THE IMPORTANCE OF

RESEARCH

Samuel Wanji, PhD

(Professor of Infection Biology and
Global Health)
CONTENT
 DEFINITIONS

 TYPES OF RESEARCH

o (BASIC versus APPLIED)

o (QUANTITATIVE versus
QUALITATIVE)
 STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF
GIANTS

 IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH
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 Definitions

Research is an art of scientific investigation.

It is regarded as a systematic efforts to gain
new knowledge.

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 Definitions

 Research is a careful investigation

or enquiry especially through search
for new facts in any branch of
knowledge.

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 Definitions

 Research comprises defining and redefining

problems,
 Formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions;
 Collecting, organizing and evaluating data;
 Making deductions and reaching conclusions;
 Carefully testing the conclusions to determine
whether they fit the formulating hypothesis

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 Definitions
 Research is an organized and systematic
way of finding answers to questions”
 Systematic because there is a definite set of
procedures and steps which one will follow.
 There are certain things in the research
process which are always done in order to
get the most accurate results

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 TYPES OF RESEARCH

Pure, Basic or Fundamental research

 It is undertaken to improve our understanding of
certain problems that commonly occur in social
setting and how to solve them.
 It is undertaken for sole purpose of adding to our
knowledge that is fundamental and generalizable.
 This type of research may have no immediate or
planned application. But it may later be used in
further research of an applied nature
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 Basic Research(ctd)
Its objective is therefore, not to apply
the findings to solve immediate
problems at hand, rather to understand
more about certain phenomena or
problem that occur in social life or
settings, and how they can be solved. It
contributes to theory formation
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 Basic Research(Ctd)

• .. It explains the phenomena as they

are and as not they should be. It may
verify or establish new one.

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 Applied research
 Also called action or decisional research.
 It is undertaken in response to a societal
problem, which requires a solution.
 Its major purpose is to answer practical and
useful question.
 The results are practically applied to solve
immediate problems.
 It involves normative prescription.
 Applied research is concerned with policy
change
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 Applied research
 Applied Scientific research relies on
the application of the scientific
method, a harnessing of curiosity.
 This research provides scientific
information and theories for the
explanation of the nature and the
properties of the world around us.
 It makes practical applications
possible
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 Applied research
Karl Pearlson in his book The
Grammer of Science says-”There is
no shortcut to truth ... no way to gain
the knowledge of the universe except
through the gateway of scientific
research”

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 Quantitative Research
Quantitative methodology is the dominant
research framework in Biology, Physics,
Mathematics Chemistry, Economics and
humanities. It refers to a set of strategies,
techniques and assumptions used to study
processes through the exploration of numeric
patterns.

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 Quantitative Research

Quantitative research gathers a range of

numeric data. Some of the numeric
data is intrinsically quantitative (e.g.
personal income), while in other cases
the numeric structure is imposed (e.g.
‘On a scale from 1 to 10, how
depressed did you feel last week?’).
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 Quantitative Research

The collection of quantitative information

allows researchers to conduct simple to
extremely sophisticated statistical analyses
that aggregate the data, show relationships
among the data or compare across
aggregated data

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 Qualitative research

Qualitative research is defined as

a market research method that
focuses on obtaining data through
open-ended and conversational
communication.

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 Qualitative research

This method is not only about “what”

people think but also “why” they think
so.

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 Qualitative research
• Qualitative research is a process of naturalistic
inquiry that seeks an in-depth understanding of
phenomena within their natural setting. It
focuses on the "why" rather than the "what" of
phenomena and relies on the direct experiences
of human beings as meaning-making agents in
their every day lives.

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 Qualitative research

• Rather than by logical and statistical

procedures, qualitative researchers use
multiple systems of inquiry for the study
of natural phenomena.

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 100 scientists, whom research
activities shaped the humanity from
the 17th century to the 21st century

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 Lemaitre, Heike Kamerlingh, Isaac Newton,
Jacques Charles, James Clerk Maxwell, James
Prescott Joule, Jean Buridan, Johanes Kepler,
John Ambrose Fleming, John Dalton, John
O'Keefe, Joseph Black, Josiah Gibbs, Lord
Kelvin, Lord Rayleigh, Louis Pasteur, Marie
Curie, Martinus Beijerinck, Michael Faraday,
Murray Gell-Mann & George Zweig, Neils
Bohr

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 Albert Einstein, Alessandro Volta, Alexander
Fleming, Amedeo Avogrado, Andre Geim,
Antoine Lavoisier, Antony van Leeuwenhoek,
Archimedes, Benoit Mandelbrot, Carl Friedrich
Gauss, Charles Darwin, Christian Doppler,
Copernicus, Crick and Watson, Dmitri
Mendeleev, Edwin Hubble, Enrico Fermi, Ernest
Rutherford, Erwin Schrodinger, Euclid, Fermat,
Frederick Sanger, Galileo Galilei, Georg Ohm,
Georges

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 Nicholas Steno, Peter Higgs, Pierre Curie,
Ptolemy, Robert Boyle, Robert Brown,
Robert Hooke, Roger Bacon, Rudolf
Clausius, Seleucus, Shen Kuo, Stanley
Miller, Tyco Brahe, Werner Heisenberg,
William Gilbert, William Harvey, William
Herschel, William Rontgen, Wolfgang Pauli .

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 Importance of Research
 The history of science is measured in
milestones of discovery. Each new
milestone allows other scientists to
further advance the sum of human
knowledge.
 As Sir Isaac Newton said, “If I have
seen further, it is by standing on the
shoulders of giants.”
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 Importance of Research
 Frank Herbert noted that “the beginning
of knowledge is the discovery of
something we do not understand.”
 Homo sapiens is an inquisitive species
and it is a scientist’s profound curiosity
that brings discoveries, pushing at the
boundaries of the known world and
bringing order to chaos.
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 Importance of Research

Technology is Conceived Through Research

Without the principles of Newtonian physics, our
world would still be very simple. All of the
technology used today would be impossible
without those principles.
The law of gravity and the theories of special and
general relativity have made almost all of our
technology possible.

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 Importance of Research

• Research into the world of physics, biology,

economics, and culture all translate into
insights that change the way we live.

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 Importance of Research
A Catalyst for Changes in Society
• The impact of academic research is spread through all
tiers of human civilization.
• As we inch forward, changes are made that benefit all
people.
• Research into microbiology finds a way
to decompose plastic.
• Inquiry into the cosmos demystifies longstanding
cultural myths that people have accepted for
centuries.
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 CONCLUSION

DO WE NEED DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA?

• INVESTEMENT IN RESEARH IS THE ONLY ROAD TO THE

DEVELOPMENT

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 CONCLUSION

IF WE WANT THE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA,

THE ONLY OPTION WE HAVE IS TO INVEST IN
RESEARCH

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 THANK YOU

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