CHAPTER 2: Research process

The research process is a set of steps that help you look for and use information about a
topic that you choose. The research process is similar to undertaking a journey. For a
research journey there are two important decisions to make
1) What you want to find out about
or what research questions (problems) you want to find answers to;
2) How to go about finding their answers.
There are practical steps through which you must pass in your research journey in
order to find answers to your research questions.
The path to finding answers to your research questions constitutes research methodology.
At each operational step in the research process you are required to choose from a
multiplicity of methods, procedures and models of research methodology which will
help you to best achieve your objectives.
 Steps in Research Process
1. Formulating the Research Problem
2. Extensive Literature Review
3. Developing the objectives
4. Preparing the Research Design
5. Collecting the Data
6. Analysis of Data
7. Generalization and Interpretation
8. Preparation of the Report or Presentation of Results-Formal write ups of
conclusions reached.
 1. Formulating the research problem:
It is the first and most crucial step in the research process
- Main function is to decide what you want to find out about.
- The way you formulate a problem determines almost every step that follows.
Selection of a research topic
Research starts with a question or a problem for which the answer is not
available. The first step is deciding what to study.
• Researchers choose the topics that they study in a variety of ways, and their
decisions are necessarily influenced by several factors. For example, choosing
a research topic will obviously be largely influenced by the scientific field
within which the researcher works.
• As you know, “science” is a broad term that encompasses numerous
specialized and diverse areas of study, such as biology, physics, psychology,
anthropology, medicine, IT and economics, just to name a few.
Generally selection of the research theme/topic is influenced by :
• personal interest
• social significance
• theoretical interest
• “research ability”
• ethical questions: who’s interests does the research serve?
Keep these key elements in mind
 interest(choose something you will enjoy)
Scope (Try to narrow your topic)
 Understand Breadth and depth of the topic
 Ask yourself some important questions before begin
• What is my purpose for doing this research? What am I trying to learn?
• Who is my audience? What will they want to know about my topic?
Time(make sure that you successfully address in the given time)
Clarity(know what you are looking for adjust as needed)
Directives( from organizations or government)
The task of formulating/defining a research problem
It is important because:
- It determines the data to be collected,
- It determines the characteristic of the data which are relevant,
- It determines the choice of techniques to be used.,
- It determines the form of the final report.
• Describe broader context (background)
• State the objectives or purposes
• Determine scope of the study, including defining any
terms, limitations, or restrictions
 Some general principles in problem formulation
- Be sure the problem really exists
- Learn as much as possible about the problem to be solved
- Consider alternative formulations in case one is not feasible

 Evaluation of a research problem (some questions to be asked):

-What is the value of potential outcome? (who are the beneficiaries?)

- investigate Researcher’s capability and interest

-Will the data be accessible?

-Do I have access to the necessary resources (time, money, tools, equipment, laboratory,

etc)
 Sources of research problems
• Contact and discussion with people
• Problems- examine the existence of certain issues or problems relating to
their lives; to ascertain attitude of a group of people towards an issue
• Programs- to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention
• Phenomena- to establish the existence of a regularity.
• Observation,
• Literature review
• Professional experience
• Contemporary social and technological changes
• Professional conferences
• experts
 Considerations in selecting a research problem
1. Interest: a research endeavor is usually time consuming, and involves hard work and
possibly unforeseen problems. It needs interest and motivation
2. Magnitude: Narrow the topic down to something manageable, specific and clear.
3. Measurement of concepts: Make sure that you are clear about the indicators and
measurement of concepts (if used) in your study.
4. Level of expertise: Make sure that you have adequate level of expertise for the task
5. Relevance: Ensure that your study adds to the existing body of knowledge, bridges
current gaps and is useful in policy formulation.
6. Availability of data: Before finalizing the topic, make sure that data are available.
7. Ethical issues: How ethical issues can affect the study population and how ethical
problems can be overcome should be thoroughly examined at the problem formulating
stage.
Steps in formulation of a research problem
1. Identify a broad field or subject area of interest to you.
2. Dissect the broad area into sub areas.
3. Select what is of most interest to you.
4. Raise research questions.
5. Formulate objectives.
6. Assess your objectives.
 2. Reviewing the literature

• Essential preliminary task in order to familiarize yourself with the available

body of knowledge in your area of interest.
• Literature review is integral part of entire research process and makes
valuable contribution to every operational step.
• Reviewing literature can be time-consuming, daunting and frustrating, but
is also rewarding. Its functions are:
a. Bring clarity and focus to your research problem;
b. Improve your methodology;
c. Broaden your knowledge;
d. Contextualize your findings
e. becoming familiar with the existing literature
f. to provide theoretical background to your study
 Con…
Procedure for reviewing the literature:
i) search for existing literature in your area of study;
ii) review the literature selected;
iii) develop a theoretical framework
iv) develop a conceptual framework
Sources of reviewing the literature
Primary literature sources first occurrence of work and written by the persons who actually
conducted the study.
Examples-
Journals: refereed academic journals, Professional journals, Trade journals,…
Reports: government reports, Academic reports,
Conference proceedings – Often around themed conferences
Thesis - masters and PHD dissertations
Secondary sources – Subsequent publication of primary literature Examples – books
Reviews –Annual publication that summarize research in certain topic areas.
The role of literature is source of: Concepts, Theories, Evidence, Influence how we look at a
topic
 3. The formulation of objectives:
Objectives are the goals you set out to attain in your study. flows naturally from the
problem statement, giving specific, concrete, and achievable goals
It is best to list of the objectives either in order of importance or in general terms
first, moving to specific terms
-They inform a reader what you want to attain through the study.
-It is extremely important to word them clearly and specifically.
Objectives should be listed under two headings:
a)General objectives ( aims);
b) Specific objectives.
• The General objective is an overall statement of the thrust of your study.
It is also a statement of the main associations and relationships that you seek to
discover or establish.
The specific objectives are the specific aspects of the topic that you want to investigate within the
main framework of your study.
-They should be numerically listed.
-Wording should clearly, completely and specifically Communicate to your readers your intention.
-Each objective should contain only one aspect of the Study.
-Use action oriented words or verbs when writing objectives.
Objectives should be:
- Specific and achievable statements.
- clearly fit to the statement of the problem
- proposed to do things as per the capability of the design of the study.
- In their approximate order of importance.
The objectives should start with words such as
• ‘to determine’,
• ‘to find out’,
• ‘to ascertain’,
• ‘to measure’,
• ‘to explore’ etc
To design the model for cloud to share the resources
 Concepts and Variables
• Variable-is an event, a characteristic or an attribute that can be measured (can be assessed on

an instrument and recorded on an instrument) and varies (can assume different values or scores

for different individuals). For example, height, weight, age, race, and attitude are

variables

The difference between a concept and a variable:

• Concepts are mental images or perceptions and therefore their meaning varies markedly from
individual to individual.
• A concept cannot be measured whereas a variable can be subjected to measurement by
crude/refined or subjective/objective units of measurement.
• It is therefore important for the concept to be converted into variables .
 Con….
Variable Concept
• Measurable though the • Subjective impression
-degree of precision varies from scale to No uniformity as to its
scale and Different people variable to Understanding among different
variable people
Example • As such cannot be measured
• gender (male/female) Example
• age (x years y months) • Excellent
• weight ( --kg) • High achiever
• height ( -- cms) • Rich
• religion (Catholic, Hindu) • Satisfaction
• Income ( Rs ---per year) • Domestic violence
 Variables are different in many ways
i) By the way they are represented

a) Variables and Constructs :A variable is an attribute or characteristic stated in a specific or applied way.

A construct is an attribute or characteristic expressed in an abstract, general way.

Construct Student Achievement

Variable Grade Point Average

ii) By the way they are measured

a) Categorical and Continuous Measures of Variables

A categorical measure is a value of a variable assigned by the researcher into a small number of categories. (e.g., gender)

A continuous measure is the value of a variable assigned by the researcher to a point along a continuum of scores from low to high. (e.g., age)

b) Quantitative and Qualitative Variables

Quantitative variables exist on a continuum that ranges from low to high, or less to more. Ordinal, interval and ratio variables

Examples are test scores, hts, speed, age and class size

Qualitative Variables provide information about qualitative differences only. Eg. (eye color, religion, gender, political party) but not different

quantities
 Types of variables
Independent variable
Dependent variable
•a treatment or program or cause or factor
• affected by the independent
• influences or affects an outcome or dependent variable
variable
responsible for the occurrence of behaviour of dependent variable
• Is the one whose value or
(DV) occurrence or extent depends on
Can be manipulated and controlled by the researcher so that its effect that of IDV and is affected by ID
can be seen on the DV  It can also be referred as the
It can also be referred as classifying, measured, cause, experimental, outcome, effect, criterion or
manipulated or treatment variable.
consequence variable

.Examples i) In studying “The Effect of Homework Provision on Academic Achievement of Students” ;

The DV is - academic achievement
IDV is – Homework provision
ii) What is the Extent of an Effect of Reinforcement on Students’ Attitude Toward School?
IDV = Reinforcement DV = Attitude toward school
iii) drinking alcohol and car accident of identify IDV and DV
 Constructing hypotheses:
• a hypotheses is a hunch, assumption, suspicion, assertion or an idea about a
phenomenon, relationship or situation, the reality or truth of which you do not know
• A hypothesis predicts the answer of a question. The verification process can have one of the three
outcomes. Your hunch may prove to be right, partially right, or wrong.
• Important Questions:
• What is the basis for prediction?
• Why do we expect what we predict?
The functions of hypotheses:
• provides a study with focus. It tells you what specific aspects of a research problem to investigate.
• tells you what data to collect, thereby providing focus to the study.
• enhances objectivity in a study.
• enable you to add to the formulation of a theory.
• It enables you to specifically conclude what is true or what is false.
 Some examples of hypothesis
Improved training provision will create a more
productive reliable and satisfied workforce
Smoking and lung cancer are independent
• Question(s) to be answered: eg What is the best quality
strategy for ABC Company?
• objectives to the achieved: eg To devise the best quality
strategy for ABC Company.
• A hypothesis or hypotheses to be tested: eg Strategy X is the best
strategy for ABC Company. (A hypothesis is a statement whose truth you want to
test.)
 4. Preparing The Research Design
• Once the research problem is formulated and working hypothesis developed, the
researcher will be required to prepare a research design.
• Research design is the conceptual structure within which research would be
conducted.
• Research design refers to the arrangement of the conditions for
collection and analysis of data in a manner that will satisfy or achieve
the objectives of a research undertaking.
 It is intended to enable the researcher to answer questions as validly,
objectively, accurately and economically as much as possible;
 It provides for the collection of relevant data with minimum effort, time and
budget.
• It sets up the framework for adequate tests of relationships among
study variables.
• The research design tells us:
- What observations to make?
- What variables to measure?
- How to make them/measure them?
- how to analyze the data?
- It also suggests how many observations to make and the type of statistical analysis to
be used.
The research design preparation should consider:
The time available for research
The finance available for the purpose
The skills of the researcher

Identifying the study variables

Identifying study subjects / experimental units,

Planning the means of obtaining the information and reasoning leading to selection.
Sampling method
 Con…
Whatever method the researcher chooses, he/she has to design the empirical stage (experiment
/survey/observation).

Method selection
Quantitative –vs- Qualitative methods
Or a combination of both
The preparation of research design, appropriate for a particular research problem,
involves the consideration of the following :
1. Objectives of the research study.
2. Method of Data Collection to be adopted
3. Source of information—Sample Design
4. Tool for Data collection
5. Data Analysis-- qualitative and quantitative
 5. Collecting Data
• Having formulated the research problem, developed a study
design, constructed a research instrument and selected a sample,
you then collect the data from which you will draw inferences and
conclusions for your study
• Collect primary and secondary data by
• Observation
• Interview
• Questionary
• Conduct Surveys
• Document scanning
• Contact Methods: Mail, Telephone, Personal interview
• From experiment etc.
 6. Processing And Analysing Data
• Processing and analysing data involves a number of closely related operations
which are performed with the purpose of summarizing the collected data and
organizing these in a manner that they answer the research questions
(objectives).
 Data Analysis
 Quantitative data – quantitative figures
 Qualitative data – analytical thinking
 Hypothesis testing
• The Data Processing operations are:
1. Editing- a process of examining the collected raw data to detect errors and omissions and
to correct these when possible.
2. Classification- a process of arranging data in groups or classes on the basis
of common characteristics. Depending on the nature of phenomenon involved
 Con…
a) Classification according to attributes: here data is analysed on the basis of common
characteristics which can either be
: descriptive such as literacy, sex, religion etc. or
: numerical such as weight, height, income etc.
• Such classification can be either:
Simple classification: where we consider only one attribute, and divide the universe
into two classes—one class consisting of items possessing the given attribute and the
other class consisting of items which do not possess the given attribute.
Example : Employees with java programming ability
java programming ability
 Con…
• Manifold classification: Here we consider two or more attributes
• simultaneously, and divide the data into a number of classes.
• Educational Qualification of University Employees

• Classification according to class –intervals: is done with data relating to

income, age, weight, tariff, production, residence etc. Such quantitative data
are known as the statistics of variables and are classified on the basis of class
–intervals.
 Reporting The Findings:
• Finally, the researcher has to prepare the report of what has been done.
• Writing the report is the last, and for many, the most difficult step of the
research process.
• The report informs the world what you have done, what you have
discovered and what conclusions you have drawn from your findings.
• The report should be written in an academic style.
 The result should be Communicated to others
Peers
Policy makers/Developers
Extension workers
General public
 The style and content varies depending on to whom the research is written to.