 What research is and isn‟t

 Classifications of Research
 Research characteristics
 Research projects and pitfalls
 Sources of research projects
 Elements of research proposals
 Literature reviews
 Research is not just information gathering.
A student going to the library and reading
information about Jose Rizal is not research
 Research is not rearranging facts. A
student writing a report on behavior of
pendulums is not research.
 Adding new flavor to a toothpaste still
cannot be considered as a real research
 Research isn‟t information gathering:
› Gathering information from resources such
books or magazines isn‟t research.
› No contribution to new knowledge.

 Research isn‟t the transportation of facts:

› Merely transporting facts from one resource to
another doesn‟t constitute research.
› No contribution to new knowledge although this
might make existing knowledge more
accessible.
 Research :

“…in this age and time means searching for a

theory, for testing a theory or for solving a problem.
(Sevilla et. al. 1992). It means that a problem exists
and has been identified and that a solution to the
problem is necessary.
Kerlinger (1973) defines scientific research as a
“systematic, controlled, empirical and critical
investigation of hypothetical propositions about the
presumed relations among natural phenomena”
Research is being classified based on the
four dimensions:
1. The purpose of doing research;
2. The intended uses of research;
3. How it treats time i.e. the time dimension
in research; and
4. The research (data collection)
techniques used in it.
a. Exploratory/Formulative Research
b. Descriptive Research
c. Explanatory Research
The researcher‟s goal is to formulate more
precise questions that future research can
answer
 Goals of Exploratory Research:
1. Become familiar with the basic facts,
setting, and concerns;
2. Develop well grounded picture of the
situation;
3. Develop tentative theories, generate new ideas,
conjectures, or hypotheses;
4. Determine the feasibility of conducting the study;
5. Formulate questions and refine issues for more
systematic inquiry; and
6. Develop techniques and a sense of direction for
future research.

For exploratory research, the researcher may use

different sources for getting information like (1)
experience surveys, (2) secondary data analysis,
(3) case studies, and (4) pilot studies.
 presents a picture of the specific details
of a situation, social setting, or
relationship.
 as the term implies, is to describe
characteristics of a population or
phenomenon.
 It seeks to determine the answers to who,
what, when, where, and how questions.
Descriptive study offers to the researcher
a profile or description of relevant
aspects of the phenomena of interest.
1. Describe the situation in terms of its characteristics
i.e. provide an accurate profile of a group;
2. Give a verbal or numerical picture (%) of the
situation;
3. Present background information;
4. Create a set of categories or classify the
information;
5. Clarify sequence, set of stages; and
6. Focus on „who,‟ „what,‟ „when,‟ „where,‟ and
„how‟ but not why?
Descriptive researchers use most data –gathering
techniques – surveys, field research, and content
analysis
The desire to know “why,” to explain, is
the purpose of explanatory research.
It builds on exploratory and descriptive
research and goes on to identify the
reasons for something that occurs.
It looks for causes and reasons
1. Explain things not just reporting. Why? Elaborate
and enrich a theory‟s explanation.
2. Determine which of several explanations is best.
3. Determine the accuracy of the theory; test a
theory‟s predictions or principle.
4. Advance knowledge about underlying process.
5. Build and elaborate a theory; elaborate and
enrich a theory‟s predictions or principle.
6. Extend a theory or principle to new areas, new
issues, new topics:
7. Provide evidence to support or refute an
explanation or prediction.
8. Test a theory‟s predictions or principles
a. Basic Research
b. Applied Research
 advances fundamental knowledge about the
human world
 It focuses on refuting or supporting theories that
explain how this world operates, what makes things
happen, why social relations are a certain way,
and why society changes.
 It is the source of most new scientific ideas and
ways of thinking about the world.
 It can be exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory;
however, explanatory research is the most
common.
 It generates new ideas, principles and theories,
which may not be immediately utilized
 Basic research rarely helps practitioners directly with
their everyday concerns.
 Nevertheless, it stimulates new ways of thinking
about deviance that have the potential to
revolutionize and dramatically improve how
practitioners deal with a problem.
 A new idea or fundamental knowledge is not
generated only by basic research. Applied
research, too, can build new knowledge.
 Nonetheless, basic research is essential for
nourishing the expansion of knowledge.
 Researchers at the center of the scientific
community conduct most of the basic research.
 Applied researchers try to solve specific policy
problems or help practitioners accomplish tasks.
 Theory is less central to them than seeking a
solution on a specific problem for a limited setting.
 It is frequently a descriptive research, and its main
strength is its immediate practical use.
 It is conducted when decision must be made
about a specific real-life problem.
 It encompasses those studies undertaken to answer
questions about specific problems or to make
decisions about a particular course of action or
policy.
i. Action research: The applied research that treats
knowledge as a form of power and abolishes the
line between research and social action.
ii. Impact Assessment Research: Its purpose is to
estimate the likely consequences of a planned
change. Such an assessment is used for planning
and making choices among alternative policies
iii. Evaluation Research: It addresses the question,
“Did it work?” The process of establishing value
judgment based on evidence about the
achievement of the goals of a program.
Evaluation research measures the effectiveness
of a program, policy, or way of doing something.
1. Cross-Sectional Research - researchers observe at one
point in time. Cross-sectional research is usually the
simplest and least costly alternative. Its disadvantage is
that it cannot capture the change processes. It can
be exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory, but it is
most consistent with a descriptive approach to
research.
2. Longitudinal Research. Researchers using
longitudinal research examine features of people
or other units at more than one time. It is usually
more complex and costly than cross-sectional
research but it is also more powerful, especially
when researchers seek answers to questions about
change. There are three types of longitudinal
research: time series, panel, and cohort.
a. Quantitative
The main quantitative techniques are:
1. Experiments
2. Surveys
3. Content Analysis Using Existing Statistics
b. Qualitative
 The major qualitative techniques of
research are:
1. Field Research
2. Case Study
3. Focus Group Discussion
Details about the quantitative and
qualitative techniques of research shall be
discussed later.
1. Originates with a question or problem.
2. Requires clear articulation of a goal.
3. Follows a specific plan or procedure.
4. Often divides main problem into subproblems.
5. Guided by specific problem, question, or
hypothesis.
6. Accepts certain critical assumptions.
7. Requires collection and interpretation of data.
8. Cyclical (helical) in nature.
 Research begins with a problem.
› This problem need not be Earth-shaking.

 Identifying this problem can actually be the

hardest part of research.
 In general, good research projects should:
› Address an important question.
› Advance knowledge.
 The following kinds of projects usually don‟t
make for good research:
› Self-enlightenment.
› Comparing data sets.
› Correlating data sets.
› Problems with yes / no answers.
 Good research requires:
› The scope and limitations of the work to be
clearly defined.
› The process to be clearly explained so that it
can be reproduced and verified by other
researchers.
› A thoroughly planned design that is as objective
as possible.
 Good research requires:
› Highly ethical standards be applied.
› All limitations be documented.
› Data be adequately analyzed and explained.
› All findings be presented unambiguously and all
conclusions be justified by sufficient evidence.
 Observation.
 Literature reviews.
 Professional conferences.
 Experts.
 Once you‟ve identified a research problem:
› State that problem clearly and completely.
› Determine the feasibility of the research.

 Identify subproblems:
› Completely researchable units.
› Small in number.
› Add up to the total problem.
› Must be clearly tied to the interpretation of the
data.
 Hypotheses are tentative, intelligent
guesses as to the solution of the problem.
› There is often a 1-1 correspondence between a
subproblem and a hypothesis.
› Hypotheses can direct later research activities
since they can help determine the nature of the
research and methods applied.
 All research has limitations and thus certain
work that will not be performed.
 The work that will not be undertaken is
described as the delimitations of the
research.
 Define each technical term as it is used in
relation to your research project.
› This helps remove significant ambiguity from the
research itself by ensuring that reviewers, while
they may not agree with your definitions, at least
know what you‟re talking about.
 Assumptions are those things that the
researcher is taking for granted.
› For example: a given test instrument accurately
and consistently measures the phenomenon in
question.

 As a general rule you‟re better off

documenting an assumption than ignoring
it.
› Overlooked assumptions provide a prime source
of debate about a research project‟s results.
 Many research problems have a kind of
theoretical feel about them. Such projects
often need to be justified:
› What is the research project‟s practical value?

 Without this justification, it will prove difficult

to convince others that the problem in
question is worth study.
 Research proposals are documents that
describe the intended research including:
› Problem and subproblems.
› Hypotheses.
› Delimitations.
› Definitions.
› Assumptions.
› Importance.
› Literature review.
 A literature review is a necessity.
› Without this step, you won‟t know if your
problem has been solved or what related
research is already underway.
 When performing the review:
› Start searching professional journals.
› Begin with the most recent articles you can find.
› Keep track of relevant articles in a bibliography.
› Don‟t be discouraged if work on the topic is
already underway.
 Be very careful to check your sources when
doing your literature review.
 Many trade magazines are not peer
reviewed.
› Professional conferences and journals often
have each article reviewed by multiple people
before it is even recommended for publication.
› The IEEE and ACM digital libraries are good
places to start looking for legitimate research.
 The Internet can be a good source of
information. It is also full of pseudo-science
and poor research.
 Make sure you verify the claims of any
documentation that has not been peer
reviewed by other professionals in the
computing industry.
 Research Process.
 Common Methodologies.
 Methodology Comparison.
 Research is an extremely cyclic process.
› Later stages might necessitate a review of earlier
work.

 This isn‟t a weakness of the process but is

part of the built-in error correction
machinery.
 Because of the cyclic nature of research, it
can be difficult to determine where to start
and when to stop.
 A question occurs to or is posed to the
researcher for which that researcher has no
answer.
› This doesn‟t mean that someone else doesn‟t
already have an answer.

 The question needs to be converted to an

appropriate problem statement like that
documented in a research proposal.
 The researcher generates intermediate
hypotheses to describe a solution to the
problem.
› This is at best a temporary solution since there is
as yet no evidence to support either the
acceptance or rejection of these hypotheses.
 The available literature is reviewed to
determine if there is already a solution to
the problem.
› Existing solutions do not always explain new
observations.
› The existing solution might require some revision
or even be discarded.
 It‟s possible that the literature review has
yielded a solution to the proposed problem.
› This means that you haven‟t really done
research.

 On the other hand, if the literature review

turns up nothing, then additional research
activities are justified.
 The researcher now begins to gather data
relating to the research problem.
› The means of data acquisition will often change
based on the type of the research problem.
› This might entail only data gathering, but it could
also require the creation of new measurement
instruments.
 The data that were gathered in the
previous step are analyzed as a first step in
ascertaining their meaning.
 As before, the analysis of the data does not
constitute research.
› This is basic number crunching.
 The researcher interprets the newly
analyzed data and suggests a conclusion.
› This can be difficult.
› Keep in mind that data analysis that suggests a
correlation between two variables can‟t
automatically be interpreted as suggesting
causality between those variables.
 The data will either support the hypotheses
or they won‟t.
› This may lead the researcher to cycle back to
an earlier step in the process and begin again
with a new hypothesis.
› This is one of the self-correcting mechanisms
associated with the scientific method.
 Methodologies are high-level approaches
to conducting research.
› The individual steps within the methodology
might vary based on the research being
performed.

 Two commonly used research

methodologies:
› Quantitative.
› Qualitative.
 Qualitative
 allows you to explore
perceptions, attitudes and
motivations and to
understand how they are
formed.
 It provides depth of
information which can be
used in its own right or to
determine what attributes
will subsequently be
measured in quantitative
studies.
Quantitative
 descriptive and provides
hard data on the numbers
of people exhibiting certain
behaviors, attitudes, etc.
 It provides information in
breadth and allows you to
sample large numbers of
the population.
 It is, however, structured
and does not yield the
reasons behind behaviour
or why people hold certain
attitudes.
 Qualitative
 Techniques for gathering
data include group
discussions/workshop
sessions, paired interviews,
individual in-depth
interviews and mystery
shopping (where the
researcher plays the role of
a potential student, etc in
order to replicate the
overall experience).
Quantitative
 Techniques commonly
used for gathering data
includes postal surveys,
telephone surveys
(appropriate for surveys of
employers), on-line or web-
based surveys (very cost-
effective for reaching
audiences where e-mail
penetration is high, such as
students and
university/college staff)
 Qualitative
 Explanation, description
 Build theories
 Unknown variables
 Small sample
 Observations, interviews
 Inductive
Quantitative
 Explanation, prediction
 Test theories
 Known variables
 Large sample
 Standardized instruments
 Deductive
 Quantitative
› Difficult to go deep
› Easier to conduct
surveys
› Easier to handle and
analyse data
› You have less control
› Easier to arrive at a
wrong conclusion
 Qualitative
› Easy to go deep
› Difficult to conduct
surveys
› Difficult to handle and
analyse data
› You have lots of
control
› Easier to arrive at a
good conclusion

Mix the two methods

 First do a small, qualitative survey
 Follow with an extensive quantitative
survey
 Preparing yourself
 Conceptualizing
› Selecting the topic
› Scope of work
› Research methodology
 Mobilizing resources
› Literature search
› Data collecting
› Analysis
› Writing
› Oral Exam and Presentation
 Perfecting
 Creating something

 Something which can be of benefit/s

 Something that can be published, once

published can be credited to you
 Selecting the topic
 Scope of work
 Research methodology
 Topic that interests you

 Related to your work (if you study part-

time)

 An adviser who can help you as a

› Mentor
› Friend
› Match your ways of working
Research must be focused and dig deep
The width is not very important (quantity)
If you go for width, you will not have
enough resources to go deep (quality)

Examiners will only reward you for the

depth
 Literature search
 Data collecting
 Analysis
 Writing
 Oral Exam and Presentation
in the form of a bar chart
 Regular work
› Regular contact with the adviser

 Research students/staff
› Reinventing the wheel
› New publications

 A few interviews with industry

personnel
 Both a science and an art
› Only practise can improve
› Cognitive competencies (ability to identify)

 Discuss with the adviser

› Present the data as you keep receiving
› Explicitly ask for opinion/advice on analysis

 Research students/staff
› Ask them to critique your work
 Preparing yourself

 Conceptualizing

 Mobilizing resources

 Perfecting