methodology in scientific writing

1. METHODOLOGY
Group 9 Members
Suraj Shah
Samuel Daniel
Anik Dash
Maleeha Saifi
Tariku Bekele
Nimra Shahzad
M.Waseem Rasheed

2. Outlines
• Introduction
• Methodological approach
• Methods of data collection
• Methods of analysis
• Justification of Methodological choices
• Tips for writing a strong methodology
• Examples

3. What is Research Methodology?
Methodology is a framework which is associated with a particular set of
paradigmatic assumptions that researchers will use to conduct their
research
Allan and Randy (2005) insist that when conducting a research
methodology should meet the following two criteria:
Firstly, the methodology should be the most appropriate to achieve
objectives of the research
Secondly, it should be made possible to replicate the methodology used
in other researches of the same nature

4. Cont…
• Type of research had been done
• How data were collected and/or selected
• How data were analyzed
• Any tools or materials used during the research
• Rationale for choosing those methods

5. Why methodology?
 Allow any researchers to replicate the experiment with an equal
likelihood of obtaining similar results
 To enable readers to evaluate the research work
 Ensure that enough details is provided to verify your findings

6. Steps for writing methodology

7. Step 1
Explain your methodological approach
– Begin by introducing the overall approach to the research. What research
problem or question you investigated and what types of data had been
analyzed
– Quantitative methods are best for measuring, ranking, categorizing,
identifying patterns and making generalizations
– Qualitative methods are best for describing, interpreting, contextualizing,
and gaining in-depth insight into specific concepts or phenomena
– Mixed methods allow for a combination of numerical measurement and
in-depth exploration

8. Cont…
• Depending on your discipline and approach, you might also begin with a
discussion of the rationale and assumptions underpinning your
methodology.
– Was your aim to address a practical or a theoretical research problem?
– Why is this the most suitable approach to answering your research
questions?
– Is this a standard methodology in your field or does it require
justification?
– What are the criteria for validity and reliability in this type of
research?

9. Cont…
• In a quantitative experimental study,
– Aim to produce generalizable knowledge about the causes of a
phenomenon
– Designed study with a representative sample and controlled
variables that can be replicated by other researchers
• In a qualitative ethnographic case study
– Methodology is less controlled and more interpretive, you will need
to reflect on your position as researcher
– account how your participation and perception might have influenced
the results

10. Step2
• Describe your methods of data collection
– Once you have introduced your overall methodological approach, you
should give full details of the methods you used to conduct the research
– Outline the tools, procedures and materials you used to gather data, and the
criteria you used to select participants or sources.
– Quantitative methods
• Surveys
Describe where, when and how the survey was conducted.
• How did you design the questions and what form did they take (e.g.
multiple choice, rating scale) and sampling method
• What was the sample size and response rate?

11. Cont…
• Experiments
Give full details of the tools, techniques and procedures you used to conduct the experiment.
• How did you design the experiment ?
• What tools or technologies did you use in the experiment?
• In this research , enough information is needed for reproduction by other researcher
• Existing data
Explain how you gathered and selected material (such as publications or archival data) for
inclusion in your analysis.
– Where did you source the material?
– How was the data originally produced?
– What criteria did you use to select material (e.g. date range)?

12. Cont…
• Example
– The survey consisted of 5 multiple-choice questions and 10 questions that
the respondents had to answer with a 7-point Likert scale
– The aim was to conduct the survey with 350 customers of Company X on
the company premises in The Hague from 4-8 July 2017 between 11:00 and
15:00
– A customer was defined as a person who had purchased a product from
Company X on the day of questioning
– Participants were given 5 minutes to fill in the survey anonymously, and
408 customers responded
– Because not all surveys were fully completed, 371 survey results were
included in the analysis

13. Cont…
• Qualitative methods
– Interviews or focus groups
Describe where, when and how the interviews were conducted
• How did you find and select participants?
• How many people took part?
• What form did the interviews take (structured, semi-structured,
unstructured)?
• How long were the interviews and how were they recorded?

14. Cont…
• Participant observation
Describe where, when and how you conducted the observation.
– How long did you spend in community or group to conduct the research
and where was it located?
– How did you record your data (e.g. audiovisual recordings, note-taking)?
• Existing data
Explain how you selected case study materials (such as texts or images) for the
focus of your analysis.
– What type of materials did you analyze?
– How did you collect and select them?

15. Cont…
• Example
– In order to gain a better insight into the possibilities for improvement of the
product range, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 returning
customers from the main target group of Company X
– A returning customer was defined as someone who usually bought products
at least twice a week from Company X
– The surveys were used to select participants who belonged to the target
group (20-45 years old). Interviews were conducted in a small office next to
the cash register, and lasted approximately 20 minutes each
– Answers were recorded by note-taking, and seven interviews were also
filmed with consent
– One interviewee preferred not to be filmed

16. Step 3
• Describe your methods of analysis
– Avoid going into too much detail
• you should not start presenting or discussing any of your results at this
stage.
– Quantitative methods
• In this methods section you might include:
–How you prepared the data before analyzing it (e.g. checking for
missing data, removing outliers, transforming variables)
–Which software you used to analyze the data (e.g. SPSS or Stata)
–Which statistical methods you used (e.g. regression analysis)

17. Cont…
• Example
– Before analysis the gathered data was prepared
– The dataset was checked for missing data and outliers. For this the
“outlier labeling rule” was used
– The data was then analyzed using statistical software SPSS.

18. Cont…
• Qualitative methods
– In qualitative research, your analysis will be based on language, images and
observations
– Methods might include:
• Content analysis: categorizing and discussing the meaning of words,
phrases and sentences
• Thematic analysis: coding and closely examining the data to identify
broad themes and patterns
• Narrative analysis: looking at storytelling structures and tropes and
interpreting their meaning
• Discourse analysis: studying communication and meaning in relation to
their social context

19. Cont…
• Example
– The interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis was conducted
– This involved coding all the data before identifying and reviewing six
key themes
– Each theme was examined to gain an understanding of participants’
perceptions and motivations.

20. Step 4
• Evaluate and justify your methodological choices
– Your methodology should make the case for why you chose these
particular methods
– Lab-based experiments can’t always accurately simulate real-life
situations and behaviors, but good for testing causal relationships
between variables.
– Unstructured interviews provide a more in-depth understanding of
participants’ perceptions, motivations and emotions

21. Tips for writing a strong methodology
• Remember that your aim is not just to describe your methods
• Show how and why you applied them and to demonstrate that your
research was rigorously conducted
• Focus on your objectives and research questions
– Shows why your methods suit your objectives and convince the
reader that you chose the best possible approach to answering
your problem statement and research questions.

22. Cont…
• Cite relevant sources
– Confirm that you followed established practices for this type of
research
– Discuss how you evaluated different methodologies and decided on
your approach
– Show that you took a novel methodological approach to address a gap
in the literature
– Citations style like MLA citations and APA citations.

23. Cont…
• Write for your audience
– Consider how much information you need to give, and don’t go into
unnecessary detail
– If you are using methods that are standard for your discipline, you
probably don’t need to give lots of background or justification
– But if you take an approach that is less common in your field, you
might need to explain and justify your methodological choices
– In either case, your methodology should be a clear, well-structured
text not just a list of technical details and procedures

24. Cont…
• Discuss obstacles
– If you encountered difficulties in collecting or analyzing data, explain
how you dealt with them
– Show how you minimized the impact of any unexpected obstacles
– Pre-empt any major critiques of your approach and demonstrate that
you made the research as rigorous as possible.

25. Verb tenses in methodology
• Verbs used
– Verb tenses in Methodology generally take two forms:
• simple present tense
• and simple past tense
– When we are describing samples selected for the study or specially
designed or chosen materials or equipment, we use simple past tense
Examples:
All wood samples were harvested from one single tree and flat sawn so as
to minimize the extraneous variability.
Plastic balcony pots being in size of 75cm×16cm×14cm were used as a
seed planting place.

26. Cont…
When we are describing general populations from which the samples
were taken or conventional material or equipment, we use simple present
tense.
Examples:
 The wood species selected in this program is the Canadian pine, which is
widely used in construction industry.
 The study plant, Pedicularis torta, grows only in China.

27. Cont…
• When we are describing the procedural steps conducted in the research,
we use simple past tense
Examples:
The species composition was recorded within 48 plots in four
replicates of each heap age class over 10 years
The two blocks were done in random order

28. Bad example
Method section
• Growth rates were determined by
estimating the number of bacteria in a
culture at zero time and after 1 hour of
growth at 37°C. In order to make this
estimation, a dilution series was
performed by diluting aliquots of the
bacterial culture, at each incubation time,
by a factor of 10, 100, and 10 000 with
nutrient broth, and then plating out
0.01ml of each of these dilutions onto
quadrants of a sterile agar plate. Following
one week’s incubation at 25°C, the
colonies of the plate were counted
manually.
Comment
• In this excerpt no amounts or
descriptions of equipment have been
included nor would they have been
necessary, as someone wishing to
repeat the experiment could change
these and still get the same effect.

29. Bad example
Method section
• We did a serial dilution by
pipetting 0.9 ml broth into
labelled tubes, then adding 2
drops (0.1ml) of the original
culture to tube 1, 2 drops of tube
1 to tube 2, 2 drops of tube 2 to 3
and 2 drops of tube 3 to tube
4. Mix the tubes and spread a
loopful (0.01 ml) of each tube
onto a different quadrant of a
labelled agar plate.
Comment
• The personal pronoun we could
have been avoided by using the
passive voice (a serial dilution
was carried out). Keep
explanations as simple as
possible. Avoid unnecessary
repetition. In the present tense,
this reads like an instruction, not
a description of what you did. The
past tense should be used (The
tubes were mixed…)

30. Good example
Method section
• All the students were randomly assigned to
either the isolated-interacting elements
instruction or the interacting elements only
group with 11 students in each group. They were
tested individually, in a quiet room. ….. At the
completion of the study phase, the students
were provided with a subjective mental load
rating scale, the format of which was explained
to both groups. They were asked to rate the
mental effort involved in understanding all of the
electrical tests described in their training booklet
on the scale …..
The test section of the experiment followed. The
students were asked to complete the written
test, described in the materials section, …..
Comment
• Procedure section describes HOW the
experiment was done and how the
data was collected.

31. References
1. https://www.wikihow.com/Write-Research-Methodology
2. http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/methodology
3. https://explorable.com/research-methodology
4. https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/methodology/
5. http://www.socscidiss.bham.ac.uk/methodologies.html
6. http://expertjournals.com/how-to-write-a-research-methodology-for-
your-academic-article/

32. Thank you !!!