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How to write a research methodology

Date published February 25, 2019 by Shona McCombes. Date updated: December 18, 2019

In your thesis or dissertation, you will have to discuss the methods you used to do your research. The
methodology or methods section explains what you did and how you did it, allowing readers to evaluate
the reliability and validity of the research. It should include:

The type of research you did

How you collected your data

How you analyzed your data

Any tools or materials you used in the research

Your rationale for choosing these methods

The methodology section should generally be written in the past tense.

Table of contents
 Explain your methodological approach

Describe your methods of data collection

Describe your methods of analysis

Evaluate and justify your methodological choices

Tips for writing a strong methodology

Frequently asked questions about methodology

Step 1: Explain your methodological approach

Begin by introducing your overall approach to the research. What research problem or question did you
investigate, and what kind of data did you need to answer it?

Quantitative methods (e.g. surveys) are best for measuring, ranking, categorizing, identifying patterns
and making generalizations

Qualitative methods (e.g. interviews) are best for describing, interpreting, contextualizing, and gaining
in-depth insight into specific concepts or phenomena

Mixed methods allow for a combination of numerical measurement and in-depth exploration

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

Was your aim to address a practical or a theoretical research problem?

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 with a representative
sample and controlled variables that can be replicated by other researchers.
In a qualitative ethnographic case study, 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 the
methods you used to conduct the research. Outline the tools, procedures and materials you used to
gather data, and the criteria you used to select participants or sources.

Quantitative methods

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, rating 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 the respondents had to
answer with 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

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.

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?

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.

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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 or Stata)

Which statistical methods you used (e.g. regression analysis)

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 sampling?

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Shona McCombes

Shona has a bachelor's and two master's degrees, so she's an expert at writing a great thesis. She has
also worked as an editor and teacher, working with students at all different levels to improve their
academic writing.

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51 comments

Nadia Monaia January 1, 2020 at 3:16 PM

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Reply

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Reply

Shona McCombes

Shona McCombes (Scribbr-team) December 13, 2019 at 4:14 PM

Hi James, thanks for your question. You can learn more in our articles about creating a research design
and writing a research proposal. Hope that helps!

Reply

Omolola December 9, 2019 at 12:50 PM

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Reply

Sobhan December 8, 2019 at 9:18 AM

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Reply

Cheki Dorji December 6, 2019 at 10:18 AM

How to create a research design

Reply

Shona McCombes
Shona McCombes (Scribbr-team) December 6, 2019 at 11:14 AM

Hi Cheki, you can learn about this in our guide to research design. Hope this helps!

Reply

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Reply

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Reply

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Reply

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Edimo Elvis September 26, 2019 at 12:21 AM

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11:56 PM

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Reply

Arjay September 8, 2019 at 7:27 AM

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Hamidatu Suleman September 4, 2019 at 11:49 AM

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Reply

adrian September 3, 2019 at 7:51 AM

Where should I use empirical and theoretical research? what are really they are?

Reply

Salisu September 3, 2019 at 1:23 AM

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Duncan minati August 30, 2019 at 10:20 AM

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Hasanatou Bajo August 29, 2019 at 7:01 PM

It's helpful

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Tunde Morakinyo August 29, 2019 at 11:42 AM

This is educative and insightful. Thank You.

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Samaila Ignatius August 28, 2019 at 10:13 AM

It is very educative.

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Abdulrashid Suleiman August 25, 2019 at 3:27 PM

I have been looking this thank you so much

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Anne Davis August 16, 2019 at 3:33 PM

I was completely stuck how to write my methodology, and this has been brilliant, thank you so much!

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Abubakar Aliyu Gombe August 14, 2019 at 10:03 AM

Educative I really like the article, God bless you

Reply
Naswifu August 12, 2019 at 4:23 PM

I have got all what i wanted

Reply

Iddrisu Shani August 10, 2019 at 5:11 PM

Very helpful especially for beginners. Good job.

Reply

Amina Bilal August 10, 2019 at 4:15 PM

Thank you. Very helpful and well structured. Can you suggest any article helpful to evaluate different
methodologies?

Reply

Abdu sanjar September 2, 2019 at 1:02 AM

Thank you before i study this guide it was impossible for me to write my thesis.bless you be successful.

Reply

Nthabiseng Mobelo August 8, 2019 at 11:10 AM

The article was very helpful, the steps in writing a methodology were very clear and they helped me
avoid including things that should not be in the methodology.

Reply

Elias August 5, 2019 at 1:24 AM

This is article is very helpful and I have been using it as a guide for my dissertation. however, I have one
question. Is it preferable to write the methodology in first person or third?

Thanks.

Reply

Shona McCombes

Shona McCombes (Scribbr-team) August 12, 2019 at 6:31 PM

Hi Elias, thanks for your question! The answer depends partly on the conventions of your discipline.
Social scientists and humanities researchers sometimes use the first person, but scientific writing often
requires you to avoid it. It's best to focus on consistency – if you have used the first person elsewhere in
your dissertation, you should use it in this chapter too. If not, use the third person (as the examples in
this article do).

Reply

Sunny Breakthrough Nnamani August 2, 2019 at 6:10 AM

Thank you for helping me to gain more insight on what research methodology is all about, and I would
like to be receiving more tips on academic research writing from you. I appreciate your work, keep it on.

Reply

Anne July 30, 2019 at 2:23 PM

You've cleared up quite a few cobwebs. Simply brilliant. God bless you. xx

Reply

Sela July 24, 2019 at 3:19 AM

Very helpful

Reply
Jethro July 4, 2019 at 3:50 AM

this was helpful and very detailed

hat off to the one who did this.

lol...

Reply

Shivani mishra June 29, 2019 at 10:50 PM

It was worth reading ❤️So helpful 👍

Reply

Thokoza Hadebe June 26, 2019 at 7:30 PM

So informative and insightful

Reply

Hamza Mtarfi May 22, 2019 at 5:07 AM

The methodology part was the only missing part of my research paper.

Thank you so much for this article.

Reply

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