Scientific research is a systematic process used to gather and study data in order to understand nature and make practical applications. It involves making observations, forming hypotheses and predictions, defining concepts, collecting and analyzing data, interpreting results, and revising hypotheses if needed. The goal is to support hypotheses through testing rather than prove them definitively. Research is funded publicly and privately and is used to evaluate academic institutions, though it does not necessarily correlate with quality of teaching. Research methods vary between disciplines, with the humanities exploring issues through historical and qualitative analysis rather than seeking definitive answers, and artistic research using creativity and subjectivity.
Scientific research is a systematic process used to gather and study data in order to understand nature and make practical applications. It involves making observations, forming hypotheses and predictions, defining concepts, collecting and analyzing data, interpreting results, and revising hypotheses if needed. The goal is to support hypotheses through testing rather than prove them definitively. Research is funded publicly and privately and is used to evaluate academic institutions, though it does not necessarily correlate with quality of teaching. Research methods vary between disciplines, with the humanities exploring issues through historical and qualitative analysis rather than seeking definitive answers, and artistic research using creativity and subjectivity.
Scientific research is a systematic process used to gather and study data in order to understand nature and make practical applications. It involves making observations, forming hypotheses and predictions, defining concepts, collecting and analyzing data, interpreting results, and revising hypotheses if needed. The goal is to support hypotheses through testing rather than prove them definitively. Research is funded publicly and privately and is used to evaluate academic institutions, though it does not necessarily correlate with quality of teaching. Research methods vary between disciplines, with the humanities exploring issues through historical and qualitative analysis rather than seeking definitive answers, and artistic research using creativity and subjectivity.
Scientific research is a systematic process used to gather and study data in order to understand nature and make practical applications. It involves making observations, forming hypotheses and predictions, defining concepts, collecting and analyzing data, interpreting results, and revising hypotheses if needed. The goal is to support hypotheses through testing rather than prove them definitively. Research is funded publicly and privately and is used to evaluate academic institutions, though it does not necessarily correlate with quality of teaching. Research methods vary between disciplines, with the humanities exploring issues through historical and qualitative analysis rather than seeking definitive answers, and artistic research using creativity and subjectivity.
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Scientific research is a systematic way of gathering data and harnessing curiosity.
This research provides
scientific information and theories for the explanation of the nature and the properties of the world. It makes practical applications possible. Scientific research is funded by public authorities, by charitable organizations and by private groups, including many companies. Scientific research can be subdivided into different classifications according to their academic and application disciplines. Scientific research is a widely used criterion for judging the standing of an academic institution, but some argue that such is an inaccurate assessment of the institution, because the quality of research does not tell about the quality of teaching (these do not necessarily correlate).[11]
Generally, research is understood to follow a certain structural process. Though step order may vary depending on the subject matter and researcher, the following steps are usually part of most formal research, both basic and applied:
Observations and formation of the topic: Consists of the subject area of one's interest and following that subject area to conduct subject-related research. The subject area should not be randomly chosen since it requires reading a vast amount of literature on the topic to determine the gap in the literature the researcher intends to narrow. A keen interest in the chosen subject area is advisable. The research will have to be justified by linking its importance to already existing knowledge about the topic.
Hypothesis: A testable prediction which designates the relationship between two or more variables.
Conceptual definition: Description of a concept by relating it to other concepts.
Operational definition: Details in regards to defining the variables and how they will be measured/assessed in the study.
Gathering of data: Consists of identifying a population and selecting samples, gathering information from or about these samples by using specific research instruments. The instruments used for data collection must be valid and reliable.
Analysis of data: Involves breaking down the individual pieces of data to draw conclusions about it.
Data Interpretation: This can be represented through tables, figures, and pictures, and then described in words.
Test, revising of hypothesis
Conclusion, reiteration if necessary
A common misconception is that a hypothesis will be proven (see, rather, null hypothesis). Generally, a hypothesis is used to make predictions that can be tested by observing the outcome of an experiment. If the outcome is inconsistent with the hypothesis, then the hypothesis is rejected (see falsifiability). However, if the outcome is consistent with the hypothesis, the experiment is said to support the hypothesis. This careful language is used because researchers recognize that alternative hypotheses may also be consistent with the observations. In this sense, a hypothesis can never be proven, but rather only supported by surviving rounds of scientific testing and, eventually, becoming widely thought of as true. A useful hypothesis allows prediction and within the accuracy of observation of the time, the prediction will be verified. As the accuracy of observation improves with time, the hypothesis may no longer provide an accurate prediction. In this case, a new hypothesis will arise to challenge the old, and to the extent that the new hypothesis makes more accurate predictions than the old, the new will supplant it. Researchers can also use a null hypothesis, which states no relationship or difference between the independent or dependent variables.
Research in the humanities
Research in the humanities involves different methods such as for example hermeneutics and semiotics. Humanities scholars usually do not search for the ultimate correct answer to a question, but instead, explore the issues and details that surround it. Context is always important, and context can be social, historical, political, cultural, or ethnic. An example of research in the humanities is historical research, which is embodied in historical method. Historians use primary sources and other evidence to systematically investigate a topic, and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past. Other studies aim to merely examine the occurrence of behaviours in societies and communities, without particularly looking for reasons or motivations to explain these. These studies may be qualitative or quantitative, and can use a variety of approaches, such as queer theory or feminist theory.[12]
Artistic research
Artistic research, also seen as 'practice-based research', can take form when creative works are considered both the research and the object of research itself. It is the debatable body of thought which offers an alternative to purely scientific methods in research in its search for knowledge and truth.
The controversial trend of artistic teaching becoming more academics-oriented is leading to artistic research being accepted as the primary mode of enquiry in art as in the case of other disciplines.[13] One of the characteristics of artistic research is that it must accept subjectivity as opposed to the classical scientific methods. As such, it is similar to the social sciences in using qualitative research and intersubjectivity as tools to apply measurement and critical analysis.[14]
