research methodology
Investigative approach design
Research methodology is the systematic framework of methods, procedures, and principles used to conduct a study or investigation.
It encompasses how data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted—whether through surveys, experiments, interviews, or statistical analysis.
A methodology section in academic writing justifies these choices: The research methodology combined qualitative interviews with quantitative survey data.
Distinguished from method (the specific technique) by its focus on the overall approach and theoretical rationale behind it.
- experimental designStructured plan for research
- random assignmentAllocation determined by chance
- ethnographySystematic study of peoples
- interviewsFormal evaluative conversations
- focus groupModerated consumer research session
triangulation · questionnaires · epistemology · statistical analysis · case study · positivism · ontology · phenomenology · operationalization · reflexivity · sampling · data collection · field work · non-maleficence · peer review · hypothesis · control · blind study
- researchstudy, researching, archive, peer review, investigating
- research papersjournal article, scholarly article, dissertation, introduction, conclusion
research methodologyresearch findings
Conclusions from systematic inquiry
results · conclusions · data · outcomes · discoveries
research methodologyguesswork
Conclusions drawn without proof
intuition · trial and error · gut feeling · casual observation · improvisation
research methodologydogma
Unchallengeable official beliefs
blind faith · superstition · conjecture · magical thinking · pseudoscience