LIS 570

1
LIS 570

• Ways of knowing and the research process

2
Research is everywhere

• The need for research methods literacy
• to protect yourself from misleading research
  conclusions
• to empower yourself to use valid social science
  research
• to enable the essential function of research
  communication
• the partnership between the researcher and the
  consumer of research

3
Sources of understanding

• How do we know what we know?
• Variations in explanations e.g. deviance
• Personal experience
• Tradition
• can be a powerful force operating against inquiry

4
Sources of understanding

• Authority
• how do we select?
• Public opinion
• people can agree on things that are inaccurate
• Common errors in understanding
• we can observe inaccurately
• we can overgeneralise
• we can be guilty of selective perception

5
Research

• Disciplined way of coming to know something
  about ourselves or our world(Bouma)
• . .the systematic effort to secure answers to
  questions (Reinard)
• . . a process by which we answer questions and
  try to draw conclusions from information
  gathered.. (Reinard)

6
Research in the social sciences

• Features of the scientific method
• empirical
• verifiable
• cumulative
• self-correcting
• deterministic
• ethical and ideological neutrality
• statistical generalizability

7
Research

• Disciplined Inquiry
• Problem based
• Systematic Methodical
• Established sources of evidence
• Sound argument
• Concern for Error
• Anticipation
• Control (Elimination)
• Discussion of the Margin of error
• Public
• Original, Novel

8
Research in LIS570

• Purpose
• Description
• What is .
• Search for Relationships
• Association Between Ideas (Concepts)
• Search for Explanations
• Cause and Effect Relationships

9
The Phases of Research

• Phase 1 Essential First Steps
• Phase 2 Data Collection
• Phase 3 Analysis and Interpretation

10
Essential First Steps

• Phase 1
• Select, Narrow and State Problem
• Exploratory Qualitative Research
• Select a Research Design
• Design and Devise Measures for Variables
• Measurement Process
• Select Tables for Analysis
• Select a Sample