conducted research

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Conducting Research

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These OWL resources will help you conduct research using primary source methods, such as interviews and observations, and secondary source methods, such as books, journals, and the Internet. This area also includes materials on evaluating research sources.

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How to Conduct Research

Last Updated: January 16, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Matthew Snipp, PhD . C. Matthew Snipp is the Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor of Humanities and Sciences in the Department of Sociology at Stanford University. He is also the Director for the Institute for Research in the Social Science’s Secure Data Center. He has been a Research Fellow at the U.S. Bureau of the Census and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He has published 3 books and over 70 articles and book chapters on demography, economic development, poverty and unemployment. He is also currently serving on the National Institute of Child Health and Development’s Population Science Subcommittee. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin—Madison. There are 14 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 60,142 times.

Learning to search effectively for sources of information online and at the library doesn't have to be complicated. By learning to form effective research questions, plan out your venture, and explore the options available, you can get started using good sources to explore and support a position with research. See Step 1 for more information.

Forming a Research Question

• The topic of obesity in the US might be too large. Look at your own community, state, or region. What are the statistics? How does it compare to other regions? What might account for this? Why? If you're asking and answering these questions, you're well on your way to a solid research topic.
• Issues of fact don't make good research topics, because there's nothing to research, there's just a fact to look up. A good research question, for instance, wouldn't be "How many people have died from obesity?" but "How does obesity kill?"

• "What policies and attitudes resulted in the sudden rise in obesity in Indiana during the mid-90s?" would be an excellent research topic. It's specific in terms of location, controversy, and topic. It's something you can prove.

Exploring Online

• Government websites (ones that end in .gov) are good sources of data and definitions. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention site, for instance, has lots of good data about obesity in the US, how the disease affects specific populations, and a breakdown of obesity by region.
• Non-profits (websites that end in .org) can also be good sources of opinions. Generally, organizations will have an "agenda" and will present a variety of information that backs up their position. This can be good in aiding your research, but can also feature a fair amount of spin on the issues.
• Blogs and message boards can be good for getting a sense of people's opinions and are good for coming up with ideas for questions you can ask yourself, but they're not good sources of support. They're not good for quotes, in other words.

Using the Library

• Bring your research question and any research you've done to this point, as well as any particular assignments or project descriptions that you've got with you. If you're doing research for a paper, bring the assignment sheet.
• Ask at the front desk for research librarians who are on-call for student consultations, or make an appointment yourself with a topic librarian in a specific field. These meetings tend to be very beneficial. You won't waste time trying to negotiate the difficult library databases, and you'll be sure the kind of information you find will be helpful for your project.

• Books obviously make for good overviews of topics. If you're researching obesity, you'll be able to find long-range research studies, expert analysis, and opinions on books in the subject.
• Magazines and research journals will provide more specialized and technical topics, usually at a somewhat shorter length. They're be lighter on opinion and heavier on dry statistics.
• Most university libraries use JSTOR or some variant of an academic database that houses research articles by topic. It can be a somewhat difficult database to negotiate, so talk to a librarian for help if you're unsure.

• "obesity" "school lunch"
• "school lunch"
• "junk food in schools"
• "Indiana obesity"
• "Indiana school lunches"
• "weight epidemic"
• "obesity epidemic"

• Read the abstract, if the source has one, or read the introduction to the source to make sure the topic is applicable. If it seems peripheral, put it back and forget about it. You're not doing research to pad your bibliography, you're doing it to support your argument and explore the topic.
• If you find a good source, skip forward to the end and read the summary. Much of the "meat" of technical research-based sources will be spent presenting their own research, whereas you're mostly concerned with the findings and the argument itself. Often, you can get away with only reading a few paragraphs of a 15 or 20 page research report or book if you read smart.
• If the source provides excellent support, read the article more closely to get a sense of the argument and the evidence. Use the author's own research to look for more sources.

• Take note cards to the library and write down specific quotes on one side of the card and the bibliographical information (Title, author, publication info, and URL if applicable) on the other side of the card.

• Some students think more sources makes a research paper better. It doesn't. Ideally, you want a balance of "their" voice--meaning the research--and your voice, your argument. A good research project uses the research to form and support an argument, not to act like a ventriloquist dummy, repeating information you read at length.

Conducting Primary Research

• Be conscious of bias. Aim for a somewhat distributed mix of men and women, of different ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and places of birth.

• If you're interested in food habits and the availability of junk food in cafeterias, consider posting up beside the lunch line a few days a week and counting the number of students who forego the full lunches in favor of deserts, sodas, or candy. Keep a running tally.
• Interviews might be good if you have access to experts or other parties involved directly in the topic you're researching. If you want to learn about school lunches, talk to the lunch workers, the principal of your school, or other people who may be involved. Let them know what you're researching and explain the project before talking to them.

• If your hypothesis about the research ends up being wrong, don't fret. This in and of itself can be a good source of information to present in a project, displaying your commitment to finding out "the truth" of the topic at hand.

Organizing Your Research

• A bad thesis statement might be "Schools need to do more to avoid obesity." This is vague and difficult to prove. What schools? What do they need to do? "Adams High School could significantly drop the obesity rate in the student body and even the region by removing the vending machines and offering a diversity of healthy choices" does a lot more to present an argument and give you something to prove.

• According to Adams, schools that feature vending machines in the lunch rooms experience an increase in obesity rates.
• According to Adams, "The inclusion of vending machines markedly increases the junk food desires of students in those schools, resulting in a chain reaction that rewards their bad choices."
• Learn to recognize and avoid plagiarism . It can happen accidentally, so you need to learn to recognize the ways in which it occurs and avoid it.

• Chicago Style
• ↑ Matthew Snipp, PhD. Research Fellow, U.S. Bureau of the Census. Expert Interview. 26 March 2020.
• ↑ https://www.uoguelph.ca/hftm/exploratory-research
• ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/probing-questions
• ↑ https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/researching/research-using-internet/
• ↑ https://libguides.usc.edu/education/researchmaterials
• ↑ https://www.library.illinois.edu/ask-us/find-research-materials/
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/conducting_research/conducting_primary_research/index.html
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6970301/
• ↑ https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/count-me-collecting-human-rights-based-data/6-what-involved-collecting-data-%E2%80%93-six-steps-success
• ↑ http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/advocacy/advocacy-research/overview/main
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/thesis_statement_tips.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/using_research/quoting_paraphrasing_and_summarizing/index.html
• ↑ https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/choosingsources/chapter/why-cite/
• ↑ https://pitt.libguides.com/citationhelp

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About This Article

Medical Disclaimer

The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, examination, diagnosis, or treatment. You should always contact your doctor or other qualified healthcare professional before starting, changing, or stopping any kind of health treatment.

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To conduct research, start by learning basic information about your topic by reading online articles or reference books, like an encyclopedia. Then, visit your library to talk to a research librarian or check out books. Additionally, you can use online research databases through your library, such as JSTOR. As you do your research, look for credible articles, journals, and books by focusing on reliable publishers, such as educational sites, government resources, and nonprofits. As an alternative, you can conduct your own research by doing a survey, questionnaire, or experiment. For more tips, including how to form a research question, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Conducting research, the research process.

• Step 1: Exploring an idea
• Step 2: Finding background info.
• Step 3: Gathering more info.
• Get it This link opens in a new window
• Step 5: Evaluating your sources
• Step 6: Citing your sources
• FAQs This link opens in a new window
• Library Vocabulary
• Research in the Humanities
• Research in the Social Sciences
• Research in the Sciences

Step 1: Exploring Your Research Idea and Constructing Your Search

If you know you are interested in doing research in a broad subject area, try to think of ways you can make your subject more specific. One way is by stating your topic as a question. For example, if you are interested in writing about sleep disorders you might ask yourself the following question: Can sleep disorders affect academic success in college students? If you don't have enough information to express your topic idea as a specific question, do some background reading first.

Step 2:  Finding Background Information

Consult general reference sources, e.g., an encyclopedia, before jumping into more specialized and specific searches. Encyclopedias provide information on key concepts, context, and vocabulary for many different fields. Subject-specific encyclopedias will provide additional information that may lead to ideas for additional search terms.

Step 3:  Gathering More Information

Use the search terms/keywords you brainstormed in Step 1: Exploring your Research Idea to search the Classic Catalog . Note where the item is located in the library and the circulation status. When you find a good book, scan the bibliography for additional sources. Look for book-length bibliographies, literature reviews, and annual reviews in your research area; this type of resource lists hundreds of books and articles in one subject area. To find these resources, use your keywords/search terms followed by the word "AND bibliographies" in the Classic Catalog .

Step 4:  Locating Current Research

Journal articles are a great resource for learning about cutting-edge research in your area. Indexes and databases allow you to search across many journal publishers at once to find citations, abstracts, and full-text to articles.

Step 5:  Evaluating Your Sources

As you search and find citations and/or abstracts for specific books, articles, or websites, consider the following established criteria for evaluating the quality of books, journal articles, and websites.

Step 6:  Cite What You Find in Discipline-Appropriate Format

When conducting research, it’s necessary to document sources you use; commonly, this is called citing your sources. Citing your sources is an important part of research and scholarship; it is important to give credit to the ideas of others. In addition, readers of your work may want to find and read some of the sources you used. Different academic disciplines follow different citation styles. Two of the more common citation styles are APA or MLA. Failing to cite properly is plagiarism. For further details on other aspects of plagiarism, consult WU’s Academic Integrity Policy .

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• Last Updated: Jun 10, 2024 2:58 PM
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How to Conduct Scientific Research?

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines research as systematic and creative actions taken to increase knowledge about humans, culture, and society and to apply it in new areas of interest. Scientific research is the research performed by applying systematic and constructed scientific methods to obtain, analyze, and interpret data.

Scientific research is the neutral, systematic, planned, and multiple-step process that uses previously discovered facts to advance knowledge that does not exist in the literature. It can be classified as observational or experimental with respect to data collection techniques, descriptive or analytical with respect to causality, and prospective, retrospective, or cross-sectional with respect to time ( 1 ).

All scientific investigations start with a specific research question and the formulation of a hypothesis to answer this question. Hypothesis should be clear, specific, and directly aim to answer the research question. A strong and testable hypothesis is the fundamental part of the scientific research. The next step is testing the hypothesis using scientific method to approve or disapprove it.

Scientific method should be neutral, objective, rational, and as a result, should be able to approve or disapprove the hypothesis. The research plan should include the procedure to obtain data and evaluate the variables. It should ensure that analyzable data are obtained. It should also include plans on the statistical analysis to be performed. The number of subjects and controls needed to get valid statistical results should be calculated, and data should be obtained in appropriate numbers and methods. The researcher should be continuously observing and recording all data obtained.

Data should be analyzed with the most appropriate statistical methods and be rearranged to make more sense if needed. Unfortunately, results obtained via analyses are not always sufficiently clear. Multiple reevaluations of data, review of the literature, and interpretation of results in light of previous research are required. Only after the completion of these stages can a research be written and presented to the scientific society. A well-conducted and precisely written research should always be open to scientific criticism. It should also be kept in mind that research should be in line with ethical rules all through its stages.

Actually, psychiatric research has been developing rapidly, possibly even more than any other medical field, thus reflecting the utilization of new research methods and advanced treatment technologies. Nevertheless, basic research principles and ethical considerations keep their importance.

Ethics are standards used to differentiate acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Adhering to ethical standards in scientific research is noteworthy because of many different reasons. First, these standards promote the aims of research, such as knowledge, truth, and avoidance of error. For example, prohibitions against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting research data promote truth and minimize error. In addition, ethical standards promote values that are essential to collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness. Many ethical standards in research, such as guidelines for authorship, copyright and patenting policies, data-sharing policies, and confidentiality rules in peer review, are designed to protect intellectual property interests while encouraging collaboration. Many ethical standards such as policies on research misconduct and conflicts of interest are necessary to ensure that researchers can be held accountable to the public. Last but not the least, ethical standards of research promote a variety of other important moral and social values, such as social responsibility, human rights, animal welfare, compliance with the law, and public health and safety ( 2 ). In conclusion, for the good of science and humanity, research has the inevitable responsibility of precisely transferring the knowledge to new generations ( 3 ).

In medical research, all clinical investigations are obliged to comply with some ethical principles. These principles could be summarized as respect to humans, respect to the society, benefit, harmlessness, autonomy, and justice. Respect to humans indicates that all humans have the right to refuse to participate in an investigation or to withdraw their consent any time without any repercussions. Respect to society indicates that clinical research should seek answers to scientific questions using scientific methods and should benefit the society. Benefit indicates that research outcomes are supposed to provide solutions to a health problem. Harmlessness describes all necessary precautions that are taken to protect volunteers from potential harm. Autonomy indicates that participating in research is voluntary and with freewill. Justice indicates that subject selection is based on justice and special care is taken for special groups that could be easily traumatized ( 4 ).

In psychiatric studies, if the patient is not capable of giving consent, the relatives have the right to consent on behalf of the patient. This is based on the idea of providing benefit to the patient with discovery of new treatment methods via research. However, the relatives’ consent rights are under debate from an ethical point of view. On the other hand, research on those patients aim to directly get new knowledge about them, and it looks like an inevitable necessity. The only precaution that could be taken to overcome this ambivalence has been the scrupulous audit of the Research Ethic Committees. Still, there are many examples that show that this method is not always able to prevent patient abuse ( 5 ). Therefore, it is difficult to claim autonomy when psychiatric patients are studied, and psychiatric patients are considered among patients to require special care.

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Methodology

• Types of Research Designs Compared | Guide & Examples

Types of Research Designs Compared | Guide & Examples

Published on June 20, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on June 22, 2023.

When you start planning a research project, developing research questions and creating a  research design , you will have to make various decisions about the type of research you want to do.

There are many ways to categorize different types of research. The words you use to describe your research depend on your discipline and field. In general, though, the form your research design takes will be shaped by:

• The type of knowledge you aim to produce
• The type of data you will collect and analyze
• The sampling methods , timescale and location of the research

This article takes a look at some common distinctions made between different types of research and outlines the key differences between them.

Table of contents

Types of research aims, types of research data, types of sampling, timescale, and location, other interesting articles.

The first thing to consider is what kind of knowledge your research aims to contribute.

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The next thing to consider is what type of data you will collect. Each kind of data is associated with a range of specific research methods and procedures.

Finally, you have to consider three closely related questions: how will you select the subjects or participants of the research? When and how often will you collect data from your subjects? And where will the research take place?

Keep in mind that the methods that you choose bring with them different risk factors and types of research bias . Biases aren’t completely avoidable, but can heavily impact the validity and reliability of your findings if left unchecked.

Choosing between all these different research types is part of the process of creating your research design , which determines exactly how your research will be conducted. But the type of research is only the first step: next, you have to make more concrete decisions about your research methods and the details of the study.

Read more about creating a research design

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Normal distribution
• Degrees of freedom
• Null hypothesis
• Discourse analysis
• Control groups
• Mixed methods research
• Non-probability sampling
• Quantitative research
• Ecological validity

Research bias

• Rosenthal effect
• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Selection bias
• Negativity bias
• Status quo bias

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