Key Concepts: Developing the Study Readings

Wildemuth Ch 2 Developing a Research Question

4 important matters to consider for your research questions
1) A question isn't a question unless there is some uncertainty about the answer
2) Consider the importance of the question
3) Consider the symmetry of potential outcomes (findings will be useful)
4) Consider the feasibility of answering the question in which you're interested

Components of a problem statement
- lead-in
- claim for originality based on lit review
- justification of the study's value

Research question should be 1 sentence and contain the following aspects: (setting, perspective, intervention, comparison, evaluation)

Wildemuth Ch. 3 - Questions Originating in Library & Information Practice

For practice-based questions, you will want to select a question related to one of your core activities, rather than just the newest procedure or technology - management, education, and reference services were the three core areas that could yield important research & evaluation questions.

Carrying out your practice-based question research study is similar to any other study with one exception: most often you will be conducting the research within the organization you are a member of.


Wildemuth Ch 5 - Testing Hypotheses

Two places you might develop your hypothesis are:
 - you might have direct experiences w/ a phenomenon and in your personal experience find it related to another phenomenon
 - the evidence provided by prior studies.  It's possibly (even likely) that some studies have already investigated the phenomena that you are contemplating.

The first step in testing a hypothesis is to state it clearly.  Then define each noun in the sentence.  Then examine each adjective & verb in the sentence - do they have clear implications?

Patten Topic 14 Reasons for Reviewing Literature

Reviewing Literature can:
   help you identify testable hypotheses
   help you identify measuring tools (instruments)
   help you avoid dead ends
   help you learn how to write research reports by paying careful attention to the style & organization used in polished reports.

Always include your lit review in the introduction of your own study. 

Patton Topic 15 Locating Literature Electronically

Three major sources of electronic lit
a) Sociofile (contains print versions of Sociological Abstracts & Social Planning/Policy Development Abstracts
b) PsycLIT (Psychological Abstracts)
c) ERIC

One of the most important ways to access the databases is to search for articles using appropriate descriptors. To determine the descriptors each database has a Thesaurus, which is key

Patten Topic 16 Writing Literature Reviews

Step 1: name & describe your broad problem area and provide conceptual definitions of major terms
Step 2: establish the importance of your topic
Step 3: write a topic-by-topic description of relevant research, and provide major & minor subheadings to guide a reader thru a long lit review


Pyrczack Appendix D

Really good checklist of all the chapters and list of evaluation questions to consider when working on a study.

Williamson Ch. 3 The Beginning Stages of Research How to formulate your questions: Step 1: Write down your broad area of interest Step 2: Write down a specific sub-area of this broad area in which you have particular interest. Try to formulate a question based on this.  Step 3: List 5-8 unanswered questions you have in respect to the specific sub-area Good Hypotheses should: - be stated in correct terminology - be as brief and clear as possible - state an expected relationship or difference between two or more variables - be testable - be grounded in past knowledge, gained from the literature review or from theory Theory is a viewpoint or perspective which is explanatory.  It 'informs' the research process and helps to direct it.