Research 201: A Basic Introduction
© Brian Brown 1999-2000. All rights
reserved.
Errors in Research
It was errors discounted by others that finally led to
many new fields of research, such as Chaos theory. Many others
disregarded errors. Einstein fudged errors by making up a
universal constant factor.
It is important to acknowledge the number and size of errors in your research. The point of research is to either prove or disprove your hypothesis.
Publishing Research
One aspect of research is the presenting of your
findings to others. This is done by publication. Often, you will
be asked to provide a short summary (abstract) of your research
for media release.
Publication of your research is important. It helps to establish your-self as a credible researcher. It also satisfies the basic requirement of research; that of replication. It allows other researchers to duplicate your study and either validate it or disprove it.
Your research findings are often published in a standard format. If you publish for a specific journal, you will need to establish the "author guidelines" for that journal. This will specify the format, length, topic area and other information.
Some consider that the only place to publish research is peer-reviewed journals. In a peer review, you article is blind read by other established researchers and critiqued for suitable standards. If your article passes, it is then published by the journal (often in a modified form).
Ethics is an important part of any research project. Where opinions are canvassed from people, care must be taken to ensure that their privacy and rights are protected. These same rights apply to animal subjects. It is preferred that all responses from interviewees are anonymous and that only aggregated data is used to generate results. Most organisations have ethic or research committees that publish ethic guidelines.
In this course, all citations (references to material or quotes that have been used) will be in APA (American Psychological Association) format. Details of this citation format are found in the references at the end of this booklet.
Where do we find
relevant information and previous research?
When you conduct research, one of the first steps is
to locate previous research in the field. This acquaints you with
the work of other researchers. Researchers, when publishing their
research, often indicate other possible areas related to the
field that needs further investigation. This can provide you with
good ideas for a research topic.
A common means of finding out previous research is to conduct a literature review or search. The task is to search book titles, journals, databases and the Internet for relevant articles. Most librarians can offer advice and help on conducting a literature review.
Some common on-line databases are ERIC and ABI/Inform. However, the value of some databases are limited to abstracts only, whilst others may contain the full text of the article. The databases are often linked to a search engine, which allows you to query the database using keywords. Databases are normally a collection of journals or associated printed material (magazines, newspapers).
Funding of Research
An important aspect of research is funding. This will
involve identifying possible sources of funding and submission of
a business proposal. This proposal will outline the nature of the
research, the possible outcomes, as well as a time-line for the
research.
A budget will need to be prepared that outlines the various costs involved. Typical costs may include payment of consultants, printing, postage, data analysis of the results, binding of the report and other costs.
Research Results
Once all your data has been collected, the results are
often aggregated. The data is then analysed and inferences drawn.
It is common to extract and present a summary of the findings.
Researchers often only present the major findings in summary
format. This allows the key issues to be quickly identified. In
addition, key outcomes of the research are often presented
statistically, such as 85% of all male drivers have at least one
accident a year, or in graphical format.
Some Common Terms
Used In Research
To be able to read and conduct research, you should
understand some of the more common terms associated with research.
| Instrument | The device or method that attempts to quantify or measure a variable. For example, an instrument can be a questionnaire. | |
| Conclusion | The results that were reached by the researcher. | |
| Variable | These are things that can be measured or controlled by the researcher. | |
| Independent Variable | This is the variable(s) that are altered. | |
| Dependent Variable | This is the variable(s) that are measured or explained. | |
| Mean | The arithmetic average of a set of values. | |
| Continuous Variable | Contains any number of values and can be further subdivided. For example, weight is a continuous variable because you can distinguish between a person that weighs 74.1Kg and a person who weighs 74.12Kg. | |
| Discrete Variable | Contains a limited set of values that cannot be subdivided further. For example, the number of people in a family is a discrete variable because you cannot subdivide a person. | |
| Population | Group, class of subjects, variables, concepts or phenomena under study. | |
| Census | Every occurrence in a population. For example, all people living in New Zealand. | |
| Sample | Often, it is too expensive to measure every occurrence in a population, so researchers select a small group that represents the population. This is called a sample. Most samples are randomly selected. | |
| Sample Error | The degree to which the measurements taken from the sample group differ from those that would be obtained from the population. | |
For a full list of terms used in research, please refer to the supplemental glossary for this unit.