How to plan a research project?||how do you plan a research project.

How to plan a research project?

Planning research projects is a time-honored intellectual practice it requires both creativity and meticulous analytical skills. The aim of this guide that we will present to you is to make this process systematic and easy to understand at the same time; Although there is a great deal of freedom and open space for discovery, from the topics you will choose to the data and methods you apply.

There are also some standards and restrictions that must be adhered to, regardless of your academic level or field of study: From high school students to PhD students, from art history to archaeology, research planning involves very similar steps; Including: formulating a question, developing an argument or predictions based on previous research, and then selecting the Information needed to answer your question.

Some of what has just been mentioned may seem self-evident, but as you will find, research requires a different way of dealing with and using information than most of us are accustomed to in our daily lives; This is why I’m trying to help you navigate the creation and creation of knowledge as an initial step in the process.

This stage is crucial, however, and is underappreciated in education, just as when moving from paid employment in a company to entrepreneurship . Suddenly, you are alone; This Requires a new way of thinking about the way you do business.

Arquably, the following is a summary of what I have learned about this process – in which research is planned and done – over the course of my 27 years as a professional sociologist. It reflects the skills | acquired from my professors in the PhD program in sociology at Harvard University, as well as what I learned later as a research supervisor for PhD and MA students, and then as the author of award-winning scholarly books and articles.

The following steps are not limited to a specific field or type of research; It can even be applied to the requirements of both short projects (such as semester papers) and also to long projects, such as a thesis for example.

What should we do?

Research planning involves - in its simplest form - the four steps outlined below

1. Orient yourself towards knowledge production.
2. Define your research question 
3. Review and review previous research related to your                   question.
4. Choose relevant data to formulate your own answers. 

Since the focus of this guide is on planning the research project, not on conducting a research project, we will not go into the details of data collection or analysis; As these steps occur after planning the project.

In addition, the topic is broad and cannot be discussed in detail here. There are year-long doctoral courses devoted to data and analysis; So instead, in the fourth and final part of this guide, we'll look at some of the basic strategies you can use in planning your data selection and analysis process for your research question.

1-Orient yourself 

Planning and conducting research requires a fundamental shift from thinking as a consumer of information to thinking as a producer. It may seem easy at first glance, but it is actually a complex task. In practice, this means setting aside the student mindset that treats knowledge as something other people have created; As students, we are often passive recipients of knowledge; We are asked to do a specific set of readings, and then we are evaluated by measuring the quality of our application of what we have read.

Here the difference appears; Researchers have to take an active role as producers of knowledge. Doing research requires more than just reading and absorbing what others have written.

How is it? This process includes a critique of prior knowledge, and perhaps an attempt to show that ideas we have accepted for granted; It is false or incomplete. For example, instead of just taking the claims of the author you've read something to, you'll need to draw the implications of those claims; If what the author say is true, what other true things might these claims suggest?And what forecasts can you make based on it?

In other words, instead of treating reading information as an source of truth, even if it is a reliable source, such as the Greek philosopher Plato or the scientist Marie Curie, this step requires you to treat the claims you read as temporary and subject to doubt.

Perhaps this is one of the greatest wisdom that science and philosophy can teach us; which is that the greatest achievements of knowledge and advances in human understanding have not been achieved by proving your truth about superficial or trivial things; It's by making mistakes while working on interesting things.

Take the example of theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, who although he was wrong about quantum mechanics, his arguments on the subject with fellow physicist Neils Bohr led to one of the greatest scientific achievements even after century.

2-Define your research question  

Students often give this step little attention, but experienced researchers know that the process of crafting a good research question is sometimes the most difficult part of the research planning process. This is because the exact language of the question frames the rest of the project; It is therefore important to formulate and ask the question carefully, in such a way that you are ready to provide answers, and at the same time yield interesting result.

Of course, you should choose a question that interests you, but this is only the beginning of what is likely to be an iterative process; Most researchers return to this step frequently, adjusting their questions according to their reading of previous research, the limitations of available resources and capabilities, and many other considerations.

There are some factors that make the ceiling of researchers low, specifically the factors of time and money.Researchers, like everyone else, should ask research questions that they can reasonably answer given the constraints they face. For example, if you have only one week to answer the following research question: “What are the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict?", it would be inadvisable to undertake this research project, especially if you have no prior knowledge on the topic.

The above is not meant to limit your imagination, you can ask any question you want. But it usually takes some creativity to craft a research question that you can answer well. That is, by meticulously investigating and providing new insights within the boundaries you face.

In addition to being interesting to you, and commensurate with the limitations of the capabilities and resources available to you, the third and most important characteristic of a "good" research topic is whether it allows you to generate new knowledge. As you formulate the research question, it may become clear to you that your question has already been asked and answered. If so, you'll find out what to do in the next step of this process.

On the other hand, you might come up with a research question that hasn't been addressed before. But consider the possibility research questions that are potentially researchable but have not been studied for good reasons. For example, the answers found may turn out to be trivial or of very limited usefulness. This could include questions such as "Why is the area of a circle r2?" or "Did winter conditions influence Napoleon's plans to invade Russia?”

You can, of course, prove that a question that seems superficial is of the utmost importance, but you have to be prepared to back it up with convincing evidence.

Finally, research questions must somehow lead to new and distinctive insights. For example, many have previously studied gender roles in sports team,but what question can you  about this that no one has asked before?

In this respect, the first red line you should not cross is to rediscuss what is already there. Herein lies the importance of the next step: reviewing previous research on the topic of your research. Depending on what you find in this step, you may need to review your research question; Having repetition and similarities between your question and the existing research is a natural process.

But don't worry, it won't last. In fact, as you develop a solid understanding of the current state of knowledge about your topic; Repetitive ideas will decrease over time and settle on your research question.

3-Review of previous research

In academic research, from articles to books, it is common to find a section called "literature review." The purpose of this section is to describe the latest research findings on the research question posed by the project. This section also explains Also, that the researchers have comprehensively and systematically reviewed all the results of relevant previous studies on their topic, and that they have something new to add.

Your research project should include something like this, even if it is a high school research paper. In the process of planning your research, list at least six points that explain the main findings of other researchers on your research topic.

After identifying and arriving at these findings, you should be able to indicate exactly where you can provide new and necessary insights for your project. There are two basic positions one can take in framing the argument required for academic research.

The first position: is to build on a set of existing ideas or expand and delve into them; Which means, for example: "Person A has argued that idea (X) related to gender is true, which results in idea (P), which has not been tested or talked about yet, so I will address in my research project to idea (P)," That would change the way we understand gender, if I could find evidence to support my ideas.

The other position is to say that there is a gap in current knowledge; Either because the previous research has reached conclusions that are in conflict with the ideas we want to present, or because it has failed to take something important into account. For example, a gender research can be described as being limited if it was conducted only on middle school students and in coeducational settings, and that the results would have differed significantly if the research had been conducted on a wider range of schools; Where students are either male or female.

The overall goal you should reach by following this step is to show that your research will be part of a larger work. First, from the way your project begins with what already exists, and then evolves to provide new information, expand upon existing knowledge, or challenge existing knowledge by presenting completely different information on the same topic. With these steps, your project will make an additional contribution; This will increase your motivation towards your research.

When looking at relevant previous research sources, there are two things worth noting that you should pay attention to. First, don’t limit your reading to studies that center around the exact topic of your research. For example, if you wish to study the ways in which gender identity is constituted in schools, you should not limit yourself to school studies; The place on which the experiment (the schools) is to be built is secondary to the larger social process that concerns you; It is (how people construct their gender identity)

Get a broad idea of the existing studies on this topic, as this is happening in many different places. Second, be sure to use reliable sources such as articles that have undergone some form of scrutiny, whether that includes “peer review” as with academic journal articles, or editorial review, such as those found in wellknown media publications and journals, such as a journal. The Economist or The Washington Post.

What you should definitely avoid is the use of unaudited and scientifically proven sources such as Personal Blogs or Wikipedia . Now you may be wondering: "Why?" The answer is quite easy, for anyone to be able to write and edit the content on those forums and sites, and there's no way to know if the claims you find are true; Unless you are already an expert. But in any case,what you will find there - in most cases - is not accurate.

4-Choosing the appropriate data and approach.

 Whatever your research question is, you ultimately need to think about the appropriate source of data and analytical strategy that might give you the answers you're looking for. First, you should think about the type of data that would best answer your question and choose qualitative data (such as interviews, observations, or historical records), quantitative data (such as surveys or statistical records), or perhaps a combination of both.Once you select the type of data sources you want, you will automatically find options related to analytical methods and approaches. You may need to collect your own data, or you may find everything you need easily available in an existing data set created by someone else.The best place to start is with research librarians, who can always be found in university Libraries, particularly in public or public universities; Where librarians can work and collaborate with everyone, including people not affiliated with the university. If a university like this is not at hand in your area, a regular public library is still a good place to start. Librarians are often wellversed in ways to access data sources that may be relevant to your study, such as statistics or historical archives Since your task at this point is to plan, not conduct, research, the point of this step is not to irrevocably commit you to a specific course of action. On the contrary, your main objective here is to think of a practical method and approach to arrive at an answer to your research question.

For example, you will need to know if the data you want is available, and if not, do you think the idea of collecting data on your own is feasible for you? Or would it be better to modify your research question?

In terms of strategies for analysis, does your strategy require the application of statistical methods? If your answer is “yes”, do you possess these skills?

If you don’t have it, do you have the time to learn it, or the money to hire a research assistant to do this step for you?

And you have to pay close attention when looking at or thinking about qualitative studies, in particular, it’s not an episodic project as it might seem.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that only quantitative data and approaches have a scientific and methodological character, and that qualitative methods are just a fancy way of saying, “I’ve talked to some people, read some old papers, and “ come to my own conclusions.

This common thinking about qualitative studies is far from the truth. In the final section of this article, you will find some links to resources that will give you more information about the criteria and procedures that govern qualitative research. Just as with quantitative data and studies, there are rules governing what can be reliable evidence and a valid analytical method for qualitative data.

While planning your project by following these four steps, it is perfectly normal to go back to the previous stages and review every once in a while; The planning of research rarely works in a straight line. It is also common for new and unexpected avenues to appear as you plan your research.

Sociologist Thorstein Veblen wrote in 1908: “The result of any serious investigation must be to raise two questions, one of which has only been asked before.” The same applies to research planning as it is to a completed research project; So enjoy the prospects that open up in front of you as you go through this whole process, rather than the stress.