What is research methodology?

What is research methodology? image

What is a research methodology?

When you’re working on your first piece of academic research, there are many different things to focus
on and it can be overwhelming to stay on top of everything. This is especially true of budding or
inexperienced researchers.

If you’ve never put together a research proposal before or find yourself in a position where you need to
explain your research methodology decisions, there are a few things you need to be aware of.

Once you understand the in's and out's, handling academic research in the future will be less
intimidating. We break down the basics below:

The basics of a research methodology

A research methodology encompasses the way in which you intend to carry out your research. This
includes how you plan to tackle things like collection methods, statistical analysis, participant
observations, and more.

You can think of your research methodology as being a formula. One part will be how you plan on
putting your research into practice and another will be why you feel this is the best way to approach it.
Your research methodology is ultimately a methodological and systematic plan to resolve your research
problem.

In short, you are explaining how you will take your idea and turn it into a study, which in turn will
produce valid and reliable results that are in accordance with the aims and objectives of your research.
This is true whether your paper plans to make use of qualitative methods or quantitative methods.

Why do you need a research methodology?

The purpose of a research methodology is to explain the reasoning behind your approach to your
research - you'll need to support your collection methods, methods of analysis, and other key points of
your work.

Think of it like writing a plan or an outline for you what you intend to do.

When carrying out research, it can be easy to go off-track or depart from your standard methodology.

Having a methodology keeps you accountable and on track with your original aims and objectives, and
gives you a suitable and sound plan to keep your project manageable, smooth, and effective.

What needs to be included?

With all that said, how do you write out your standard approach to a research methodology?

As a general plan, your methodology should include the following information:

Your research method. You need to state whether you plan to use quantitative analysis, qualitative
analysis, or mixed-method research method. This will often be determined by what you hope to achieve
with your research.

Explain your reasoning. Why are you taking this methodological approach? Why is this particular
methodology the best way to answer your research problem and achieve your objectives?

Explain your instruments. This will mainly be about your collection methods. There are varying
instruments to use such as interviews, physical surveys, questionnaires, for example. Your methodology
will need to detail your reasoning in choosing a particular instrument for your research.

What will you do with your results? How are you going to analyze the data once you have gathered it?

Advise your reader. If there is anything in your research methodology that your reader might be
unfamiliar with, you should explain it in more detail. For example, you should give any background
information to your methods that might be relevant or provide your reasoning if you are conducting your
research in a non-standard way.

How will your sampling process go? What will your sampling procedure be and why? For example, if
you will collect data through carrying out semi-structured or unstructured interviews, how will you
choose your interviewees and how will you conduct the interviews themselves?

Any practical limitations? You should discuss any limitations you foresee being an issue when you’re
carrying out your research.

Why do you need to document your research method?

In any dissertation, thesis, or academic journal, you will always find a chapter dedicated to explaining the
research methodology of the person who carried out the study, also referred to as the methodology
sections of the work.

A good research methodology will explain what you are going to do and why, while a poor methodology
will lead to a messy or disorganized approach.

You should also be able to justify in this section your reasoning for why you intend on carrying out your
research in a particular way, especially if it might be a particularly unique method.

Having a sound methodology in place can also help you in the following scenarios:

If another researcher at a later date wishes to try and replicate your research.

In the event you receive any criticism or questioning on the research you carried out at a later point,
you will be able to refer back to it and succinctly explain the how and why of your approach.

It provides you with a plan to follow throughout your research. When you are drafting your
methodology approach, you need to be sure that the method you are using is the right one for your goal.
This will help you with both explaining and understanding your method.

It affords you the opportunity to document from the outset what you intend to achieve with your
research, from start to finish.

What are the different types of research instruments?

A research instrument is a tool you will use to help you collect, measure and analyze the data you use as
part of your research.

The choice of research instrument will usually be yours to make as the researcher and will be whichever
best suits your methodology.

There are many different research instruments you can use in collecting data for your research.

Generally, they can be grouped as follows:

Interviews (either as a group or one-on-one). You can carry out interviews in many different ways. For
example, your interview can be structured, semi-structured, or unstructured. The difference between
them is how formal the set of questions is that is asked of the interviewee. In a group interview, you may
choose to ask the interviewees to give you their opinions or perceptions on certain topics.

Surveys (online or in-person). In survey research, you are posing questions in which you ask for a
response from the person taking the survey. You may wish to have either free-answer questions such as
essay style questions, or you may wish to use closed questions such as multiple choice. You may even
wish to make the survey a mixture of both.

Focus Groups. Similar to the group interview above, you may wish to ask a focus group to discuss a
particular topic or opinion while you make a note of the answers given.

Observations. This is a good research instrument to use if you are looking into human behaviors.
Different ways of researching this include studying the spontaneous behavior of participants in their
everyday life, or something more structured. A structured observation is research conducted at a set
time and place where researchers observe behavior as planned and agreed upon with participants.

These are the most common ways of carrying out research, but it is really dependent on your needs as a
researcher and what approach you think is best to take.

It is also possible to combine a number of research instruments if this is necessary and appropriate in
answering your research problem.