Page |1

Research:
Research is any original and systematic investigation undertaken to increase knowledge and
understanding and to establish facts and principles. It comprises the creation of ideas and
generation of new knowledge that lead to new and improved insights and the development of new
material, devices, products and processes.
The word “research” perhaps originates from the old French word recerchier that meant to ‘search
again’. It implicitly assumes that the earlier search was not exhaustive and complete and hence a
repeated search is called for.
Definition: Research is a scientific approach of answering a research question, solving a research
problem or generating new knowledge through a systematic and orderly collection, organization,
and analysis of data with an ultimate goal of making the findings of research useful in decision
making.
When do we can a research scientific? Any research endeavor is said to be scientific if it
 Is based on empirical and measurable evidences subject to specific principles of reasoning;
 Consists of systematic observations, measurement and experiment;
 Relies on the application of the scientific methods and harnessing of curiosity;
 Provides scientific information and theories for the explanation of the nature;
 Makes practical applications possible, and
 Ensures adequate analysis of data employing appropriate statistics techniques.
Research may also be carried out in historical perspective. Such research is known as historical
research is embodied in the historical research. Historical research is embodied in the historical
method. The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians us
historical sources and other evidence to research and then to write history, the following concepts
are usually the parts of most formal historical research:
 Identification of data of origin;
 Evidence of localization;
 Recognition of authorship;
 Analysis of data;
 Identification of integrity;
 Attribution of credibility.
The phrase my research is also used to describe a person’s entire collection of information about
a particular subject.
Research Method:
By research method, we simply mean the research techniques or tools used for conducting research
irrespective of whether the research belongs to physical or social sciences or to any other
disciplines. The techniques include three broad groups.
 The first group includes methods dealing with collecting and describing data;
 The second group consists pf techniques used for establishing statistical relationship
between variables;

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Page |2

 The third group deals with method used to evaluate the reliability, validity and accuracy of
the results discerned by the data.

Research methodology:
Research methodology is a way to study the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher
in studying his research problems systematically along with the logic, assumptions and rationale
behind them.
A researcher’s methodology aims at answering such questions as:
 Why was this particular group of people interviewed?
 How has been the research problem defined?
 How many individuals provided the answer on which the researcher’s conclusions
were based?
 Why were these particular techniques used to analyze data?
 In what way and why has been the research hypothesis formulated?
 What level of evidence was used to determine whether or not to reject the stated
hypothesis?
Distinction between method and methodology:
Research Method Research Methodology
1 Research methods are the techniques andResearch methodology explains and justifies
tools by which you conduct research into a
the techniques and tools by which you may
subject or a topic proceed with your research.
2 Research method involve the tasks of Research methodology involves the learning
conducting experiments, tests, surveys and
of various techniques to conduct research and
the like utilizing the knowledge and skills
acquiring knowledge to perform tests,
learned through research methodology. experiments, surveys and critical studies.
3 Research methods aim at finding solutions
Research methodology aims at the
to research problems. employment of the correct procedures to arrive
at a solution.
4 Research methods are the end of any Research methodology paves the way to
scientific or non-scientific research. choose appropriated research methods to be
conducted properly and thus is the beginning
of any scientific or non-scientific research.

Goals of research:
The primary goal or purpose of research in any field or inquiry is to add to what is known about
the performance under investigations through the application of scientific methods. Through each
research has its own specific goals, yet we may enumerate the following broad goals of a scientific
research:
 Exploration
 Description
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Page |3

 Causal explanation;
 Prediction
Research approaches:
There are two main approaches in doing research. The first is a basic approach, which mostly
pertains to academic research. Many people view this as pure research or fundamental research.
The research implemented through the second approach is variously known as applied research.
Basic Research:
When the solution to the research problem has no apparent applications to any existing practical
problem but only to the scholarly interests of a community of a research, the research is a basic
research.
Applied research:
The pursuit of information that can be directly applied to practice is aptly known as applied
research. Researchers in this field try to find solutions to existing problems. The approach is much
more utilitarian as it strivies to find information that will directly influence practice. Applied
research are commissioned by a sponsor and are responsible for addressing the needs presented by
this employer.
Evaluating Research:
Evaluating research, as the name applies, is concerned with the evaluation of such occurrences as
social and organizational programs or intervention.
Areas of Research:
Research may be conducted in many fields of inquiry. The most important fields of research,
among others, are social research, health research, and business research. We provide a brief
overview of these research areas.
Social Research:
As traditionally defined, social research is an enquiry to identifying describing, understanding,
explaining, evaluating and predicting social phenomena involving human behavior.
Health research:
Health research is the science and art of studying the distribution and determinants of health status
of the people as influenced by social, economic and physical environments, human biology, health
policy and services.
Population research:
Population research is a scientific inquiry aimed at understanding the population dynamics with
respects to the size, structure, growth, distribution and dispersal of a population, while the family
planning research inquires upon contraception, side effect, and follow-up etc.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Page |4

Business research:
Business research is systematic and objective inquiry that providing information to guide
managerial decisions. These decision are arrives through a process of planning, acquiring, and
dissemination relevant data and information to decision makers in ways that mobilize the
organization to take appropriate actions in order to maximize business performance.
Product analysis:
Product analysis is the first step is business research. Companies must find a product that meets
the consumer demand; otherwise the product will fail in the economic market place.
Financial analysis:
A financial analysis determines the cost of each item used to produce goods and services.
Management will also review the best cost application methods, ensuring that all production costs
are properly applied to each product or service produced.
Competitor analysis:
A competitor analysis of a market is an important part of business research.
Growth analysis:
A growth analysis is of crucial importance in understanding the profitability of business operation.
Marketing research:
One of the main components in business research is the marketing research. Marketing research is
concerned with the application of theories, problem-solving methods, and techniques to identify
and solve problems in marketing.
Quantitative Research:
Quantitative research is the systematic investigation of quantitative properties and phenomena and
their interrelationships. Quantitative research uses data that are numerical and is based on the
assumption that the numbers will describe a single reality.
Qualitative research:
In contrast to quantitative research, qualitative research is a field of enquiry that is employed to
explore and understand people’s beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behaviors and interactions.
Qualitative researchers aim at gathering an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the
reasons that govern this behavior. Simply put, it investigates the why and how of decision making,
not just what, where and when. A qualitative researcher typically reliefs on four methods of data
collection:
 Participant observation
 Direct observation
 In-depth interviews and
 Document and materials analysis, such as journals, diaries, images or blogs.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Page |5

Characteristics of Qualitative and Quantitative research:

Qualitative research Quantitative research
1 Collects information without formal, structure instruments Uses structured procedures and
formal instruments to collect
information
2 Analyzes narrative information in an organized but intuitive Analyzes numerical information
fashion through statistical procedures.
3 Flexible, evolving, emergent Predetermined, structured
4 Conducted in natural, familiar environment The environment is unfamiliar,
artificial
5 Sample is small, usually, non-random theoretical Based on large, random,
representative sample
6 Inductive Deductive
7 Comprehensive, holistic, expansive Precise, narrow, reductionist

Characteristics of research:
1. The research should focus in priority problems.
2. The research should be systematic
3. The research should be logical
4. The research should be reductive
5. The research should be replicable
6. The research should be generative
7. The research should be action oriented
8. The research should follow and integrated multidisciplinary approach
Desirable qualities of research:
A good research is one that generates dependable data. It conducted by professionals and can
be reliably for decision making. We enumerate below a few qualities that a good research
should possess.
 Purpose clearly defined: a good research must have its purpose clearly and
unambiguously defined.
 Research process detailed: the research procedures used should be described in
sufficient details to permit other researchers to repeat the research at a later date.
 Research design planned: the procedural design of the research should be carefully
planned to yield results that are as objective as possible.
 Ethical issues considered: a research design should always safeguard against causing
mental and physical harm not only to the participants but also to those who belong to
their organizations.
 Litigations revealed: the researcher should report with complete honesty and
frankness any flaws in procedural design he followed and provide estimate of their
effects on the findings.
 Adequate analysis ensured: adequate analysis reveals the significance of the data and
helps the researcher to check the reliability and validity of his estimate.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Page |6

 Conclusion and recommendation justified: good research always specifies the

conditions under which the research conclusions seem to be valid.
Justifying the merit of a proposed research topic
Each problem that is proposed for research has to be judged for its merit in terms of a few
guidelines or criteria. These are:
1. Relevance: before one decision on a topic, each proposed topic should be compared
with all other options. This enables the researchers to decide whether the topic so
chosen is a priority problem or not.
2. Avoidance of duplication: before it is decided to carry out the study, it is important to
see whether the suggested topic has been investigated earlier in the proposed study area
or in an area with similar environment or settings.
3. Feasibility: every proposed study must be considered for its execution in terms of its
complexity of the problems and resources that will be required to carry out the study.
4. Political acceptability: in general, it is desirable and at the same time advisable to
choose a research topic that has the interest and support of the relevant authorities
including major political opinions.
5. Applicability: it is the ultimate goal of any study that the study results will lead to
some policy recommendations.
6. Urgency of data needed: in implementation of the study results, the authorities give
top priority for those studies, which are urgently needed for decision making.
7. Ethical consideration: in choosing a research problem, on must carefully consider its
acceptability to those who are being studied. Care must be taken so that the subjects of
the studies are harmed neither physically nor psychological and their fundamental
rights are not ignored.
Variable and its Types
Within the context of a research investigation, concepts are generally referred to as variables. A
variable is, as the name applies, something that varies.
variable: A characteristic, number, or quantity that increases or decreases over time, or takes
different values in different situations.
A variable is any property or characteristics of an individual that can take on different values in
different situations.
Qualitative Variables
A qualitative variable is a characteristics that is not capable of being measured but can be
categorized to possess or not to possess some characteristics.
Quantitative Variables
A quantitative variable is one for which the resulting observations are numeric and thus
possesses a natural ordering or ranking.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Page |7

Discrete variable
A discrete variable, restricted to certain values, usually consists of whole numbers, such as
the family size, number of defective items in a box.
Continuous Variable
A continuous variable is one that take on an infinite number of intermediate values along
a specified interval.
Level of Measurement
There are four level of measurement. Each measurement or observation made on any object or
variable can be attribute to one of the four scales of measurement, viz. nominal, interval and ratio.
I. Nominal Level
II. Ordinal Level
III. Interval level
IV. Ratio Level
Research Objective
A research objective indicates the population of interest, the independent variable and the
dependent variable.
We can enumerate three major reasons for formulating the objectives of a research:
I. Focus the study so as to narrow t down to essentials;
II. Avoid collection of data that are not strictly necessary for understanding and solving the
problem in hand;
III. Organize the study in clearly defined components or phases.

The objectives fulfil certain criteria;

I. They are realistic to fit the local environment.
II. They cover the different aspects of the problem.
III. They consider the contributing factors in a coherent way and in a logical sequence.
General Objective
The general objective of a study states what is expected to be achieved by the study in
general terms. For example, if the problem identified is low utilization of Child Welfare Clinics
(CWC), the general objective of the study could be:
• To identify the reasons for low utilization of Child Welfare Clinics (CWC), in order to find
solutions.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Page |8

• To assess the impact of investment in goat farming for poverty alleviation in rural
Bangladesh.
Specific Objective
Specific objectives should systematically address the various aspects of the problems
defined under the statement of the problem and the key factors that are assumed to influenced or
case the problems.
• To assess hemoglobin level of the pregnant women using Shali’s method.
• To determine the changes in hemoglobin level with duration of pregnancy, controlling for
birth and parity.
‘The Child Nutrition survey: 2000’ was conducted with the general objective: of assessing the
nutritional situation of children in Bangladesh. These were as follows:
• To document consistent national level times series data on the nutritional status of children
in Bangladesh.
• To determine the nutritional status of Children aged 6-71 months by age, gender, residence
and season.
• To identify the relationship of common factors with the nutritional status of children and
to identity the determinants of malnutrition in the country.
We cite one more example with the Iodine Deficiency Survey of 1999. The general objective of
the survey was. “To Estimate the Prevalence of Goiter in Bangladesh Population” (Yusuf, 1999).
The specific objectives were:
• To compare the iodine nutritional status by measuring urinary iodine levels in different
sub-groups of the population;
• To estimate the prevalence of cretinism in the study population;
• To verify whether the cretinism varies by sex of the children;
• To compare the findings with that of 1993 IDD survey.
Immediate Objective
Immediate objective serves to indicate the focus of the proposed research in behavioral
terms. The objectives should specify the following points:
• Who will conduct the study?
• When will be the study conducted?
• Where will the study be conducted?
• What are the key variables to be included?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Page |9

Ultimate Objective
Most applied research studies have a statement of ultimate objective that focuses on how
the result will be used to motivate the program managers and policymakers for implementing and
executing the recommendations followed from the survey results. In the anemia survey, the
ultimate objective may be stated as follows:
• It is expected that findings of the study will help in enhancing understanding of the effect
of pregnancy on hemoglobin level of mothers and thereby guide the physicians in correct iron
therapy for pregnant women during different gestational period.
Research Hypothesis
A research hypothesis is logical supposition, a reasonable guess, and an educated
conjecture about what we expect to happen in our study.
Elements of a Good Hypothesis
• Is your hypothesis based on your research of a topic?
• Can your hypothesis be tested?
• Does your hypothesis include independent and dependent variables?
Basic Format of a Good Hypothesis
A hypothesis often follows a basic format of “If {this happens} the {this will happen}.”
One way to structure your hypothesis is to describe what will happen to the dependent variable if
you make change to the independent variable.
The basic format might be:
“If {these change are made to a certain independent variable}, than we will observe {a
change in a specific dependent variable}.”
A few example:
• Students who eat breakfast perform better on a math test than students who do not eat
breakfast.
• People with a high exposure to ultraviolet light will have be more frequency of skin cancer
than those who do not have such exposure.
Research hypothesis are two types, these are:
I. Descriptive hypothesis
II. Relational hypothesis
Descriptive hypothesis:
Descriptive does not always have variable that can be designed as independent or
dependent. Descriptive hypothesis are propositions that typically state the existence, size, form or
distribution of some variables.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 P a g e | 10

Relational hypothesis:
The statements that describe relationship between variables with respect to some cases.
Relational hypothesis are two types, these are:
I. Correlational hypothesis
II. Causal hypothesis
Research Question
A research question best describes the objective of the research study. Such a question is
needed to define the nature and scope of research.
Research questions can be grouped into three main types:
I. What question
II. Why Question and
III. How question
Ethics in Research
Ethics are norms or codes of behavior that guide moral choices about our behavior and our
relationships with others. The goal of ethics in research is to ensure that no one is harmed or one
suffers from adverse consequences from research activities. In most research settings, three parties
are involved:
I. Researcher
II. Client and
III. Respondent
Study design
A study design also call research design is the plan and structure specifying the methods and
procedure for collecting and analyzing data with an ultimate goal of answering research questions
and meeting the objectives of the study. By plan we mean the overall scheme or program of
research to the final analysis of data. By structure we mean the conceptual framework used to
specify the relationships among the study variables.
Experimental research design
Experimental research design is an elegant way of find out how well a particular program achieves
its goals. Three broad categories of design are presented here:
 Pre-experimental design
 True experimental design
 Quasi-experimental design

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 P a g e | 11

Pre-experimental design
Pre-experimental design are those designs that do not have any comparison groups. Few pre-
experimental design are:
Posttest-only design
The posttest-only design, also called one shot case study design is the weakest of all designs that
fails to control adequately the various threats to internal validity.
Pretest-posttest design
This design includes a single experimental group and its called a pretest-posttest design with no
control groups. This design includes the following steps:
 Select the subjects
 Select the experimental environment
 Conduct the pretest with measurement O1
 Administer the experimental stimulus X
 Conduct the posttest with measurement O2
Static group design
In the static group design, subjects are identified as either an experimental group or a control group.
True experimental design
The major deficiency of the pre-experimental design is that they fail to provide comparison groups
that are truly equivalent. We describe two such designs that fall under this category. These are
 Pretest-posttest control group design
 Posttest only control group design
Pretest-posttest control group design
It’s a design in which all subjects are randomly assigned from a single population to the
experimental group and the control group. Both groups receive an initial measurement observation.
The experimental group then receives the program intervention, but the control group does not
receive this intervention. Finally a second set of measurement observations are made for both the
groups.
Posttest only control group design
In this design the pretest measurement of both groups are omitted. Pretest are well established in
classical research designs but are not really necessary when randomization process is followed.
Quasi-experimental design
Quasi-experimental designs are those that do not satisfy the strict requirements of experiment. In
such designs subjects to be observed are not randomly assigned to different groups in order to
measure the outcomes, as in a randomized experiment, but grouped according to a characteristics
that they already possess.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 P a g e | 12

Time-series design
Time series design is one of the most attractive quasi-experiments. It involves a series of
measurements at periodic intervals before the program begins and continuing measurements after
the program ends. It thus become possible to determine whether the measures immediately before
and after the program are a continuation of earlier patterns or whether they mark a decisive change.

Concept of sampling
Sampling is a statistical procedure of drawing a small number of elements from a population and
drawing conclusion regarding the population. A population is the total collection of all the
population elements, each of which is a potential case.
A sampling unit is a well-defined, distinct and identifiable elements on which observation is made.
A sampling frame is a list of units in the population to be sampled. Sample size refers to the number
of units contained in a sample. While population size is number of units which constituted the
population.
It is now widely agreed that sample survey is a popular and scientific method of data collection.
Below a few advantages of taking sample over complete population count:
1. The economic advantage of taking a sample rather than a census are massive. Consider the
cost of taking a census of all the 35000 students of Dhaka university. Why should we spend
thousands of taka interviewing all 35000 students if we can find out what we need by asking
only a few.
2. Sampling possesses the possibility of better interviewing more thorough investigation of
missing, wrong or suspicious information, better supervision and better processing than is
possible with complete count.
3. Sampling also provides much quicker results than does a census.
4. In some situations sampling is a must. There are also situations when complete count is not
feasible and practicable.
Sampling with and without replacement
A sample may be drawn with replacement or without replacement. If the sample is taken with
replacement from a population, finite or infinite, the unit drawn is returned to the population and
the number of units available for future drawing is not affected and consequently the probability
of drawing any remaining unit is successive selections will remain unaltered.
Probability sampling
Probability sampling is based on the concept of random selection a controlled procedure that assure
that each population elements is given a known nonzero chance of selection. This section is
devoted to the study of a few probability sampling designs which are frequently used in sample
selection. These include, among others the following:
 Sample random sampling
 Systematic sampling
 Stratified random sampling and
 Cluster sampling

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 P a g e | 13

The following 8 steps procedure may be followed in drawing a simple random sample of n unit
using random numbers from a population of N units.
1. Assign serial numbers to the units in the population from 1 through N
2. Decide on the random number table to be used.
3. Choose an N digit random number from any point in the random number table.
4. If this random number is less than or equal to N, this is the first selected unit
5. Move on to the next random number not exceeding N vertically horizontally or in any other
direction systematically and choose your second unit.
6. If at any stage of your selection, the random number chosen exceeds N discard it and choose
the next random number
7. If farther any random number is repeated it must also be discarded and be replaced by a
fresh random number appearing next
8. The process stops once you arrive at your desired sample size.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY