Importance
of Research Methodology in PhD
The
importance of Research Methodology in PhD is an extensively severe matter.
Since Research Methodology is meant to offer the right path for leading
research and make it a valuable intellectual property, you must spend more time
considering the right approach for your PhD. Moreover, the Research
Methodology is also subject to offer relevant ways of adding sources
and resources for meeting the identified research gaps. It is in this frontier
that the importance of the Research Methodology gains great importance in a PhD
research.
Some
practical choices are to be made for the construction of an appropriately
justified Research Methodology. These choices are categorically structured in
the following manner:
Research
Topic
Your
foremost responsibility is to remain focused on the selected domain of
research. Make sure that your inquisitive queries are in relation to your
research topic and the domain that you are going to explore. The inclusion of
multidimensional speculation can lead the research into ambiguous directions.
The
next step to be followed is to indulge yourself in a voracious reading of the
philosophical aspects related to your research questions. The way you want to
interpret ‘why’ & ‘how’ must get well justified for the
selection of the correct research methodology.
Research
Philosophy
The
importance of Research Methodology in a PhD gets appropriate relevance when the
research philosophy is detected correctly. You need to identify your research
philosophy based on the characteristic features of your research among –
Based
on the philosophical approaches the process of sampling can be distributed
under - Pragmatism, Realism, Interpretivism,
and Positivism.
Research
Approach
Following
the aforementioned philosophical advent, you can select the kind of research
approach that can serve your research purpose. This selection is the core stage
for adding greater importance to research methodology in PhD. The Deduction approach
derives the necessary conclusion or model through the application of reasoning.
The Abduction approach emphasizes ‘making logical inferences
and offers greater potential reasoning for qualitative research. The Induction approach
remains focused on implicating generalised conclusions from various instances.
Selection
of Methodology
The
selection of the ultimate research methodology can be very selective it can be
picked from either of the following provisions:
Research
Strategy/ies
The
selected strategies can be based on any one of its kind. You can choose to
consider more than one strategy to meet the purpose and objectives of the
research. The strategies can be either experimenting or can be based on survey
results, or can be both. There are also the scopes of considering archival
research works, case study or studies, and ethnographic provisions. You can
also choose the strategic implementation of action research, provisions of
grounded theory, or the approach based on narrative inquiry. The selection of
the strategy or strategies for your research should be specifically identified
and declared. A clear declaration is going to add great importance to the
research methodology of your PhD.
Estimated
Timescale
The
importance of Research Methodology in a PhD thesis is
significant for its tentative declarations about the timeline for the research
tenure and the possible dates for submissions. The estimated timescale can be either
Cross-sectional or Longitudinal:
Through
a Gantt chart, you are subject to offer various dates when you can proceed with
different levels of the research process. Find below the format of
a Gantt chart:
Table
1 Gantt chart Sample
Research
Technique/s
The
research technique/s can be either qualitative, quantitative or mixed in
nature. As you identify the gaps between the former research and the aims &
objectives of your research, you are in a state to proceed with the data
collection from the primary sources. For this purpose, the importance of
Research Methodology in a PhD brings in the need for adding the questions that
the researcher aims to consider while collecting the data from the primary
sources. However, the collection remains under the provisions of being from
either primary or secondary sources.
The
relevant tools needed for the collection of data are:
Based
on the data collected from Interviews, Questionnaire Surveys, Observation,
Recorded Documents, Focus groups, or Oral histories, as per your preferences;
you need to analyse the attained data. Critical evaluative analyses of the data
lay great importance on Research Methodology in PhD research. The data analyses
can be initiated in either of the following manners:
- Descriptive
Analysis
- Text Analysis
- Diagnostic
Analysis
- Prescriptive
Analysis
- Statistical
Analysis
- Predictive
Analysis
Identify
Methodology
For
the right selection of the research methodology, you must identify the sources
through which your research will collect the data. The data needs to collect
from either of the following provisions:
Following
the need for any of the aforementioned provisions to collect data, you need to
decide about the kind of research methodology that will suit your research at
its best. You need to understand that the type to research data that you
collect for the research, will determine the kind of procedure you need to
adopt for managing the collected data and further leading the research
methodology.
Philosophy
of 'How' & 'Why'
The
importance of Research Methodology in PhD relies on having an appropriately
justified methodology. Seek to understand the research philosophy that you aim
to undertake through your research. The research philosophy gets determined as
per the answers collected from ‘why’ & ‘how’ in your research domain. Based
on the answers received by questioning the research queries through ‘why’ &
‘how’ you need to generate the kind of research process that will lead your
PhD thesis.
Decide
the Research Design
The construction
of the Research design depends on the choices that you make.
The kind of information that you need must be accumulated in a very precise
manner. There is no room for an unnecessary, vague, and ambiguous approach. The
importance of Research Methodology in PhD does not demand any elaborative
explanation about the background of the terms that are used while making the
choices for the research process. However, there is the need for justifications
about the selections that you make. For instance, you should be able to state
why you selected the qualitative approach against quantitative research
methodology, or why grounded theory is more appropriate than other theories.
The three keys to being considered while constructing Research Methodology in
PhD are:
Ethical
Declarations
The
importance of Research Methodology in PhD gets
justified as it makes a clear personal declaration about the maintenance of the
Code of Ethics in the process of research. Though every University holds a
different Code of Ethics for the researchers, yet some of the core Codes of
Ethics can be enlisted as follows:
- Honesty in
Research Approach
- Declare
Intellectual Property
- Protect
Confidentiality
- Responsible
Publication
- Social
Responsibility
- Non-Discriminatory
Approach
- Meet Legalities
- Maintenance of
Animal Care
- Protection Human
Subjects
Conclusively,
it is the way of adding transparency to the research process, which adds great
importance to Research Methodology in PhD.
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