RESEARCH METHODS

Hendry NG
 What is research ?
Definition:

“Systematic investigation towards increasing the sum of

knowledge”

Cambers 20th Century Dictionary

“an endeavor to discover new or collate old facts etc. by the

scientific study of a subject or by a course of critical
investigation”

The Concise Oxford Dictionary

 Research Skills
Basic steps:

3. Define your problem or question

5. Decide what sources of information you can use (make a list)

7. Locate your sources

9. Start reading, printing, taking notes

11. Organize all the data you have and write your paper or complete your
assignment

13. Evaluate how well you did. What could you do differently next time ?
 Research process
1. Define your topic (key concepts)

3. Find background information (overview / definitions)

5. Develop a research strategy

7. Locate & retrieve the information (tools / resources)

9. Evaluate the information

11. Organize and present your information, correctly cited

Step 1 –
Define your topic (key concepts)

• Formulate your topic into a question

• Breakdown the topic into its main components

• Identify the main concepts and look for keywords

– Eg: topic: Discuss two recent methods for the reward and
retention of employees
Step 2 –
Find background information (overview / definitions)

• Look up your concepts in encyclopaedias / dictionaries

– Find definitions of your terms,
– And help focus or broaden your topic

• Check the bibliographies at the end of articles etc, and note

any useful sources

• Text books are another useful source of background

information
Step 3 –
Develop a research strategy

• Clarify exactly what you need to find

• what kind of assignment is it ?

• how much detailed information do you need ?
• do you need information from a particular type of
publication, eg journal articles, books, newspaper articles?
• how recent does the information need to be ?
Step 4 –
Locate & retrieve the information (tools / resources)

• Identify likely sources (library tools)

• Databases for journal articles

• Reference books for background
• Internet

• Use your research strategy

• Keywords
• Synonyms (words with similar meanings)
• Subject / thesaurus terms (descriptors)
Step 4 –
Locate & retrieve the information (tools / resources)

• Keep a record of the full citations for all items found

• Include URLS (Internet sites) and dates you found on the
Web !
Step 5 –
Evaluate the information

Points to consider include –

• Relevance
– Scope (how many areas ?), Scale (how large ?)

• Recency (the latest !)

• Appropriate ?

– Authority
– Accuracy
– bias
 Relevance checklist

Consider the following questions to help you decide if an item is

relevant :

 Does the item give an overview of your topic ?

 Does the item cover one aspect or some aspects of your topic?

 Does the item cover the situation in the country or place that you
are covering ?

 Does the item cover the situation in another country or place ?

Step 6 –
Organize and present your information, correctly cited

• Organize your information

– Write a plan of what you will say

• Write your report / essay

– Use good English ! It gets your point across better

• Correctly cite your sources in the body of your work and create a
references list
 Research Tools
• Subject resources pages & online reference

• Journal databases

– For articles, conference papers, newspapers, etc.

– Remember not all the articles you find will be

available through your library !
 Why do I need to use journals ?

• Journals, serials, periodicals, magazines

– All names for the same type of publication – one that is published on a
regular basis, eg. daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly.

• Important because the information they contain is usually more

current than that provided in books (takes time to publish a book)

• In research, access to current information is very important, so

journals are the most important medium for the publication of new
research and ideas.
 Scholarly journals

• The most appropriate are ‘scholarly’ journals – also

called ‘peer reviewed’

– Main purpose is to report on original research to make

the information available to the rest the scholarly world

– Articles from this type of publication are preferred over

those popular magazines
Scholarly / Academic Journal
Refereed
Includes theory based content,
original research or review of
research on a topic
Uses specialized / technical
language
Specialized audience
Authors listed with author
information included
May include an abstract
Extensive referencing
Source : http://www.wollogong.edu.au
Popular Journal
Not refereed
Usually shorter articles including
current events and news
Non technical language
Wide audience
Author details may not be given
No abstract included
Little or no referencing
 Finding journal articles

• From a Reading list ?

– You may be given journal article references in your reading list, or they may
be provided in the bibliography of a reading.

• Online databases, CDROM, and print

• Indexes, which are

– Citation only
• Title of article, author(s), journal details

• An abstract

• Full text (e-libraries)

– May offer html, text with graphics, and/or Adobe documents (pdf).
Referencing & Bibliographies
Why reference ?

• To acknowledge the source of all ideas which are not common

knowledge

• To give due respect to those whose work has contributed to

your discussion. If not done, you are guilty of plagiarism.

• To set your work into the context of other research

• To allow readers of your work to:

– Read more on the topic
– Check your interpretation
– Replicate your experiments / study
 Plagiarism

• Pretending that the ideas and language of other people are your own

– In your assignments, you imply that all the ideas and language are your
own, unless you specifically state otherwise

– If you fail to make clear that sections of your work are not your own, then
you are guilty of plagiarism

– Also refer to pages 5-6 of ‘Academic Skills Workshop’.

 When to reference

• You need to acknowledge the source of your ideas, when:

– Quoting the exact words of another writer

– Closely summarising a passage from another writer (paragraphing)

– Using an idea or material which is directly based on the work of another

writer

• You need NOT reference any information which is common knowledge.

Examples: famous theories / events such as Darwin’s theory of evolution or
his travels.
 SAMPLES
• Take a close look at an article & identify the following key sections:

– Abstract / synopsis / summary

– Acknowledgement
– Table of contents
– List of illustrations
– Introduction
– Research problem
– Theoretical framework
–
Words
Data collection & Analysis
– count
Synthesis & Recommendations
– In-text citations
– Conclusion Difference between
– References list references &
– Bibliograhies list bibliographies ?
– Appendix / appendices