Glossary of Methodological Terms
Abstract: A one-page summary that presents a research problem along with the methodology and major findings of the associated research study.
Academic journal: A peer-reviewed publication that serves as the core means of disseminating the latest findings from research within a particular topic or discipline.
Analysis: The process of taking a mass of individual facts and boiling them down into one or more statements that contribute to a discipline.
Annual review: A book-length survey of the latest research topics within a given discipline.
Appendices: Short batches of information grouped together at the end of a thesis/dissertation that shed light on the major text.
Applied research: Research conducted for the sake of discovering or improving something.
Basic research: Research conducted for the sake of knowing something.
Causal-comparative: A research design that searches for the causation of phenomena after they have occurred.
Central tendency: A statistical method that generates an average value for a particular variable, which allows a pool of data to be represented by a single number.
Conclusions: Thoughts and opinions about the research problem that are informed by the background, methodology, and results of the research project. See “summary” for the information that usually accompanies the conclusions in the last section of a thesis/dissertation.
Content analysis: A method of asking a question and then searching existing literature and sources for information that suggests an answer to that question.
Correlation: A statistical method that quantifies the likelihood that two variables are related.
Correlational: A research design that searches for relationships between factors.
Data: Information collected and analyzed in exploration of a research problem.
Data manipulation: Selective analysis of data to increase the likelihood that the outcome will support the researcher’s predictions.
Descriptive: A research design that gathers information about a topic for which little is known, calculating averages, percentages, and frequencies.
Experimental: A research design that uses control groups, well-defined manipulation of the other groups, and random assignment of subjects into these groups.
Extrinsic benefit: An external reward or benefit a person earns by doing a task.
Heuristics: Generalized guidelines in a discipline that suggest which sample size to use based on the data-collection method and the size of the pool being sampled.
Hypothesis: A research problem written as a statement of prediction as to the effect a given factor will have on a situation or trait.
Incomplete data set: A group of results missing information about a particular factor or subject.
Interview: A data-collection method that records verbal responses of a study subject to a researcher’s questions.
Intrinsic benefit: A positive internal thing that a person gains by doing a task.
Literature: The entire body of knowledge within a given discipline.
Literature review: A section of a thesis/dissertation that familiarizes a reader with pertinent sources of information used to conceptualize, design, conduct, and analyze a particular research project.
Methodology: The description of how a person will do (or did) a research problem, including descriptions of research subjects, locations, data collection procedures, and analysis procedures.
Monograph: A detailed treatment of a specific area of a given discipline.
Multivariate analysis: A statistical method that looks for variance or correlation between multiple variables and predicts whether the results are applicable beyond the study groups.
Null hypothesis: A statement that predicts there will be no effect of a given factor on the variable in question.
Observation: The process by which a researcher watches a study subject and records information about what that subject is doing or saying.
Outliers: Data points on the extreme edges of a data range.
Poster session: A segment of a professional meeting in which a person displays a short description of a research project, mounted on stiff board, and fields informal questions.
Power analysis: A method for calculating sample size based on how large or small a difference the analysis must detect.
Practical research: See “applied research.”
Pure research: See “basic research.”
Quasi-experimental: A research design similar to experimental design yet does not use random assignment of subjects into study groups.
Question: A research problem that asks what effect a factor will have on a given situation or trait.
Questionnaire: Written responses of study subjects to pre-defined questions.
Repeated measures: A data-collection method that quantifies the state of a variable in a study subject across regular time intervals.
Representative sample: The number of subjects and their overall characteristics that will allow a researcher to generalize the findings to the entire pool from which the sample was drawn.
Research problem: The particular question or hypothesis that is the basis of a thesis/dissertation.
Results: Data (information) gathered according to a pre-determined methodology in order to explore a research problem.
Seminar: A meeting in which a person presents research to an audience and fields inquiry and challenge-style questions.
Significance: A statistical test that predicts the likelihood that differences found in descriptive statistics are true differences.
Source: A journal article, lecture, interview, or other piece of media used to provide information regarding a particular research problem.
Summary: A brief overview of the background, methodology, and results of a research project. See “conclusions” for the information that usually accompanies the summary in the last section of a thesis/dissertation.
Test: A data-collection method that measures the performance of pre-defined variables in response to pre-defined factors.
Variance: A statistical method that quantifies the amount of difference individual data points have from the mean of those points.
White paper: A short technical paper written in academic language that is presented in front of an audience in conversational manner and followed with inquiry-style questions.
Workshop: See “seminar.”