Scientific Method for Wikimedians/Research Methodology

here is the third chapter of the course scientific method for Wikimedians

We will be addressing research methodology, we are still in part one which is entitled Knowledge and the scientific method.

In Chapter 1: we talked about knowledge we found that facts are part of a type of knowledge we also found that as the name suggests scientific facts are a class of facts that can be developed using science.
In Chapter 2: we learned that facts can be simple or complex we also studied the method used to develop the two types. So now you are familiar with the concept of research method because this is what we are going to address today.
In chapter 3: we will be able to understand the different types of research methods, as well as different styles that can be used with these methods. Thus, you will be ready for chapter 4, when we will talk about the scientific method and dive deep into it.

This chapter includes four main subjects:
We will Define what is the research method exactly, we will also show what is the methodology, the objective is to be able not only to define the tool, but also to distinguish between them.
Please note that in this section when we are looking to understand a new word we will follow the method used so far in the previous chapters.

The method includes three steps:

look up the word's definition in general dictionaries
look up its etymological history
look up the definition in specialized dictionaries.

after understanding what a method is we will classify the research methods, based on how they work. There are three classes of research methods: descriptive, deductive and inductive methods. We will explain each of them and give examples in each class to make understanding easier.
We will explain what are the styles used with research methods there are three styles: literally, scientific and promotive we will explain them and give examples on each of them. Finally, we end this chapter with a general conclusion on methods and methodology.

Brief Reminder

If you recall how we created simple facts in chapter 2, you can find that we were already and consciously utilized some research approach in this course. There are four sequential steps you need to follow in order to achieve your goal, the same is true for the complex fact with different number of steps and details for sure.

here the sequence is very important, that is why there is a number above each step (picture 1). The steps have order, and you need to follow it strictly. you can not perform step three before step two. The output of each step is the input of The next Step.
The process itself and not the details is called a method. thus, if the objective of the method is to find new knowledge, it's called a research method. and if they obtained knowledge are scientific facts well it's called scientific method.

method for finding the meaning of a word

Research method steps we worked accordingly:

Searching for the meaning of the studied word in general dictionaries, specifically for this work, we used Oxford Learners Dictionary, Cambridge dictionary and Merriam-Webster dictionary, We looked for the meaning of the word in specific domain dictionaries.
Searching for the etymology of the word.
Searching for the meaning of the word in specific domain dictionary.

even though these steps are numbered, but it is not sequential, thus, we can start from any step and move to the other, the results will be correct. The most important point is to have well-defined steps. A research method is a way of creating new knowledge, following strictly a set of rules or steps which might be ordered or not. Whereas, the study of the methods themselves is called methodology.

We will be working together following a method to define what is the method, what is the methodology, and we will make the difference between the two words clearly.
In Oxford Learners Dictionary, the entry reads:

“

it is a particular way of doing something

”

the same exact definition can be also found in Cambridge Dictionary.

In Merriam-Webster the entry method reads:

“

it is a way technique or a process of or for doing something.

”

As previous, The three dictionaries agree that "it is a way of doing something". The last dictionary add also: "it can be a technique or a process" which is completely fine.

Method vs. Methodology

Method

Going deep to the etymology of the word method, this word can be traced back to the earliest 15th century, when it was used to mean regular or systematic treatment of a disease. The meaning of the word has significantly changed by the late 17th century, it was used to mean a system or complete rules offset for attaining an end, and it is the meaning of it until now.

The origin of the word is from Latin, where we can see that the word method was used to mean an inquiry or an investigation. and the word itself can be traced back to the Ancient Greekwhere methodos meant a pure Suite or a following after.

The first part of the word is meta' and this is a tricky part of the word, as it has several meanings, and the misunderstanding or mixing of this meaning led to a famous example of Idols of the market, that has been mentioned in chapter 1.

Idols of the market are barriers that block The logical thinking, it comes mainly from the use of the language the word meta. can give us a clear example of that first we need to understand that the word means after in a physical way, for example, an object a physical object that is located after another but it can also mean Beyond in a non-material way such as ideas Beyond a concept well the word metaphysics resulted from this misunderstanding originally Aristotle work number 12 was about physics so the word metaphysics used to refer to the work number 13. this literally means the work that comes after physics, however, the word 13 was about the science of the essential nature of things kind of spiritual aspect of the universe.

So if the world meta is used to mean Beyond and physics is used to mean materials well metaphysics is the science that studies what is beyond materials in fact the two meanings are valid meta also has a third meaning it means to change this can be found in words like metabolism the fourth meaning of the word is across or over, this is the meaning we are looking for the parameter. In the word metaphor, as an example, has the same meaning

the second part of the world is hodos it has also several meanings, but most important for us is way or Road. The hodos part found a way to many words in Modern English, for example, if you have a Christian background you might be familiar with the word Exodus.

It is the name of the second book in the Old Testament. Exodus mean literary the way out. The second example, is the word episode it's used heavily in modern media to refer to a part of siries, well this is a modern use of an old word used to mean what is added on the way. Finally the word diode is our third example it is a name for a semiconductor device the word itself has two parts the first di which means two and the second part is hodus which means Road, and the two together means the device that has two terminals and putting the two meaning of meta and hudos together we got the Greek meaning of the word a following after.

Methodology

Regarding the word methodology, first, by having common sense of the word in general dictionaries, the entry methodology is read as follows:

In Oxford Learners dictionaries:

“

it is a set of methods and principles used to perform a particular activity

”

In Cambridge Dictionary the entry reads as follow:

“

it is a system of ways of doing teaching or studying something

”

please note that the word way is a synonym of the word method as we have seen before. thus, we can safely read the definition provided by the Cambridge dictionaries as follows, it is a system of methods

finally in Merriam-Webster dictionary the entry reads as for

“

it's a body of methods rules postulates employed by a discipline

”

From the previous definitions, we can find that the words set system and body means that we are handling a group and in this case a group of methods, that share something among them. It is that they can be used to address a particular activity, or to study something specific. So, while a method is a set of steps used to address a subject systematically, a methodology is a set of methods used in a specific domain.

Going for the next step to find the origin of the word. From etymological point of view, methodology is used starting from the 19th century to mean a branch of logic that shows how abstract logic principles are to be applied to the production of knowledge the word can be traced back to the Latin through French in all the cases it's clear that the word is composed of two parts, and let us study the English for Simplicity the two parts are method and the suffix ology.

regarding the first part, it is already analysed in the previous section.

Regarding the suffix ology first we need to understand what is a "suffix", it is a set of letters added to the end of the word to add a special meaning to it. the Suffix "ology" means a branch of knowledge or science. It is used in words that everyone has used in his life at least once, such as "biology" which means the study of living organisms, it covers also "morphology" and "physiology", interestingly, all finish with the suffix OLOGY

The second example is "geology", "Geo" means Earth, thus, geology means the science that deals with earth physical structure, and I think you can easily guess that "Egyptology" is the science that study ancient Egypt.

From the previous examples, the result will lead to the definition of methodology to be the science that study methods used in a specific domain.

Questions

What is the exact definition of a research method?

We are not looking for the general board meaning of the word "method", but rather it's the meaning in the research domain, and the answer is the following:

research methods are the strategies processes or techniques utilized in the collection of data or evidence for analyzes in order to uncover new information or create better understanding of a topic

Having a deep investigation in this definition, it is clear that a research method is a tool or a process used to systematically create new knowledge. please note that this definition is based on the research guide published on the website the University of Newcastle.

What is the exact definition of a methodology?

Based on the definition of the Cambridge Dictionary of philosophy:

a methodology is the branch of philosophy of science that explores the methods by which signs arrives at its truth and critically explores rationals for these methods

so it is a science that studies research methods, but what I like most about this definition it is the word critically. As you will find out later in this course when you develop your own research method, the research method can simply be corrupted or misused, and it will lead to invalid results. Thus, here where the mythodology is needed the most, to critic and correct the research method.

Classification of research method

The word classify means: give objects an adjective that describes it, and classification is the process of classifying something according to shared qualities or characteristics. In this case, we classify research methods based on how they arrive to their objectives, this is no strict classification.

In fact, there is no research method that is limited only to one way or another, however, there is always a dominated way. The classification which is studied here is based on this idea,

descriptive method

the first class we have is the descriptive method

a method is said to be descriptive if it focuses mainly on describing the objects it is studying

the descriptive methods can be also subclassified more into two main subclassification, documentary and contemporary.

The documentary focuses on describing objects of the past, it's mainly used in historical and religion studies.

on the other hand, the contemporary methods focuses more on current object, examples of the domain where this research method is dominating are cartography and astronomy.

Cartography is the science or practice of drawing maps. Astronomy is the branch of science that deal with outer space and physical universe. Please note, I mentioned also taxonomy as documentary research method well taxonomy is a branch of biology that is mainly focusing on the classification of organisms, it can also used to study creatures living in the current time. as mentioning before, this is not a strict classification.

deductive research methods

Second class is the deductive research methods:

a method is called deductive when it starts from complex original facts trying to reach or find a specific fact

This research method is used mainly in humanity laws, and linguistic. where human is the main subject in this domain.

inductive research methods

The third class is the inductive research methods:

the objective is complex or general laws and the starting point is the simple facts

The inductive research method can be also subclassified into two main classes, based on how the new knowledge is obtained. If it is obtained using mental efforts only with no tools, it is called mental, and the research methods in philosophy, logic, and Mathematics are all built to work on the abstract level, where there is no physical objects.

On the contrary, if the efforts are physical, and experiments were used to create simple data. Then the research method is sensory in the applied science, or engineering. Almost all research methods fell into this classification.

Descriptive methods

The main objective of descriptive method is to describe objects scientifically. an object is anything that has an effect. the effect can be physical or logical. For example, taxonomy studies organisms they are physical objects, they can be seen, measured and in some cases heard.

On the other hand, the studied phenomenon can be immaterial, such as human behavior, for example, anthropology is the study of the humankind its culture, folklore, and habits. The anthropologist describes immortal Heritage of a human societies such as their political system, marriage songs, the prayers. and the least can go on the word scientifically means that the description is not random but it should follow a specific system, and includes analyzers for the collected data.

This means that a descriptive method should include the following three steps:

It should be objective and covers all the aspects of the studied phenomena, the Observer must not add his own opinion or thoughts to the descriptions he is writing down. This does not mean he cannot say his opinion, no sure he can but the personal thoughts, reflections and opinions should be completely isolated from the collected data.
the collected data need to be classified into predefined classes. For example, information about the layout should be grouped together and the same goes on for data that describe Behavior the classes need to be defined before the description process starts thus the scientist can know exactly what to describe
finally the collected data in each group need to be sorted based on a specific way that correspond to the type of the collected data, the data can be sorted in an ascending way, or descending way, or chronologically, or using any other way, but this way need to be defined before the description process starts.

Please note that the classification is different from sorting classification, means to divide the collected data based on their types. For example, time is related to length related Etc. thus, classification deals with heterogeneous. Heterogeneous means diverse in character, or contact. On the other hand, sorting means create an order to present the collected data. In each group sorting deals with homogeneous data, homogeneous mean of the same kind or alike.

Please note, that a descriptive method can include inductive steps to create new Knowledge from the collected data. This is normal however, the overall process is still descriptive. as we mentioned before descriptive research methods are subclassed into two sub-classes, documentary, and contemporary.

documentary research methods describe what happened as it is using objects of past.
contemporary research methods describe what is happening as it is using objects of present.

Example1: Hadith Studies

The first example where these domains are applied, is related to religion, and specifically Islam, it is Hadith studies, Hadith is a record of words, actions and the silent approval of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad as transmitted through a chain of narrators. the study of a specific Hadith is the study of its reliability, specifically how much authenticate this Hadith is, interestingly, Muslim Scholars created a clear and strict system to describe Hadith. it's one of the oldest research methods that is still practiced and used today.

Some might argue that religious studies are based on a set of postulates or assumptions, and that's make it invalid as a reminder an assumption is a statement that is believed to be true or accepted as it is with no proof. As the religious studies are not the only studies that include postulates, you can find geometry for example, was created on a set of postulates, and there was no problem at all. at least from methodological point of view. Reminding of this famous postolate if a line C intersect with two lines called A and B, and if the angles a and B are equal, then the lines A and B are parallel.

This is one of Euclidean geometry. in fact it is the fifth postulate, and it was not proven valid until the mid 19th century. However, the euclidean geometry which is based on these postulates was flourishing with no problem at all. Thus, having postulates will not make your method invalid however when you have postulates, there are a set of rules you need to follow, not to create a corrupted method:

first you need to make your postulate clear, from the beginning. You cannot create a postulate in the middle of your research, this is a bad sign and it is a direct way to create corrupted research method.
Second, you need to keep in mind that is postulates are used to facilitate the creating of new knowledge not to create itself. The postulate must not be used to manipulate results or to orient them in a specific direction

Example2: Historical Method

Historical method is used by historians to study history, and mainly to validate objects and events. In this method, there is no postulate, or pre-assumptions, the main objective is to find the original shape, and the story of the even of the past history. Thanks to this method, it is not just telling stories, you need to validate them based on context and the archaeological record.

The example of how the Historical Method works, how do we know that Alexander the Great or Bilbo bargains did exist?

well the Historical Method has three steps to check in this case:

first you need to look for any physical remains of the studied person, found this is undoubtable evidence that the person exists.
Second, is to check if there is any remaining objects used or created by the studied person for example his swords Shield or letter zeroed and that can be traced back directly to him perhaps a Tom or a status of him if an Evidence of this category is found well this is a strong evidence that he existed
Third, is to look back for the Contemporary sources dated back to the period when this person has lived or close to it well if he mentioned in these sources especially in sources that are independent from him or have no conflict of interest with them. This is a good sign that the studied person did exist.

Implementing these three steps on Alexander the Great and Bilbo Baggins:

Regarding the physical remains we have none for the two.
Regarding remaining objects we have a lot for Alexander the Great in fact we have a drawing for his face dated back for almost the same period when he lived on the other hand regarding Mr Baggins we have none.
Finally regarding contemporary sources, the expedition of Alexander the Great is well documented by several historians. We have records related to his actions dated back to when he lived or close to it. For Mr Baggins, he is only mentioned in two fictional books, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

so we can safely assume that Bilbo Baggins did not exist, while Alexander the Great is a historical figure.

as you can see history is not just telling stories or gathering evidence, no it is not a good historian will classify the collected data, then sort them and put them in use to validate other events and findings.

Example3: Taxonomy

let us clear all of this and let me finish descriptive methods with the taxonomy, the main objective of taxonomy is to classify life forms based on functions and shapes, a taxonomists need to describe life forms, using a complex classification system. This can be tricky, and full of Idols of the markets studied in chapter 1. if we define a bird, something like "it's a flying animal", then the insects are all included. So, how about adding the word "big" just to exclude insects, thus, the bird will be: "a big flying animal" that is also not accurate, Bats are not Birds, they are mammals, and they are big flying animals, and the same goes for whales, are they fish? and for fungi as well, are they plants?

There should be a clear accurate definition of what is considered a fish, and what is not. And what is considered a plant, and what is not. so the work of a taxonomist is not just collecting data, and make observation. The data needs to be classified, and sorted. Thus it become a useful knowledge, and all of these steps are part of the descriptive method used in this domain.

So in simple words, a descriptive method is not all about description. There is always an analytic part included.

Deductive methods

The second class of research methods it is the deductive methods, the first word means to go from what is general to what is specific. So a deductive research method is a way to answer a question, or find a solution to a problem, deductively starting from General facts.

Example1: Court judges

An example of a domain where a deductive research method is used is inside modern courts. The work of a judge, for example, is mainly based on a set of laws. These laws are General, and might not cover every crime. The court might face the judge needs to objectively create a judgment, which is specific to the study case, thus finding Justice is the main objective of the method itself. You need not to mix between the work of the judge, and the work of prosecutor or lawyer, the judge needs to help a natural point of view of the case, and the objective is to find Justice. On the other hand, a lawyer or a prosecutor do not held a natural point of view, they just want to win the case. although they might follow the same detective research method, here there is a clear conflict of interest, and we can doubt the validity of the method they are using.

Inductive research methods

The last class of research methods is the inductive research methods. Induction means to go from what is simple or specific to what is general and global. An inductive research method is a way to find a solution for a problem or to create a global law, inductively starting from simple facts and observations. We have also said before that inductive methods are subclassified into mental and sensory.

Mental methods completely result from mental efforts, they are based only on logic and reason.

Sensory methods result from physical effort, they are mainly based on observation and experiment.

Example1: Mathematics

In mathematics, the research methods used in this domain are completely mental, and inductive. the equation reads: "the sum of natural number from 0 to n is equal to the value of n multiplied by n plus 1 and all divided by 2"

For example, if we choose n equal to 3, the right side of the equation is 1 plus 2 plus 3 and this is equal to 6. the left hand also is equal to 6, thus the equation is valid for the number 3 and this is our simple fact.

An inductive research method will use this fact to make the equation valid for all natural numbers, which means that we will create a general law. We are dealing with abstract concepts, and we need to spend mental efforts to do that.

Example2: physics

the second example is about physics, the problem we have here is which is faster, sound or light?

A good inductive research method will include the following three steps:

First we need to measure the speed of the sound.
Second we need to measure the speed of the light, and now we have the symbol facts that we can use to create complex and new knowledge.
Third step as we compare the two values and draw a conclusion, "that light is faster than the sound"

In this case, if we repeat the steps in different circumstances, we can finally arrive to a law that will be always valid. We have discussed that in Chapter 2 how do we arrive to a theorem starting from simple facts.

Styles of method

Styles of methods is the subject of this session, as not all the Styles are compatible with research methods, so the objective here is not only to know what styles you can use or in conducting a scientific research, but also to know which to avoid when doing. So, there are three styles for methods, they are literally, scientific and promotive.

the literary style focuses on creativity and imagination, we can see it in art, engineer. In this style, you can be undetermined, or unspecific. You can intentionally use words that mislead or can be interrupted differently you can also be subjective and express your own ideas freely.

The second style is the scientific style where you focus only on the facts, this is the required style needed to conduct a serious research. You cannot use indetermined words such as a lot, several, many, or so on. You cannot also be subjective. On contrary, you need to be objective and to follow the findings, wherever they took you there are two way to adopt a scientific style of research.

First there is the quantitative sub Style when we focus only on numerical data.

Second there is the qualitative sub Style where we focus only on nominal data.

Finally, there is the promotive style it makes logic with emotions and the objective is to attract more people, maybe to buy a product or to follow a religion or a political movement. You need strictly to avoid this style with conducting a research. As a scientist should never have his point of view interfering with his research.

Literary style

and let us start with literary Style we have said before that it focuses on creativity, and the main objective is to express Personal feeling, or to export it to the audience the literary style can be also used to give moral lessons or just to have effects on humans maybe make them laugh or cry The Works of committee and tragedy all follow this style a main theme of the literary Style is that it is subjective and the same work can be understood differently based on the receiver we can see that clearly in cinema or novels where it's common to see reviews that counters each other this is completely fine and there is no need to handle this diversity as a problem in fact literary Style adds human emotions in fact literary style addresses human emotions it also Builds on our imagination and because we have different experiences in our lives our reactions will be completely different and that can explain the different reviews Additionally the literary style depends heavily on signs that are indirect or implicit and you might simply not know the sign or did not notice it because it is indirect this is a part of this style so making things direct is not a solution and this is completely okay if you can push audience to complete the missing part with their imaginations the only problem here is that the audience might not be aware of the subject at all or simply they might not get it at all if it is very ambiguous so when this style is used you need to understand your audience. First so you can make your ideas clear enough so that they get it but indirect so that they need to use their imagination to do so of course this style is not suitable for any research method because results will not be clear and can be subjective so don't use it in any research method you develop.

scientific style

The second style is the scientific we have said before that it focuses only on the facts specifically the scientific ones. Scientific method addresses people's mind using logic, and the reason, and unlike the literary style. When this method is used the results will be always the same. "ONE plus ONE is always equal TWO" it cannot be three nor zero, the objective is not to attract followers or clients. It's not important if people believe the results or not, the most important here is that the results are valid.

Scientific methods can be qualitative, and quantitative. The data in the quantitative style can be emotions or behaviors, the main objective is to study complex concepts. Such as social interactions, or cultural phenomena. Normally this style is used to explore how or why things happened, or to explain events, or describe human actions, it's normally associated with descriptive methods, and used heavily in Humanities and linguistics.

On the other hand, quantitative data is numerical they can be sorted ranked or measured on a clear scale. The main objective of using this style is to discover patterns or relationships between variables, it's used to find out answers for questions started with how many how much or how often. It's normally associated with the inductive method and it is used heavily in applied sciences.

It is super important to understand the difference between quantitative and the qualitative scientific styles, this can be clear if we compare the way of obtaining data and the data itself, let us start with how we create data using quantitative and qualitative StyleIn quantitative Style you can use surveys. a survey is a general View description examination of someone or something. in surveys, Yhe questions are closed and have limited possible answers normally new miracles a survey can be sent to hundreds or thousands of people on the contrary in the qualitative Style making an interview with specific person is normally performed and the questions are open where any answer is possible in some cases there can be a discussion instead both quantitative and the qualitative Styles use observation but each for obtain different type of data imagine that you are observing a herd of domestic animals in their nature, let's say for a week, if you are applying quantitative Style you will focus on what is the number of the animals in the herd, what is the frequency they eat? at which time they go to sleep? and so on.

on the other hand if you are applying qualitative Style you will be focusing more on roles inside the heart, for example detecting an alpha male and the record his behavior toward the others the treatment of documents differ also when quantitative or qualitative styles are used imagine that you are studying a set of messages exchanged between two persons from quantitative perspective you will be looking for numerical data.

for example how many letters are there. when were the letter sent, how many words are inside each letter, what is the average, and so on.

however from qualitative perspective, you will analyze the messages asking, for example what kind of message do you have? what is the relationship between the two persons? in which style the messages were written? and so on..

finally from quantitative perspective you can conduct physical tests and record finding in a new medical form.

from qualitative perspective, the Experience can be life stories such as memories and Remembrance take a moment.

I think you can now See Clearly the difference between quantitative and qualitative research tools.

let us compare the two scientific Styles based on the data obtained with the two are used imagine the following scenario you are asking a person about personal data:

the quantitative data you can obtain is age, weight, High, shoe size, and annual income.

on the other hand qualitative data might include name, gender, spoken languages, and learning path.

Promotive style

the last style we need to address today is the promotive, we say before that this style focuses both on facts and emotions in fact the main objective is to call people to adapt an idea. it can be buying a product, subscribing to a service, following a religion, or supporting a political movement.

promotive style is based on facts however the facts are used to achieve something, or to prove a point. so if addressing your mind will do it. a promotive style will use that, if addressing your emotions is the way the promotive style will use literary tricks. Always remember that what is important in a promotive method is not the validity of the promoted idea but rather attracting more and more people primitive methods are subjective. thus they cannot be used in science. a scientists need always to be objective and independent from the research he is doing. you should When developing your own method avoid promotion by all means and let me put everything we have learned together

Notes on Research Method & Methodology

before finishing this chapter there is three important key points you need to keep in mind from this chapter

method and methodology are not synonyms, while a research method is a set of steps used to create new knowledge, scientifically methodology is the study of the steps to make sure that they are valid.
second there are three main types of research methods descriptive deductive and inductive these methods are not completely independent and you might use a mix of two when creating your own method but normally there should be a dominated method you are following descriptive methods used to describe both simple and complex facts. They can also include inductive or deductive reasoning, deductive methods goes from what is general to what is specific. and inductive methods goes in the other direction. I.E from what is simple to what is general polls inductive and deductive methods can include descriptive steps
finally we talked about styles of methods and we showed that there are three main styles literally promotive and scientific however to conduct a solid research method you need to use only the scientific Style and to avoid using literally or promotive styles and here you have it the research method this is the end of the theoretical part of chapter 3. please forget not to do the Practical part of this chapter before you go to the chapter 4 the scientific method