Documentation in research methodology

The major reason for this is lack of knowledge and understanding of what these words mean in an SCA context.

Timeline of the history of scientific method Aristotle— BCE. A polymath, considered by some to be the father of modern scientific methodologydue to his emphasis on experimental data and reproducibility of its results. This is the greatest piece of Retroductive reasoning ever performed.

According to Albert Einstein"All knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it. Propositions arrived at by purely logical means are completely empty as regards reality.

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Because Galileo saw this, and particularly because he drummed it into the scientific world, he is the father of modern physics — indeed, of modern science altogether. The term "scientific method" did not come into wide use until the 19th century, when other modern scientific terminologies began to emerge such as "scientist" and "pseudoscience" and significant transformation of science was taking place.

The scientific method is the process by which science is carried out. This is in opposition to stringent forms of rationalism: A strong formulation of the scientific method is not always aligned with a form of empiricism in which the empirical data is put forward in the form of experience or other abstracted forms of knowledge; in current scientific practice, however, the use of scientific modelling and reliance on abstract typologies and theories is normally accepted.

The scientific method is of necessity also an expression of an opposition to claims that e. Different early expressions of empiricism and the scientific method can be found throughout history, for instance with the ancient StoicsEpicurus[29] Alhazen[30] Roger Baconand William of Ockham.

From the 16th century onwards, experiments were advocated by Francis Baconand performed by Giambattista della Porta[31] Johannes Kepler[32] and Galileo Galilei. The hypothetico-deductive model [35] formulated in the 20th century, is the ideal although it has undergone significant revision since first proposed for a more formal discussion, see below.

Staddon argues it is a mistake to try following rules [36] which are best learned through careful study of examples of scientific investigation.

Process The overall process involves making conjectures hypothesesderiving predictions from them as logical consequences, and then carrying out experiments based on those predictions to determine whether the original conjecture was correct.

Though the scientific method is often presented as a fixed sequence of steps, these actions are better considered as general principles. As noted by scientist and philosopher William Whewell —"invention, sagacity, [and] genius" [11] are required at every step.

Formulation of a question The question can refer to the explanation of a specific observationas in "Why is the sky blue? If the answer is already known, a different question that builds on the evidence can be posed.

When applying the scientific method to research, determining a good question can be very difficult and it will affect the outcome of the investigation. The hypothesis might be very specific; for example, Einstein's equivalence principle or Francis Crick 's "DNA makes RNA makes protein", [38] or it might be broad; for example, unknown species of life dwell in the unexplored depths of the oceans.

A statistical hypothesis is a conjecture about a given statistical population. For example, the population might be people with a particular disease. The conjecture might be that a new drug will cure the disease in some of those people.

Terms commonly associated with statistical hypotheses are null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis. A null hypothesis is the conjecture that the statistical hypothesis is false; for example, that the new drug does nothing and that any cure is caused by chance.

Researchers normally want to show that the null hypothesis is false. The alternative hypothesis is the desired outcome, that the drug does better than chance.

Prediction This step involves determining the logical consequences of the hypothesis. One or more predictions are then selected for further testing. The more unlikely that a prediction would be correct simply by coincidence, then the more convincing it would be if the prediction were fulfilled; evidence is also stronger if the answer to the prediction is not already known, due to the effects of hindsight bias see also postdiction.

Ideally, the prediction must also distinguish the hypothesis from likely alternatives; if two hypotheses make the same prediction, observing the prediction to be correct is not evidence for either one over the other.

These statements about the relative strength of evidence can be mathematically derived using Bayes' Theorem. Scientists and other people test hypotheses by conducting experiments.

The purpose of an experiment is to determine whether observations of the real world agree with or conflict with the predictions derived from a hypothesis. If they agree, confidence in the hypothesis increases; otherwise, it decreases. Agreement does not assure that the hypothesis is true; future experiments may reveal problems.

Karl Popper advised scientists to try to falsify hypotheses, i. Large numbers of successful confirmations are not convincing if they arise from experiments that avoid risk.

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For example, tests of medical treatments are commonly run as double-blind tests. Test personnel, who might unwittingly reveal to test subjects which samples are the desired test drugs and which are placebosare kept ignorant of which are which. Such hints can bias the responses of the test subjects.

Furthermore, failure of an experiment does not necessarily mean the hypothesis is false.There are several important aspects to research methodology.

This is a summary of the key concepts in scientific research and an attempt to erase some common misconceptions in science. This article is a part of the guide. A documentation style is a standard approach to the citation of sources that the author of a paper has consulted, abstracted, or quoted from.

It prescribes methods for citing references within the text, providing a list of works cited at the end of the paper, and even formatting headings and margins.

What is documentation and its techniques 1. Documentation If it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen Sohail Sangi 2. The methodology is the general research strategy that outlines the way in which research is to be undertaken and, among other things, identifies the methods to be used in it. These methods, described in the methodology, define the means or .

Research Methods.

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