Research
Methodology
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Research Methodology
Dr. Puspendra Kumar
M. Pharm., Ph.D.
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© Dr. Puspendra Classes
Meaning of Research
❑ Research in common parlance refers to a search
for knowledge.
❑ One can also define research as a scientific and
systematic search for pertinent information on a
specific topic.
❑ In fact, research is an art of scientific
investigation.
❑ Meaning of research as “a careful investigation or
inquiry specially through search for new facts in
any branch of knowledge.”
❑ Redman and Mory define research as a
“systematized effort to gain new knowledge.”
Objectives of Research
❑ The purpose of research is to discover answers to
questions through the application of scientific
procedures.
❑ The main aim of research is to find out the truth
which is hidden and which has not been discovered
as yet.
❑ Though each research study has its own specific
purpose, we may think of research objectives as
falling into a number of following broad groupings:
❑ To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve
new insights into it (studies with this object are
termed as exploratory or formulative research
studies)
Objectives of Research
❑ To portray accurately the characteristics of a
particular individual, situation or a group (studies
with this object in view are known as descriptive
research studies);
❑ To determine the frequency with which something
occurs or with which it is associated with
something else (studies with this object in view are
known as diagnostic research studies);
❑ To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship
between variables (such studies are known as
hypothesis-testing research studies).
Requirements of Research
❑ What makes people to undertake research? This is
a question of fundamental importance. The
possible motives for doing research may be either
one or more of the following:
❑ Desire to get a research degree along with its
consequential benefits;
❑ Desire to face the challenge in solving the unsolved
problems, i.e., concern over practical problems
initiates research;
❑ Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some creative
work;
❑ Desire to be of service to society;
❑ Desire to get respectability. res.
Practical Difficulties
❑ Researchers in India, particularly those engaged in
empirical research, are facing several problems.
Some of the important problems are as follows:
❑ The lack of a scientific training in the methodology of
research.
❑ Insufficient interaction between the university
research departments.
❑ Most of the business units in our country do not
have the confidence that the material supplied by
them to researchers will not be misused and as such
they are often reluctant in supplying the needed
information to researchers.
Practical Difficulties
❑ Research studies overlapping one another are
undertaken quite often for want of adequate
information.
❑ There does not exist a code of conduct for
researchers.
❑ Many researchers in our country also face the
difficulty of adequate and timely secretarial assistance,
including computerial assistance.
❑ Library management and functioning is not
satisfactory at many places.
❑ There is also the difficulty of timely availability of
published data.
❑ Problems relating to the process of data collection
and related things.
Review of Literature
❑ Once the problem is formulated, a brief summary
of it should be written down.
❑ It is compulsory for a research worker writing a
thesis for a Ph.D. degree to write a synopsis of the
topic and submit it to the necessary Committee or
the Research Board for approval.
❑ At this juncture the researcher should undertake
extensive literature survey connected with the
problem.
❑ For this purpose, the abstracting and indexing
journals and published or unpublished
bibliographies are the first place to go to.
Review of Literature
❑ Academic journals, conference proceedings,
government reports, books etc., must be tapped
depending on the nature of the problem.
❑ In this process, it should be remembered that one
source will lead to another. The earlier studies, if
any, which are similar to the study in hand should
be carefully studied.
❑ A good library will be a great help to the researcher
at this stage.
Selection of Research Topic
❑ Overdone topic should be avoided.
❑ Controversial topic should not be selected; if
selected then after clearance from proper
authorities.
❑ Topic should not be too narrow.
❑ Topic should not be too wide.
❑ Topic should be familiar and feasible.
❑ Important topic should be selected.
❑ Preliminary studies regarding the topic is
required.
Necessity of defining Problems
❑ What data(s) is/are required?
❑ What characteristics of data are required?
❑ What type of statistical analysis should be done?
❑ What technique should be used?
❑ What relation between different factors?
Techniques of defining Problems
❑ Statement of problems in a general way.
❑ Understanding the nature of problem.
❑ Surveying the available literature.
❑ Development of idea(s) through discussion.
❑ Rephrasing the problem.
Types of research
❑ Descriptive vs. Analytical.
❑ Applied vs. Fundamental
❑ Quantitative vs. Qualitative
❑ Conceptual vs. Empirical
❑ Some Other Types of Research.
Research Process Flow Chart
Study Design
❑ It is a blue print of your research work.
❑ It is categorised into four categories:
❑ Sample Design
❑ Observation Design
❑ Statistical Design
❑ Operational Design
❑ Why Research Design required?
❑ For Smooth execution of the work.
❑ For economical method development.
❑ For time saving.
❑ For systematic research work.
Study Design
❑ Features of a good research design
❑ Flexible
❑ Appropriate
❑ Efficient
❑ Economic
❑ Reliable.
❑ Important Research Designs.
❑ Informal Research Design
❑ Formal Research Design
❑ Completely Randomized Research Design
❑ Randomized Block Design
❑ Latin Square Design
❑ Factorial Design
Informal Research Design
❑ Before-and-after without control design.
❑ In such a design a single test group or area is
selected and the dependent variable is measured
before the introduction of the treatment.
❑ The treatment is then introduced and the
dependent variable is measured again after the
treatment has been introduced.
❑ The effect of the treatment would be equal to the
level of the phenomenon after the treatment minus
the level of the phenomenon before the treatment.
Informal Research Design
❑ After-only with control design
❑ In this design two groups or areas (test area and
control area) are selected and the treatment is
introduced into the test area only.
❑ The dependent variable is then measured in both
the areas at the same time.
❑ Treatment impact is assessed by subtracting the
value of the dependent variable in the control area
from its value in the test area
Informal Research Design
❑ Before-and-after with control design
❑ In this design two areas are selected and the
dependent variable is measured in both the areas
for an identical time-period before the treatment.
❑ The treatment is then introduced into the test area
only, and the dependent variable is measured in
both for an identical time-period after the
introduction of the treatment.
Formal Research Designs
❑ Completely randomized design (C.R. design):
❑ Involves only two principles viz., the principle of
replication and the principle of randomization of
experimental designs.
❑ It is the simplest possible design and its procedure
of analysis is also easier.
❑ The essential characteristic of the design is that
subjects are randomly assigned to experimental
treatments (or vice-versa).
Formal Research Designs
❑ Completely randomized design (C.R. design):
❑ For instance, if we have 10 subjects and if we wish
to test 5 under treatment A and 5 under treatment
B, the randomization process gives every possible
group of 5 subjects selected from a set of 10 an
equal opportunity of being assigned to treatment A
and treatment B.
❑ One-way analysis of variance (or one-way
ANOVA)* is used to analyse such a design.
❑ Even unequal replications can also work in this
design.
Two-group simple randomized design
Random replication design design
Formal Research Designs
❑ Randomized block design (R.B. design):
❑ It is an improvement over the C.R. design. In the
R.B. design the principle of local control can be
applied along with the other two principles of
experimental designs.
❑ In the R.B. design, subjects are first divided into
groups, known as blocks, such that within each
group the subjects are relatively homogeneous in
respect to some selected variable.
❑ The variable selected for grouping the subjects is
one that is believed to be related to the measures to
be obtained in respect of the dependent variable.
Formal Research Designs
❑ Randomized block design (R.B. design):
❑ The number of subjects in a given block would be
equal to the number of treatments and one subject
in each block would be randomly assigned to each
treatment.
❑ In general, blocks are the levels at which we hold
the extraneous factor fixed, so that its contribution
to the total variability of data can be measured.
❑ The main feature of the R.B. design is that in this
each treatment appears the same number of times
in each block.
❑ The R.B. design is analysed by the two-way analysis
of variance (two-way ANOVA)* technique
❑ Let us illustrate the R.B. design with the help of an example.
Suppose four different forms of a standardised test in statistics
were given to each of five students (selected one from each of the
five I.Q. blocks) and following are the scores which they obtained.
❑ The purpose of this randomization is to take care of such possible
extraneous factors (say as fatigue) or perhaps the experience gained
from repeatedly taking the test.
Randomized Block Design
Formal Research Designs
❑ Latin square design (L.S. design):
❑ It is an experimental design very frequently used in
research. i.e. Agriculture, Pharmacy etc.
❑ The conditions under which agricultural
investigations are carried out are different from
those in other studies for nature plays an important
role in agriculture.
❑ For instance, an experiment has to be made
through which the effects of five different varieties
of fertilizers on the yield of a certain crop, say
wheat, it to be judged.
Formal Research Designs
❑ Latin square design (L.S. design):
❑ In such a case the varying fertility of the soil in
different blocks in which the experiment has to be
performed must be taken into consideration;
otherwise the results obtained may not be very
dependable because the output happens to be the
effect not only of fertilizers, but it may also be the
effect of fertility of soil.
❑ Similarly, there may be impact of varying seeds on
the yield.
❑ To overcome such difficulties, the L.S. design is
used when there are two major extraneous factors
such as the varying soil fertility and varying seeds.
❑ The Latin-square design is one wherein each fertilizer, in our
example, appears five times but is used only once in each row and
in each column of the design.
❑ In other words, the treatments in a L.S. design are so allocated
among the plots that no treatment occurs more than once in any
one row or any one column.
Latin Square Design
Formal Research Designs
❑ Factorial designs:
❑ Factorial designs are used in experiments where the
effects of varying more than one factor are to be
determined.
❑ They are specially important in several economic
and social phenomena where usually a large
number of factors affect a particular problem.
❑ Factorial designs can be of two types: (i) simple
factorial designs and (ii) complex factorial designs.
Formal Research Designs
❑ Simple Factorial designs:
❑ In case of simple factorial designs, we consider the
effects of varying two factors on the dependent
variable, but when an experiment is done with
more than two factors, we use complex factorial
designs.
❑ Simple factorial design is also termed as a ‘two-
factor-factorial design’, whereas complex factorial
design is known as ‘multifactor-factorial design.’
❑ Simple factorial design may either be a 2 × 2
simple factorial design, or it may be, say, 3 × 4 or 5
× 3 or the like type of simple factorial design.
❑ We illustrate some simple factorial designs as
❑ In this design the extraneous variable to be controlled by
homogeneity is called the control variable and the independent
variable, which is manipulated, is called the experimental variable.
❑ Then there are two treatments of the experimental variable and two
levels of the control variable.
❑ As such there are four cells into which the sample is divided. Each
of the four combinations would provide one treatment or
experimental condition.
Simple Factorial Design
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