Research is a systematic process of investigation to establish new facts or conclusions about a topic through a rigorous scientific approach. It aims to answer questions, solve problems, expand knowledge, or test theories. The purpose of research can be to review existing knowledge on a topic, investigate situations or problems, provide solutions, explore issues more broadly, construct new systems or procedures, explain new phenomena, or generate new knowledge. It involves formulating research questions and determining the best methods to answer them.

1. What is Research?
• Research. 1.a. the systematic
investigation into and study of
materials, sources, etc, in order to
establish facts and reach new
conclusions. b. an endeavour to
discover new or collate old facts etc
by the scientific study of a subject or
by a course of critical investigation.
[Oxford Concise Dictionary]
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2. RESEARCH IS…
… a process of enquiry and
investigation; it is systematic,
methodical and ethical; research can
help solve practical problems and
increase knowledge.

3. THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH IS TO…
 Review or synthesize existing knowledge
 Investigate existing situations or problems
 Provide solutions to problems
 Explore and analyse more general issues
 Construct or create new procedures or
systems
 Explain new phenomenon
 Generate new knowledge
 …or a combination of any of the above!

4. What is research?
• Research is what we do when we have a
question or a problem we want to resolve
• We may already think we know the answer
to our question already
• We may think the answer is obvious,
common sense even
• But until we have subjected our problem to
rigorous scientific scrutiny, our 'knowledge'
remains little more than guesswork or at
best, intuition.
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5. What is research?
• First priority is to formulate your
question
• Then figure out how you are going to
answer it
– How have others answered it?
– How does your proposal fit in with what
others have done?
– How will you know when you have
answered it?
• Then you can present your answer
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6. What is social research?
• Academic research which uses the
social sciences for conceptual and
theoretical inspiration:
• to formulate research topics
• to interpret the findings
• This book is about the methods used
to do social research.

7. How are research topics
formulated?
• They stem from social scientists’ attitudes to
prevailing social theories;
• They follow from the researcher’s existing
knowledge about the current state of
phenomena;
• They depend on the researcher’s orientation to
theory as something to be tested in research or to
emerge from research;
• They depend on whether research is regarded as
apart from the social world studied or as an
integral part of that world.

8. Elements of the social research
process
• Literature review
• Concepts and theories
• Research questions
• Sampling
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Writing up the research