Today’s post is a guest contribution by Rohan Bhardwaj. Rohan is an author, thinker and dancer. He loves to explore ideas, expression and different perspectives. He is a big promoter of the Internet. He wants to share everything he knows and learn more in the process. So he always keeps sharing. He writes at https://www.rohanbhardwaj.com. Read his book on the Internet.

Being a research scholar, scientist or student – you would want to do groundbreaking research. And we trust in you.

This article isn’t to tell you how to do research in the technical aspect. You are qualified for that and will find your way.

This article guides you on how to do research using a methodological, thinking, and rounded approach so it benefits you to do research in the best way possible.

Integrity

How you do anything is how you do everything. If you can’t have integrity in seemingly irrelevant areas of your life, you won’t have integrity while you do research. When you embark on your research journey, your colleagues and teachers are your co-researchers.

You need to be honest, have integrity and be trustworthy in every interaction with them. Because if you are dishonest or can’t be trusted when handling an event, then you can’t be trusted while taking measurements in research. How you behave will determine how others would love to collaborate
with you: your technical prowess and your integrity matter.

Ethics

Ethics in research should be something other than a by-product or a thing that is a roadblock for your research. Your duty as a research scholar is to get the appropriate ethics approval, maintain the standard, and do everything fairly. Remember, it’s not a simple checklist as a document you require. However, you’ll need to follow and care for it during your research end-to-end.

(Generally, ethical clearance is required when dealing with human participants or animals: you need to check with your parent department/Institute on what occasions you need to source the clearance)

Correlation

Especially in statistical surveys, you are likely to be swayed by this problem. Correlation isn’t causation, so you must do thorough research to find the cause of a certain thing.

For example, you might want to study the effects of alcohol on driving ability. You experiment and find that after drinking alcohol, the driving ability deteriorates. And that’s a correlated thing but might not be a causation. Perhaps you might find that some can drive perfectly even after drinking alcohol. So when you dig further, you find those whose motor brain is impacted hampers their driving, and the limit of drinking alcohol hampering motor brain is different for different people. (This is a made-up
scenario to give the gist)

Ideal Conditions

When researching, you will be tempted to get the measurements you want. As such, you will be tempted to modify the experiment setup to choose your result.

But this isn’t the right approach. You must always try to find an ideal environment, preferably an isolated system. This would ensure the results are what they are and that the repeatability of the experiment would get the same result as yours. That’s how your experiment will get the true peer-reviewed status.

Sample Size

How much is enough?

That is a hard number to find. However, you can find the most random sample size so that the results can be trusted. For example, the sample size is corrupted if you experiment at your university. Generally, your university will have many young, healthy individuals from certain backgrounds. Hence, this sample size isn’t random.

Of course, you want a certain category of people, like the middle-aged working class. But don’t choose the sample size from a closed system like a University. Ideally, choose multiple sample sizes – one from City, one from Rural, one from a University and one from a small-tier college. This would ensure your statistics survey results are a better representation.

Collaboration

Always be open to collaboration – even from different fields. The synergy often brings new results. And the mix and match of different disciplines can produce remarkable results.

Your research career will shine when you are open to collaboration from different areas, countries, and cultures. Everyone benefits when a nice osmosis of knowledge happens. Aim to collaborate with a University you think is of higher status than your current affiliation and one with a University you think of less status than your current affiliation.

Funding

Many experiments couldn’t happen without significant funding. If you are a researcher in this category, you must strike a balance.

The agency which funds you will have their output requirement. Although you need to cater to them to a certain degree, you can’t be untrue in your research. Whatever experiment shows you, shows you. The truth should always be upheld. As such, always strive for agencies looking for truthful experiments rather than a set of outcomes.

As a researcher, you make a hypothesis and try to confirm it with an experiment. But don’t manipulate or converge to a certain truth. Do the experiments with integrity and ideal conditions. And the result you get is the result you get – be it in consensus with your hypothesis or against it. As a researcher, both the outcomes are a success for you.

What else should be kept in mind while hopping on your research journey?