Data analysis is a key step in an investigation.
An investigation is a process that is carried out to find out data or find solutions to certain problems . The term derives from research .
According to the definitions presented by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) about the word investigate (a word that has its origin in the Latin investigare ), this verb refers to the act of carrying out strategies to discover something . It also allows mention of the set of systematic intellectual and experimental activities, with the intention of increasing knowledge on a certain subject.
Research characteristics
It should be noted that an investigation, especially at the scientific level, is a systematic process (information is obtained from a pre-established plan that, once assimilated and examined, will modify or add knowledge to the existing ones), organized (it is necessary to specify the details linked to the study) and objective (its conclusions are not based on a subjective opinion, but on episodes that have previously been observed and evaluated).
Some synonyms of the word investigate are inquire, inspect, explore , examine and trace . In its most precise sense it implies a search for something precise through an exhaustive analysis based on a certain method.
Funding for a research project may include grants and other contributions.
Investigative work in science
With scientific rigor , research involves a series of procedures that are carried out in order to achieve new reliable knowledge about a fact or phenomenon that, once found, can help us establish a conclusion and reach solutions to circumstances caused by they.
The tasks carried out within the framework of an investigative procedure include observation and measurement of phenomena, the comparison of the results obtained and their interpretation based on the knowledge possessed. Surveys, interviews or polls can also be carried out to meet the proposed objective.
It is worth clarifying that several aspects intervene in a research process , such as the nature of the phenomenon under study , the questions that scientists or researchers ask, the hypotheses or paradigms that have been previously established and the methodology used for the analysis .
The publication of a scientific article in an academic journal is a common mechanism to publicize the results of research.
Defining the research problem
When posing a research problem , it is necessary to have interesting arguments that make the work necessary, so that it contributes to expanding the universal knowledge we have on that topic or to reaching possible solutions to problems that the phenomenon studied present. For this it is necessary to argue convincingly and then carry out the study trying to corroborate or elucidate the gaps that the hypotheses present.
In this argument the following issues must be taken into account:
- Choose the exact question about what we will investigate. This represents the formulation of the problem.
- Select the type of analysis to be used.
- Carry out an analysis of the scientific, ethical and social trends surrounding the problem.
- Prevent possible difficulties .
- Create a protocol-type document where we explain our investigation.
- Carry out a reliable investigation with its consequent written result .
It is, as we have already seen, a systematic, reflective and critical procedure whose purpose is to interpret phenomena and their relationships with a specific reality.
Some thinkers facing the term
According to Fred Kerlinger , a critical, empirical and controlled investigation of natural phenomena must be developed from a theory and hypotheses about the supposed relationships between the phenomena and the consequences.
For his part, Fidias G. Arias says that research should be defined as the set of methods used to solve problems by carrying out logical operations that start from specific objectives and use scientific analysis to provide answers.
This leads us to say that, from the point of view of theoretical thinking , research consists of a formal process that is carried out systematically and intensively and that seeks to control facts that are a consequence of a specific action or cause and that uses to do so. a method of scientific analysis.
Types of research
Finally, it remains to say that there are two main ways of cataloging research: one is basic research (also known as pure or fundamental ), which usually has a laboratory as a workplace and allows the expansion of scientific knowledge thanks to the impulse and/or the modification of theories ; and the other is applied research , which is characterized by taking advantage of accumulated knowledge for specific issues that arise in practice.
Research can also be classified according to the degree of interaction between the disciplines involved ( multidisciplinary research , interdisciplinary research or transdisciplinary research ).
Experimental research , meanwhile, is called research that uses experiments to obtain data . Then said data are subjected to a comparison with variables that are constant.
It is important to indicate that not all research is experimental. Among the non-experimental ones is correlational research : in this case, the main researcher measures two variables and studies their statistical relationships that exist between them without the influence of other external variables.
When a procedure is carried out to record data as it appears in reality, without incurring manipulation of variables of any kind, it is called field research . Descriptive research , meanwhile, aims to achieve a detailed description of a variable (a phenomenon, a characteristic of the population, etc.).
Expert word
María Rosa Lojo is a doctor in Philosophy and Letters with an orientation in Letters from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) who served as a researcher in the CONICET Research Career between 1984 and 2018 , when she retired with the category of Principal Investigator .
Professor at the University of Salvador since 1996 and a prominent reference in literature as a narrator, essayist and poet, we consulted this Argentine expert about her vision on the difficulties of developing research in today's world.
– According to your point of view, what limitations or obstacles complicate, today at a global level, the development of research?
If we look at the global level, we have the disadvantage of researching in an impoverished and peripheral country (Argentina), whose state policy regarding science is now in an arduous discussion; The value of science itself to our entire society has been called into question. It's something that has never happened to this extent before. But as Bernardo Houssay said, science is not expensive, what is expensive is ignorance. And he also said that science (as universal) has nohomeland, but that each researcher does have it and that their efforts and loyalty are owed to it. I doubt that this difficult situation can be resolved favorably ifSociety and its representatives are not aware of the truth in these words.
Maria Rosa Lojo