Research Types, Process, and Design

Research Definitions and Process

  • Research is a systematic process of discovery.
  • OECD definition: Creative and systematic work to increase knowledge of humankind, culture, and society, and to devise new applications of available knowledge.
  • Research aims:
    • Solve problems.
    • Develop processes or policies.
    • Develop new applications or technologies.
    • Treat diseases.
  • Research is ongoing, continually refining and expanding our knowledge base.
  • Research is cyclical, often leading to new questions.
  • Research must be shared to build on and expand knowledge.

Types of Research

Basic Research

  • Experimental and theoretical work to acquire new knowledge.
  • Focuses on the underlying foundation of phenomena and gathering observable facts.
  • Driven by curiosity about how the world works.
  • May not have immediate practical application but can lead to future discoveries.
  • Primary purpose: Generating information to lead to theory and testing hypotheses.
  • Examples: Human biology, biology, physiology, and neuroscience.

Applied Research

  • Original investigation to acquire new knowledge directed towards a specific practical aim or objective.
  • Focuses on the development of something.
  • Knowledge creation or application needs translation into changes in practice or policy.
  • Can take many years to implement.

Translational Research

  • Translates findings from controlled trials into real-world settings.
  • Examples: Sports science, exercise, and health.
  • Involves testing the effectiveness of interventions in real-world conditions.
  • Considers user experience and scalability within broader health systems or policies.

Research Process

  • Starts with an observation.
  • Asks questions about cause and effect.
  • Questions are formally stated as a problem.
  • The main problem is divided into smaller problems, specific questions, or hypotheses.
  • Hypothesis: An educated speculation that answers the question.
  • Hypothesis must be consistent with current knowledge and testable.
  • A research plan is developed to test hypotheses or answer questions.
  • Different research designs are appropriate depending on the question.
  • Focus on designs common within the human sciences.
  • The research process can be helical.
  • Research plans may need modification due to practical or ethical issues.
  • Assumptions need to be stated, which are conditions taken for granted.

Data Collection and Interpretation

  • Data is collected in various forms (events, numerical values, observations).
  • Data is meaningless until interpreted in light of existing knowledge and assumptions.
  • Discovery and meaning of data are essential to research.
  • Interpreted data answers the research question (partially or completely).
  • Data often poses new questions, making the research process a cycle.

Primary vs. Secondary Research Designs

Primary Research

  • Involves new research to answer specific questions or issues.
  • Involves collection and/or analysis of new data.
  • Data acquired through experiments, observational studies, fieldwork, primary document analysis, etc.
  • Can be prospective or retrospective.

Secondary Research

  • Summarizes and interprets existing knowledge.
  • Common methodologies: systematic reviews.
  • Systematic reviews aim to find and assess all high-quality studies addressing a specific question.
  • Synthesizes what is known from primary research studies to provide a summary.

Meta-Analyses

  • Use statistical methods to combine results of individual studies.
  • Common in biomedical research.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Methodology

Quantitative Methodology

  • Involves the collection and analysis of numerical data (counts, measures, scores).
  • Describes numerical changes in data over time, between groups, or in response to an intervention.
  • Uses statistics to test whether changes or differences are likely to be true or due to chance.

Qualitative Methodology

  • Uses non-numerical forms of data from interviews, observations, documents, and artifacts.
  • Useful for learning about social processes, concepts, ascribing meanings to symbols, and describing experiences.
  • Growing recognition of its importance, especially in health-related research.

Study Designs within Primary Research

Observational Studies

  • Studies that do not involve any intervention or experiment.

Experimental Research

  • Studies that involve the manipulation of a factor under study and randomization of subjects to treatments or exposure groups.
  • Can identify cause and effect.

Descriptive Designs

  • Describe a phenomenon or make observations.
  • Can generate questions and hypotheses but do not involve analysis.

Analytic Designs

  • Aim to test hypotheses.
  • Can be observational (indicate relationships between variables) or experimental (determine causality).

Strength of Evidence for Causality

  • Descriptive studies indicate that a phenomenon exists.
  • Observational studies identify relationships between variables.
  • Experimental studies test whether one factor leads to a change in another (causality).