How to Write a Research Methodology PDF

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How to Write a Research Methodology for Your Academic Article June 21, 2017 8 Min Read For academic writing help, focus on these criteria and tips on how to write a great research methodology for your academic article This article is part of an ongoing series on academic writing help of scholarly articles. Previous parts explored how to write an introduction for a research paper and a literature review outline and format. The Methodology section portrays the reasoning for the application of certain techniques and methods in the context of the study. For your academic article, when you describe and explain your chosen methods it is very important to correlate them to your research questions and/or hypotheses. The description of the methods used should include enough details so that the study can be replicated by other Researchers, or at least repeated in a similar situation or framework. Every stage of your research needs to be explained and justified with clear information on why you chose those particular methods, and how they help you answer your research question or purpose. As the Authors, in this section you get to explain the rationale of your article for other Researchers. You should focus on answering the following questions:    

How did you collect the data or how did you generate the data? Which research methods did you use? Why did you choose these methods and techniques? How did you use these methods for analyzing the research question or problem? The responses to these questions should be clear and precise, and the answers should be written in past tense. First off, let’s establish the differences between research methods and research methodology. Research Methods and Research Methodology As an Academic and Author of valuable research papers, it’s important not to confuse these two terms. Research Methodology Definition Research Methodology refers the discussion regarding the specific methods chosen and used in a research paper. This discussion also encompasses the theoretical concepts that further provide information about the methods selection and application. In other words, you should highlight how these theoretical concepts are connected with these methods in a larger knowledge framework and explain their relevance in examining the purpose, problem and questions of your study. Thus, the discussion that forms your academic

article’s research methodology also incorporates an extensive literature review about similar methods, used by other Authors to examine a certain research subject. Research Method Definition A Research Method represents the technical steps involved in conducting the research. Details about the methods focus on characterizing and defining them, but also explaining your chosen techniques, and providing a full account on the procedures used for selecting, collecting and analyzing the data. Important Tips for a Good Methodology Section The methodology section is very important for the credibility of your article and for a professional academic writing style. Data Collection or Generation for Your Academic Article Readers, academics and other researchers need to know how the information used in your academic article was collected. The research methods used for collecting or generating data will influence the discoveries and, by extension, how you will interpret them and explain their contribution to general knowledge. The most basic methods for data collection are: Secondary data Secondary data are data that have been previously collected or gathered for other purposes than the aim of the academic article’s study. This type of data is already available, in different forms, from a variety of sources. Secondary data collection could lead to Internal or External secondary data research. 

Internal secondary data research – particularly related to a company or organization, internal sources (such as sales data, financial data, operations-related data, etc.) can be easily attained and re-purposed to explore research questions about different aspects.

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External secondary data research – represents a study that uses existing data on a certain research subject from government statistics, published market research reports from different organizations, international agencies (such as IMF, World Bank, etc.), and so on. Primary data Primary data represent data originated for the specific purpose of the study, with its research questions. The methods vary on how Authors and Researchers conduct an experiment, survey or study, but, in general, it uses a particular scientific method.

Primary data collection could lead to Quantitative and Qualitative research. 

Quantitative research or empirical-analytical research focuses on a certain research purpose, with its complementary research questions and operational definitions of the variables to be measured. This type of study uses deductive reasoning and established theories as a foundation for the hypotheses that will be tested and explained.

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Qualitative research or interpretative research focuses on analytically disclosing certain practices or behaviors, and then showing how these behaviors or practices can be grouped or clustered to lead to observable outcomes. This type of research is more subjective in nature, and requires careful interpretation of the variables. Readers need to understand how the information was gathered or generated in a way that is consistent with research practices in a field of study. For instance, if you are using a multiple choice survey, the readers need to know which questionnaire items you have examined in your primary quantitative research. Similarly, if your academic article involves secondary data from FED or Eurostat it is important to mention the variables used in your study, their values, and their time-frame. For primary research, that involve surveys, experiments or observations, for a valuable academic article, Authors should provide information about:

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Study participants or group participants, Inclusion or exclusion criteria Selecting and Applying Research Methods Establishing the main premises of methodology is pivotal for any research because a method or technique that is not reliable for a certain study context will lead to unreliable results, and the outcomes’ interpretation (and overall academic article) will not be valuable. In most cases, there is a wide variety of methods and procedures that you can use to explore a research topic in your academic article. The methods section should fully explain the reasons for choosing a specific methodology or technique. Also, it’s essential that you describe the specific research methods of data collection you are going to use, whether they are primary or secondary data collection. For primary research methods, describe the surveys, interviews, observation methods, etc. For secondary research methods, describe how the data was originally created, gathered and which institution created and published it. Reasons for Choosing Specific Research Methods

For this aspect that characterizes a good research methodology, indicate how the research approach fits with the general study, considering the literature review outline and format, and the following sections. The methods you choose should have a clear connection with the overall research approach and you need to explain the reasons for choosing the research techniques in your study, and how they help you towards understanding your study’s purpose. A common limitation of academic articles found in research papers is that the premises of the methodology are not backed by reasons on how they help achieve the aims of the article. Data Analysis Methods This section should also focus on information on how you intend to analyze your results. Describe how you plan and intend to achieve an accurate assessment of the hypotheses, relationships, patterns, trends, distributions associated with your data and research purpose. The data type, how it was measured, and which statistical tests were conducted and performed, should be detailed and reported in an accurate manner. For explaining the data analysis methods, you should aim to answer questions, such as:    

Will your research be based on statistical analysis? Will you use theoretical frameworks to help you (and your Readers) analyze a set of hypotheses or relationships? Which data analysis methods will you choose? Which other Authors or studies have used the same methods and should be cited in your academic article? Issues to Avoid There are certain aspects that you need to pay extra attention in relation to your research methodology section. The most common issues to avoid are:

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Irrelevant details and complicated background information that provides too information and does not provide accurate understanding for Readers Unnecessary description and explanations of basic or well-known procedures, for an academic audience who is already has a basin understanding of the study For unconventional research approaches, it is important to provide accurate details and explain why your innovative method contributes to general knowledge (save more details for your Discussion/ Conclusion section in which you can highlight your contributions) Research limitations and obstacles should be described in a separate section (Research Limitations) The methodology should include sources and references that support your choice of methods and procedures, compared to the literature review that provides a general outlook and framework for your study.

How to Write Methodology for Dissertation

Introduction Methodology is perhaps the most challenging and laborious part of research work. Essentially, the methodology helps to understand the broad philosophical approach behind methods of research you chose to employ for your study. This means that your methodology chapter should clearly state whether you chose to use quantitative or qualitative data collection techniques or a mixture of both. You will be required to provide justifications as to why you preferred a certain method over the others. If you are trying to figure out exactly how to write methodology or how to structure methodology of research or dissertation then this article will point you in the right direction. It is imperative for students to make sure that deep down they know the academic basis for choosing certain methods of research. “I figured out or In my opinion” will not be an acceptable justification, and so you will need to come up with concrete academic reasons for your selection of research methods.

What Are the Typical Contents of Methodology The methodology generally acts as a guideline or plan to exactly how you intend to carry out your research. This is especially true for students who are required to submit their methodology chapter before carrying out the research. Your methodology should link back to the literature and clearly state why you chose certain data collection and analysis methods for your research/dissertation project. The most common contents of methodology are research design, philosophical approach, data collection methods, research limitations, ethical considerations, and data analysis methods. For those who are submitting their dissertation as a single paper, then their methodology should also touch on any modifications that they had to make as their work progressed. However, it is vitally important to provide academic justifications to all choices made by the researcher.

Choosing your Methodology and Research Design As indicated previously, the theme of your methodology chapter should be related to your literature research and research questions. You can visit your college or university library to find text books and articles that provide information about the most commonly employed methods of research. An intensive read of such books can help you to devise your research philosophy and choose the appropriate methods. Any limitations or weaknesses of your chosen research approach should also be explained as well as the methods to overcome them. Regardless of the chosen research approach, you will find researchers who either support it or don’t. Use the arguments for and against articulated in the literature to clarify why you decided to choose this research design and why the research limitations are irrelevant in your research.

How to Structure Methodology Chapter of your Dissertation The typical structure of the methodology chapter is as follows:

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Research Design & Strategy

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Philosophical Approach

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Methods of Data Collection & Data Analysis

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Ethical Considerations, Reliability, Limitations & Generalizability

Research Design and Strategy According to USC-Research Guides (2017), the primary function of a research design is to enable the researcher to effectively and flawlessly answer the research questions through evidence. Generally, this section will shed light on how you collected your data. The researcher will have to justify their choice of data collection methods such as literature research, interviews, phone surveys, online surveys and so on. Moreover, choice of data sampling should also be clearly explained with focus on how you made the choice of ethnicity, group, profession and age of the participants. What type of questions you intend to ask to the respondents and how will they help to answer your research questions or how will they help to test the hypothesis of research? It is recommended to prepare these questions at the very start of your research; when you develop your research aim and questions. This approach can allow for you the room to change or modify research questions if your methods of data collection are not giving the desired results. It’s a good practice to keep referring back to your research questions whilst planning or writing the research design section because this tactic will allow you to determine whether what you are planning to do would actually address the research questions you have set. In short, you will need to make sure that the data you are going to collect relates to the topic you are exploring. The complexity and length of research design section will vary depending on your academic subject and the scope of your research but any well written research design will have the following characteristics: 

Throw light on alternative research design options and provide justification as to why your chosen research design is the best to address the research problem.

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Include review of the existing literature as an integral part of the complete research strategy.

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Clearly specify the research questions that the research aims to address (hypotheses).

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Explain how the collected data will help to address the research problem and discuss the methods your research will employ to collect the data.

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Talk over the chosen methods of data analysis for testing of the hypotheses.

Philosophical Approach

This will discuss your chosen philosophy to strengthen your research and the research model. The three most commonly employed research philosophies in the world of academia are interpretivism, positivism, pragmatism, constructivism and post-positivism although there several other research philosophies that you could adopt. The choice of the philosophy will depend on many factors including your academic subjective, and the type and complexity of research study. Regardless of what philosophy is employed, you will be required to make different assumptions about the world. Once you have chosen your research philosophy, the next step will be to describe the context of your research in order to answer all the W questions including When, Where, Why, How and What. Essentially, as a researcher you will be required to make the decision whether you will be using qualitative method, quantitative method or a mix of both. The process of data gathering is different for each method. Typically, you would want to decide whether you are going to adopt the positivist approach; defining your hypothesis and testing it against reality. If this is the case then you will be required to take the quantitative approach; collecting numerical data at a large scale (from 30 or more respondents) and testing your hypotheses with this data. The other option for you would be to base your research on qualitative approach which will point you in a direction where you will be investigating broader areas by identifying people’s emotions and perceptions of a subject. With a qualitative approach, you will have to collect responses from respondents and look at them in all their richness to develop theories about the field you are exploring. Finally, you can also use a mix of both qualitative and quantitative methods (which is becoming increasingly popular among the researchers these days). This method is particularly useful if you are interested in putting quantitative data into a real world context or reflect different perspectives on a subject.

Research philosophy in the ‘research onion’ Source: Saunders et. al (2012)

Methods of Data Collection & Data Analysis This section will require you to clearly specify how you gathered the data and also briefly discuss the tools you used to analyse it. For example, you may choose to conduct surveys and/or interviews as part of the data collection process. Similarly, if you used a software such as Excel or SPSS to process the data then you will have to justify your choice of software. In this section of your methodology chapter, you will also have to explain how you arrived at your findings and how they are reliable. It is important to note that your readers or supervisor would want to see a correlation between your findings and the hypothesis/research questions on which you based your study at the very beginning. Your supervisor or a dissertation research assistant can play a key role to help you write the Methodology chapter to a First Class standard. So keep your supervisor in the loop to get their contributions and recommendations throughout the process.

Ethical Considerations, Reliability & Limitations Other important sections of your methodology are:

Ethical Considerations: Always take into account how your research will influence other individuals who are beyond the scope of study. This is especially true for human subjects. As a researcher, you are always expected to make sure that your research and ideas do not harm anyone in any way. Discussion concerning the data protection, data handling and data confidentiality will also be included in this brief segment.

Reliability: Is your research study and findings reliable for other researchers in your field of work? In order to establish yourself as a reliable researcher, your study should be both authentic and reliable.

Limitations: Good dissertation writers will always acknowledge the limitations of their research study. Limitations in data sampling (did your research study used data that was collected from only one country?) can decrease the reliability of your results. A classic example of research limitation is collecting responses from people of a certain age group when you could have targeted a more representative cross-section of the population.

Conclusion The conclusion chapter can either make or break the grade of your research/dissertation paper. So you should take your time when it comes to choosing the design and philosophical approach of your research. Always make use of authentic academic sources and discuss your plans in detail with your supervisor if you believe your research design or approach has flaws in it....