Research Design
Researchers –
As you know, your next piece that you will be turning in is the Research Design. Please do not confuse this with what you put into your proposal. The research design is all about the methodology you will use to conduct your study – it has nothing to do with the TYPES of sources you use. For example, if your study is a case study, you will tell me what a case study is and why it is the right methodology. Then, outline your plan for the case study. If you are doing a historical or document review, you will tell me all about that methodology and why it is the right one. Some of you included part of this in your proposal – so go back to your proposal and read my notes again on the copy I uploaded!
Based on your proposals, I expect your Research Design section to be only about 2 (maybe 3) paragraphs long. That is it!
You will also want to have a subheader for Limitations of the Study. Here are some limitations you will want to consider:
Reliability of sources/data. You are using second-hand data and you have to trust the sources are reliable – this is why your data should ONLY be scholarly or peer-reviewed.
Classification. Much of the data for a study in the field of homeland security is classified, so you will not have access to it.
Vast amount of data. This is true because of the various kinds of terrorism, lack of an agreed upon definition, or the number of incidents.
Limitation of Time. This is especially true for a case study! Your study is bound by time, so you may not be considering all available information.
Researcher Bias. Folks, we all have this! This is the unconscious bias we bring with us. Some of you saw comments about this in your proposals – we go into this thinking we know the answer – that is bias. This impacts every researcher, so I will be looking for this! You must include something about research bias!
So, here is a simple outline of what you want to be talking about:
Part 1 (1 paragraphs) – Tell me about the methodology and why it is the right methodology. What are the benefits and limitations of this methodology.
Part 2 (1 paragraphs)- Tell me how you will apply this methodology. If you are using variables from another study or have specific things you are looking for, you may need a second paragraph.
Part 3 (usually 1 paragraph) – Limitations of the Study.
I am attaching some samples of Research Design that you can review. One of the research design examples is for a comparative case study and the other for a document review (the student also conducted a risk analysis, but for those of you doing historical, policy or document reviews, the basics are here).
Remember – you must use scholarly references for this section! You cannot talk about research methodology without references! – remember these were done with earlier versions of APA!
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Lesson Material:
Let us first review what is outlined in the End of Program Manual (EOP) for the Research Design section of your thesis:
Research Design/Methodology: Describes how the student will test the hypothesis and carry out his/her analysis. This section describes the data to be used to test the hypothesis, how the student will operationalize and collect data on his/her variables, and the analytic methods that to be used, noting potential biases and limitations to the research approach. It should include
• identification and operationalization (measurement) of variables;
• a sampling plan (i.e., study population and sampling procedures, if appropriate);
• justification of case studies used;
• data collection/sources (secondary literature, archives, interviews, surveys, etc.);
• a summary of analysis procedures (pattern-matching, etc.); and
• the limitations of study and bias discussion.
RESEARCH STRATEGIES
A review of basic terminology explains that a research methodology refers to the nature of your inquiry on a topic. The purpose of your research may range from a desire to solve a problem, explore an issue, or generate new knowledge. You will then select a research approach, which refers to whether you will address your topic through qualitative, quantitative, or a mixed approach. The tool(s) that you select within your methodology is called a research design. Qualitative research is associated with certain tools as is quantitative research. As a result of conducting your literature review and theoretical framework, you will have identified several research designs in the literature. The lesson overview contains eight examples of research designs recently used in theses.