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- The values and the beliefs of the researcher.
- Issues to consider and key considerations when planning and undertaking research.
- Saunders’ research onion.
- Identifying a research study.
- Guiding principles of the flow of ideas.
- The basic components of the research proposal.
- Activities:
- Watch video on Saunders’ onion and brainstorm ontology and epistemology.
- Group activity – determine what the key considerations are for planning and undertaking research. Present feedback.
- Discussion activity – issues that can be encountered in research.
- Brainstorm and map the key components of a research proposal.
- Students use the conceptual framework for identifying a research study for their own ideas. Discuss the theme, topic, types of questions and objectives.
- Draft research question and SMART objectives.
Research design and strategies
What is a research proposal? Unless you can present an acceptable proposal, your project / Research will not even start. Proposal can serve as a contract between you, your department and project / research supervisor When preparing your proposal, follow these two golden rules:
1. Follow any guidelines precisely
There are specific information that are required such as project
title, project objectives, resource requirements etc...
2. Proofread thoroughly and get someone else to check it
There are no universal standards for project proposals, although all
proposals should include certain pieces of information ( This
content emerges from your proposal’s implicit content and explicit
sections)
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Proposal should address five principal areas
1. Introduction to the subject area.
This will provide the reader with an understanding of the field in which your project lies and an idea of where and how your project fits into this field.
2. Current research in the field
This will emphasise that your project is not based in a field that is out-of-date and that you are aware of current issues within that field of study. It will also imply that you have done some preliminary research into the topic area and are not approaching your project with little background or motivation.
3. Identify a gap
You should be able to identify some aspect of the field that requires further investigation or study. There is no point in repeating the work of others (unless you are evaluating their approaches) and this component emphasises that the field is not exhausted and is worthy of further investigation.
4. Identify how your work fills the gap
Having identified a gap in the field, your proposal should show how your project intends to fill this gap, or at least go some way to investigating it further. This will emphasise the contribution your project will make.
5. Identify risks and solutions
highlight any risks your project might face accounted for potential risks to your project Computing Research Project 4
Examples of aims and objectives are: Aim:
Evaluate artificial intelligence techniques for modelling weather
patterns.
Objectives:
Identify and evaluate existing weather pattern modelling techniques.
Identify artificial intelligence approaches suitable for modelling weather patterns.
Design and develop at least three artificial intelligent systems for modelling weather
patterns.
Compare and contrast the developed systems with one another and existing
approaches to modelling weather patterns.
Computing Research Project 7 Expected outcomes/deliverables
This section of your proposal will identify precisely what you intend to
submit at the end of the project. It may well identify a written report that
covers particular points and makes certain recommendations. A chapter
breakdown may be included where appropriate. It can describe programs
and user documentation and it might include models and algorithms that
will be developed to address specific problems. You might also be
delivering a functional specification for a piece of software, a prototype,
or a test plan.
These three headings represent the minimum set of sections your project
proposal should include. In addition, consider including the following:
Keywords
Keywords are used to identify the topic areas your project draws on.
People use keywords to see at a glance what subjects your project relates
to which might not be clear from your project’s title alone. Libraries and
databases use keywords to help classify material. You might be limited
on the number of keywords you can use; for example, four or five.
Remember, keywords are not necessarily single words but can be simple
phrases as well; for example, artificial intelligence or software
engineering.
Computing Research Project 8
Introduction/background/overview
This section provides an overview of your project and introduces the background
work to it. In this section you might wish to include reasons why you feel you are
a suitable candidate for performing the project (why you feel you can do it, what
skills are required and how you fulfil these requirements), why the topic interests
you specifically, and why you chose the project in the first place. This section
might also include an introduction to the industry or organisation being
investigated or evaluated. Overall, this section will set the scene for the project.
Related research
This section identifies other work, publications and research related to your
topic. It will demonstrate that your project does not exist in an academic vacuum
but relates to other research topics and fields of current interest. Related research
can also help demonstrate your understanding of your topic area, showing the
reader that you are aware of what is currently happening in the field and are
conversant with other topics that impinge upon it.
Type of project
You might wish to identify the type of project you are undertaking, for example,
research-based, development, evaluation, etc. However, make sure these terms
are recognised and provide more detail if appropriate.
Computing Research Project 9
Research questions and hypotheses
research question you intend to investigate and, hopefully, answer to some extent within your project. Computing projects do not necessarily set out to answer particular questions, but for some projects (particularly research degree projects) a statement of your research question is essential. Examples of research questions are: Does the size of an organisation affect its commitment to software quality standards? What is the relationship, if any, between software maintainability and coding structure standards? Is there an optimum solution to the prediction of software development costs? How do large organisations maintain quality standards in the development of internal software? While research questions on their own are ‘open-ended opportunities to satisfy one’s curiosity’ (Rudestam and Newton, 2005: 74), they are often linked closely with one or more hypotheses. suppose your project intended to answer the fourth research question posed above. One of the following hypotheses might be investigated based on that research question: Hypothesis #1: Large organisations invariably employ recognised standards to maintain internal software quality. Hypothesis #2: Large organisations generally have quality departments which oversee the implementation of procedures that ensure the quality of internal software. It is also worth mentioning the importance of maintaining research symmetry with respect to research questions and hypotheses. Research symmetry implies that your ‘results will be of similar value whatever you find out’ (Gill and Johnson, 2002 cited by Saunders et al, 2007: 20). With this in mind, it is important to realise the implications of the hypotheses you have stated. If they are true you must ask yourself ‘so what – was that really worth proving?’ Thus, each hypothesis you state should have a similar value if proved. Computing Research Project 10
Section Five: Research approach and methodologies
Type of research approach and methodologies you are likely to use, and reasons for your choice: What your areas of research will cover:
Comments and agreement from tutor
Comments (optional): I confirm that the project is not work which has been or will be submitted for another qualification and is appropriate. Agreed: .............................................. (Name) ............................................ (Date) ............................
Comments and agreement from project proposal checker (if applicable)
Comments (optional): I confirm that the project is appropriate. Agreed: ............................................. (Name) .......................................... (Date) ................................ Computing Research Project 13
‘Research philosophy is an over-arching term
relating to the development of knowledge and
the nature of that knowledge’
Adapted from Saunders et al , (2009)
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The research ‘onion’
Saunders et al , (2008)
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What is knowledge? How do we construct reality, how do we investigate the world?, There are three main school of thought, according to Orlikowski and Baroudi (1991). They established that (based on the underlying research epistemology) there are three categories: positivist , interpretive and critical. Positivist is generally based on the assumption that reality is objectively given. It is, therefore, based on the assumption that reality is measurable and that it is independent of research. Interpretivists do not account for dependency and/ or independency between the phenomena studied, but focus on the complexity of human sense making. Terence (1998, p.8) stated “ But coherence within common beliefs does not seem to be a ground for claiming to have found objective principles ”. Interpretivists, therefore, think that knowledge is constructed through language, consciousness and shared meanings. Computing Research Project 19 Looking at the basis of what is common belief in a human sense can be ambiguous, especially when considering the statement “common sense”/ “common belief”. Terence (1998) argues that ‘endoxos’ is " the views of fairly reflective people after some reflection ". It is embedded in the words and interpretation. The third group is that of the critical researcher, who assumes that the social reality is historically composed and that it is replicated by people. This assumption is apparent in critical research which focuses on the conflicts and contradictions in modern society or the elimination of the causes of separation and supremacy. Computing Research Project 20
This guides us to the method of looking at the collected data and the data should be analysed and synthesised to make it more coherent and reliable. In a study conducted by Orlikowski and Baroudi (1991) it was found that 96.8% of research in IT uses the positivist approach, of which 23.9% is descriptive and 72.9% is theoretically grounded, whereas 3.2% of studies are interpretive and none are critical. Table 3 - 1 shows the result of the study: Computing Research Project 21
This shows the underlying philosophical assumptions by researchers in
IT fields and reflects the dominance of positivists’ views of IT research,
which is rooted in logical positivism. Likewise, in research conducted in
the USA by Pratt et al. (2005) it was established that “Our analysis
indicates that 74% of the most cited articles are positivist and 26% are
interpretivist.” This guides us to believe the epistemological assumptions
of the researcher in IT can be influenced by the positivist approach.
Table 3-2 shows the result in numerical format:
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5 sequential stages of testing theory
Deducing a hypothesis
Expressing the hypothesis operationally
Testing the operational hypothesis
Examining the specific outcome of the enquiry
Modifying the theory (if necessary)
Adapted from Robson (2002)
Characteristics of Deduction
Explaining causal relationships between variables
Establishing controls for testing hypotheses
Independence of the researcher
Concepts operationalized for quantitative measurement
Generalisation
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Building theory by –
Understanding the way human build their world
Permitting alternative explanations of what’s going on
Being concerned with the context of events
Using more qualitative data
Using a variety of data collection methods
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The right choice of approach helps you to
Make a more informed decision about the research design
Think about which strategies will work for your research topic
Adapt your design to cater for any constraints
Adapted from Easterby-Smith et al. (2008) Saunders et al , (2009)
Major differences between these approaches
Computing Research Project 28
The second level are the steps and/or smaller sub-goals that are
significant towards achieving the project’s aim.
Objectives identify significant measurable achievements you hope to
make that build towards the ultimate aim of your project.
For a project expected to last approximately one year, you wouldn’t
expect to identify more than twelve objectives for your project.
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Applying on objectives identified
Objectives No. 1 says (1. Complete a literature search and literature review of existing stock
market prediction techniques.) Is this S pecific? Does this provide us with enough idea of what we should be doing? ( Yes ) Is it M easurable? How can we measure progress on this objective? How will we know when the objective is completed? How much literature must we access in order to conclude that the literature search is complete? ( Probably not ) Is it A ppropriate? Is it an appropriate objective to have, bearing in mind the long term goal of our project? ( Yes ) Is it R ealistic? In the time we have available can we realistically expect to complete this task? ( Probably – although until we start this task we won’t know how much work we will need to do on it ) Is it T ime-related? Have we identified how long the task will take and when we expect to complete it by? ( We don’t know yet but we will attempt to pin this down during project planning ) Computing Research Project 32
According to SMART , the problems we have with this objective at the
moment are that it is not clearly measurable and we don’t know how
long it will take.
Because of the nature of this objective we may well have to accept this
as it stands.
It is difficult to know how long a literature search will take as the search
usually ‘snowballs’ as it continues.
Our best approach will be to allocate a specific amount of time to this
objective and draw a line underneath it at that point
on the understanding that we have done the best we can in the time
available.
However, until we complete our project planning, we don’t know how
long to allocate for this objective so we shall leave it open-ended for
now.
Computing Research Project 33
1. Define your research problem or question. This can be stated as a
research question, objectives or hypothesis.
2. Provide a literature review giving the background and conceptualisation
of your proposed area of study. This would provide existing knowledge
and benchmarks by which your data can be judged.
3. Consider and define your research methodology and research process.
Demonstrate understanding of the pitfalls and limitations of the
methods chosen and ethical issues that might arise.
4. Draw points (1–3, above) together into a research proposal for
agreement with your tutor.
5. Conduct your research as outlined in your proposal. Keep track of your
findings as you work.
6. Carry out your research and analyse your findings in relation to your
original research question. Draw conclusions.
7. Communicate the outcomes of your research project to the identified
audience.
8. Reflect on the success of your research project and your performance at
the end of the project with the inclusion of a project evaluation and
recommendations.
Computing Research Project 34
Books
Cornford, T. (2005) Project Research in Information Systems: A Student's Guide. Paperback. Macmillan. Costley, C., Elliot, G. and Gibbs, P. (2010) Doing Work Based Research: Approaches to Enquiry for Insider- researchers. London: SAGE. Fink, A. (2009) Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. 3rd Ed. Sage Inc. Flick, U. (2011) Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner’s Guide to Doing a Research Project. London: SAGE. Gray, D. (2009) Doing Research in the Real World. 2nd Ed. London: SAGE. Saunders, M, Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. (2012) Research methods for Business Students. 6th Ed. Harlow: Pearson. Wellington, J. (2000) Educational Research: Contemporary Issues and Practical Approaches. Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. Foss, S. 2015. “Developing your itinerary: the preproposal”. Destination dissertation: a traveller’s guide to a done dissertation. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 35-76.
Journals
International Journal of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Qualitative Research Journal
Websites
www.gov.uk/government/publications http://learn.solent.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=2732&chapterid= Computing Research Project 37
