Research Design Pushkar Bajracharya
Concept A research design is the "blue print" of the study. The design of a study defines the study type (descriptive, correlational, semi-experimental, experimental, review, meta-analytic) and sub- type (e.g., descriptive-longitudinal case study), research question, hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, experimental design, and, if applicable, data collection methods and a statistical analysis plan. Research design is the framework that has been created to seek answers to research questions
Types Descriptive (e.g., case-study, naturalistic observation, Survey) Correlational (e.g., case-control study, observational study) Semi-experimental (e.g., field experiment, quasi- experiment) Experimental (Experiment with random assignment) Review (Literature review, Systematic review) Meta-analytic (Meta-analysis)
Groups Cohort study Cross-sectional study Cross-sequential study Longitudinal study Confirmatory vs Exploratory
Categories Historical Descriptive Developmental Correlational Causal-comparative Experimental Action Survey
Some area-wise examples History: Descriptive and analytical Natural sciences: Experimental Law: Doctrinal and non-doctrinal
Steps Define clearly area of enquiries Identify the data needs, sources thereof and ways of collecting Data processing Methods of analysis to come at conclusions Designing must capture answers to all of them
Cautions Knowledge Feasibility Resources Results