Investigation

We explain what research is, its methodology, elements and other characteristics. Furthermore, its classification according to different criteria.

What is research?

Research is understood to be a set of human activities aimed at obtaining new knowledge and knowledgeand/or its application to the resolution of specific problems or existential questions.

That is, within this concept are understood all the methods that human beings use to expand, in a systematic and verifiable way, the knowledge they have regarding the world and themselves.

Research has had an important place among human interests since ancient times. It is a method to discover deep truths of the universe and also to resolve concrete, everyday dilemmas, and make life easier, longer and more dignified.

For this reason, the research It is present in absolutely all fields of knowledge human, scientific, humanistic or social-scientific. As a practice, it has been refined and formalized as the results obtained by it have allowed humanity to rethink its role in the world.

Those who carry out research are usually called researchers, and they usually have a privileged place in academies, professional practice, the technological world and in other areas in which knowledge is valued and actively pursued.

See also: Research project

Research characteristics

Research can be very diverse and varied, but in general terms is governed by the requirement of rigor, systematicity and objectivity minimal.

Requires the application of a method that is explainable, understandable and transmittableand that it has the endorsement of specialized third parties. Otherwise, the results of the investigations may be questioned or doubted, since there are methods with greater validity than others in each area of ​​knowledge.

On the other hand, research is always voluntary and active. It implies an interrogative or reflective position regarding the world, one's own being and our fellow human beings.

All research starts from a hypothesis or purpose and objectives are set along the way. Applying a method, according to the knowledge previously obtained in the area, finally achieves some kind of results and subsequently, from its analysis, some type of conclusions.

Types of research

The world of research is so vast that it can be classified in multiple ways, the most important being the following three:

• Depending on the nature of your object of study. We can talk about:
  • Basic, fundamental or pure research. He is interested in purely theoretical knowledge, without bothering to think about its practical or everyday applications. It is formal and pursues knowledge for its own sake.
  • Applied research. Quite the opposite: it pursues abstract knowledge as a way to solve real, concrete and everyday problems of humanity, therefore having a greater commitment to immediate reality.
  • Clinical or medical research. It is one that makes human health its object of study and is committed to its preservation, restoration or at least to the understanding of its dynamics.
• According to the nature of its variables. That is, depending on the type of procedures used:
  • Experimental research. That which attempts to replicate in a controlled environment certain phenomena that occur in nature, in order to manipulate its variables and understand its internal functioning.
  • Field research. Those in which the researcher enters the habitat of the problem he seeks to study, going even beyond applied research, since he carries out his methods directly in the place of interest, either to understand the problem or to find a solution. .
  • Analytical research. It is a type of research that is based on the comparison or comparison between different variables, in order to establish laws, percentages or formal principles.
  • Documentary research. It is one that pursues knowledge in documents: books, magazines, articles, transcripts, files, etc. It is usually of a monographic type, that is, it generates new documents from previous ones thanks to which the written knowledge of humanity is expanded.
  • Descriptive or statistical research. It consists of collecting information through polling instruments or surveys, in order to later process it and obtain statistical data that confirm trends, propensities or frequencies.
• According to the level of measurement of the information. That is, depending on the type of questions asked:
  • Qualitative research. Its name comes from “quality”, and it is the type of research that is interested in the meaning of things and the interpretation that can be made of them, so its variables rarely involve figures or statistical data, as much as arguments and reflections.
  • Quantitative research. Its name comes from “quantity”, and on the contrary it deals with measurable or measurable topics, that is, expressible in mathematical, percentage or objective terms, which is why it is usually interested in magnitudes, objectively, without taking into account meanings, only relationships and proportions.

Importance of research

Research is a vital task for humanity, because The enormous possibilities of understanding the universe rest on it. that are intrinsic to the human brain.

What we consider today as everyday and basic knowledge, in another era were enormous unfathomable mysteries or mere fantasies. It was thanks to the gradual accumulation of knowledge resulting from generations of researchers, that today we know what we know and we are who we are.

Research methods

All research is based on a methodthat is, in a series of procedures or a specific way of proceeding. Without a method, an investigation would be a disorderly set of activities of free interpretation and little rigor.

On the contrary, the presence of a verifiable method ensures that anyone can replicate the researcher's experiences and obtain the same or similar results.

For example, scientific research is based on the so-called Scientific Method, which emerged during the advent of the Modern era. It includes a series of steps, principles and protocols to follow.

Thus, it guarantees that an experiment or research presents the least possible amount of uncertainties, doubts and variables out of control, that is, that it is verifiable, reliable and verifiable, something that we demand of any scientific contribution today.

Continue in: Research methods

Research elements

Every investigation is made up more or less of the following elements:

• A hypothesis or question. Which is its starting point: a doubt to be resolved or a question about the world, to which a hypothesis or proposal answers, which must be proven or discarded.
• A method or methodology. That is to say, a procedure that is understandable, explainable, replicable and verifiable step by step, which serves to lead us to the truth. There are different methods for each type of research.
• A sample or population. That is, a series of data, information, actors, subjects or whatever that constitute the group to be studied. In some cases they will be people, in other animals, in other texts, etc.
• A series of variables. That is, unknown elements or elements whose value we do not know, and that we must find or clarify throughout the investigative work.
• A risk. That is, a margin of error or possibility of failure, depending on the nature of the investigation.

Continue with: Theoretical framework

References

• “Research” on Wikipedia.
• “Introduction: What is research?” in The Office of Research Integrity.
• “The research methodology” in Gestiopolis.