Introduction

When planning a research project, it’s important to choose the right method. There are many different types of data that can be collected from your subject population and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Here are some common questions to ask yourself when choosing a research methodology:

What are you trying to find out?

Before you start a research project, it’s important to understand what you’re trying to find out. This can be done by answering these questions:

• What are you trying to find out? (In general)
• Why is this important? (In particular)
• How will this help me achieve my purpose or objectives?

How do you want to know this information?

The next step is to choose a research method that will provide you with the information you need to answer your question. This can be done in one of two ways:

• First, you have the option of conducting a traditional survey where participants are asked questions and then responded in writing or verbally. For example, this might be used if you want to find out what people think about your product or service (e.g., customer satisfaction). Or perhaps it’s more important for your company’s bottom line that employees feel engaged at work? In these cases, an anonymous online survey would likely work best because there are no real-world consequences associated with providing inaccurate answers (other than wasting everyone’s time).
• Alternatively, if what matters most isn’t simply how many people like something—it’s whether or not those same people would recommend others buy from them again—then conducting focus groups might be more appropriate for gathering feedback on new products and services before launching them into production stages where marketing efforts must start paying off immediately!

What is the nature of your data?

Once you have decided on a research methodology, it’s time to think about what kind of data you’re going to collect. The nature of your data will define the kind of information that can be collected and how it should be analyzed.

This question may seem simple, but there are many different ways for people to approach this question. Some people are very interested in finding out whether or not certain things are true; others may want only descriptive information that won’t tell them anything useful about the world around them (for example: “How many cars were sold last month?”). Some researchers want answers that help them make decisions about their lives while others want just enough detail so they can figure out what happened without getting too bogged down by specifics such as individual characteristics like age or gender identity/expression (e/e).

Who is involved in the study (eg, researcher and subject, or researcher and researcher)?

The first thing to consider is who is involved in your study. If you are conducting a research project, the principal investigator (PI) should be the person responsible for collecting data and analyzing it. The PI will also be responsible for writing up their results and submitting them to journals or conferences.

Some people who take part in research may be students or faculty members at your university; others may not have any connection with it at all—they could just happen upon your project through social media or through an advertisement on campus! It’s important that everyone involved understands each other’s roles so they don’t accidentally influence each other’s behavior during interviews or tests (or worse yet…get distracted by each other!).

Another important consideration: Who has access to what information? In order for researchers’ findings not only remain confidential but also useful over time, most institutions today require them either keep records separate from those compiled by others within their organization (which means keeping things like email addresses separate), making sure no one else sees private notes made during interviews etc., setting up PIN numbers so only authorized individuals can access them–or even better still: signing agreements stating exactly how long certain documents will stay confidential before being released openly after publication date has passed!

Is this a one-off study or a regular part of your work?

One-off studies are not the best way to find out what you want to know. They can be useful for getting an initial, broad overview of a topic or conducting some preliminary research on a topic, but they often don’t give you enough depth to be able to make informed decisions about what kind of data you’ll need in order for your study results to be useful.

Many one-off studies are also not necessarily efficient ways of finding out what you want to know; sometimes there’s simply too much ground covered and no space left over for more in-depth analysis!

Be clear about the purpose of your study and choose the right methodology

The first step in choosing a research methodology is to be clear about the purpose of your study. What do you want to find out? How do you want to know this information? What kind of data will help answer these questions and what other kinds are not appropriate for answering them. A good way to begin this process is by thinking about what makes sense for a particular project:

• Are there any specific topics that need investigating further? If so, what areas might those be (for example, “How do people feel about their jobs?” or “How does one person’s experience differ from another’s?”)?
• Will this be an exploratory or confirmatory study? An exploratory study allows us room for creativity and innovation while providing valuable insights into how things work—and doesn’t necessarily require conclusive answers at the end of it all; meanwhile, confirmatory research usually has more specific aims like identifying patterns among variables or finding correlations between two sets of data points that could lead us toward new conclusions if we were able to repeat our findings over time under similar conditions (perhaps even changing them slightly).

Conclusion

The more clearly you can define your study and its goals, the more likely it is that you will choose a methodology that will help you achieve your goal.

Takeaway: Be clear about the purpose of your study and choose the right methodology