1. Research Design
Pushkar Bajracharya

2. 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

3. 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)

4. Groups Cohort study Cross-sectional study Cross-sequential study
Longitudinal study
Confirmatory vs Exploratory

5. Categories Historical Descriptive Developmental Correlational
Causal-comparative
Experimental
Action
Survey

6. Some area-wise examples
History: Descriptive and analytical
Natural sciences: Experimental
Law: Doctrinal and non-doctrinal

7. 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

8. Cautions
Knowledge
Feasibility
Resources
Results