Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Research Methods
Welcome!
• Limitations to Today’s Presentation
– The World
– Time
• Your Introduction
• Your Interests In Research
• Why Are You Here?
• What do you think research is?
• What are the problems that you face when doing research?
• What are you planning on in life?
• Your research area background?
Welcome!
• Today’s goals!
• Today’s objectives!
• What is my purpose today?
• What I intend to do?
• What I will not be able to do?
• How did I prepare today’s lecture?
• The scope is a huge limitation…
Agenda
• Session 1: Introduction to Research
Methods
• Session 2: Group Case Study
• Session 3: Publishing Research Papers
(Conference + Journal)
• Session 4: PhD and Masters Level Research
• Session 5: Research Ethics
Agenda
• Session 1: Introduction to Research
Methods Go side by side
• Session 2: Group Case Study
• Session 3: Publishing Research Papers
(Conference + Journal)
• Session 4: PhD and Masters Level Research
• Session 5: Research Ethics
Agenda
• Session 1: Introduction to Research
Methods
• Session 2: Group Case Study
• Session 3: Publishing Research Papers
(Conference + Journal)
• Session 4: PhD and Masters Level Research
• Session 5: Research Ethics
Opening…..Research????
• The systematic study of materials and
sources in order to establish facts abd reach
new conclusions.
– OXFORD
sitivist
– A m bi guou
f research
• he nature o xperimental), reductionist
T
– Empirical (e
– To
Post po
le), intuitive
– Holistic (who
er
• The researchexpert
– Objective,
t …….
– To d collaborative
Subj ectiv e, participatory an
–
ethodology oducible
• M es is driven , re liable and repr
hypoth
– Deductive,
is
– To and auditable
y, dependable
Positiv
iv e, expl orator
– Induct
• Findings e, statistical, genera
lizable
– Q uantita tiv
– To erable
valuable, transf
– Qualitative,
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Research?
• Production of knowledge….
• More structured, organized, systematic
process
• Alternatives give us knowledge too
• Accuracy is better in case of research
Opening…
• Learning about research is a lot like learning about
anything else.
• To start, you need to learn the jargon people use,
the big controversies they fight over, and the
different factions that define the major players.
• We'll start by considering few really big multi-
syllable words that researchers sometimes use to
describe what they do.
What is Science ?
z Science is a way to produce knowledge.
z The subject matter of a science determines the
techniques or instruments used by it.
z Human social life is fluid, difficult to observe, and hard
to measure precisely.
z Science grew from a major shift in thinking from the
Age of Darkness to the Age of Reason and
Enlightenment from 1600-1800s.
z The new thinking included a faith in logical reasoning,
emphasis on experiences in the material world, a belief
in human progress, questioning of religious belief.
z Separation of religion from science.
Junk Science
• Junk science is a term used in U.S. political
and legal disputes that brands an advocate's
claims about scientific data, research, or
analyses as spurious (lacking authenticity).
The term may convey a pejorative (become
even worse) connotation that the advocate is
driven by political, ideological, financial, or
other unscientific motives.
Cont…
• Communalism. Research has to be made publicly
available in a special form and style so that other
researchers are able to review it.
• Honesty. This is a good cultural norm, which is
especially strong in scientific research. Cheating
in scientific research is a major taboo.
• Acceptance of these norms and their training in
conducting research makes up the scientific
attitude.
here phere
• Left Hemisp • Right Hemis
Analytical F
ormal
Intuitive Informal
Linear olistic
Logical Spontaneous H
erbal on-verbal
Temporal V A Temporal N
Sequential F
actual
Random Imaginative
Orderly Concrete Diffuse Metaphoric
Systematic Causal Systematic
Research Dimensions
• Applied or basic research
• Classified by the outcome of the research.
• Applied research:
– Examining a problem and finding its solution.
– It will probably involve using economic theory i.e applying an
economic law to a specific situation e.g in the policy of taxation
which is the best way to tax small businesses.
• Basic research is new discoveries or research on basic
economic fundamental laws.
• In Pakistan it is rarely conducted, even by our best
scientists.
Cross-Sectional Study
• A cross-sectional study is where we collect data
only once from each unit of analysis. For example,
if we want to examine the effects of age on
attitude towards abortion, we collect attitude data
from people of all ages, then see if there is a
correlation between age and attitude. This is the
opposite of a longitudinal study, where you take a
set of young people, then measuring their attitude
towards abortion every few years as they get
older.
Longitudinal Study
• A longitudinal study is where we follow the
units of analysis (say, employees) over
time, and measure key variables at different
points in time. For example, we might
measure morale before and after a
promotion.
Qualities of Researcher
• Communication
• IT
• Intellect
• Management
– The 4 functions
Theories
• Theories specify how concepts relate to one another.
• They tell us whether or not concepts are related, if so, how are
they related to one another.
• Theories state why or why not the relationship exists.
• A Social theory contains concepts, a relationship among concepts,
and a causal mechanism or reason for the relationship.
• A causal mechanism is a statement of how things work. Reasons
for a relationship are given by logically connected assumptions
and propositions.
• A general explanation of how something works. A theory says
what is related to what and why. A theory is, in part, a
collection of related hypotheses. However, a theory also
contains a sense of process and mechanism -- a sense of
understanding of why and how the variables are related the
way they are. Desirable characteristics of a theory include:
falsifiability, parsimony, truth, fertility, generality, surprise,
and a sense of process or mechanism.
All Rights Reserved by Dr. Ali Ahsan
Approaches
• Positivist
• Interpretive
• Feminist
• Critical Social Science
• Post-modern
• Epistemology
• Post-Positivist Ref Pg: 91 Neuman
Causality
• Causality
– While the goal of research is to understand what causes
what, this is a very difficult goal to achieve. Strictly
speaking, it is impossible. In fact, the notion of
causality is just a theory itself. However, on a day-to-
day basis, we assume that causality does exist and that
we can discover it through a combination of inductive
and deductive work. In general, laboratory experiments
are the only way to ascertain causality.
Literature Review
• Sometimes the Literature review will help you to identify research gaps.
– By seeing what others have done, you will be able to identify needed gaps.
– Where do you think you have to look in order to do this?
– In the conclusion generally where you position your findings and point out
what you were able to do and not do. Thus you point out the ‘gaps’ in
your research.
• A literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical
points of current knowledge and or methodological approaches on a
particular topic. Literature reviews are secondary sources, and as such,
do not report any new or original experimental work.
• Most often associated with academic-oriented literature, such as
theses, a literature review usually precedes a research proposal and
results section. Its ultimate goal is to bring the reader up to date with
current literature on a topic and forms the basis for another goal, such
as future research that may be needed in the area.
• A well-structured literature review is characterized by a logical flow of
ideas; current and relevant references with consistent, appropriate
referencing style; proper use of terminology; and an unbiased and
comprehensive view of the previous research on the topic.
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A Context Review
• A literature review for the purpose of creating links
to an existing or developing body of knowledge.
• The context review follows your problem statement
and establishes the importance and meaning of the
research questions, which you want to address in
your research.
• Thus, the researcher shows the way the research he
is going to undertake fits into the existing
knowledge. He points out whether the research
continues to develop a line of thinking which a
number of other researchers have also done.
Literature Review
• How???????
• Example of My PhD Thesis
• Ethics in research
• What to review????????
• What is a review????
Research Questions
Hypothesis
The Hypothesis
• A hypothesis is a statement which asserts a
relationship between 2 concepts.
• We have already seen what a concept is: a
concept is an idea which represents something,
(a phenomenon, an idea, event or occurrence, or
an object ) a class of things, or a general
categorization of an impression of something.
• Watching chess, I describe my impressions of it,
to myself and others as an “intellectual activity”.
• Concepts are categories or common descriptions
of the world which:
– we use to name features of our world and experience, in
order to make sense of them to ourselves and others.
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X Y
Causes or is related to
+ Academic
Amount of Study Performance
• 2 concepts: amount of study and academic performance are
related in such a way that more study leads to more
academic performance
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SNAPSHOT
• Abstract, purpose, research questions, objectives,
hypothesis (if any<<<<<why????), scope,
research methodology, data collection method,
data analysis method, limitations, list of
abbreviations, list of acronyms, conclusions,
findings, recommendations, references (end notes
and bibliography and one annotated reference
from journal), list of tables, list of illustrations, list
of annex and list of keywords.<<<<<LINKING
THESE
• Intellectual contribution.
Agenda
• Session 1: Introduction to Research
Methods
• Session 2: Group Case Study
• Session 3: Publishing Research Papers
(Conference + Journal)
• Session 4: PhD and Masters Level Research
• Session 5: Research Ethics
Agenda
• Session 1: Introduction to Research
Methods
• Session 2: Group Case Study
• Session 3: Publishing Research Papers
(Conference + Journal)
• Session 4: PhD and Masters Level Research
• Session 5: Research Ethics
Agenda
• Session 1: Introduction to Research
Methods
• Session 2: Group Case Study
• Session 3: Publishing Research Papers
(Conference + Journal)
• Session 4: PhD and Masters Level Research
• Session 5: Research Ethics
Literature review
Methodology
Results
Analysis and
Discussion
All Rights Reserved by Dr. Ali Ahsan
Cont….
Conclusions
References
Appendix
Agenda
• Session 1: Introduction to Research
Methods
• Session 2: Group Case Study
• Session 3: Publishing Research Papers
(Conference + Journal)
• Session 4: PhD and Masters Level Research
• Session 5: Research Ethics
Few Terms
• Citations?
• References?
– What can we not reference???
• Annotated References?
• Bibliography?
• What is plagiarism?
• Exploitation
• Others…..
• What is happening in Pakistan?
• Secrecy of data?
• Attribution?
• False results…..
All Rights Reserved by Dr. Ali Ahsan
The end:
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