Research Notes

I figured that for writing my Master Thesis there are a few things to learn.

1. What is scientific Research
2. What do I want to research (find the research question)
3. Decided how I want to find the awsner to the question (research method and approach / research design)
4. Doing the research (work work work)
5. Keep track of the research (documentation of the process)

On this page some notes on the Approach, databases and Research Infrastructure. On other pages I will keep track of the Research Question, Design an progress itself.

Note: This page will be updated and restructured non stop. Feel free to collaborate.

Table of Content

• Research Notes
  • Table of Content
  • Summary - What is scientific Research
    • Criteria for the research - Reproducibility
    • Criteria for the research - Design Science
  • What do I want to research (find the research question)
• content of the book (Niek Oost)
• Four theoretical approaches to a research problem (Niek Oost)
  • Functional and normative definition
• standards of quality
  • Condition 1: The research problem has not yet been answered
  • The 2nd Condition: the research problem contributes to science and/or society Research problems can make contributions to science and / or society.
  • Condition 3: The research problem is as informative as possible
  • Formulation of your Research Question

Summary - What is scientific Research

Goal – open and reproducible research This is combination of Design Methods and Approach, Reproducibility-Criteria, and Research infrastructre

Criteria for the research - Reproducibility

Overview: Reproducibility-Criteria

[ICERM / Stodden et al. (2013)][research-criteria-02]

1. Reviewable Research: Sufficient detail for peer review and assessment
2. Replicable Research: Tools are available to duplicate the author’s results using their data
3. Confirmable Research: Main conclusions can be attained independently without author’s software
4. Auditable Research: Process and tools archived such that it can be defended later if necessary
5. Open/Reproducible Research: Auditable research made openly available

Criteria for the research - Design Science

Overview: Design Methods and Approach

[Design Science Research][research-criteria-01]

1. Design as an artifact
2. Problem relevance
3. Design evaluation
4. Research contributions
5. Research rigor
6. Design as a search process
7. Communication of research

What do I want to research (find the research question)

Overview of How to find literature and How to reference to literature

content of the book (Niek Oost)

Module 1: Disciplinary embedding Module 2: Relevance Module 3: Precision Module 4: Methodical functionality Module 5: Consistency

Four theoretical approaches to a research problem (Niek Oost)

As far as we can see, throughout the disciplines there are (traces of) four theoretical approaches to the development and formulation of (scientific) research problems:

1. a disciplinary approach
2. a justificational approach
3. a formal-logical approach
4. a methodical approach

Functional and normative definition

Restricting our definition to the problem-as-final-product, that is to say, to the problem as it is stated in a scientific text, the main functions are:

1. defining the subject within a disciplinary domain
2. formulating a theoretical or practical aim
3. stating what is known and what is unknown
4. indicating research type and structure
5. unifying question, discipline, reason, strategy and answer
6. facilitating criticism and control

standards of quality

The following standards of quality arise respectively from these functions of the research question:

1. disciplinary embedding
2. relevance
3. precision
4. methodical functionality
5. consistency
6. exposition

In this course, you will write a justification that will be checked on the three criteria of relevance:

1. that the research problem has not yet been answered satisfactorily (1rst condition),
2. that answering the research problem is worthwhile in that it contributes to science and/or society (2nd condition),
3. that one has tried to make the research problem as informative as possible (3rd condition).

Condition 1: The research problem has not yet been answered

satisfactorily

To meet the first condition, you must first do a well-organised literature search - this search should yield information, which you can use in meeting both conditions 1 and 2.

1. the research problem has not been answered
2. the research problem has not been answered satisfactorily
3. the research problem has been answered satisfactorily

The 2nd Condition: the research problem contributes to science and/or society Research problems can make contributions to science and / or society.

1. Theoretical contributions
2. Contributions to society

Condition 3: The research problem is as informative as possible

In the section criteria, we have already referred to the procedure to make a research problem more informative. By broadening the domain or the variables of your research problem, you can make your questions more informative (cf. the Plato example above). For more information about the domain and the variables we refer you to the module precision.

Formulation of your Research Question

To reach a precise formulation of your research problem you need to follow 3 steps, that is:

1. Limit the domain
2. Add a core statement
3. Define the variables (and underlying relations them)

It helps when the question is posed in such a manner that a fitting strategy can be found. In other words, it must be formulated in such a manner that it is functional. This functionality reflects/mirrors the different types of research functions:

1. describing
2. comparing
3. defining
4. evaluating
5. explaining
6. designing