Pre-empt any major critiques of your approach and demonstrate that you made the research as rigorous as possible.
Methodology refers to the overarching strategy and rationale of your research project. It involves studying the methods used in your field and the theories or principles behind them, in order to develop an approach that matches your objectives.
Methods are the specific tools and procedures you use to collect and analyze data for example, experiments, surveys , and statistical tests. In shorter scientific papers, where the aim is to report the findings of a specific study, you might simply describe what you did in a methods section. In a longer or more complex research project, such as a thesis or dissertation , you will probably include a methodology section , where you explain your approach to answering the research questions and cite relevant sources to support your choice of methods.
In a scientific paper, the methodology always comes after the introduction and before the results , discussion and conclusion. The same basic structure also applies to a thesis, dissertation , or research proposal.
Depending on the length and type of document, you might also include a literature review or theoretical framework before the methodology. Quantitative research deals with numbers and statistics, while qualitative research deals with words and meanings. Quantitative methods allow you to systematically measure variables and test hypotheses.
Qualitative methods allow you to explore concepts and experiences in more detail. Reliability and validity are both about how well a method measures something:. If you are doing experimental research, you also have to consider the internal and external validity of your experiment.
A sample is a subset of individuals from a larger population. Sampling means selecting the group that you will actually collect data from in your research. For example, if you are researching the opinions of students in your university, you could survey a sample of students. In statistics, sampling allows you to test a hypothesis about the characteristics of a population. Have a language expert improve your writing. Check your paper for plagiarism in 10 minutes.
Do not ignore these problems or pretend they did not occur. Often, documenting how you overcame obstacles can form an interesting part of the methodology. It demonstrates to the reader that you can provide a cogent rationale for the decisions you made to minimize the impact of any problems that arose. Literature Review Just as the literature review section of your paper provides an overview of sources you have examined while researching a particular topic, the methodology section should cite any sources that informed your choice and application of a particular method [i.
A description of a research study's method should not be confused with a description of the sources of information. Such a list of sources is useful in and of itself, especially if it is accompanied by an explanation about the selection and use of the sources.
The description of the project's methodology complements a list of sources in that it sets forth the organization and interpretation of information emanating from those sources. Azevedo, L. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers , pp. Structuring Your Research Thesis. Methods Section. Writing Center. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications, , pp. Purdue University; Methods and Materials.
Department of Biology. Bates College. Statistical Designs and Tests? Do Not Fear Them! Don't avoid using a quantitative approach to analyzing your research problem just because you fear the idea of applying statistical designs and tests.
A qualitative approach, such as conducting interviews or content analysis of archival texts, can yield exciting new insights about a research problem, but it should not be undertaken simply because you have a disdain for running a simple regression.
A well designed quantitative research study can often be accomplished in very clear and direct ways, whereas, a similar study of a qualitative nature usually requires considerable time to analyze large volumes of data and a tremendous burden to create new paths for analysis where previously no path associated with your research problem had existed.
Knowing the Relationship Between Theories and Methods. There can be multiple meaning associated with the term "theories" and the term "methods" in social sciences research. A helpful way to delineate between them is to understand "theories" as representing different ways of characterizing the social world when you research it and "methods" as representing different ways of generating and analyzing data about that social world.
Framed in this way, all empirical social sciences research involves theories and methods, whether they are stated explicitly or not.
However, while theories and methods are often related, it is important that, as a researcher, you deliberately separate them in order to avoid your theories playing a disproportionate role in shaping what outcomes your chosen methods produce. Introspectively engage in an ongoing dialectic between the application of theories and methods to help enable you to use the outcomes from your methods to interrogate and develop new theories, or ways of framing conceptually the research problem.
This is how scholarship grows and branches out into new intellectual territory. Reynolds, R. Ways of Knowing. Alternative Microeconomics. Part 1, Chapter 3. S-Cool Revision. United Kingdom. Methods and the Methodology. Readers, academics and other researchers need to know how the information used in your academic article was collected. The research methods used for collecting or generating data will influence the discoveries and, by extension, how you will interpret them and explain their contribution to general knowledge.
This type of data is already available, in different forms, from a variety of sources. External secondary data research — represents a study that uses existing data on a certain research subject from government statistics, published market research reports from different organizations, international agencies such as IMF, World Bank, etc.
Primary data Primary data represent data originated for the specific purpose of the study, with its research questions. The methods vary on how Authors and Researchers conduct an experiment, survey or study, but, in general, it uses a particular scientific method.
This type of study uses deductive reasoning and established theories as a foundation for the hypotheses that will be tested and explained. Qualitative research or interpretative research focuses on analytically disclosing certain practices or behaviors, and then showing how these behaviors or practices can be grouped or clustered to lead to observable outcomes.
This type of research is more subjective in nature, and requires careful interpretation of the variables. Readers need to understand how the information was gathered or generated in a way that is consistent with research practices in a field of study. For instance, if you are using a multiple choice survey, the readers need to know which questionnaire items you have examined in your primary quantitative research.
Briefly discuss the weaknesses or criticisms of the methods you've chosen, then explain how those are irrelevant or inapplicable to your particular research. State whether you actually encountered any of these common problems during your research. Describe how you overcame obstacles. Overcoming obstacles in your research can be one of the most important parts of your methodology.
Your problem-solving abilities can enhance your readers' confidence in the results of your study. Evaluate other methods you could have used. Particularly if you're using a method that seems unusual for your particular subject matter, include a discussion of other methods that are more typically used for your type of research. Explain why you chose not to use them. For example, there may be multiple papers providing quantitative analysis of a particular social trend.
However, none of these papers looked closely at how this trend was affecting the lives of people. Part 3. Describe how you analyzed your results. Your analysis generally depends on whether your approach is qualitative, quantitative, or a mixture of the two. If you're using a quantitative approach, you may be using statistical analysis. With a qualitative approach, state what theoretical perspective or philosophy you're using.
For example, you might do a statistical analysis, and then interpret those statistics through a particular theoretical lens. Explain how your analysis suits your research goals. Ultimately, your overall methodology should be capable of producing answers to your research questions. If it isn't well-suited, you need to either adjust your methodology or reframe your research question. While you could do interviews of college-educated people who grew up on a family farm, that would not give you a picture of the overall effect.
A quantitative approach and statistical analysis would give you a bigger picture. Identify how your analysis answers your research questions. Relate your methodology back to your original research questions and present a proposed outcome based on your analysis.
Describe specifically what your findings will reveal about your research questions. You can also include here any limitations to your methods, or questions that weren't answered through your research. Assess whether your findings can be transferred or generalized.
You may be able to transfer your findings to other contexts, or generalize them to broader populations. Transferability can be difficult in social science research, particularly if you used a qualitative approach. If you have a well-designed sample, you can statistically apply your results to the larger population your sample belongs to. Common examples are qualitative video analysis, photography analysis, qualitative interviews, group discussions, discourse analysis and biographical research.
You might also look into the topic of triangulation; that is, combining two or more methods. Not Helpful 7 Helpful There is no perfect questionnaire design that can be used across topics. Besides the usual conventions on good research, the ideal way questions are structured and the way they can be answered depends on what you are trying to find out and the conventions of your specific field.
Psychological research guidelines will be different than social work research guidelines, which will be different than market research guidelines. It depends on many factors that this just is not the platform too address.
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