Department of Biotechnology &

Genetic Engineering

An Assignment on
“Research is much concerned with proper fact-finding,
analysis, and evaluation.”

Course Title: Research Methodology and Technology Transfer

Course code: BGE-312
Date of submission: 5 September 2021

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Ami Hasan Jamil Dr. Zinia Islam

Roll:1402 Associate Professor
Dept. of Biotechnology and Genetic Dept. of Biotechnology and Genetic
Engineering, Jahangirnagar University, Engineering, Jahangirnagar University,
Savar, Dhaka- 1342. Savar, Dhaka-1342.
RESEARCH is formed by two words namely RE a prefix, meaning do it again and the noun SEARCH
meaning to investigate or to look for.

Research is a scientific approach to answering a research question, solving a research problem, or

generating new knowledge through a systematic and orderly collection, organization, and analysis of data
with the ultimate goal of making the findings of research useful in decision-making.

Research is defined as the scientific investigation of phenomena which includes collection, presentation,
analysis, and interpretation of facts that line an individual’s speculation with reality. "In the broadest sense
of the word, the definition of research includes any gathering of data, information, and facts for the
advancement of knowledge”. Research is a process of steps used to collect and analyze information to
increase our understanding of a topic or issue".

From the definition of research, you can understand those fact findings, analysis, and evaluation are related
to research. So, we can say that,

yes, research is concerned with proper fact-finding, analysis, and evaluation. And it will be clearer
though out the discussion.

Research is needed for new inventions, discoveries as well as for the improvement of science and
technology. To solve a problem and to generalize facts scientific research is required. The purpose of
research is therefore to find out what is known, what is not, and what we can develop further. In this way,
scientists can develop new theories, ideas, and products that shape our society and our everyday lives.

Characteristics of Research

Research in any field of inquiry is undertaken to provide information to support decision-making in its
respective area, Some desirable characteristics of research:

• The research should focus on priority problems.

• The research should be systematic. It emphasizes that a researcher should employ a structured
procedure.
• The research should be logical. Without manipulating ideas logically, the scientific researcher
cannot make much progress in any investigation.
• The research should be reductive. This means that the findings of one researcher should be made
available to other researchers to prevent them from repeating the same research.
 • The research should be replicable. This asserts that there should be scope to confirm the findings
of previous research in a new environment and different settings with a new group of subjects or at
a different point in time.
• The research should be generative. This is one of the valuable characteristics of research because
answering one question leads to generating many other new questions.
• The research should be action-oriented. In other words, it should be aimed at reaching a solution
leading to the implementation of its findings.
• The research should follow an integrated multidisciplinary approach, i.e., research approaches from
more than one discipline are needed.
• The research should be participatory, involving all parties concerned (from policymakers down to
community members) at all stages of the study.
• The research must be relatively simple, timely, and time-bound, employing a comparatively simple
design.
• The research must be as much cost-effective as possible.
• The results of the research should be presented in formats most useful for administrators, decision-
makers, business managers, or community members.

Objectives of Research

The four common objectives of the research are given below. So that we can understand that how research
is concerned with fact findings, analysis, and evaluation.

1. Exploratory: Exploratory research is the first research to be conducted around a problem that has
not yet been clearly defined. Exploration research, therefore, aims to gain a better understanding of
the exact nature of the problem and not to provide a conclusive answer to the problem itself. This
enables us to conduct more in-depth research later on.

2. Descriptive: Descriptive research expands knowledge of a research problem or phenomenon by

describing it according to its characteristics and population. Descriptive research focuses on the
‘how’ and ‘what’, but not on the ‘why’.

3. Explanatory: Explanatory research, also referred to as casual research, is conducted to determine

how variables interact, i.e., to identify cause-and-effect relationships. Explanatory research deals
with the ‘why’ of research questions and are therefore often based on experiments.
 4. To test a hypothesis of a reasonable liaison between different variables (this type of research can
be grouped into hypothesis-testing research).

If you noticed the objectives of the research, it is quite clear that fact-finding, analysis, and evaluation are
required to accomplish the objective of the research.

Research is aimed at finding out the truth. To research to find out the truth a careful investigation is
required. For that investigation, the research is more concerned with proper fact-finding, analysis, and
evaluation.

Research has its three pillars as fact-finding, analysis, and evaluation without which the authenticity of
the research is lost. Research is well appreciated in terms of its authenticity. Research is more concerned
about authenticity and authenticity is more concerned about proper fact-finding, analysis, and evaluation.

Research starts with a question of a problem. Then the problem is investigated and a solution is designed
by the researcher. To explain the problem and to explain the solution these three steps should be done like
proper fact-finding, analysis and evaluation are mandatory.

Now let’s give a brief description of the main three key points of research
Fact-finding

The first one is fact findings. The ethical, moral, and scientific belief is that all research has to be based on
facts. Fact-finding is the formal process of using research, interviews, questionnaires, sampling, and other
techniques to collect information about systems, requirements, and preferences. It is also called information
gathering or data collection. Tools, such as data and process models, document facts, and conclusions are
drawn from facts. If you can't collect the facts, you can't use the tools.

Fact-finding is most crucial

to the systems planning and
systems analysis phases. It
is during these phases that
the analyst learns about the
vocabulary, problems,
opportunities, constraints,
requirements, and priorities
of a business and a system.
During systems design,
fact-finding becomes
technical as the analyst
attempts to learn more
about the technology
selected for the new
system. During the systems
support phase, fact-finding is important in determining that a system has decayed to a point where the
system needs to be redeveloped. Fact-finding is the process of collection of data and information based on
techniques that contain a sampling of existing documents, research, observation, questionnaires, interviews,
prototyping, and joint requirements planning. System analyst uses suitable fact-finding techniques to
develop and implement the current existing system. Collecting required facts are very important to apply
tools in System Development Life Cycle because tools cannot be used efficiently and effectively without
proper extracting from facts. Fact-finding techniques are used in the early stage of the System Development
Life Cycle including the system analysis phase, design, and post-implementation review. Facts included in
any information system can be tested based on three steps: data- facts used to create useful information,
process- functions to perform the objectives, and interface- designs to interact with users.
So, we can be deduced from the discussion that fact-finding is very important in research methodology.
Therefore, fact-finding must be done with careful consideration. If somehow made mistakes during fact-
findings, it could result in a false interpretation of the research. This could reduce efficiency and can be
adjudicated as invalid.

There are seven common fact-finding techniques which are given below

1. A sampling of existing documentation, forms, and databases

The best way to analyze the existing system is to collect facts from existing documentation rather than from
human sources. There are various kinds of documents to collect facts from existing documents. These
include:

➢ e-mails, customer complaints, suggestion box notes, and reports that document the problem area
➢ problem performance reviews, samples of completed manual forms and reports, and samples of
completed computerized forms and reports
➢ various types of flowcharts and diagrams, program documentation, and user training manuals

System analyst uses sampling techniques to organize the above documentation. The sampling technique is
the process of combing a representative sample of documents, forms, and records. There are two commonly
used sampling techniques namely randomization and stratification. Randomization is the process of
selecting sample data randomly. Stratification is the systematic process to deduct the variance of sampling
data.

2. Research and Site visits

Research and site visits, the second technique, is the process of examining the problems which had
previously been solved by other sources that can be either human or documents. To solve the requirements
of the problem, the analyst visits other organizations that had previously experienced similar problems. In
addition, the analyst can also find the information from the database, reference books, case studies, and
Internet

3. Observation of the work environment

Another fact-finding technique is observation. In this technique, the system analyst participates in the
organization, studies the flow of documents, applies the existing system, and interacts with the users.
Observation can be a useful technique when the system analyst has a user point of view. A sampling
technique called work sampling is useful for observation. By using this technique, system analysts can
know how employees spend their days.
 4. Questionnaires

Questionnaires are also one useful fact-finding technique to collect information from a large number of
users. Users fill up the questions which are given by the system analyst and then give the answers back to
the system analyst. Questionnaires can save time because system analyst does not need to interview each
of users and if the time of interview is short, questionnaires are more useful. To fulfill the requirements of
the system objective, system analysts should have the ability to clearly define the design and frame of
questionnaires.

There are two types of questionnaires:

1. Free-format questionnaires

In free-format questionnaires, users are allowed to answer questions freely without an immediate response.
The results are also useful in learning about the feelings, opinions, and experiences of the respondents.

2. Fixed-format questionnaires

The purpose of fixed-format questionnaires is to gather information from a predefined format of questions.
Users are allowed to choose the result from the given answers. There are three types of fixed-format
questions: multiple-choice questions (Yes or No type), rating questions (Strongly Agree, Agree, no opinion,
disagree, strongly disagree), ranking questions (numbering according to the preferences).

5. Interviews

The interview is the most commonly used technique to collect information from face-to-face interviews.
The purpose of an interview is to find, verify, clarify facts, motivate end-users involved, identify
requirements, and gather ideas and opinions. The role of the interview includes the interviewer who is a
system analyst and interviewees who are system owners or users. Interviewing technique needs good
communication skills for interaction between system analysts and users.

6. Prototyping

Another fact-finding technique is known as prototyping which collects the requirement facts of the system.
Prototyping is sampling a small working model and it is more related to the pre-design of the information
system. The implementation of prototyping can be developed in an earlier stage of the system development
life cycle when analyzing the facts. The process of prototyping facts to specify the user requirements is also
known as discovery prototyping.

7. Joint requirements planning

JRP is the structured group work meeting to identify, analyze problems and define the requirements of the
system. JRP is becoming increasingly common in systems planning and systems analysis to obtain group
consensus on problems, objectives, and requirements. JRP can tabulate the facts efficiently in a short time
and it can also replace in the place of numerous and separate interviews. JRP contains different participants
with each specialized role to perform structured meetings. JRP participants include sponsors, facilitators,
users and managers, scribes, and IT staff. The sponsor is an individual in top management, who has full
authority to decide who will be participants, the time and location of the JRP session. The role of the
facilitator is to lead the JRP session, motivate participants, solve conflicts and meet the requirements of
meeting during the JRP session. Users in the JRP session are responsible for the rules and requirements of
a business, prototype, and satisfactory decisions. And Managers are responsible for projects, schedules and
costs, and training requirements. The scribe's job is to record everything discussed in the meeting. IT staff
responsible for models and documentation concerning facts during the discussion.

Analysis

After fact or data findings, collected data are analyzed by the researcher. This step follows the fact findings.

To analyze means to break a topic or concept down into its parts to inspect and understand it, and to
restructure those parts in a way that makes sense to you. In an analytical research paper, you research to
become an expert on a topic so that you can restructure and present the parts of the topic from your
perspective.

For example, you could analyze the role of the mother in the ancient Egyptian family. You could break
down that topic into its parts-the mother's duties in the family, social status, and expected role in the larger
society-and research those parts to present your general perspective and conclusion about the mother's role.

The analysis of data requires several closely related operations such as the establishment of categories, the
application of these categories to raw data through coding, tabulation, and then drawing statistical
inferences.

The unwieldy data should necessarily be condensed into a few manageable groups and tables for further
analysis. Thus, the researcher should classify the raw data into some purposeful and usable categories as
u/m: -

➢ Coding operation is usually done at this stage through which the categories of data are transformed
into symbols that may be tabulated and counted.
➢ Editing is the procedure that improves the quality of the data for coding.
 ➢ With coding, the stage is ready for tabulation which is a part of the technical procedure wherein the
classified data are put in the form of tables.

In the process of analysis, relationships or differences supporting or conflicting with original or new
hypotheses should be subjected to tests of significance to determine with what validity data can be said to
indicate

Data analysis is the process of checking, reordering, and presenting available data in the form of applicable
and understandable information. It is necessary because the researcher should be able to make meaningful
deductions and conclusions from the data. It is a very critical part of researching so that the results can be
properly used and applied. Students in higher institutions have to do projects in their final year and will
have to write a thesis. For a thesis write-up to be put together accurately, data analysis is a critical part of
the research. It is good to know the importance of data analysis in an academic research paper.

If a good data
analysis is not done,
then it could cause a
flaw in the
application of the
research work. It is
crucial to know the
importance of data
analysis in research
work so that every
researcher can do his
best to ensure that whatever data obtained during research work is properly analyzed. Of course, in research
work, data could be collected using different means depending on what the research is aiming at and what
it is all about, but after the data is collected it is critically important to analyze the data correctly for
interpretation and application. It is important to know that regardless of the efforts put into data collection
and gathering of results, if the data is not properly analyzed, then it will do no real good.

It is, therefore, necessary to understand that as important as it is to collect data it is very important to analyze
it correctly as well. The very significance of your work or research will be based on how you can apply
your results to answer your research question or how well your results can relate to the problem that you
are trying to solve. Many researchers may not be able to analyze their data by themselves and so may have
to give their data to someone who can do the data analysis for them and probably pay the person but the
important thing is that whether you are doing the data analysis yourself or you are paying someone to do
the data analysis for you, ensure that the data analysis is properly done.

There are software/tools (e.g., SPSS – Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) that are used to analyze
data, and this makes it a lot easier to carry out data analysis but the know-how of handling these software
programs is another issue. The next step is evaluation, which follows the analysis step

Evaluation

The research seeks to prove and evaluation seeks to improve. Evaluation in research is defined as a form of
disciplined and systematic inquiry that is carried out to arrive at an assessment or appraisal of an object,
program, practice, activity, or system to provide information that will be of use in decision making.
Disciplined and systematic inquiry is described in terms of the quantitative and qualitative methods of the
behavioral and social sciences.

Research evaluation is a process that scrutinizes a research methodology and its results. Research evaluation
is most similar to research analysis. The only exception is that evaluation is performed after the research
has been conducted. Evaluation is conducted for three reasons to determine the probability, plausibility,
and adequacy of the research. It aims to better understand the measure, description, and outcome of the
research.

By evaluation, a researcher tries to understand the benefit and failures of his researches. The evaluation
also aims to generalize the result of the research. If a hypothesis is tested and upheld several times it may
be possible for the researcher to arrive at a generalization. The real value of research lies in its ability to
arrive at certain generalizations.

Without evaluation effectiveness of research cannot be comprehended. As Research begins with a theory
or thesis statement, this statement has to be proven or disproven as true/false at the end of the research.
Based on the result from the collected data, after evaluation, it can be decided either as either proved or
disproved. In this process, a conclusion can be reached on the research topic.

Criteria of Good Research

Whatever may be the types of research works and studies, one important thing is that they all meet on the
common ground of the scientific method employed by them. One expects scientific research to satisfy the
following criteria: -

(a) The purpose of the research should be clearly defined and common concepts are used.
(b) The research procedure used should be described in sufficient detail to permit another researcher to
repeat the research for further advancement, keeping the continuity of what has already been attained.

(c) The procedural design of the research should be carefully planned to yield results that are as objective
as possible.

(d) The researcher should report with complete frankness, flaws in procedural design and estimate their
effects upon the findings.

(e) The analysis of data should be sufficiently adequate to reveal its significance and the methods of analysis
used should be appropriate. The validity and reliability of the data should be checked carefully.

(f) Conclusions should be confined to those justified by the data of the research and limited to those for
which the data provide an adequate basis.

(g) Greater confidence in research is warranted if the researcher is experienced, has a good reputation in
research, and is a person of integrity.

In other words, we can state that good research is systemic, logical, empirical, and replicable.

As I have already described the three steps are fact-findings, analysis, and evaluation. So, from the above
discussion, it is quite understandable that we can only accomplish good research if we combine the three
steps fact-findings, analysis, and evaluation.