1. CHOOSING A RESEARCH PROJECT
© LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE MANION AND KEITH MORRISON
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

2. STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER
What gives rise to the research project? (How to choose a research project)
The importance of the research
The purposes of the research
Is the research practicable?
Research questions
The scope of the literature review
A summary of key issues in choosing a research topic or project
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

3. CHOOSING A RESEARCH PROJECT
A problem encountered in everyday work or outside their everyday work;
An issue that the researcher has read about or seen;
A problem that has arisen in the locality, e.g. in response to government policy or practices or to local developments;
An area of the researcher’s own interest;
An area of the researcher’s own experience;
A perceived area of importance;
An interesting question;
A testable guess or hunch;
A topical matter;
Disquiet with a particular research finding that one has met in the literature or a piece of policy;
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

4. CHOOSING A RESEARCH PROJECT
An awareness that a particular issue or area has been incompletely addressed, and a wish to plug the gap;
A wish to apply a piece of conceptual research to actual practice, or to test a theory in practice;
A wish to rework the conceptual or theoretical frameworks that are often used in a specific area;
A wish to revise or replace the methodologies that are often used in researching a specific area;
A desire to improve practice in a particular area;
A desire to involve participants in research and development;
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

5. CHOOSING A RESEARCH PROJECT
A desire to test out a particular methodology in research;
An interest in seeing if reported practice holds true for the researcher’s own context (e.g. a comparative study);
An interest in investigating the causes of a phenomenon or the effects of a particular intervention in the area of the phenomenon;
A priority identified by funding agencies;
An issue identified by the researcher’s supervisor or a project team of which the researcher is a member.
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

6. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESEARCH
Is the research significant?
What difference will the research make?
Does the originality of the research render it significant?
How and where does the research move forward the field?
Where do originality and significance lie in the research:
Conceptually
Theoretically
Methodologically
Substantively
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

7. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESEARCH
What is the likely impact of the research?
What is the use of the research – what will it ‘deliver’?
What benefit will the research bring, and to whom?
Is the research worth doing?
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

8. THE PURPOSES OF THE RESEARCH
What are the ‘deliverables’ in the research?
What does the research seek to do?
What do you wish to come from the research?
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

9. EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENT PURPOSES OF RESEARCH
To examine effects of causes
To evaluate an intervention
To examine causes of effects
To look at an issue in detail
To generalize
To look at long-term effects
Classroom-based research
To investigate sensitive issues or groups
To develop theory
To see what happens if . . .
To test a theory/hypothesis
To test practice
To clarify concepts
To identify common features
To investigate and examine
To collect opinions
To model
To compare
To look at trends
To collect views
To critique policy/practice
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

10. FITNESS FOR PURPOSE: PURPOSES OF RESEARCH DRIVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF RESEARCH
Accounts
Action research
Case study
Comparative study
Correlational research
Covert research
Descriptive research
Discourse analysis
Ethnography
Evaluative research
Experiment
Grounded theory
Historical research
Ideology critique
Interpretive research
Literature-based research
Longitudinal research
Meta-analysis
Multilevel research
Multiple regression
Network analysis
Observational study
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

11. FITNESS FOR PURPOSE: PURPOSES OF RESEARCH DRIVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF RESEARCH
Personal constructs
Research synthesis
Role-play
Simulation
Structural equation modelling and causal modelling
Survey
Testing
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

12. IS THE RESEARCH PRACTICABLE?
Access
People, institutions, data sources
Permission
People, institutions, review panels
Informed consent and ethical issues
Scope of research
Disposition, commitment and expertise of researcher
Duration of research
Availability of resources
Human, material, temporal, administrative, supervision
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

13. WHAT ARE THE SOURCES OF THE RESEARCH QUESTION?
A practical concern
A literature review
Identifying a gap in the literature or field of study (gap-filling)
Identifying where the research can build on existing literature
A theoretical concern, enabling theories to be generated and tested
A policy
Concerns in the media and blogs (including the Internet)
Society, empirical data
Personal experience, interest or observation
Colleagues and contacts
Experts and practitioners in the field
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

14. WHAT ARE THE SOURCES OF THE RESEARCH QUESTION?
Conferences and conventions
Faculty seminars, research groups, discussion groups and workshops
Students
Societies, associations, research bodies and special interest groups
Spotting where areas are neglected, e.g. overlooked/under-researched
Existing studies and influential theories
Challenge to, problematization of, an assumption, agenda or existing theory
A novel idea which challenges existing ideas or practices
Funding bodies and/or project directors
Spotting where applications may lie
Spotting where confusions need to be clarified
Spotting where new methodologies and research methods might be applied
Others
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

15. GENERATING INTERESTING RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Step One:
Identify a domain of literature
Step Two:
Identify and articulate the assumptions that underlie that domain
Step Three:
Evaluate the assumptions that underlie that domain
Step Four:
Develop an alternative assumption ground
Step Five:
Consider this alternative assumption ground in relation to its audience
Step Six:
Evaluate the alternative assumption ground
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

16. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Research questions must be operational, yielding concrete answers to research purposes and research objectives.
Clarity
Complexity
Comprehensibility
Comprehensiveness
Concreteness
Contents
Difficulty
Ease of answering
Focus
Kinds of data required to answer them
Purposes
Specificity
Utility of the answers provided
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

17. TYPES OF RESEARCH QUESTION
‘How?’
‘Wh’ questions: who, where, why, what, what if, when
Achievement
Alternatives to something
Causation
Comparisons
Correlations
Description
Evaluation
Explanation
Exploring
Factors
Function or purpose
How to achieve outcomes
How to achieve something
How to do something
How to improve or develop something
Prediction
Processes
Properties and characteristics
Relations (e.g. between variables, people, events)
Stages of something
Structures of something
Testing
Types of something
Understanding
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

18. SCOPE OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Gives credibility and legitimacy to the research.
Shows that the research is up-to-date, focuses on key issues, is aware of the theoretical, conceptual, methodological and substantive problems in the field.
Clarifies key concepts, issues, terms and meanings.
Leads into the researcher’s study, raising issues, showing where there are gaps in the research field, how to move the field forwards, and justifying the need for the research.
Shows the researcher’s own critical judgement on prior research or theoretical matters in the field.
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors

19. SCOPE OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Provides new theoretical, conceptual, methodological and substantive insights and issues for research.
Sets the context for the research and establishes key issues to be addressed.
The literature must inform the research, not simply stand alone with no relation to what comes after.
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors