Research

Methodology
Lec 2
By Dr M. Almas Anjum
 RESEARCH PROCESS

Review the literature

Analyse
Review Design
Collect Data
Define Theories Formula Research Interpre
Data (Test
Birth Researc te (Includin t
(Executi Hypothe
of h hypothes g and
on) sis
Concept Proble Review is Sample report
if any)
m Previous Design)
Researc
I h III IV V VI VII
findings

II

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FLOW CHART OF RESEARCH
STANDARD MODEL RESEARCH BASED PUB
PROCESS
CHINA MODEL
CHINA MODEL
CHINA MODEL
CHINA MODEL
CHINA MODEL
 SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Science’ refers to the body of systematic and organized‘
knowledge which makes use of scientific method to acquire
.knowledge in a particular field of enquiry

Scientific method is the systematic collection of data (facts)

and their theoretical treatment through proper observation,
.experimentation and interpretation

Scientific method attempts to achieve a systematic

interrelation of facts by experimentation, observation, and
logical arguments from accepted postulates and a combination
.of these three in varying proportions
 CHARACTERISTIC OF SCIENT
METHOD

.It relies on empirical evidence ☞

.It utilizes relevant concepts ☞

It is committed to only objective ☞

.considerations
.It results into probabilistic predictions ☞

.The methodology is made known ☞

.Aims at formulating scientific theories ☞

 Concepts
It is an idea that is expressed in words

It consist of both a word and a definition

Concepts are logical constructions or abstractions

created from sense impressions, and experiences
 Concepts
A concept is a word which is so constructed and defined that
.observation become possible
Concept name possible or imagined properties of things,
.people or event
The role of concept is to establish some kind of link with the
.social world
Concept is a word or a set of words that express a general idea
concerning the nature of something or the relations between
things, often providing a category for the classification of
.phenomena
 Concepts
Concept ‘group’ refers to plurality of persons having
direct or indirect communication, standardized patterns
of interactions, common goals, shared norms and some
.degree of interdependence
Concept are regarded very important in the theoretical
framework that sets a context for the research, as being
involved in the statement of research problem, as
determining the data that will be collected and how
they will be categorized, and as being essential in
.describing the findings
 SOURCES OF CONCEPT
.According to Norman B. concept come from four sources
A theoretical perspective that is dominant within a .1
.discipline or social scientific community
.A specific research problem .2
Commonly used theoretical concepts that are given a .3
new definition
Everyday concept that are given precise meanings .4
 THE CONSTRUCT
A construct is a concept devised to support an scientific analysis and
.generalizations
.A construct is generally inferred from an observable phenomenon
It is an abstraction from reality, selecting & focusing on certain
.aspects of reality and ignoring others
A construct is also a concept with the added meaning of having been
deliberately and consciously invented or adopted for a special
.scientific purpose
& Ex- Intelligence is a concept
Intelligence quotient (IQ) is a scientific construct which enables a
.behavioral scientist to measure the intelligence of a person
RESEARCH PROCESS GUIDELINE:

(1)Formulating the research problem;

(2) Extensive literature survey;
(3) Developing the hypothesis;
(4) Preparing the research design;
(5) Determining sample design;
(6) Collecting the data;
(7) Execution of the project;
(8) Analysis of data;
(9) Hypothesis testing;
(10) Generalizations and interpretation,
(11) Preparation of the report or presentation of the results ,i. e., formal
write-up of conclusions reached.
 FORMULATING A
RESEARCH PROBLEM

"Well begun is half done"

--Aristotle, quoting an old proverb
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SCHOOLOFNUTRITIONANDDIETETICS•UNIVERSITISULTANZAINALABIDIN
FINDING A RESEARCH QUESTION

•A statement of the problem is used in research work

as a claim that outlines the problem addressed by a
study.
•A good research problem should address an existing
gap in knowledge in the field and lead to further
research.
•To write a attractive problem statement, you need to
describe (a) the ideal, (b), the reality, and (c) the
consequences.
?WHAT IS RESEARCH PROBLEM

• Any question that you want answered and any

assumption or assertion that you want to challenge or
investigate.
• However;
– not all questions can be transformed into research
problems.
– the process of formulating them in a meaningful way
is not at all an easy task.
– it requires considerable knowledge of both the subject
area and research methodology.
2
2
FORMULATING A RESEARCH
PROBLEM
The first and the most important step
It identifies your destination
It tells what you intend to research
The more specific and the clearer the problem,
the better you are
It is the seed of everything that follows
Decide what you want to find out about

Factors: finance, time, expertise and knowledge

BEFORE FORMULATING PROBLEMS

How much do you know about the

?areas/topics

Not much ----- Review literature to learn

more

Good ------ Can you describe the

issues/problems discussed to date
?WHERE DO RESEARCH TOPICS COME FROM
,Experiences of practical problems in the field Curiosity
Learn from those experiencing the issues in the Information Gaps
,field Controversy
,Literature in your specific field Replication
Request for proposals Other People
???...
Think up the research topics of their own

Q: How about yours?

 WHAT IS RESEARCH PROBLEM? (CONT
(.

• A research problem is a perceived gap between what

is and what should be.
• Research problem arise from;
– Evolution of theories.
– Published research (literature review).
– Day-to-day experience

2
6
 Research
problem is like an
identification of
destination
before
undertaking
research journey

2
SCHOOLOFNUTRITIONANDDIETETICS•UNIVERSITISULTANZAINALABIDIN
7
WHAT IT IS THAT YOU WANT TO FIND
OUT ABOUT AND NOT WHAT YOU
THINK YOU MUST FIND

9
 CLEAR RESEARCH PROBLEM RESEARCH PROBLEM IS THE
WOULD RESULT IN CLEAR AND FOUNDATION OF THE
.ECONOMICAL RESEARCH PLAN RESEARCH STUDY

2
9
THE WAY WE FORMULATE THE RESEARCH
PROBLEM DETERMINES EVERY STEP THAT
;FOLLOWS

• Type of study design that can be used

• Type of sampling strategy that can be employed
• Research instrument that can be used or developed
• Type of analysis that can be undertaken

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SOURCES OF People
RESEARCH
PROBLEMS
Problem
Phenomena
4P

Programme
ASPECTS OF RESEARCH PROBLEM

Aspects of study About Study of

Study population People Individuals, They provide you with
organizations, groups, the required information
communities or you collect
information from or
about them
Subject area Problem Issues, situations, Information that you
associations, needs, need to collect to find
population composition, answers to your service
profiles etc. research questions
Programme Contents, structure,
outcomes, attributes,
satisfaction, consumers,
providers etc
Phenomenon Cause and effect,
relationships, the study
of a phenomenon itself
etc

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 Personal Experiences:
Day-to-day personal experience of a research may
serve as good source of ideas to formulate a
research problem.

:PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES
Every curious person has several questions to be
answered which are encountered during day to day
experience

Knowledge gained from experience forms an

essential aid to our understanding
and activities in everyday life
:CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF LITERATURE
WHEN WE CRITICALLY STUDY BOOKS & ARTICLES
RELATING TO THE SUBJECT OF OUR INTEREST,
INCLUDING RESEARCH

These may strike reader’s mind indirectly by

stimulating imagination & directly by stating what
additional research is needed.
This information may serve as a basis to formulate a
research problem
:PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
A BODY OF KNOWLEDGE SHOULD BE DEVELOPED
ON A SOUND FOUNDATION OF RESEARCH
.FINDINGS
• Usually at the end of a research further research problems
are suggested, based on the shortcomings of previous
research, which can be investigated.

• In such cases, not much research has been yet done;

therefore, this area needs further research with different
samples & settings where all the essential elements of the
original study are held intact.
Existing theories:
• Research is a process of theory development & theory
testing.

• One uses many theories from other disciplines in their

practices.

• Generally, a part of parts of the theory are subjected to

testing in the in new situations and parameters.
Social issues:
• Sometimes, topics are suggested by more global
contemporary social or political issues of relevance to the
any area of community.

• These issues can be solved in using latest trends and

technologies.
Brainstorming:

• Brainstorming sessions are good techniques to find

new questions, where an intensified discussion
among interested people of the profession is
conducted to find more ideas to formulate a good
research problem.

• For example, ideas for studies may emerge from

reviewing research priorities by having
brainstorming session with users, researchers,
or technologists.
Institutions and Intuition:

• Traditionally institutions are considered good

sources of knowledge as well as sources to find
new research problems.

• It is believed that reflective mind is good sources of

ideas, which may be used to formulate a good
research problem.
Folklores:
• Common beliefs could be right or wrong.
• For examples, it is generally believed that studying just
before the test decrease the score.

• We believe we should not study just before test to relax

our mind.

• Researchers can conduct a research study on whether

one should study before the test or not.
Exposure to field situations:

• During field exposure, researchers get variety

of experiences, which may provide plenty of
ideas to formulate research problems.

• For example, while working in field a

researcher observed a specific traditional
practice as a solution , which can be used as
research problem to investigate its efficacy.
Consultation with experts:

• Experts are believed to have sound experience of their

respective field, which may suggest a significance
problem to be studied.

• In addition, expert may help in finding a current problem of

discipline to be solve, which may serve as basis for
formulation of research problem.
IDENTIFYING RESEARCH PROBLEM

• Differentiate between research vs. non-research

problems.
• Non-research problems are answered by these
questions:
– Can it be solved by administrative changes?
– Are there already solutions available that can be used?
– Is the problem due to lack of manpower and resources?
– Is there data showing that it is not a significant issue?

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CONSIDERATIONS
IN SELECTING A
RESEARCH Interest

PROBLEM Ethics Magnitude

Data Concept
availability Measures

Relevance Expertise
PRIORITIZING RESEARCH PROBLEM

Relevance
• • How important?
1
• Size, severity, health & social
consequences?
Duplication
• • Is the answer already available from other studies?
2
• Feasibility
3 • Feasible to carry out remedial actions?
• Are the manpower, time and resources
available?
Applicability
• • Potential solution is effective under ideal conditions?
4
• Will managers accept and use it?

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PRIORITIZING RESEARCH PROBLEM
(.(CONT

Cost effectiveness
• • Are the resources invested worth the outcome?
5
• Will the solution be too expensive to implement?
Timeliness
• • Will the answer come quick enough?
6
Ethics
• • Will the project be acceptable to the respondents?
7
Political acceptability
• • Will the managers and community acceptthe
8
results?

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STEPS IN FORMULATING RESEARCH
PROBLEM
STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3
Identify broad Dissect to sub- Select interested
field areas sub-area

STEP 5
STEP 6 STEP 4
Formulate
Assess objective Raise questions
objectives

STEP 7
Double check
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CRITERIA FOR SELECTING A PROBLEM

Interest
Most important
Significance
Theoretical value
Practical value
Timeliness
External review
Manageability
Expertise, time, resources
Free from personal bias
 Examples of
Problem Statements
 A Distance Metric for Software Clustering

The software clustering problem has attracted much attention

recently, since it is an integral part of the process of reverse
engineering large software systems. A key problem in this research
is the difficulty in comparing different approaches in an objective
fashion. [Needs to say in more detail what the difficulty is]
We propose a metric that calculates a distance between two
partitions of the same set of software resources. We hypothesize that
this metric can be used to effectively evaluate the similarity of two
different decompositions of a software system.
We begin by introducing our model and present a heuristic algorithm
that calculates the distance in an efficient fashion. We evaluate the
performance of the algorithm and the effectiveness of the metric….
[Need to say more about the experiments and how they might be
used to validate the hypothesis]
Task-Oriented Pattern Discovery for Predictive Web User
Modeling

An essential task in building personalized and adaptive systems is

the automatic discovery of predictive models for user behavior.
Existing approaches, such as clustering, correlation analysis, and
association discovery, tend to generate shallow patterns which do
not capture the full complexity of users' online behavior. Nor can
the generated patterns explain the users' underlying interests
which lead to specific types of behavioral patterns. To better
capture users' underlying interests or information needs, we
introduce the notion of “task”. A task is a set or sequence of
actions which are likely to be performed commonly by users in
order to meet a specific information need or perform a specific
function. These tasks are not directly visible, but can be captured
and characterized either by a combination of users' interactions
with the site and the site's content and structure. (cont.)
Task-Oriented Pattern Discovery for Predictive Web User
Modeling (cont.)

We hypothesize that patterns discovered at the task level can provide a

better understanding of users' underlying interests, which in turn, can
lead to better predictive models. We propose a framework for
“Task-Oriented Web User Modeling”. We intend to use probabilistic
latent variable modeling to automatically discover and quantify user
“tasks” and task-level patterns from users’ navigation data, as well as
from Web site's content and structure data. Based on this framework,
we will propose a novel personalization approach, based on the
maximum entropy principle, which allows for a seamless integration of
content-based and usage-based task-level patterns. We will perform
experiments on real Web usage data and movie rating data to validate
that the proposed approach results in more accurate and flexible
predictive models. [Need more on metrics and experimental design]
FIND YOUR PROBLEM
By 23 oct present a clear, precise statement of a
.computer science problem for research
:Guidelines
problem is stated in complete, grammatical sentences
is clear how the area of study will be limited or focused
is more than a simple exercise in gathering information,
answering a yes/no question or making a simple
comparison
includes a discussion of methods and approaches to
verify the hypotheses
PURPOSE OF THE PROBLEM
STATEMENT
Represents the reasons/motivation behind your proposal
.((based on the specific domain of study
It specifies the conditions you want to change or the gaps
in existing knowledge you intend to fill (this is the
.(specification of the research problem
.Should be supported by evidence
Specifies your hypothesis that suggests a solution to the
.problem
Shows your familiarity with prior research on the topic and
.why it needs to be extended
Even if the problem is obvious, your reviewers want to
.know how clearly you can state it
 KEY QUESTIONS TO ANSWER IN
YOUR PROBLEM STATEMENT
Demonstrate a precise understanding of and the motivation behind .1
?the problem you are attempting to solve
?Clearly convey the focus of your project early in the narrative .2
Indicate the relationship of your project to a larger set of problems .3
?and justify why your particular focus has been chosen
Demonstrate that your hypothesis is supported by evidence and .4
observations
Demonstrate that your problem is feasible to solve and that your .5
?experimental design is appropriate for validating your hypothesis
?Make others what to read it further .6