field work
Research beyond laboratories
Field work is research or data collection conducted outside of a laboratory, library, or office—in the actual environment being studied.
Anthropologists do field work by living among the communities they research; geologists do it by examining rock formations on site; social workers do it by visiting clients in their homes.
The term emphasizes direct engagement with real-world conditions rather than theoretical or desk-based study.
Her dissertation required two years of field work in rural Indonesia.
Systematic accumulation of facts
- questionnaireFormal inquiry form
- interviewsFormal evaluative conversations
- respondentsThose who answer queries
- samplingExtracting subset for study
canvassing · door-to-door · ethnography · focus group · census · polling · informed consent · rapport
Representative items for examination
- samplingExtracting subset for study
- transectObservation path for surveys
- observationAttentive watching or remark
- data collectionSystematic accumulation of facts
measurement · GPS · documentation · equipment · habitat · monitoring · tagging · collection
data collection
Systematic accumulation of facts
- questionnaireFormal inquiry form
- interviewsFormal evaluative conversations
- respondentsThose who answer queries
sampling · canvassing · door-to-door · ethnography · focus group · census · polling · informed consent · rapport · transect
specimens
Representative items for examination
- samplingExtracting subset for study
- transectObservation path for surveys
- observationAttentive watching or remark
data collection · measurement · GPS · documentation · equipment · habitat · monitoring · tagging · collection · identification
excavation
Act of unearthing
artifacts · stratigraphy · trowel · survey · in situ · potsherd · ceramics · lithics · carbon dating · prehistoric
- academic travelconference, symposium, workshop, seminar, lecture tour
- Medieval Peasant Lifeserfdom, plowing, farming, village, harvest
- preindustrialpreindustrial, pre-industrial, guild, agrarian, pastoral
- nonfictionbiography, autobiography, biographies, history, memoir
- workjob, 9 to 5, jobs, labor, employee
- college lifefreshman, freshman year, sophomore, junior, classes
field workoffice work
Administrative job tasks
desk work · desk job · paperwork · clerical work · remote work
field worklaboratory work
Scientific research activity
lab work · laboratory analysis · laboratory research · library research · controlled experiments