GETTING STARTED WITH RESEARCHINTRODUCTION

• Many students have some apprehensions about doing research. The best way

• to conquer this anxiety is to learn how the research process works—how to organize and analyze, evaluate and synthesize what is learned with original ideas and interpretations, and finally how to document your research.

Research Definition

• Research "to go about seeking", the search for knowledge. Holding the torch of knowledge" on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications. It is used to establish or confirm facts, reaffirm the results of previous work, solve new or existing problems, develop new theories.

Research Definition(cont:)

• Martyn Shuttleworth "In the broadest sense of the word, the definition of research includes any gathering of data, information and facts for the advancement of knowledge.”

Research Definition(cont:)

• Creswell -"Research is a process of steps used to collect and analyze information to increase our understanding of a topic or issue".

• It consists of three steps: • 1.Pose a question, 2.collect data to answer the

question, and 3. present an answer to the question

Research types

• There are many research methods that can be used by researchers to determine the outcome of a particular project. Important

• 4 are following• Qualitative, quantitative, mixed, and action

research.

Qualitative Research

• Qualitative research is a standard term for investigating methodologies that helps the researcher understand and explain the meaning of social phenomena. This research investigation is performed in a natural setting so that the researcher can learn as much about the human behavior as possible. In this sense, it seeks to understand behavior with the purpose of assigning meaning to the actions of the particular subject.

Qualitative research(conti)

• Qualitative researchers are concerned with understanding the motivational factors behind the particular experience in question, and therefore, with this type of research more personal information and deeper responses are needed from the participants. Also, qualitative research is subjective and the researcher will collect data by means of words, pictures, or categories through careful observation and in depth personal interviews (Quantitative and Qualitative Research, 2011).

Quantitative Research

• Quantitative research is used by researchers to determine quantified relationship between variables. In this aim is to determine the relationship in one thing over another with things such as weight, performance, or time. This type of research is either descriptive, which establishes associations between two variables, or experimental which establishes causality.

Quantitative Research(conti:)

• In this researcher gathers information from the subjects by means of surveys and questionnaires, and once the data is collected it is analyzed using statistical methods, such as correlations, relative frequencies, or differences between means

Qualitative and Quantitative

• Qualitative research aims to gather a more inclusive understanding as to a particular behavior and the reasons as to why such behavior exists.

• Quantitative research aims to determine the relationship between one thing and another.

Mixed Research

• Mixed research combines qualitative and quantitative research into one single study. In this sense both qualitative and quantitative research methods, techniques. The mixed research method involves using figures and wording, and statistics and wording for analyzing information that is collected.

Mixed Research(conti:)

• Also, researchers that employ this type of method will be presented with multiple types of reports so that a more sensible conclusion can be made regarding the project at hand

Action Research(conti:)

• In other words, identifying and testing certain actions and certain outcomes regarding a particular process in order to make improvements is the intention of the researcher who utilizes this method.

Mixed and action

• Mixed research comes into play when the aim is to use a mixture of research methods to come to a comprehensive conclusion on the subject at hand. And last,

• Action research is used when a problem exists with a process and improvements need continually be made to advance the process.

Selection of research method

• research method depend on what the researcher is looking to achieve from the results of the research

• The researcher will need to investigate the topic at hand in order to come to a conclusion on which of these research methods to use.

Steps of research,:

• Observations and Formation of the topic: • Hypothesis: A testable prediction that can be tested by further

investigation • Gathering of data: Consists of identifying a population and

selecting samples, gathering information from and/or about these samples by using specific research instruments. The instruments used for data collection must be valid and reliable.

• Analysis of data: Involves breaking down the individual pieces of data in order to draw conclusions about it.

• Data Interpretation: This can be represented through tables, figures and pictures, and then described in words.

• Conclusion

Goal of research

• The goal of the research process is to produce new knowledge or deepen understanding of a topic or issue.

Choosing research topic

• For a choosing a topic for a project, it is important to consider a broad area of but it should be an area that is of interest to the researcher. However, a broad area is useful only at the beginning of a research plan. Within a broader topic of inquiry, each researcher must begin narrowing the field into a few subtopics that are of greater specificity and detail.

Choosing research topic(cont:)

• For students, previous classes, current events in society, and course material are often the source of research ideas. Academic journals, Pubmed and Google Scholar are also good starting places. Lastly, many research ideas are generated through dialogue—by talking with professors, fellow students and family.

Choosing research topic(cont:)

• Select more than one topic that interest you, then, go to conduct a preliminary search of each topic. Determine which project idea can be supported with plenty of published material. This way, you will be able to select a final topic that is both interesting and feasible.

Choosing research topic(cont:)

• Take note of the types of sources that appear for each topic. Including articles, books, and encyclopedia references. Don’t select a topic that doesn’t appear in books and articles, as well as on web sites.

Choosing research topic(cont:)

• According to Cliff Davidson and Susan Ambrose of Carnegie Mellon University

"The most successful research topics are narrowly focused and carefully defined, but are important parts of a broad-ranging, complex problem."

Choosing research topic(cont:)• Robert Smith, in his book Graduate Research: lists 11 points to consider in finding

and developing a research topic:• 1. Can it be enthusiastically pursued?• 2. Can interest be sustained by it?• 3. Is the problem solvable?• 4. Is it worth doing?• 5. Will it lead to other research problems?• 6. Is it manageable in size?• 7. What is the potential for making an original contribution to the literature in the

field?• 8. If the problem is solved, will the results be reviewed well by scholars in your

field?• 9. Are you, or will you become, competent to solve it?• 10. By solving it, will you have demonstrated independent skills in your discipline?• 11. Will the necessary research prepare you in an area of demand or promise for

the future?

Choosing research topic(cont:)

• In short, always, take a few steps in the beginning to make sure that your topic will be relatively easy to research over the days and weeks to come. You don’t want to invest too much time and emotion in a project that will only lead to frustration in the end.

Literature Review

• One essential task when undertaking a research study is to review the existing literature on the topic and use it to inform the construction of your own study. The literature review should be conducted early in the research process, directly after you choose a topic. A literature review can bring clarity and focus to your research problem and broaden your knowledge base in your research area. In addition, past studies can improve your methodology and help you to contextualize your findings.

Literature Review(conti:)

• The literature review is crucial because an important responsibility in research is to add to a body of knowledge and to compare your findings with others. The procedure is simple: search the literature in your area of interest, review the selected studies, and develop a theoretical framework for your own study.

What makes a good research question?

• Not all research questions are good ones—in other words, not all questions can be answered through qualitative and quantitative research methodology. A good research question needs to:

Good question (cont:)

• “Make sense”: In other words, you must clearly define your terms using known definitions outlined in the literature. For example, a poor research question would be: How do people’s lives improve after surgery? Not only does this research question fail to specify the study population, it contains the vague term “improve”. The researcher must specify research question what he/she means by this.

Good question (cont:)

• Address an important and relevant issue: question must have some beneficial implications. With this in mind, the researcher may continue narrowing the study focus to an area that can be addressed as a single question. For example, “proper eye care and how it affects individuals,” the topic can be further focused to be about “basic eye care and how it affects individual work productivity.” A good research question will also always have relevance to the time, place, and population of the study. For example, a study of Vitamin A deficiency in Southern India would be a poor choice as this is not a particularly significant problem in the area.

Good question (cont:)

• Not already have been done: There will be some new aspect of the study that has never before been examined. However, this does not mean that you should avoid replicating past research. In fact, not only is replication a good way to get a research methodology, it is how science is supposed to advance knowledge. When replicating a pervious study, it is best to add or change one or two things to increase the novelty of the research.

Good question (cont:)

• Be “operationalizable”: Oftentimes, beginning researchers pose questions that cannot be operationalized, or assessed methodologically with research instruments. From the example above, the idea of life improvement could be operationalized by a Quality of Life survey—a well known and validated research tool. In general, the more abstract the idea, the harder it is to operationalize.

Good question (cont:)

• Be within a reasonable scope: A good research project will be manageable in depth and breadth. The scope will depend on the amount of time and the availability of resources you have for your study. In general, the more focused the research question the more likely it will be a successful project. For example, a study that seeks to identify the prevalence eye disease in a specific village is more likely to succeed than a comparable study that seeks to identify eye disease prevalence in the world population.

Choosing topic(conti:)

• In short you must consider Time, money, feasibility, ethics and availability to measure the phenomenon correctly are examples of issues constraining the research.

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Hypothesis

• A hypothesis is a suggested explanation for an observed relationship or a causal prediction about a relationship among several variables. Every research project is based on a hypothesis, which generally begins with a specific question.

Hypothesis (cont:)

• When formulating a hypothesis, it is important not to try to “prove” that the hypothesis is true. Instead, one should seek to find evidence that it is not true. In other words, one can never accept a hypothesis; instead one fails to reject the null (posited) hypothesis. This is especially important when using statistics such as t-tests and p-values to determine significance.

•

null hypothesis

• It refers to a general or default position: that there is no relationship between two measured phenomena, or that a potential medical treatment has no effect. Rejecting or disproving the null hypothesis – and thus concluding that there are grounds for believing that there is a relationship between two phenomena.

Research method

• . A procedure to help you find the required data to draw conclusion or make some predictable results on similar types of experiments.

Research method(conti:)

• In other words, research method is a way of collecting inputs and finding the outputs, to conduct your research successfully

Types and Methods of Research

• There are four basic research methods. They are experiments, questionnaires or surveys, interviews and observation to get new data or expand on existing data.

Qualitative research methods

• Interviews• Interviews enable face to face discussion with human

subjects. If you are going to use interviews you will have to decide whether you will take notes (distracting), tape the interview (accurate but time consuming) rely on your memory (foolish) or write in their answers (can lead to closed questioning for time’s sake). If you decide to interview you will need to draw up an interview schedule of questions which can be either closed or open questions, or a mixture of these.

Qualitative research methods(cont

• Closed questions tend to be used for asking for and receiving answers about fixed facts such as name, numbers, and so on. They do not require speculation and they tend to produce short answers.

• With closed questions you could even give your interviewees a small selection of possible answers from which to choose. If you do this you will be able to manage the data and quantify the responses quite easily.

• The problem with closed questions is that they limit the response the interviewee can give and do not enable them to think deeply or test their real feelings or values.

Research methods in brief:

• If you ask open questions such as ‘what do you think about the increase in traffic?’ you could elicit an almost endless number of responses. This would give you a very good idea of the variety of ideas and feelings people have, it would enable them to think and talk for longer and so show their feelings and views more fully. But it is very difficult to quantify these results.

• You will find that you will need to read all the comments through and to categorise them after you have received them, or merely report them in their diversity and make general statements, or pick out particular comments if they seem to fit your purpose. If you decide to use interviews: • Identify your sample.

• Draw up a set of questions that seem appropriate to what you need to find out.

• Do start with some basic closed questions (name etc.).

• Don't ask leading questions. • Try them out with a colleague . • Pilot them, then refine the questions so that

they are genuinely engaged with your research object.

• Contact your interviewees and ask permission, explain the interview and its use. • Carry out interviews and keep notes/tape. • Transcribe. • Thematically analyse results and relate

these findings to others from your other research methods.

Quantitative research methods:

• Questionnaires are a good way to obtain information from a large number of people and/or people who may not have the time to attend an interview or take part in experiments. They enable people to take their time, think about it and come back to the questionnaire later. Participants can state their views or feelings privately without worrying about the possible reaction of the researcher. Unfortunately, some people may still be inclined to try to give socially acceptable answers. People should be encouraged to answer the questions as honestly as possible so as to avoid the researchers drawing false conclusions from their study.

Quantitative research methods:

• Questionnaires are actually rather difficult to design and because of the frequency of their use in all contexts in the modern world, the response rate is nearly always going to be a problem (low) unless you have ways of making people complete them and hand them in on the spot (and this of course limits your sample, how long the questionnaire can be and the kinds of questions asked).

•As with interviews, you can decide to use closed or open questions, and can also offer respondents multiple choice questions from which to choose the statement which most nearly describes their response to a statement or item.

• You need to take expert advice in setting up a questionnaire, ensure that all the information about the respondents which you need is included and filled in, and ensure that you actually get them returned

• Drawing up a really lengthy questionnaire will also inhibit response rates. You will need to ensure that questions are clear, and that you have reliable ways of collecting and managing the data. Setting up a questionnaire that can be read by an optical mark reader is an excellent idea if you wish to collect large numbers of responses and analyze them statistically rather than reading each questionnaire and entering data manually.

• You would find it useful to consult the range of full and excellent research books available. These will deal in much greater depth with the reasons for, processes of holding, and processes of analyzing data from the variety of research methods available to you.

• Developing and using a questionnaire - some tips • Identify your research questions • Identify your sample

• Draw up a list of appropriate questions and try them out with a colleague

• Ensure questions are well laid out and it is clear how to 'score them' (tick, circle, delete)

• Ensure questions are not leading and confusing • Code up the questionnaire so you can analyze it

afterwards • Gain permission to use questionnaires from your

sample

• Ensure they put their names or numbers on so you can identify them but keep real names confidential

• Ensure you collect in as many as possible • Follow up if you get a small return • Analyze statistically if possible and / or

thematically

Research designs

• Some studies are just based on one group (within-group design). The researchers might be interested in observing people’s reactions or behavior before and after a certain intervention. However, in most cases, there are at least two groups (a between-subjects design). One of the groups serves as a control group and is not exposed to the intervention. This is quite similar to the procedure in clinical trials whereby one group does not receive the experimental drug. This enables researchers to compare the two groups and determine the impact of the intervention.

Surveys

• Collection of information, from large groups, by means of questionnaires, interviews or by telephone. There are different types of survey. The most straightforward type (the “one shot survey”) is administered to a sample of people at a set point in time. Another type is the “before and after survey” which people complete before a major event or experience and then again afterwards.

Questionnaires

• Questionnaires are a good way to obtain information from a large number of people and/or people who may not have the time to attend an interview or take part in experiments. They enable people to take their time, think about it and come back to the questionnaire later. Participants can state their views or feelings privately without worrying about the possible reaction of the researcher. Unfortunately, some people may still be inclined to try to give socially acceptable answers. People should be encouraged to answer the questions as honestly as possible so as to avoid the researchers drawing false conclusions from their study.

Questionnaire (cont:)

• Questionnaires contain multiple choice questions, attitude scales, closed questions and open-ended questions. The drawback for researchers is that they usually have a fairly low response rate and people do not always answer all the questions and/or do not answer them correctly. Researchers may even decide to administer the questionnaire in person which has the advantage of including people who have difficulties reading and writing. In this case, the participant may feel that s/he is taking part in an interview rather than completing a questionnaire as the researcher will be noting down the responses on his/her behalf.

Interviews

• Interviews are usually carried out face-to-face but can also be administered by telephone or using more advance computer technology such as Skype. Sometimes they are held in the interviewee’s home, sometimes at a more neutral place. It is important for interviewees to decide whether they are comfortable about inviting the researcher into their home and whether they have a room or area where they can speak freely without disturbing other members of the household.

Interviews (cont:)

• The interviewer (which is not necessarily the researcher) could adopt a formal or informal approach, either letting the interviewee speak freely about a particular issue or asking specific pre-determined questions. This will have been decided in advance and depend on the approach used by the researchers. A semi-structured approach would enable the interviewee to speak relatively freely, at the same time allowing the researcher to ensure that certain issues were covered.

Interviews (cont:)

• When conducting the interview, the researcher might have a check list or a form to record answers. This might even take the form of a questionnaire. Taking notes can interfere with the flow of the conversation, particularly in less structured interviews. Also, it is difficult to pay attention to every word and to remember everything that was said and the way it was said. Consequently, it can be helpful for the researchers to have recorded the interview by audio or video recording with permission before recording an interview.

Observational Research Methods

• Observational research is a group of different research methods where researchers try to observe a phenomenon without interfering too much.

• , Case study is an example of observational research methods are probably the furthest removed from the established scientific method.

• Observational research often has no clearly defined research problem, and questions may arise during the course of the study. Read more:

Case studies(cont:)

• Case studies usually involve the detailed study of a particular case (a person or small group). Various methods of data collection and analysis are used but this typically includes observation and interviews and may involve consulting other people and personal or public records. The researchers may be interested in a particular phenomenon (e.g. coping with a diagnosis or a move into residential care) and select one or more individuals in the respective situation on whom to base their case study/studies. Case studies have a very narrow focus which results in detailed descriptive data which is unique to the case(s) studied. Nevertheless, it can be useful in clinical settings and may even challenge existing theories and practices in other domains.

Data collection Instrumentation• Instrumentation refers to the tools or means by which investigators attempt

to measure variables or items of interest in the data-collection process. It is related not only to instrument design, selection, construction, and assessment, but also the to conditions under which the designated instruments are administered—the instrument is the device used by investigators for collecting data. In addition, during the process of data collection, investigators might fail to recognize that changes in the calibration of the measuring instrument(s) can lead to biased results. Therefore, instrumentation is also a specific term with respect to a threat to internal validity in research. This entry discusses instrumentation in relation to the data-collection process, internal validity, and research designs. Instrumentation is the use of, or work completed by, planned instruments. In a research effort, it is the responsibility of an investigator to describe thoroughly the instrument used to measure the dependent variable(s), outcome(s), or ...

Data collection Instrument

• Instrument is the generic term that researchers use for a measurement device (survey, test, questionnaire, etc.). To help distinguish between instrument and instrumentation, consider that the instrument is the device and instrumentation is the course of action (the process of developing, testing, and using the device).

Conclusion

• In an ideal world, experimental research methods would be used for every type of research, fulfilling all of the requirements of falsifiability and generalization.

• However, ethics, time and budget are major factors, so any experimental design must make compromises. As long as a researcher recognizes and evaluates flaws in the design when choosing from different research methods, any of the scientific research methods are valid contributors to scientific knowledge.

Research reports

• In scientific research reports, problem is defined, a hypothesis is created, experiments are devised to test the hypothesis, experiments are conducted, and conclusions are drawn. This framework is consistent with the following organization of a research report:

Research reports(cont:)

• Title• Abstract• Introduction• Experimental Details or Theoretical Analysis• Results• Discussion

research proposal

Describes the ideas for an investigation on a topic. It outlines the process from beginning to end.

Research proposal (cont:)

• Its a technical proposal, or we can say that Statement of Work and a persuasive document. 1. Project proposal Identify what work is to be done and why this work needs to be done 2. Its main aim to convince the reader that you are qualified for the work

Research proposal (cont:)

• A research proposal is intended to convince others that you have a worthwhile research project and that you have the competence and the work-plan to complete it. Generally, a research proposal should contain all the key elements involved in the research process and include sufficient information for the readers to evaluate the proposed study.

Research proposal (cont:)

• Regardless of your research area and the methodology you choose, all research proposals must address the following questions: What you plan to accomplish, why you want to do it and how you are going to do it.

Research synopsis

Research synopsisis defined as brief summary or review of a subject

Or it is the plan for research project. It provides the rationale for the research, the research objectives, the proposed methods for data collection and recording formats and/or questionnaires and interview guides.

Research synopsis(cont:)

• The synopsis is based on the information provided by the supervisor(s) and by secondary sources of information. In the final report you will present the results of your data collection and elaboration, with the discussion and the conclusion.

Research synopsis(cont:)

• The full synopsis should be maximum 3-4,000 words, excluding appendices.Title*Abstract*Introduction*Problem analysis/literature review*Objectives*Hypotheses*Limitations*Methodology and methods*Results Discussion ConclusionReferences*Appendix A Research matrix*

Research synopsis(cont:)

• Appendix B Data collection instruments (e.g., interview guide, questionnaire)*Items marked by an asterisk are to be included in the synopsis, while items without asterisk are mentioned here only because they will be added in the final report of you research project

Research synopsis(cont:)

• There is no conclusion and discussion in synopsis.its part of thesis.

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