RESEARCH METHODS AND PRESENTATION-

EPCE6102
 2 July 4, 2023

Course Outline

 Introduction
 Scientificmethods
 Research process
 Research Design and Data collection
 Guide line for Research proposal & Final paper
write-up
 Oral Presentation skill

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OVERVIEW OF THE THEORY OF SCIENCE AND

HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
INTRODUCTION

o In the 21th century we live in a world that is more scientific then ever
in history of humanity.
o The number of active scientists today exceeds considerably the total
number of all scientists in the past.
o Our civilization is permeated by science.
o Science has become in one way or another a part of every humans life,
deeply integrated in our culture.
o What is then this thing called science?

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OVERVIEW OF THE THEORY OF SCIENCE AND

HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH…
o We hear that something is scientifically proved. It sounds like it is true.
What does true mean?
o What is scientific truth? How is science made? How is it formulated?
How is it communicated? What is communication? How do we use
different languages?
o There is a red thread in this course and that is critical thinking.
o We are going to use critical thinking as method when approaching
science, and we are going to think (critically!) about critical thinking.
o Last but not least we take a look at science and scientists from the
ethical point of view.
o Just not to forget that science is made by humans, and indeed for
humans.

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WHAT IS SCIENCE?
o "Scientists are people of very dissimilar temperaments doing different
things in very different ways. Among scientists are collectors,
classifiers and compulsive tidiers-up; many are detectives by
temperament and many are explorers; some are artists and others
artisans.
o There are poet-scientists and philosopher-scientists and even a few
mystics."
o -Peter Medawar. Pluto's Republic, Oxford University Press, NY, 1982,
p. 116.
o Science is an extremely complex phenomenon, and difficult if not
entirely impossible to define in a simple way.
o Here is an attempt to determine science by goal and process as well as
by contrast (i.e. by defining what is not science).

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Definitions by Goal and Process

• Science (Lat. scientia, from scire, “to know”) is wonder about nature. Like
philosophy, science poses questions - but also has the means to answer them,
as long as they concern the state and behavior of the physical world.
• Science is the systematic study of the properties of the physical world, by
means of repeatable experiments and measurements, and the development of
universal theories that are capable of describing and predicting observations.
• Statements in science must be precise and meaningful, such that other people
can test them (in order to establish “universality”).
Science is
o the systematic observation of natural events and conditions in order to
discover facts about them and to formulate laws and principles based on these
facts.
o the organized body of knowledge that is derived from such observations and
that can be verified or tested by further investigation.
o any specific branch of this general body of knowledge, such as Electrical
Engineering, biology, physics, geology, or astronomy.
- Academic Press Dictionary of Science & Technology
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Definitions by Goal and Process…

o Science involves more than the gaining of knowledge. It is the systematic and
organized inquiry into the natural world and its phenomena. Science is about
gaining a deeper and often useful understanding of the world.
- Multicultural History of Science page at Vanderbilt University
o Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the
danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers in the preceding
generation…As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way:
Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.
-Richard Feynman, Nobel-prize-winning physicist, in The Pleasure of
Finding Things out

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Definitions by Contrast
• To do science is to search for repeated patterns, not simply to
accumulate facts.
- Robert H. MacArthur, Geographical Ecology
• Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.
- Richard Feynman
• We shall have to get accustomed to the idea that we must not look
upon science as a “body of knowledge”, but rather as a system of
hypotheses, or as a system of guesses or anticipations that in
principle cannot be justified, but with which we work as long as
they stand up to tests, and of which we are never justified in saying
that we know they are “true”.
- Karl R. Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery

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Research?
 A careful investigation for new facts in any branch of
knowledge

 Redman and Mory: Research is a systematic effort to

gain new knowledge

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Research?
 Clifford Woody: Research-
 defining and redefining problems, formulating
hypothesis/objectives;
 collecting, organizing and evaluating data;
 making deductions and reaching conclusions;
 testing the conclusions to determine whether they fit
the formulating hypothesis/objectives

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Why do research?
o Desire to get a research degree along with its
consequential benefits
o Desire to face the challenge in solving the unsolved
problems
o Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some creative work
o Desire to be of service to society
o Desire to get respectability
o Directives of government, employment conditions etc.
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Why do research?...
 Validate intuition

 Improve methods

 Demands of the Job

 For publication/patent

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OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH
 The purpose of research is to discover answers to questions through the
application of scientific procedures.
 The main aim of research is to find out the truth which is hidden and which
has not been discovered as yet.
 Though each research study has its own specific purpose, we may think of
research objectives as falling into a number of following broad groupings:
1. To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it
(studies with this object in view are termed as exploratory or formulative
research studies);
2. To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation
or a group (studies with this object in view are known as descriptive
research studies);
3. To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it
is associated with something else (studies with this object in view are
known as diagnostic research studies);
4. To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables (such
studies are known as hypothesis-testing research studies).

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MOTIVATION IN RESEARCH
 What makes people to undertake research? This is a question of
fundamental importance.
 The possible motives for doing research may be either one or more of the
following:
1. Desire to get a research degree along with its consequential benefits;
2. Desire to face the challenge in solving the unsolved problems, i.e., concern
over practical problems initiates research;
3. Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some creative work;
4. Desire to be of service to society;
5. Desire to get respectability.
 However, this is not an exhaustive list of factors motivating
people to undertake research studies.
 Many more factors such as directives of government, employment
conditions, curiosity about new things, desire to understand causal
relationships, social thinking and awakening, and the like may as well
motivate (or at times compel) people to perform research operations.

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Choose a subject

 Based on an idea

 Based on your experience

 Based on your reading

 Originality

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The important features of a research design

 A plan
Specify the sources & types of information
relevant to the research problem
 A strategy
Which approach will be used for gathering and
analyzing the data
 The time and budgets
Most studies are done under these two
constraints

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CHARACTERISTICS OF RESEARCH

 Systematic- All steps must be inter related- one

to another
 Logical- Agreeing with the principles of logic
 Empirical-Conclusions should be based on
evidences/observations

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CHARACTERISTICS OF
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RESEARCH…
 Objectivity- It must answer the research
questions
 Replicable- reproducible
 Transmittable
 Quality control- Accurate measurements
 All well designed and conducted research has
potential application

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Define Your objectives

 Try to keep these simple
 The more variables the more difficult
 Use the opportunity
 Get help at this stage
 Senior colleagues
 Experienced researchers

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Literature search
 Check to see if your idea is original
 Get articles
 Read articles and their references
 Most of these will be vital when writing up reports
 Find gap areas
 Find obsolete measurements and results
 Define objectives of the study

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Steps involved in a research

 Choose a subject
 Literature survey
 Defining and formulation of specific objectives
 Prepare Synopsis
 Procuring of suitable apparatus/materials
 Design of experimental set up
 Preliminary experiments
 Execution of the project
 Accurate measurements/data collection

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Steps involved in a research…

 Data analysis and error compounding
 Hypothesis testing and verification
 Results and discussion
 Generalization, interpretation and drawing
conclusions
 Preparation of the project report or writing thesis

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The Process of Research

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Research article writing

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Authorship/ethics
 [Allauthors should directly involved in entire study
 Article is free from plagiarism
 Should follow ethics

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A Research Report
A Research Report generally include:

 Introduction and Statement of problem

 Review of relevant literature
 Statement of hypothesis or research objectives
 Theoretical resume
 Description of research design
 Description Experimental design
 Description of measurement and data analysis
 Error compounding
 Presentation of Results
 Discussion
 Conclusion, limitations, and implications
 Suggestions for future work
 Acknowledgements
 References cited
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 Appendices
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Types of research
1. Application- Pure and Applied Research
Applied- Finding solutions for immediate problems
facing a society/industry
Pure- Concerned with generalization and formulation of
a theory

2. Inquiry Mode- Quantitative and qualitative

Quantitatative- Measurements of quantity or amount
Qualitative- Concerned with qualitative phenomena (reasons
for human behavior)

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Types of Research…
 The basic types of research are as follows:
(i) Descriptive vs. Analytical:
Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of
different kinds.
- The major purpose of descriptive research is description of the state
of affairs as it exists at present.
- In social science and business research we quite often use the term
Ex post facto research for descriptive research studies (for example,
frequency of shopping, preferences of people, or similar data).
- The main characteristic of this method is that the researcher has no
control over the variables; he can only report what has happened or
what is happening.
NB: Ex post facto studies also include attempts by researchers to
discover causes even when they cannot control the variables.
In analytical research, on the other hand, the researcher has to use
facts or information already available, and analyze these to make a
critical evaluation of the material.
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Cnd…
(ii) Applied vs. Fundamental: Research can either be applied (or
action) research or fundamental (to basic or pure) research.
- Applied research aims at finding a solution for an immediate
problem facing a society or an industrial/business organization,
whereas
-fundamental research is mainly concerned with generalizations and
with the formulation of a theory.
 “Gathering knowledge for knowledge’s sake is termed ‘pure’ or
‘basic’ research.
 Research concerning some natural phenomenon or relating to
pure mathematics are examples of fundamental research.
 Similarly, research studies, concerning human behavior carried on
with a view to make generalizations about human behavior, are
also examples of fundamental research,
 but research aimed at certain conclusions (say, a solution) facing
a concrete social or business problem is an example of applied
research.
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Cnd…

(iii) Quantitative vs. Qualitative:

 Quantitative research is based on the measurement of
quantity or amount.
 It is applicable to phenomena that can be expressed in terms of
quantity.
 Qualitative research, on the other hand, is concerned
with qualitative phenomenon, i.e., phenomena relating
to or involving quality or kind.
 For instance, when we are interested in investigating the
reasons for human behavior (i.e., why people think or do certain
things), we quite often talk of ‘Motivation Research’, an
important type of qualitative research.

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Cnd…

(iv) Conceptual vs. Empirical:

 Conceptual research is that related to some abstract idea(s)
or theory.
 It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new
concepts or to reinterpret existing ones. On the other hand,
 Empirical research relies on experience or observation
alone, often without due regard for system and theory. It is
data-based research, coming up with conclusions which are
capable of being verified by observation or experiment.
 We can also call it as experimental type of research. In such a
research, the researcher must first provide himself with a working
hypothesis or guess as to the probable results. He then works to get
enough facts (data) to prove or disprove his hypothesis.

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Research Studies
 Based on research objectives:

 Exploratory or formulative research- To gain

familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve
new insights into it
 descriptive research- To study accurately the
characteristics of a particular individual,
situation or a group-includes survey

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Research Studies
 Diagnostic research- To determine the
frequency with which something occurs or with
which it is associated with something else
 hypothesis-testing research- To test a hypothesis
of a causal relationship between variables

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Research Methods versus Methodology

 Research methods may be understood as all those methods/techniques
that are used for conduction of research.
 Research methods or techniques, thus, refer to the methods the
researchers use in performing research operations.
 A distinction is also made between research techniques and research
methods.
 Research techniques refer to the behavior and instruments we use
in performing research operations such as making observations,
recording data, techniques of processing data and the like.
 Research methods refer to the behavior and instruments used in
selecting and constructing research technique.
 one can say that methods are more general. It is the methods that
generate techniques. However, in practice, the two terms are taken
as interchangeable and when we talk of research methods we do, by
implication, include research techniques within their compass.

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Cnd…

 Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research

problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research
is done scientifically.
 In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by a
researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic
behind them.
 It is necessary for the researcher to know not only the research
methods/techniques but also the methodology
 Researchers not only need to know how to develop certain indices or
tests, how to apply particular research techniques, but they also need
to know which of these methods or techniques, are relevant and which
are not, and what would they mean and indicate and why.
 Researchers also need to understand the assumptions underlying
various techniques and they need to know the criteria by which they
can decide that certain techniques and procedures will be applicable to
certain problems and others will not.

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 The scope of research methodology is wider than that of research

methods.
 Thus, when we talk of research methodology we not only talk of the
research methods but also consider the logic behind the methods we use
in the context of our research study and explain why we are using a
particular method or technique and why we are not using others so that
research results are capable of being evaluated either by the researcher
himself or by others.
 Why a research study has been undertaken,
 how the research problem has been defined,
 in what way and why the hypothesis has been formulated,
 what data have been collected and what particular method has been
adopted,
 why particular technique of analysing data has been used

 And a host of similar other questions are usually answered when we talk
of research methodology concerning a research problem or study.
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“Science is not belief,

but the will to find out.”

Thank you
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