Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Getting Started
Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking.
Carl Sagan
The Demon-Haunted World
There are as many scientific methods as there are individual
scientists.
Percy W. Bridgman
On “Scientific Method”
There are many ways in which a research project can begin. It may be that a
conversation with a colleague suggested interesting questions to pursue, or that your
general interest in a topic was crystallized into a specific investigation by something
learnt in a seminar, or that enrollment in a research degree forced you to identify a
problem to work on. Then definite aims are stated; theories are developed or exper-
iments are undertaken; and the outcomes are written up.
The topic of this chapter is about getting started: finding a question, working with
an advisor, and planning the research. The perspective taken is a practical one, as a
working scientist: What kinds of stages and events does a researcher have to manage
of how research should be described—by considering how the content of paper is
arrived at.
Thus this chapter concerns the first of the steps involved in doing a research
project, which broadly are:
Formation of a precise
question
, the answer to which will satisfy the aim of the
research.
Development of a detailed
understanding
, through reading and critical analysis of
scientific literature and other resources.
Gathering of
evidence
that relates to the question, through experiment, analysis,
or theory. These are intended to support—or disprove—the hypothesis underlying
the question.
Linking of the question and evidence with an
argument
, that is, a chain of
reasoning.
Description of the work in a publication.
