CPIS 694 – RESEARCH METHODS

FALL 2020

Introduction to Research Principles,

Process and Methods
Edited by Dr. Hind Bitar and Dr. Osama Rabie
Originality: Prof. Hanene Ben-Abdallah + Dr. Muazzam Siddiqui
 INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH PRINCIPLES,
PROCESS AND METHODS

• Instructor
• Osama Rabie
• [email protected]
• Cybersecurity and Markov
 COURSE DESCRIPTION

• The course covers the different stages in the research process from
problem formulation to results discussion. It helps the students in
conducting research and writing proposal/thesis/dissertation/ and research
papers. It introduces to the students the importance of scientific research
and the ethics in conducting a scientific inquiry. The topics include problem
formulation, conducting the literature review, identification of research
questions, formulating the research hypothesis, hypothesis testing and
results discussion.
 LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Explain research terminology and basic concepts of research and its methodologies
• Formulate a research problem
• Identify and apply an appropriate research method to solve a problem
• Conduct literature review on a given scientific topic
• Critically analyze published research
• Demonstrate research skills by investigating selected research topics of the student’s interest.
• Write a research proposal on a selected research problem
• Effectively communicate the research outcome through papers and presentations
• Identify the ethical principles of research, ethical challenges and approval processes
ASSESSMENT METHODS
 BOOKS

• Briony J Oates, “Researching Information Systems and Computing”, SAGE

publications, 2006
• John W Creswell, J. David Creswell, “Research Design: Qualitative,
Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches”, 5th edition, SAGE
Publications, Inc; Fifth edition (January 2, 2018), ISBN-13: 978-1506386706
• Hevner, A., & Chatterjee, S. (2010). Design science research in information
systems. In Design research in information systems (pp. 9-22). Springer, Boston, MA.
 BOOKS

• Enacting Research Methods in Information Systems:

Volume 1
• Enacting Research Methods in Information Systems:
Volume 2
• Enacting Research Methods in Information Systems:
Volume 3
 CLOS

•By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

1. Define the scientific methods in research
2. Explain the research characteristics
3. Explain the research life cycles
4. Write research questions
 RESEARCH – WHY?

• New knowledge
• Science – To understand nature
• Research on human behavior and understanding psychology, social aspects,
statistical data
• Product development
• Autonomous vehicles, Smart phones, …
 RESEARCH – WHAT?

• Search for new knowledge

• A scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic
• An organized scientific investigation to solve problems, test hypotheses, develop
or invent new products
 RESEARCH – APPROACH

•Search and Re-search;

•Listen => Talk;
•Read => Write (it’s your right to write)
•Practice and Knowledge.
RESEARCH – SCIENTIFIC METHOD
 RESEARCH – SCIENTIFIC METHOD

• Observation
• A general problem area (research topic) is defined
• Then pertinent observations are made via literature review, discussions and experiments
• Problem Definition
• From the observations, specific questions are asked
• And the problem to be addressed is defined
• Hypothesis Generation
• From the questions asked, researcher makes a specific guess or provide an idea about what is going on.
• Objectives are defined
• Appropriates methods are selected for testing
 RESEARCH – SCIENTIFIC METHOD

• Testing
• Hypothesis is tested through experiment
• Data are collected, analyzed and interpreted
• Research Evidence
• Hypothesis accepted/rejected or modified
• Conclusion is made
 PURPOSES OF RESEARCH

• Descriptive research: It attempts to describe systematically a situation,

problem, phenomenon, service or program, or provides information about,
say, living condition of a community, or describes attitudes towards an issue.

• Explanatory research: It attempts to clarify why and how there is a

relationship between two or more aspects of a situation or phenomenon.

• Exploratory research: It is undertaken to explore an area where little is

known or to investigate the possibilities of undertaking a particular research
study
RESEARCH AND RESEARCH METHODS
 RESEARCH CHARACTERISTICS

• Systematic
• Work in a sequence of steps which were in order and thus systematic
• Order: Observation, Problem Definition, Hypothesis,Testing, Conclusion

• Follows a scientific method of enquiry

• Researcher should not just jump at the conclusions,
• But used a scientific method of enquiry in reaching conclusion
 RESEARCH CHARACTERISTICS- HIGH QUALITY

• It is based on the work of others

• It can be replicated (duplicated)
• It is generalizable to other settings
• It is based on some logical rationale and tied to theory
• It is doable!
• It generates new questions or is cyclical in nature
• It is an activity that should be undertaken for the betterment of
society
RESEARCH PROJECT LIFE
CYCLE
RESEARCH ETHICS
 RESEARCH PROBLEM

• How to choose a research problem?

• Theoretical importance
• Testing existing theories
• Creating new theory
• Empirical experimentation: new observations
• Social and practical importance
• Research related to surroundings
• Technical, social, economic impact
 RESEARCH PROBLEM

• Researchability of the problem

• Important problems or easy problems?
• Personal interest
• Research for fun
• Research is creative work and routines
• Good motivation
• Objectivity still exists
STEPS TO FIND A RESEARCH PROBLEM
 REFINEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

• Extensive literature review

• How the research problem defined earlier?
• What has been done before?
• Which way to continue?
• A new viewpoint to a well-established problem?
• Concurrent research
• Someone else is working on the same topic
• Competition or cooperation?
• Discuss with other researchers or cooperators
• Refinement of target groups
• Focusing on single (simple) research problems
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• Research questions guide the researcher

• Question challenges
• Practical: no research possible, explanation of current operation
• General: impossible to answer
• Easy: results obvious
• Personal interest: broader interest?
• Solutions for practical questions
• Define questions starting with how? why? what?
• List the assumptions
• Make a model of a current system
• Generate hypothesis
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• Solution for general questions

• Generate more specific questions
• Consider details of a general question
• What can be detailed?
• Solution for easy questions
• Consider more challenging questions
• More information as result
• Deeper understanding of the phenomena
• What happened there? New: What was the reason for actions?
• Solution for personal interest
• Broader viewpoint to the question: read literature
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• One research task, one research question

• More detailed questions
• Derived from the main research question
• Research questions lead to hypothesis
• Claim that will be verified, what you want to show?
• Hypothesis specific, independent and dependent variables
• Limited in space and time
• One sentence long
 EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• Why some Facebook users update their status more than others?

• How can IS/IT enhance and maintain women’s self-efficacy to educate

themselves about HPV?

• What is the current status of the usage and implementation of eHealth,

telemedicine, and/or telehealth for chronic disease patients during
COVID-19 pandemic?
 RESEARCH EXAMPLE

• Observation:
• Lack of knowledge about HPV among Saudi women
• Literature Review:
• HPV and cervical cancer
• HPV lack of knowledge and Arabic material
• Theoretical foundation: HPV facts transmission model, including barriers and resources
factors
• The IT role in increasing knowledge about HPV
• Problem Definition:
• The lack of transmission of HPV facts
• To narrow down the research scope: research focused on enhance and maintain women’s
self-efficacy to educate themselves about HPV
 RESEARCH EXAMPLE

• Hypothesis Generation:
• Using SMS text messaging could enhance and maintain women’s self-efficacy to educate themselves about HPV
• Independent variable: SMS text messaging
• Dependent variable: women’s self-efficacy

• Hypothesis Testing:
• Compute the correlation between the two variables
• Determine if there the result is statistically significant using t-test
 RESEARCH EXAMPLE: EVIDENCE

• After conducted the paired samples t-test for all the participants,
the result showed 2-tailed significance at the 0.0001 level, which is
lower than the specified p-value of 0.05.
• Therefore, there is a statistically significant difference in self-efficacy
before and after using the 2-way interactive SMS messaging system.
• There is evidence of causality between the IT artifact, using the ET
and the HPVWA flowchart, and the outcome of the participants’
self-efficacy.
• The null hypothesis was rejected that the two variables have no
relationship
• Yoda, L. U., Nahl, D., & Crosby, M. E. (2013, January). Stage-based
mHealth communication interventions for HPV education. In System
Sciences (HICSS), 2013 46th Hawaii International Conference on (pp.
2715-2724). IEEE.