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Theme 1 - Introducing Research

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1. Introduction to Research

1.1. Why do a research project?

To develop the following skills essential for your future study at the University of Nottingham.

  • Knowledge and understanding
  • Reviewing literature
  • Synthesising ideas
  • Constructing arguments
  • Planning and design
  • Academic writing

1.2. What is research?

  • “…a process that people undertake in a systematic way in order to find out things, thereby increasing their knowledge” (Source: Saunders et al, 2016, p. 5)
  • “a detailed study of a subject, especially in order to discover (new) information or reach a (new) understanding” (Source: Cambridge Online Dictionary)

1.3. Who undertakes research?

  • Global alliances/partnerships
    • Global organisations: The United Nations, the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization
    • Research areas: Environmental, economic and health issues
    • People: Leading scientists and academics from across the globe, with a range of backgrounds, work together
  • Charitable organisations
  • Practitioners
    • Workplace-led research
    • Conducted by individuals within their professional field
    • Researchers include: Teachers, nurses and social workers
    • The purpose of the research could be to: solve current problems in the workplace or to evaluate current service provision
  • Academics
    • All academic disciplines have their own areas of research

1.4. The benefits of research

  • Deepen understanding
  • Widen knowledge
  • Improve practice
  • Solve problems / find solutions
  • Reduce uncertainty
  • Secure advantage
  • Gain inspiration

2. Starting Research

2.1. The research cycle

Research needs to be properly organised and carefully planned. It needs to be systematic. This is often referred to as the ‘research cycle’.

  1. Identify the research topic and research questions
  2. Conduct a search of the existing literature
  3. Design and plan the research project
  4. Gather data
  5. Collate and analyse results
  6. Write up the project
  7. Present/publish research

2.2. Types of Research

A research project may adopt more than one of these approaches

2.2.1. Exploratory

  • Preliminary investigation into a relatively unknown topic
  • Focuses on discovering ideas and gaining insights
  • Methods:
    • literature search
    • individual interviews
    • focus group interviews
  • Research is flexible and adaptable
  • Findings can lead to further, more focused studies

2.2.2. Descriptive

  • Can follow exploratory research to provide a researcher with a better understanding of a topic
  • Aims to construct an accurate, in-depth profile of events, persons, situations or phenomena
  • Focuses on ‘what’ rather than ‘why’
  • Research results will be accurate but will not offer explanations
  • Findings can lead to explanatory research

2.2.3. Explanatory

  • Can follow descriptive research
  • Researchers test a hypothesis or theory rather than seek to answer a question
  • The researcher wants to establish evidence for cause/effect relationships or to explain a phenomenon
  • Research focuses on answering ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions
  • Forms of explanatory research include:
    • experimental research
    • non-experimental research
    • causal modeling

2.2.4. Evaluative

  • Involves judging the effectiveness of a process, strategy, programme or service in achieving its intended purpose(s)
  • Research aims to establish evidence of the effectiveness of this process etc
  • Focuses on answering ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘why’ and ‘to what extent’ questions
  • Research methods can include:
    • surveys
    • questionnaires
    • interviews
    • focus groups
  • Findings can be used to assess impact, improve practice and inform decision-making

2.3. Primary vs Secondary

  • Primary research: uses information which researchers gather for themselves
    • Experiment
    • Field test
    • Questionnaire
    • Direct observation
    • Face-to-face interview
    • Focus Group
  • Secondary research: uses information gathered by other people in earlier studies
    • Encyclopaedia
    • Journal article
    • Website
    • Newspaper
    • Magazine
    • Public records
    • Report
    • Book
    • Dictionary

2.4. Textbook Reading

  • pp.1~7

3. Introducing Primary Research

3.1. What is primary research?

Key characteristics of primary research

  • Role of researcher
    • The researcher designs the project and collects the data themselves
    • The researcher is very involved in the process
  • Data collection methods
    • Survey
    • interview
    • questionnaire
    • poll
    • focus group
    • observation
  • Time
    • Data is collected during a specific research project and timeframe controlled by the researcher
  • Advantages/Disadvantages:
    • pros: The research will address the specific needs of the researcher
    • cons: Completion time is long, and the cost is generally high

3.2. Data collection methods

  • Qualitative : (the study of human behaviour in an information rich area)
    • Interviews
    • focus groups
    • observations
    • questionnaires(open questions)
  • Quantitative: (objective, statistical analysis used)
    • Structured methods Eg. a questionnaire with closed questions
  • Mixed: A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods are used

3.3. Research steps

  1. Be aware of strengths and limitations
  2. Select a data collection method(qualitative/quantitative/mixed)
  3. Select participants
  4. Select measures
  5. Select analyses

3.4. Ethical considerations

  • Whichever research method you choose, you will need to ensure that your primary research is ethical
  • It is extremely important that no harm is done to your participants
  • Before beginning your primary research
    • You will submit your research proposal to an ethics committee
    • Here, you will specify how you will deal with all possible ethical issues that may arise during your study

3.5. Textbook Reading

  • Ethics: pp. 36 - 40
  • Primary and secondary sources: pp. 58 - 62

4. Introducing Secondary Research

4.1. What is secondary research?

Key characteristics of secondary research

  • Role of researcher
    • The researcher analyses, interprets or reviews existing data
    • The researcher must specify how this past data informs his/her current research
  • Data collection methods
    • Existing data available (online) e.g. government records such as census reports
  • Time
    • Secondary research can be quicker than primary research as data does not need to be collected
  • Advantages/Disadvantages
    • pros
      • Quality of secondary data should be high
      • Very large data sets are available
    • cons
      • The data may not be fully appropriate for your research purposes
      • Data was originally collected with a different research question in mind

4.2. Methods and purposes of secondary research

Method Purpose
Using secondary data set in isolation Re-assessing a data set with a different research question in mind
Combining two secondary data sets Investigating the relationship between variables in two data sets or comparing findings from two past studies
Combining secondary and primary data sets Obtaining existing information that informs your primary research

4.3. Types of secondary data

Quantitative and Qualitative

  • inform your current research with past data
  • re-assess a past data set

4.4. Sources of secondary data

The two most common sources of secondary data are internal and external

4.4.1. Internal sources

  • Internal sources of data are those that are internal to the organisation you are researching
    • Sales data
    • Financial data
    • Transport data
    • Marketing data
    • Customer data
    • Safety data
  • The benefit of using these sources is that they are easily accessible and there is no associated financial cost in obtaining them.

4.4.2. External sources

  • External sources of data have been collected by “somebody else
    • Government sources
    • National and international institutions
    • Trade, business, and professional associations
    • Scientific journals
    • Commercial research organisations
  • The benefit of external sources of data is that they provide comprehensive data.However, you may sometimes need more effort (or money) to obtain it.

4.5. Further reading:

Church, R. M. (2002) The effective use of secondary data. Learning and Motivation. 33(1) pp. 32 – 45.