Ranjit Kumar-Research Methodology A Step-By-Step G

Theme 4: Choosing your Research Topic
You can use this log book file to record any thoughts, reflections or useful
materials, as well as doing the suggested activities.
Student Name:
Student Number:
© University of Southampton 1 Choosing your research topic

Activity 1: Reflection on researchers’ reasons for choosing their research topic
Task 1:
Watch the online automated slide show, illustrating how real researchers have chosen
their topics.
Task 2:
Write a reflection on their comments in your log book.

Activity 2: What constitutes research?
Task 1:
Read through the text that follows and decide whether these activities constitute
research.
Task 2:
Provide justification for your answers to Task 1 in your log book.
1. You go to several libraries and read extensively on cancer drugs past and present and
find out the views on their effectiveness.
2. You search the Internet comprehensively for information on the behaviour of cats.
3. You write a report based upon either activity 1 or activity 2.
4. You help to design, perform and tabulate the results of a consumer survey. Based
upon the information collected, the parent company changes the formula of its best-
selling soft drink.
5. You attend a conference and take notes at several presentations about new methods
of chemical analysis.

Activity 3: Real research projects
Task 1:
a) Visit the Academic Schools page of the Soton website

http://www.soton.ac.uk/about/academicschools/index.html and select 3 schools or
centres excluding your own.
b) In your log book make a list of research topic areas, or titles in those 3 schools
that you might be interested in learning more about.
For example, in March 2007 the author found the following titles that would
interest him!
Music
Patterns of Mozart Reception
Female Musicians and Performance Practice in Parma and Ferrara
Philosophy
The character of practical reason and of ethical deliberation
The philosophies of religion, emotion and psychiatry
The Institute of Human Nutrition

We are interested in the influence of nutrition on the interactions among
genes, metabolism and physiological function. Our research focuses upon
inflammation and immunity (as the physiological function) and upon fatty
acids, amino acids and antioxidant vitamins as the nutrients.
c) Briefly note your reasons for choosing the topic areas, or titles.
Task 2:
Send the list to your tutor.
Task 3:

a) Discuss you list with your peer group, who are studying this core theme.
b) Note any interesting thoughts you have on the outcome of the discussion and
comments from your tutor.

Activity 4: Pure or applied research
Task 1:
a) Read the following questions.

b) State whether they represent pure or applied research.
Task 2:
Make a note of the reasons for your decision in each case.
1. What is the most efficient system for collecting recyclable materials from
householders?
2. How did medieval communities choose their leaders?
3. How can mobile telephones be used to transmit full-length movies?
4. What common themes run through the works of Jane Austen and Charles
Dickens?
5. How can we explain the formation of the Universe?
6. What is the most efficient and effective vaccine against HIV?
7. Do electrons really move around the nucleus of an atom in clearly defined orbits?
8. What is the most energy-efficient design of low-cost housing?
9. What does “zero” really mean?
10. Can a high protein diet reduce injury recovery times?

Activity 5: Quantitative or qualitative?
Task 1:
a) State whether the following research topics are primarily quantitative or

qualitative?
b) Give reasons for your answers.
1. Understanding influences on smoking in Bangladeshi and Pakistani adults.
Quantitative or qualitative?
Reasons
2. A series of experiments to establish the salt tolerance of 4 species of grasses.
Reasons
3. An evaluation of primary teachers’ instructional effectiveness: an observational study.
Reasons
4. The progressive influence of feminism on 20 th century art.
Reasons
5. Investigating memory loss and recovery in victims of domestic violence.

Reasons

Activity 6: Comparing research types
Task 1:
Carefully read through the following research positions:
Position A: Only qualitative research activities are reliable and valuable because they
use holistic, in-depth and comprehensive approaches to investigate research issues.
Position B: Only quantitative research activities are reliable and valuable because they
use logical, systematic and readily replicable approaches to investigate research issues.
Task 2:
Pick ONE of the positions, A or B, and list at least 6 strengths and 6 weaknesses of that
position. Support your list items with references to authoritative texts or statements of
your own personal belief.
Task 3:
Send your text to your tutor.
Task 4:
a) Discuss you list with your peer group, who are studying this core theme.
b) Note any interesting thoughts you have on the outcome of the discussion and
comments from your tutor.

Activity 7: What do we mean by originality?
Task 1:
a) Read through the following list of activities.
b) State which ones you would regard as “original” academic work by jotting down
the numbers associated with those that apply.
1. Something that no-one else has done.

2. Fresh data generation.
3. Critical appraisal of previous work.
4. New research design/methodology for research.
5. New analysis and new outcomes from existing data.
6. Fresh theoretical interpretations.
7. New analysis and new outcomes from new data.
8. To extend, clarify and/or gainsay existing work.
9. New arguments.
10. New ideas.
11. New theoretical accounts of existing data.
12. Sophisticated methods.
13. New interpretation of phenomenon/a.
14. Applying existing ideas to a new area of study.
15. Creativity in research design/methodology/data analysis or artistic composition.
16. New insights.
17. Distinct individuality (painting, sculpture, musical composition).
18. Imagination in research design/methodology/data analysis or artistic composition.
19. Collection of experimental data from a test rig (e.g. an engineering rig) set up in a
particular way.
20. Collection of survey data under a particular set of circumstances.
21. Application of procedures in unusual circumstances.
22. Comprehensive collation and interpretation of literature not previously
undertaken.

Task 2:
If you have any queries, discuss with your tutor.
Task 3:
a) Now discuss your answers with your group.
b) Produce a definitive list with which you are all happy.
c) Send this to your tutor for feedback.

Activity 8: Critical thinking
Task 1:
a) Using Google Scholar find a pair of papers that offer opposing positions about
something in your research field. It need not be of direct relevance to your own
research topic.
b) Briefly sum up the counter arguments in your log book.
c) State who you believe and why?
Task 2:
Now send a copy of this to your tutor for discussion.
Task 3:
a) Discuss the papers you found, who you believe and your reasoning, with your
group who are studying this core theme.
b) Would they have come to the same conclusion as you? Record and reflect on
these conclusions in your log book.
Note: if you are having difficulty finding opposing papers, ask somebody else working in
your field, such as your supervisor, or another student who is further along in their
research.

Activity 9: Design or method?
Task 1:
a) Write down your thoughts on the difference between research design and
research method.
b) Then go back to the website and click the button for Bryman's (2004) thoughts.

Activity 10: Research models
Task 1:
a) List the advantages and disadvantages of using models in research activities.
b) To help you complete the task you might like to look at one of these papers, or
find one in your own field that discusses research models and frameworks:
Franz, J. (2000) An interpretative framework for practice-based research in

architectural design. Working Papers in Art and Design 1. Queensland University
of Technology, AU.
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/papers/wpades/vol1/franz2.html.
Small, S. A. (1995) Action-Oriented Research: Models and Methods. Journal of

Marriage and the Family, 57 (4), 941-955.
Task 2:
Send your list to your tutor for feedback.
Task 3:
Discuss your answers with your peer group who are studying this core theme. Compile a
joint list and send it to your tutor for feedback.

Activity 11: Creation of a research timetable
Task 1:
a) List the key activities that must be included in the development of an idealised
research timetable.
b) Place them in the order in which they are most likely to take place.

Activity 12: Suitable subjects
Task 1:
a) Reflect on why some subjects are unsuitable for project work at postgraduate level.
b) List your reasons in your logbook.

Activity 13: Responsibilities
Task 1:
List the responsibilities of the postgraduate student in your log book.
Task 2:
List the responsibilities of the project supervisor in your log book.
Task 3:
a) Now send your list to your tutor for feedback.

b) Amend your lists, if necessary, in response to this feedback.

Activity 14: Ethical dilemmas
Task 1:
a) Read through the following real-life research scenarios

b) Identify any that reveal ethical issues that might be relevant in your research.
c) Write a reflection on these issues in your log book.
Real-life Research Scenarios
1. The use of embryonic stem cell research to investigate cures for diseases such
as cancer, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes.
2. You are developing a research bid for the development of geographic information
systems, but are struggling with an ethical dilemma. Should you put your time
and effort into expanding the knowledge base that will help advance systems for
allowing stricter control over digital information, or should you put your effort into
expanding the knowledge base for systems that will allow greater access to
information by larger segments of society?
3. A multi-national company will allow you to conduct research into approaches to
management by providing access to its employees, office space and time for its
workers to be interviewed. However, as a quid pro quo, it wants to see your data
and analyses before it will allow you to publish.
4. You want to conduct research into the sexual behaviour/alcohol consumption of
teenagers using Internet chatrooms, especially set up for the 13-16 age groups.
5. The use of donated eggs from healthy women for cloning experiments, designed
to shed light on the debilitating condition, motor neurone disease. (Until now, only
spare eggs left over from couples undergoing treatment at fertility clinics have
been used.)
6. A pharmaceutical company offers to sponsor your research on the impacts of
diabetes on family life, providing you send them your results and analyses every
three months.
7. A large software manufacturer offers to provide hardware and software to support
your research into vulnerabilities within their products, providing you sign a non-
disclosure agreement.

8. During research into injuries incurred at home, you discover a case of wife-
beating.
9. During research into the psychology of suicide, you receive a request from the
parents of a patient of yours, who recently committed suicide, for a printout of his
medication for the last three years.
10. You are a feminist researcher who has been offered an opportunity to research
social behaviour in working men’s clubs. You are concerned whether you can
represent the experiences of others without misrepresenting, misappropriating, or
distorting their realities.
11. You have been commissioned to conduct a research project in a socially and
economically deprived community, and you are considering offering payment for
research participation.
12. You decide to use arrest records as a measure of aggressive behaviour among
ethnic-minority youth.
13. An insurance company offers to fund your research into the development of a
national “bio bank” – an electronic database that contains data on the health and
genetics of the UK population.
Task 2:
a) Discuss them, and any other ethical dilemmas that are relevant in your field of
research, with your peer group who are studying this core theme.
b) Following the discussion, write your reflections on ethical dilemmas that are
relevant in your field of research.
Task 3:
a) Discuss your thought with your tutor.

b) Incorporate the feedback into your reflections on ethical dilemmas.

Activity 15: Checklist for literature review
Task 1
If you have not already created your own checklist for your literature review, do so now,
and save it in your log book, here.
Note: You may wish to (re)visit the Literature Review Theme of this eResearch Methods
Module.
Task 2
a) Reflect on whether you could have improved your literature review, if you
had produced the checklist for Task 1, prior to completing your document,
for Core Theme 3: Literature Review.
b) Record your thoughts here.

Activity 16: Checklist for writing an abstract
Task1:
Find an example of, or create your own, checklist for writing an abstract for a research
paper/dissertation.

Activity 17: Checklist for editing and proof-reading text
Task 1:
Find an example of, or create your own, checklist for editing and proof-reading text.

Activity 18: Selection of research design
Task 1:
a) Find some examples of the 5 research designs from your own discipline/School.
b) Write brief notes about each of them here in your log book.
Task 2:
a) Thinking about your own research area, which of the 5 types of research design
are you going to adopt?
b) Provide sound reasons in your log book for choosing this design
c) Discuss the design with other researchers in your field of study and/or other
students completing this core theme.
d) Incorporate useful feedback into your write-up
Task 3:
a) Discuss your findings from Task 1 and 2 with your tutor.

b) Reflect on the outcomes of the discussion and record your thoughts here.

Activity 19: Checklist of common issues that will influence your research design
Here is a checklist that summarises the most common, generic issues that arise when selecting an
appropriate research design. Place a tick beside those that you consider most significant to your
research.
Checklist of most common generic issues related to research design Place  after your selection
Availability of resources
 Financial
 Equipment
 Space
 Access to personnel with the right skills (supervisory, technical,

general research assistance)
 Time
Identification of training requirements
Availability of supporting/secondary data
Social research
 Qualitative or quantitative approach (or both)
 Direct observation
 Participant observation
 Questionnaire
o Fully-structured, open-ended or free (or combination)
o Open or closed questions (or both)
o Self-completion or interviewer completion
o Face-to-face
o Telephone
o Postal

o Panel
o E-mail
o Internet
o Selection of scales for measurement
 Interviews
o Scheduling
o Ordinary survey interviewing
o Free interviewing
o Exploratory interviewing
o Probing
o Focused interviewing
o Intensive interviewing
o Interviewing in context of projective work
o Extended interviewing
o Non-directive interviewing
 Focus groups
 Diary
 Case studies
 Anthropological techniques
Laboratory work
 Availability of space
 Scheduling laboratory work
 Use of existing standard methods or development of a new

method?
 Equipment
o Costs

o Accuracy/precision
o Sensitivity
o Detection limits
o Errors
o Calibration and maintenance
 Consumables
 Technical support and expertise
Fieldwork
 Suitability of location(s)
 Site access (e.g. is permission required?)
 Site safety (e.g. safety of the public?)
 Logistical issues (e.g. travel, availability of equipment/personnel)
 Use of existing standard methods or development of a new

method?
 Equipment
o Costs
o Accuracy/precision
o Sensitivity
o Detection limits
o Errors
o Calibration and maintenance
o Access to power
o Shelter
o Security
 Consumables
 Technical support and expertise

Numerical methods
 Availability of hardware
 Availability of software; licence for software
Sampling issues
 Qualitative or quantitative approach (or both)?
 Over space or time?
o What space? What time period?
 Target population
 Sample population
 Control population
 Use of a placebo
 Representative or snapshot
 Replication
 Number of variables involved
 Choice of variable
o Dependent, independent, confounding, quantitative,

qualitative, discrete, continuous
 Type of variable
o Nominal, ordinal, interval
 Sample size
o Desired accuracy
o Likely non-response rate
o Sub-divisions in data
o > 30? If not, have any statistical implications been

considered?
 Simple random sampling
 Systematic sampling

 Stratified random sampling
o Pre- or post-
 Cluster sampling
 Quota sampling
 Multi-stage sampling
 Purposive sampling
 Snowball sampling
 Theoretical sampling
 Need to match with complementary or simultaneous sampling

occurring elsewhere?
 Response rate
Data recording and storage
 Access to data and compliance with data protection legislation
 Choice of media for recording and storage of data
o Compatibility issues
 Use of logbook(s)
 Backing up information
o Media/location
o Frequency
Data interpretation and analysis
 Qualitative or quantitative approach (or both)?
 Use of tables, figures, graphs, flowcharts, photographs
 Precision
 Accuracy
 Sensitivity
 Types and quantification of errors

 Choice of statistical treatment (if applicable)
 Choice of mathematical manipulation (if applicable)
Health & safety issues
 Hazard identification
 Risk assessment
 Control of substances hazardous to health
 Material safety data sheets
 Emergency procedures
 Audit trail
Ethical issues
 Identification of issues
 Need for ethical clearance
 Audit trail
Consideration of reliability, replication and validity
Ensuring methods and approach are compatible

Activity 20: Aims and objectives
Task 1:
a) Draw up a list of aims and objectives for your project. You should be able
to fit them onto one page.
b) Discuss them with other researchers in your field of study and/or other
students completing this core theme.
c) Incorporate useful feedback into your list
Task 2:
Send them to your tutor for discussion/feedback
Task3:
Rewrite your aims and objectives, taking into consideration feedback from your tutor.

Activity 21: Research titles
Task 1:
Write and evaluate at least 5 different possible titles for your proposed research project.
Task 2:
Identify the “best” title, explaining the reason(s) for your selection.
Task 3:
a) Discuss your proposed titles with your group (research and/or fellow
students completing this core theme).
b) Do they agree with you, as to which is the best one?
c) Incorporate relevant feedback into your write up.
Task 4:
Send the responses to Tasks 1, 2 and 3 to your tutor for discussion.
Task 5:
Rewrite your best title, incorporating any feedback from your tutor.

Activity 22: Risk assessment
Task 1:
a) Find out who is the Safety Officer for your School.

b) What are the procedures for getting a Risk Assessment signed off?
c) Where do you get a form?
Task 2:
a) Look at the form and think about the sections you will have to fill in for your
research project. Record your thoughts.
b) Will you have to complete a COSSH form? If the answer is yes, state why.
Task 3:
a) Within your peer group, (i.e., other members of the research group you will be
joining, or have joined in your School; or other members of the group completing
Core Theme 4.) discuss the risks associated with each individuals research
project.
b) Present in writing, ways in which you can minimise the risks associated with
your project.
c) Will you have to complete a COSSH form?
Task 4:
a) Send your responses to Tasks 1, 2 and 3 to your tutor for discussion.
b) Incorporating any feedback from your tutor.

Activity 23: Identification of hazard warning symbols .
Hazard Symbols
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
Task 1
Record in your log book the meaning of each hazard warning symbol in the table.

Activity 24: Safety rules
Task 1:
a) Identify any safety rules that apply to your research working environment.
b) Record them here in your log book.

Activity 25: Core theme four review
Task 1:
Briefly identify the most useful aspects of this core theme, providing reasons for your
choices.
Task 2:
Identify any elements of the core theme that could be improved to assist your learning.

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Theme 4: Choosing your Research Topic

© University of Southampton 1 Choosing your research topic

Write a reflection on their comments in your log book.

© University of Southampton 2 Choosing your research topic

Provide justification for your answers to Task 1 in your log book.

3. You write a report based upon either activity 1 or activity 2.

© University of Southampton 3 Choosing your research topic

a) Visit the Academic Schools page of the Soton website

The Institute of Human Nutrition

Send the list to your tutor.

© University of Southampton 4 Choosing your research topic

© University of Southampton 5 Choosing your research topic

a) Read the following questions.

Make a note of the reasons for your decision in each case.

© University of Southampton 6 Choosing your research topic

a) State whether the following research topics are primarily quantitative or

b) Give reasons for your answers.

1. Understanding influences on smoking in Bangladeshi and Pakistani adults.

2. A series of experiments to establish the salt tolerance of 4 species of grasses.

3. An evaluation of primary teachers’ instructional effectiveness: an observational study.

4. The progressive influence of feminism on 20 th century art.

5. Investigating memory loss and recovery in victims of domestic violence.

© University of Southampton 7 Choosing your research topic

© University of Southampton 8 Choosing your research topic

Carefully read through the following research positions:

Send your text to your tutor.

© University of Southampton 9 Choosing your research topic

a) Read through the following list of activities.

1. Something that no-one else has done.

© University of Southampton 10 Choosing your research topic

If you have any queries, discuss with your tutor.

a) Now discuss your answers with your group.

b) Produce a definitive list with which you are all happy.

c) Send this to your tutor for feedback.

© University of Southampton 11 Choosing your research topic

Now send a copy of this to your tutor for discussion.

© University of Southampton 12 Choosing your research topic

© University of Southampton 13 Choosing your research topic

a) List the advantages and disadvantages of using models in research activities.

Franz, J. (2000) An interpretative framework for practice-based research in

Small, S. A. (1995) Action-Oriented Research: Models and Methods. Journal of

Send your list to your tutor for feedback.

© University of Southampton 14 Choosing your research topic

© University of Southampton 15 Choosing your research topic

b) List your reasons in your logbook.

© University of Southampton 16 Choosing your research topic

List the responsibilities of the postgraduate student in your log book.

List the responsibilities of the project supervisor in your log book.

a) Now send your list to your tutor for feedback.

© University of Southampton 17 Choosing your research topic

a) Read through the following real-life research scenarios

Real-life Research Scenarios

© University of Southampton 18 Choosing your research topic

a) Discuss your thought with your tutor.

© University of Southampton 19 Choosing your research topic

© University of Southampton 20 Choosing your research topic

© University of Southampton 21 Choosing your research topic

© University of Southampton 22 Choosing your research topic

a) Discuss your findings from Task 1 and 2 with your tutor.

© University of Southampton 23 Choosing your research topic

 Access to personnel with the right skills (supervisory, technical,

Identification of training requirements

Availability of supporting/secondary data