Step 1: Explain your methodological approach

Begin by introducing your overall approach to the research.

What research problem or question did you investigate? For example, did you aim to systematically
describe the characteristics of something, to explore an under-researched topic, or to establish a
cause-and-effect relationship? And what type of data did you need to achieve this aim?

Did you need quantitative data (expressed in numbers) or qualitative data (expressed in words)?

Did you need to collect primary data yourself, or did you use secondary data that was collected by
someone else?

Did you gather experimental data by controlling and manipulating variables, or descriptive data by
gathering observations without intervening?

Depending on your discipline and approach, you might also begin with a discussion of the rationale
and assumptions underpinning your methodology.

Why is this the most suitable approach to answering your research questions?

Is this a standard methodology in your field or does it require justification?

Were there any ethical or philosophical considerations?

What are the criteria for validity and reliability in this type of research?

In a quantitative experimental study, you might aim to produce generalizable knowledge about the
causes of a phenomenon. Valid research requires a carefully designed study under controlled
conditions that can be replicated by other researchers.

In a qualitative ethnography, you might aim to produce contextual real-world knowledge about the
behaviors, social structures and shared beliefs of a specific group of people. As this methodology is
less controlled and more interpretive, you will need to reflect on your position as researcher, taking
into account how your participation and perception might have influenced the results.

Step 2: Describe your methods of data collection

Once you have introduced your overall methodological approach, you should give full details of your
data collection methods.

Quantitative methods

In quantitative research, for valid generalizable results, you should describe your methods in enough
detail for another researcher to replicate your study.

Explain how you operationalized concepts and measured your variables; your sampling method or
inclusion/exclusion criteria; and any tools, procedures and materials you used to gather data.

Surveys

Describe where, when and how the survey was conducted.

How did you design the questions and what form did they take (e.g. multiple choice, Likert scale)?

What sampling method did you use to select participants?

Did you conduct surveys by phone, mail, online or in person, and how long did participants have to
respond?

What was the sample size and response rate?

You might want to include the full questionnaire as an appendix so that your reader can see exactly
what data was collected.

Experiments

Give full details of the tools, techniques and procedures you used to conduct the experiment.

How did you design the experiment?

How did you recruit participants?

How did you manipulate and measure the variables?

What tools or technologies did you use in the experiment?

In experimental research, it is especially important to give enough detail for another researcher to
reproduce your results.

Existing data

Explain how you gathered and selected material (such as publications or archival data) for inclusion
in your analysis.

Where did you source the material?

How was the data originally produced?

What criteria did you use to select material (e.g. date range)?

Quantitative methods example

The survey consisted of 5 multiple-choice questions and 10 questions that were measured on a 7-
point Likert scale. The aim was to conduct the survey with 350 customers of Company X on the
company premises in The Hague from 4-8 July 2017 between 11:00 and 15:00. A customer was
defined as a person who had purchased a product from Company X on the day of questioning.
Participants were given 5 minutes to fill in the survey anonymously, and 408 customers responded.
Because not all surveys were fully completed, 371 survey results were included in the analysis.

Qualitative methods

In qualitative research, since methods are often more flexible and subjective, it’s important to reflect
on the approach you took and explain the choices you made.

Discuss the criteria you used to select participants or sources, the context in which the research was
conducted, and the role you played in collecting the data (e.g. were you an active participant or a
passive observer?)

Interviews or focus groups

Describe where, when and how the interviews were conducted.

How did you find and select participants?

How many people took part?

What form did the interviews take (structured, semi-structured, unstructured)?

How long were the interviews and how were they recorded?

Participant observation

Describe where, when and how you conducted the observation or ethnography.

What group or community did you observe and how did you gain access to them?

How long did you spend conducting the research and where was it located?

What role did you play in the community?

How did you record your data (e.g. audiovisual recordings, note-taking)?

Existing data

Explain how you selected case study materials (such as texts or images) for the focus of your
analysis.

What type of materials did you analyze?

How did you collect and select them?

Qualitative methods example

In order to gain a better insight into the possibilities for improvement of the product range, semi-
structured interviews were conducted with 8 returning customers from the main target group of
Company X. A returning customer was defined as someone who usually bought products at least
twice a week from Company X. The surveys were used to select participants who belonged to the
target group (20-45 years old). Interviews were conducted in a small office next to the cash register,
and lasted approximately 20 minutes each. Answers were recorded by note-taking, and seven
interviews were also filmed with consent. One interviewee preferred not to be filmed.

What can proofreading do for your paper?

Scribbr editors not only correct grammar and spelling mistakes, but also strengthen your writing by
making sure your paper is free of vague language, redundant words and awkward phrasing.

See editing example

Step 3: Describe your methods of analysis

Next, you should indicate how you processed and analyzed the data. Avoid going into too much
detail—you should not start presenting or discussing any of your results at this stage.

Quantitative methods
In quantitative research, your analysis will be based on numbers. In the methods section you might
include:

How you prepared the data before analyzing it (e.g. checking for missing data, removing outliers,
transforming variables)

Which software you used to analyze the data (e.g. SPSS, Stata or R)

Which statistical tests you used (e.g. two-tailed t-test, simple linear regression)

Quantitative methods example

Before analysis the gathered data was prepared. The dataset was checked for missing data and
outliers. For this the “outlier labeling rule” was used. All values outside the calculated range were
considered outliers (Hoaglin & Iglewicz, 1987). The data was then analyzed using statistical software
SPSS.

Qualitative methods

In qualitative research, your analysis will be based on language, images and observations (often
involving some form of textual analysis). Specific methods might include:

Content analysis: categorizing and discussing the meaning of words, phrases and sentences

Thematic analysis: coding and closely examining the data to identify broad themes and patterns

Discourse analysis: studying communication and meaning in relation to their social context

Qualitative methods example

The interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis was conducted. This involved coding all the
data before identifying and reviewing six key themes. Each theme was examined to gain an
understanding of participants’ perceptions and motivations.

Step 4: Evaluate and justify your methodological choices

Your methodology should make the case for why you chose these particular methods, especially if
you did not take the most standard approach to your topic. Discuss why other methods were not
suitable for your objectives, and show how this approach contributes new knowledge or
understanding.

You can acknowledge limitations or weaknesses in the approach you chose, but justify why these
were outweighed by the strengths.

Lab-based experiments can’t always accurately simulate real-life situations and behaviors, but they
are effective for testing causal relationships between variables.

Unstructured interviews usually produce results that cannot be generalized beyond the sample
group, but they provide a more in-depth understanding of participants’ perceptions, motivations and
emotions.

Tips for writing a strong methodology

Remember that your aim is not just to describe your methods, but to show how and why you applied
them and to demonstrate that your research was rigorously conducted.

Focus on your objectives and research questions

The methodology section should clearly show why your methods suit your objectives and convince
the reader that you chose the best possible approach to answering your problem statement and
research questions. Throughout the section, relate your choices back to the central purpose of your
dissertation.

Cite relevant sources

Your methodology can be strengthened by reference to existing research in the field, either to:

Confirm that you followed established practices for this type of research

Discuss how you evaluated different methodologies and decided on your approach

Show that you took a novel methodological approach to address a gap in the literature

Our free citation generators can help you to create MLA citations and APA citations.

Write for your audience

Consider how much information you need to give, and don’t go into unnecessary detail. If you are
using methods that are standard for your discipline, you probably don’t need to give lots of
background or justification. But if you take an approach that is less common in your field, you might
need to explain and justify your methodological choices.

In either case, your methodology should be a clear, well-structured text that makes an argument for
your approach, not just a list of technical details and procedures.

Discuss obstacles

If you encountered difficulties in collecting or analyzing data, explain how you dealt with them. Show
how you minimized the impact of any unexpected obstacles. Pre-empt any major critiques of your
approach and demonstrate that you made the research as rigorous as possible.

Frequently asked questions about methodology

What’s the difference between method and methodology?

Where does the methodology section go in a research paper?

What’s the difference between quantitative and qualitative methods?

What’s the difference between reliability and validity?

What is saIf you’ve started working on your first piece of formal research – be it a dissertation, thesis
or research project – you’re probably feeling a little overwhelmed by all the technical lingo that gets
thrown around. “Research methodology”, “research methods”, “data collection and analysis”… it
seems never-ending.

Research Methodology 101

In this post, we’ll explain in plain, straightforward language:

What exactly research methodology means

What qualitative, quantitative and mixed methodologies are

What sampling design is, and what the main sampling options are

What the most common data collection methods are

What the most common data analysis methods are

How to choose your research methodology

What is research methodology?

Research methodology simply refers to the practical “how” of any given piece of research. More
specifically, it’s about how a researcher systematically designs a study to ensure valid and reliable
results that address the research aims and objectives.

For example, how did the researcher go about deciding:

What data to collect (and what data to ignore)

Who to collect it from (in research, this is called “sampling design”)

How to collect it (this is called “data collection methods”)

How to analyse it (this is called “data analysis methods”)

In a dissertation, thesis, academic journal article (or pretty much any formal piece of research), you’ll
find a research methodology chapter (or section) which covers the aspects mentioned above.
Importantly, a good methodology chapter in a dissertation or thesis explains not just what
methodological choices were made, but also explains why they were made.

In other words, the methodology chapter should justify the design choices, by showing that the
chosen methods and techniques are the best fit for the research aims and objectives, and will
provide valid and reliable results. A good research methodology provides scientifically sound
findings, whereas a poor methodology doesn’t. We’ll look at the main design choices below.

What are qualitative, quantitative and

mixed-method methodologies?

Qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods are different types of methodologies, distinguished by

whether they focus on words, numbers or both. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but its a good
starting point for understandings. Let’s take a closer look.

Qualitative research refers to research which focuses on collecting and analysing words (written or
spoken) and textual data, whereas quantitative research focuses on measurement and testing using
numerical data. Qualitative analysis can also focus on other “softer” data points, such as body
language or visual elements.

It’s quite common for a qualitative methodology to be used when the research aims and objectives
are exploratory in nature. For example, a qualitative methodology might be used to understand
peoples’ perceptions about an event that took place, or a candidate running for president.
Contrasted to this, a quantitative methodology is typically used when the research aims and
objectives are confirmatory in nature. For example, a quantitative methodology might be used to
measure the relationship between two variables (e.g. personality type and likelihood to commit a
crime) or to test a set of hypotheses.

As you’ve probably guessed, the mixed-method methodology attempts to combine the best of both
qualitative and quantitative methodologies to integrate perspectives and create a rich picture.

What are the main sampling design approaches?

As we mentioned earlier, sampling design is about deciding who you’re going to collect your data
from (i.e. your sample). There are many sample options, but the two main categories of sampling
design are probability sampling and non-probability sampling.

Probability sampling means that you use a completely random sample from the group of people
you’re interested in (this group is called the “population”). By using a completely random sample,
the results of your study will be generalisable to the entire population. In other words, you can
expect the same results across the entire group, without having to collect data from the entire group
(which is often not possible for large groups).

Non-probability sampling, on the other hand, doesn’t use a random sample. For example, it might
involve using a convenience sample, which means you’d interview or survey people that you have
access to (perhaps your friends, family or work colleagues), rather than a truly random sample
(which might be difficult to achieve due to resource constraints). With non-probability sampling, the
results are typically not generalisable.

What are the main data collection methods?

There are many different options in terms of how you go about collecting data for your study.
However, these options can be grouped into the following types:

Interviews (which can be unstructured, semi-structured or structured)

Focus groups and group interviews

Surveys (online or physical surveys)

Observations

Documents and records

Case studies

The choice of which data collection method to use depends on your overall research aims and
objectives, as well as practicalities and resource constraints. For example, if your research is
exploratory in nature, qualitative methods such as interviews and focus groups would likely be a
good fit. Conversely, if your research aims to measure specific variables or test hypotheses, large-
scale surveys that produce large volumes of numerical data would likely be a better fit.
What are the main data analysis methods?

Data analysis methods can be grouped according to whether the research is qualitative or
quantitative.

Popular data analysis methods in qualitative research include:

Qualitative content analysis

Discourse analysis

Narrative analysis

Grounded theory

IPA

Qualitative data analysis all begins with data coding, after which one (or more) analysis technique is
applied.

Popular data analysis methods in quantitative research include:

Descriptive statistics (e.g. means, medians, modes)

Inferential statistics (e.g. correlation, regression, structural equation modelling)

Again, the choice of which data collection method to use depends on your overall research aims and
objectives, as well as practicalities and resource constraints.

How do I choose a research methodology?

As you’ve probably picked up by now, your research aims and objectives have a major influence on
the research methodology. So, the starting point for developing your research methodology is to
take a step back and look at the big picture of your research, before you make methodology
decisions. The first question you need to ask yourself is whether your research is exploratory or
confirmatory in nature.

If your research aims and objectives are primarily exploratory in nature, your research will likely be
qualitative and therefore you might consider qualitative data collection methods (e.g. interviews)
and analysis methods (e.g. qualitative content analysis).

Conversely, if your research aims and objective are looking to measure or test something (i.e. they’re
confirmatory), then your research will quite likely be quantitative in nature, and you might consider
quantitative data collection methods (e.g. surveys) and analyses (e.g. statistical analysis).

Designing your research and working out your methodology is a large topic, which we’ll cover in
other posts. For now, however, the key takeaway is that you should always start with your research
aims and objectives. Every methodology decision will flow from that.
You Might Also Like:mpling?