, W. (2011). Research Methods. New York, USA: Routledge.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

▪ A process used to validate

observations while minimizing
observer bias.

▪ Goal: For research to be

conducted in a fair, unbiased
and repeatable manner.

▪ A series of steps that lead to

answers that accurately describe
the things we observe, or at least
improve our understanding of them.
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

▪ Review these terms!

▪ Hypothesis – a working assumption to be tested or

proven; initially considered “true” (e.g. The earth is round)

▪ Theory – drawn from facts that explain observations

and can be used to predict new events (e.g. Newton’s
theory of gravitation, Einstein’s theory of relativity)

▪ Null hypothesis – to prove to be false, must be

tested, and either accepted or rejected (e.g. The earth
is not round)
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMGRe824kak
 WRITING GOOD EFFECTIVE TITLE

▪ Title is the “label” of an article to make it “stand out”!

✓ Good summary of the content

✓ Simple, brief, clear and attractive (< 20 words)

✓ Avoid waste words (e.g. a study of…, investigations of...,

observations on…)

✓ Avoid abbreviations or acronyms (e.g. E. coli, PNPA)

✓ Keywords or key-phrases in the title (to be searched easily)

Shah, J.N. (2014). Writing Good Effective Title for Journal Article. J Patan Acd Health Sci, 1(2), 1-3.
 WRITING GOOD EFFECTIVE TITLE

▪ Suggested steps to revise the title

✓ Answer all the possible research questions:

✓ What the article is about?
✓ What study designs was used?
✓ Who/what was studied?
✓ How it was done? Where it was done?
✓ What were the results?

Shah, J.N. (2014). Writing Good Effective Title for Journal Article. J Patan Acd Health Sci, 1(2), 1-3.
 WRITING GOOD EFFECTIVE TITLE

▪ Example: ✓ What the article is about?

✓ What study designs was used?
✓ Who/what was studied?
✓ How it was done? Where it was done?
✓ What were the results?

▪ Paper studied use of prophylaxis antibiotic in cholecystectomy

▪ Studied reduction in wound infection after routine prophylaxis
▪ Study sample was low-risk elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy
▪ It was a randomized clinical trial.
▪ Research was done at university teaching hospital
▪ There was no decrease in wound infection after routine prophylaxis.

Shah, J.N. (2014). Writing Good Effective Title for Journal Article. J Patan Acd Health Sci, 1(2), 1-3.
 WRITING GOOD EFFECTIVE TITLE
▪ From the answers list key phrases/words:
▪ Paper studied use of prophylaxis antibiotic in cholecystectomy
▪ Studied reduction in wound infection after routine prophylaxis
▪ Study sample was low-risk elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy
▪ It was a randomized clinical trial.
▪ Research was done at university teaching hospital
▪ There was no decrease in wound infection after routine prophylaxis.

Shah, J.N. (2014). Writing Good Effective Title for Journal Article. J Patan Acd Health Sci, 1(2), 1-3.
CLASS ACTIVITY 1

▪ Write the title of your research proposal

using the tips discussed in the lecture.

▪ Your group will be called for consultation.