Abstract

Available online 2 June 2011 ''Scientific research is research, but not all research is scientific.'' The global knowledge
economy is not unaffected by the concepts of supply and demand. The ability to supply research findings is core
business among knowledge producers such as universities and research centres. In fact, research outputs are a
measure of evaluation. Rapid improvement in informa-tion technology has provided wider access to data to the
extent that almost anyone with a mouse and internet access becomes a quasi-researcher. So what then is research
and what is it that brings reliability and validity to research? These are the ques-tions the following piece seeks to
answer. Definition ''Life without inquiry is not worth living for a human being'' (Socrates). Socrates (469–399 BC) was
one of the major figures of the intellectual revolution in the fifth century Athens. He determined that people were not
wise because they thought that they knew things when they did not. It was only in the sense that he was aware of his
own ignorance that he found he was wiser than other people. It is this awareness of the need to know, the act of
inquiry and deductive or inductive reason-ing that results in the generation of new knowledge. Rene Descartes (1596–
1650) believed that we can only be sure of our own existence because we perceive through the activity of the mind.
''Cogito, ergo sum'' (''I think; therefore I am.''). By this logic knowledge generation is central to man's existence.
However, the act of gathering information and checking data alone is not considered research. It is at best data
collection that is crucial for our everyday existence. The many ways of acquiring knowledge include through tradition,
authority, logical reasoning, experience, intuition, borrowing and the scientific method. Of these ways, the scientific
method is the most sophisticated and reliable. In science, research is the diligent systematic enquiry into nature and
society to validate and refine existing knowledge and to generate new knowledge. It has several characteristics below
that define it, the absence of which would reduce it to the simple (but important) act of gathering information.