Transcript 1.9 intro to research

Introduction to Research
Introduction to Engineering Design
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“Basic research is what I am doing when I
don’t know what I am doing.”
- Werner von Braun
Father of the United States space program
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What is Research?
• Research is the systematic study of
materials and sources in order to establish
facts and reach new conclusions.
• “We undertake research when we wish to
explore an idea, probe an issue, solve a
problem, or make an argument that
compels us to turn to outside help.”
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Types of Research
• Primary Research
– Generating original information
• Secondary Research
– Gathering information that has already been
generated
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Primary Research
• Original research
• Generates current information
• Includes methods such as observation,
experiments, surveys, and interviews
• Analyzes, synthesizes, and evaluates all
information and data
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Primary Research
• Advantages:
– Is directly applicable to the need
– Can result in extremely detailed, accurate,
and relevant information or data
– Can result in new information that cannot be
found in secondary sources
– Results in expert knowledge
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Primary Research
• Disadvantages:
– Time consuming
– Requires extensive planning
– Can be expensive
– May depend on the participation of unreliable
sources for results
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Secondary Research
• Look to see what has been written/done
before on a topic
• Includes:
– Published works: books, journals, magazines,
newspapers
– Unpublished works: business reports,
operating manuals, master’s theses, doctoral
dissertations, web pages
• Is the most commonly conducted type of
research
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Secondary Research
• Advantages:
– Requires less time and little to no cost in
comparison to primary research
– Helps the researcher to either focus or
expand his/her scope
– Elicits a sense of credibility and authority in
that it shows others that the researcher has
done his/her homework
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Secondary Research
• Disadvantages:
– Researcher may have to sift through a
tremendous amount of information
– Sources may not be authoritative or reliable
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Secondary Research Sources
• Research Libraries
– Support researchers, particularly faculty and
students, in their work
– Have extensive collections of books, journals,
and other sources of information such as
theses, dissertations, and other useful
unpublished works
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Sources of Information
• Books
– Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and atlases
– Books on specific subjects
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Scholarly Journals (like a magazine, but
with a more rigorous review process for
quality control)
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Sources of Information
• Conference Presentations (referred to as
“proceedings”)
• Statistical data sources, such as the U.S.
Census
• Multimedia such as videos and audio
sources
• Web pages
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Finding Books
• Look at your local library (public, school, or
university) to see what they have.
Reference librarians can be very helpful to
ask for guidance on doing research
• If the library does not have a book you
want, then they can usually get it for you
using a document delivery service (public
library or school library)
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Finding Newspaper, Magazine &
Scholarly Journal Articles
• Search a database that focuses in the subject
area of interest - a database is just a
searchable collection of research resources
Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.com/
ProQuest eLibrary
Academic Complete
MasterFILE Premier
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Research Process
• Define your topic, project, or problem
• Identify key words for the topic – try a
thesaurus for synonyms
• Identify all resources with which you are
familiar that may provide information
• Use what you’ve learned thus far to
search for books, articles, web sites and
other resources
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Research Process
• Contact schools, companies, and
organizations in your local area to identify
persons who are knowledgeable in your
research topic
• Assemble your list of resources, and
begin systematically exploring them
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Evaluating Information
• The quality of any source should be
evaluated before using and citing its
information
Authority
Bias
Reliability
Currency
• It is up to the researcher to differentiate
between fact, opinion, and propaganda
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Citing Research Sources
• All information that you find has some
person or entity that created it
• You must give that person credit for the
information that they created when you do
research
• Plagiarism is when you use someone
else’s creation and pretend it was your
own
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Citing Research Sources
• To give someone credit for their work in
your own research, you need to cite the
information in a specific format
• The most common formats include:
MLA
APA
Chicago
Turabian
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References
• Garibaldi, J. (2003). Mla handbook for writers of
research papers. (6 ed.).
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
(1960). Wernher von braun. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wernher_von_Braun_cro
p.jpg
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