GS2321: Introduction to Research Design

Maria Stern, International Relations

Introductory Note
Research may appear simple until you start doing it yourself. It is important to keep in mind that confusion and frustration are absolutely normal.

Review
- Epistemology: How we can know (which has an impact on methods and research questions)

- Ontology: How we understand the world / What are the relevant units of analysis?

- Method: What are our tools of research and analysis?

- Ethics: The rights and responsibilities that govern the relationship between researcher and subject

- Methodology: How epistemology, ontology, method, and ethical responsibilities work together

Research Design
-Step One: Interest / Passion / Curiosity
● Interest, passion, and curiosity about your topic and research question are absolutely vital.
● They help you to identify a problem, topic, and/or a theoretical puzzle.
● Your problem, topic, and our theoretical puzzle must be justified/ defended, ideally in the introduction of your thesis. In other words, you must specify the motivation of your study as well as the relevance (in relation to "reality" and/ or in relation to other research theories), the contribution (in relation to existing literature and/ or academic debates), and aim (what is the point of your research).

-Step Two: Purpose Statement
● You must state the purpose of your research.
● You must also state a central question. It is important to note that this central question can and will be reformulated throughout the research process. If you are conducting a quantitative study, your central question is likely to be a hypothesis. If you are a conducting a qualitative study, your central question is likely to be a theme.
● You must also state researchable sub-questions that delimit your study.

- Step Three: Theoretical Underpinnings
● Your theoretical underpinnings must be made explicit.
● These are usually based on or derived from the literature review.
● They are used to motivate your research problem.
● They also help you to formulate researchable questions.
● Most importantly, theoretical underpinnings provide a theoretical framework for your analysis and must be explicitly stated.

- Step Four: Method
● Method is an account of what you are going to do and why. In selecting a method, you should consider the following questions:
→ How does your choice relate to your aim, questions, and the theoretical underpinnings of your study?
→ Do you need to use more than one method?
→ How feasible are your methods?

- Step Five: Ethical Considerations
● The Swedish Research Council has established guidelines and these will (probably) be posted on GUL.
● It is important to consider ethics but not to get too bogged down by them. If you do, it is virtually impossible to complete your study.

- Step Six: Writing Process
● It is important to consider and understand your audience.
● It is also important to consider your voice. In other words, how present will you be in the text? This is related to method as well as epistemology and ontology.

Concluding Remarks
- The steps detailed above are simply a guideline and subject to change. If you follow them sequentially, you are in a small minority.
- It is virtually impossible to complete all of these steps perfectly so don't be too hard on yourself.