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Chapter 1 –
Thinking about Research
Lecture 1

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Introduction
• All at sea but learning to swim.
• Surviving and feeling that you become successful across the
period of your study is an important goal, and maintain
motivation when things get tough.
• Surviving and thriving does not simply mean staying in
familiar seas. Surviving as a research student is about
accumulating knowledge and extending skills. Thriving as a
research student can be helped by expecting the sorts of
new skills, the different forms of knowledge and the
resources that you will need.
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What is Research?
• The term “research” is semantically overloaded given
its use in everyday language.
• In an academic context, research is used to refer
to the activity of a diligent and systematic inquiry
or investigation in an area, with the objective of
discovering or revising facts, theories, and
applications.
• The goal is to discover and disseminate new
knowledge.
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What is Research? (cont.)

• The process of studying and 1) learning new

things 2) exploring the unknown 3) building
new knowledge about things that no one has
understood before, is what we think of as
performing research.

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What is Research? (cont.)
• Research is defined by the Higher Education Funding Council
for England (HECFE) as ‘original investigation undertaken in
order to gain knowledge and understanding’ (RAE, 2008).
‒ Quite simply, originality is doing something that has not been
done before. (will be more explained later)
‒ Gain/ Contribution means to add something to the existing
world knowledge.
‒ Knowledge and understand is the higher-level knowledge that
represents your understanding of the ‘why’. Knowledge is your
personal interpretation of what you gain from information as
rules, patterns, decisions, models, ideas and so on.
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What is Research? (cont.)
• Gain/Contribution:

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 What is Research? (cont.)
• Knowledge and Understanding

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 What is Research? (cont.)
• Knowledge and Understanding

South facing traffic light on the

corner of Shar-e-Now
Crossroads has turned red

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The first time researcher
• Doing research usually brings out a series of
anxieties, at any level undergraduate, MA or
PhD.
• Our intention in this course is to give you the
skills and confidence that will take you
successfully from the initial idea to a
completed piece of research.
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The first time researcher (cont.)
• To begin a research project we need relevant skills,
resources and knowledge derived from our education
and life experiences, including:
➢ Technical skills (e.g. use of information retrieval systems such as
libraries and the internet)
➢ Social skills (e.g. working collaboratively with fellow students, getting
on with others)
➢ Social resources (e.g. family, friends, teachers)
➢ Emotional resources (e.g. elasticity, motivation)
➢ Material resources (e.g. time and money)
➢ And of course, you will have knowledge about your subject area (e.g.
Networking, Programming, Database, Web Development, etc.). 11
The first time researcher (cont.)
• If there is a gap between your current state and what you
need to have, you need to fill it.
• The gap between the level you are and the level
required for a successful completion of your research
project represents your personal learning needs.
• It can be achieved to consider and creating a Personal
Development Plan (PDP)
• Before creating PDP, one way of gaining sense of the
skills, resources and knowledge you already have is to
undertake an audit. 12
An example of a PDP

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Some potential sources of help
• Your supervisor
• Your fellow students
• The departmental head
• Student union
• Other work colleagues, particularly those who have undertaken similar
research projects recently or they have involved in real-world projects
• Family, Friends
• Lecturers/supervisors/teachers from previous courses of study
• The various handbooks that your department or school provides
• The various textbooks that have been written for research students
(including, of course, introduced for this course)
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Getting a flavour of possibilities
• It is often not fully appreciated that, at the very
earliest stages of thinking deep about research,
there are many ways in which this might proceed.
• For example, say your general topic is ‘Mobile App
Security’. You might research this in any, and
indeed all, of the following ways:
▪Web based apps
▪Android
▪iOS
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Getting a flavour of possibilities (cont.)
• As another example, say your general topic is ‘Internet in
the Afghanistan’. You might research this in any, and
indeed all, of the following ways:
‒ By gathering together existing statistics.
‒ By looking at policy at local and national levels.
‒ By exploring the responses of relevant ISP organizations.
‒ By planning a questionnaire for various ‘stakeholders’ in this field.
‒ By conducting interviews with Internet users.
‒ By using and observing different internet services over a period of time.
‒ By undertaking an analysis of documents and other literature about this
topic.
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Getting a flavour of possibilities (cont.)
• The decision on how you might proceed clearly and choose a
topic depends upon a number of factors:
‒ your interest in the topic
‒ How much time you have available
‒ The expected word length of your project or dissertation
‒ Your research skills
‒ The regulations and preferences of your department
‒ Focusing to solve a problem
• Avoid setting up a project in an area in which you do not
have the necessary background.
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Research process in general

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Research Process in General Iterative

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Why am I doing this (chosen one)
research?
• As a researcher, it is useful to understand why you are involved in research.
• The most important reason is your own interest in the topic.
• Quite often, researchers are initially motivated by hopes that their work will
change the world in some, albeit probably very little.
• Researchers, often undertake studies to take them onto the next stage of their
career.
• While there are many highs when doing research, it also has to be
acknowledged that there will be many moments when the task ahead appears
tedious, or simply is not worth the effort. But keep going on.
• But if you aren’t motivated, or are not motivated very strongly, this will affect
your drive to finish the research project successfully.
• So, do something else!
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 Why am I doing this research? (cont.)
• If none of the above was possible, you might seek motivation in one
of the following ways:
‒ By changing your research project to something you are more interested
‒ By focusing on the skills you will develop through undertaking the research.
‒ By incorporating within the research some knowledge acquisition of
relevance to you.
‒ By seeing the research project as part of a larger activity, which will have
knock-on benefits for your work, your career, your social life or your life in
general.
‒ By finding someone who will support you and push you through until you
finish.
‒ By promising yourself a reward when it is successfully completed.
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Will I have anything new to say?
• For many research projects, particularly at university, there is
often a need for some kind or level of originality.
• It is possible to be original in terms of topic, approach or
presentation.
• The element of originality in your own research is, likely to be
very small.
• Therefore, It is not always the case that you are intentionally
copying someone else’s earlier research.
• If any of the following is true, then your research is original:

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14 definitions of originality
• Setting down a major piece of new information for the first
time.
• Continuing a previously original piece of work.
• Work designed by the supervisor.
• Providing a single original technique, observation.
• Having many original ideas, methods and interpretations all
performed by others under the direction of the
postgraduate.
• Showing originality in testing somebody else’s idea.
• Carrying out empirical work that hasn’t been done before. 23
14 definitions of originality (cont.)
• Making a synthesis from different sources.
• Using already known material but with a new interpretation.
• Trying out something in this country that previously done in
other countries.
• Taking a particular technique and applying it in a new area.
• Bringing new evidence and relate it to an old issue.
• Looking at areas that people in the discipline haven’t looked at
before.
• Adding to knowledge in a way that hasn’t been done before.

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(Sources: Phillips and Pugh 2005: 62; also Francis 1976)
What is the interest in this research?
• The ‘standard’ view of research is that of a detached scientist
examining the facts of the case coolly and unemotionally.
• Politics, power and values may be important considerations for
your research, especially if you carry it out within your own or
another organization.
• Rather than expecting to ‘find the truth’, it is better to think of
research work in terms of words like precision, reliability,
professionalism and systematization.
• Researchers need to maintain their levels of critical reflection,
and so ensure their research is conducted in as open and
transparent way as possible in terms of its intentions,
methodology, analysis and findings. 25
Writing up
• Most of research work require writing, especially in universities.
• Writing stage is a long way, but it is important to consider the rules,
regulations and expectations of the various audiences for your
research early on.
• For example, if you are doing some research for a university degree,
you will have to produce a dissertation or a thesis that will be assessed
according to academic criteria regulations and expectations.
(discussed in more detail in later lectures)
• Research project Audience may include:
‒ The company you are researching for
‒ The institute /University
‒ The assessment committee
‒ Other researchers
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Summary
• Have an awareness of the skills, knowledge and resources you already
have that will enable you to survive stormy waters ahead; and thrive
through your research work.
• Now recognize the need to produce a Personal Development Plan.
• Appreciate that the research process is not straightforward,
predictable or linear, but it is iterative.
• Have a clearer idea of your own motivations for engaging in research.
• Be more confident about your own ability to carry out a small-scale
research project.

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