RESEARCH DESIGN

Introduction:-

“The Research design is the specification of technique

and processes for obtaining the information required. It is the over-all
operational pattern or framework of the project which states what data
is to be gathered from which source by what processes.”

(Paul Green & Tull)

Research is a systematic effort towards unraveling the

mysterious surroundings. It involves putting before in persistent refers
to know the unknown. Before we discuss about research design its
concept, meaning we must knew about research. It simply means a
search for facts, answer to questions, and the solution to problems.

Research design is a detailed plan or how the goals of

research will be achieved. It is the planning of a strategy for conducting
research. It consists of series of the actions or steps necessary to
effectively carried out research. To formulate a research problem
constitute the first step in scientific inquiry. It seeks to find explanations
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to understand phenomenon. But the task of research is very sequential
process of that involving number of steps and research design acts as the
most important role towards research. In fact, the conceptual structure
within which the research is conducted. It constitutes the blueprint of
collection, measurement and analysis of data.

Research is an important activity affecting the society as

a whole therefore; it involves a lot of decision making. Research design
also involves a lot of decision - making. It provides a structure and
shape to your research project. After finalizing your topic, you decide
about how you are going to conduct your study. It involves formulation
of strategy for all the stages starting from formulation of hypotheses to
the analysis of data and research design consists of series of actions or
steps necessary to effectively carry out research and the desired
sequencing of these steps. To formulate a specific research problem,
constitutes the first step in scientific inquiry. The formidable problem
that follows the task of defining research problem is progress in the
research work, popularly known as ‘Research design’.

Once the research problem is formulated, a specific

topic is assigned and the hypothesis is formulated, the next stage is to
work out a research design. Preparing research design is an important
stage in the process of conducting a research.
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 Definition :-

Research design is planning a strategy for conducting the

research. Its plans to what is to be observed, why it is to observed, how
to record observations, how to analyze and interpret data. There are
various definitions regarding research design by various scholars. So let
us discuss.

1) Miller –
Miller has defined research design as a planned sequence
and the entire process involved in a research study.

2) Sellitz –
Research Design is a catalogue of the various phases and
facts relating to the formulation of a research effort. It is an arrangement
of the essential conditions for collection and analysis of data in a form
that aims to combine relevance to research purpose with economy with
a procedure.

3) Jahoda, Deutch & Cook –

A research design is the arrangement of conditions for
the collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine
relevance to the research purpose with economy and procedure.

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4) Winner –
Research design acts as an architects plan for the structure
and constitution of a building.

5) Kinnear & Taylor –

A research design is a basic plan that guides the data
collection and analysis phases of the research project. It provides the
framework that specifies the type of information to be collected, its
sources and collection procedure.

6) Myers –
Research design is a general structure of the experiment
not its specific content. It is a conceptual structure within which the
research is conducted. It constitutes the blueprint of collection and
analysis.

Meaning of Research Design :-

It is important for you to understand that developing

research design is a challenge to the researcher because the success of
her/his research work is depended on the research design. Any research
is valid when its conclusions are true and verifiable. It is reliable when
the findings are repeatable. Reliability and validity of the research

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require the planning of inquiry, i.e. the detailed strategy of how the
research will be conducted. Decisions regarding what, where, when,
how much, by what means concerning an inquiry or a research study
constitute a research design.

The term ‘design’ means drawing an outline or planning or

arranging details. It is a process of making research related decisions
before the situation arises. Research design is planning a strategy of
conducting research. It plans as to:

1) What is to be observed,
2) How it is to be observed,
3) When and where it is to be observed,
4) Why it is to be observed, how to record observation,
5) How to analyses interpret observations, and how to generalize.

In short, a research design is a logical and systematic plan

prepared for directing a research study. It specifies the objectives of the
study, the methodology and techniques to be adopted for achieving the
objectives. It constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement
and analysis of data and provides systematic plan of procedure for the
researcher to follow. Thus the research design played important role in
research.

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Origin :-

Research design emerged as a recognizable field of study

in the 1960s, at first marked by a conference on Design Method at
Imperial College, London in 1962. It led to the founding of the Design
Research Society (DRS) in 1966. John Christopher Jones founded a
postgraduate Design Research laboratory at the University Manchester
Institute of Science and Technology (who initiated the 1962 conference)
and L. Bruce Scher founded the postgraduate Department of Design
Research at the Royal College of Art, London and became the first
professor of Research Design. Herbert Simon (1969) established the
foundations for a science of design which would be a body of
intellectually tough, analytic, partly formalizable, partly empirical,
teachable doctrine about the design process.

Need of Research Design :-

• It facilitates the smooth sailing of various research operations.

• Reduces inaccuracy.
• It helps to get maximum efficiency and reliability.
• It eliminates bias and marginal errors.
• It is helpful for collecting materials.
• It guides the research in right direction
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Purpose of Research Design :-

Research is a systematic endeavor towards quest for

knowledge. The word systematic is an important and needs
classification. Studying informally and casually mach yield also yield
new knowledge. There should be some purposes of a research design
and it shaped a proper validity to your research. The purposes of
research design are –

• What is study
• Why is the study being carried out
• Where will the study carried out
• What will be the process of task involved
• What will be the data
• How will the data collected
• How to take and use method of sampling
• How to analyze data

Characteristics and Features of Good Research Design :-

A good research design is regularly characterized by

adjectives like flexible, appropriate, efficient, and economical and so on.
Generally, the design which minimizes bias and collected & analyses

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are considered as good design. The design which gives the smallest
experimental error in supposed to be the best design in many
investigations similarly; a design which yields maximal information
many different aspects of a problem is considered most appropriate and
efficient design in respect of many research problems.

It is considered that a good research design should

reduces the biasness while should maximize the reliability of data being
collected and analyzed. A good research design should provide the
opportunity as per the various aspects of research problem. It should
minimize the experimental error and should provide the maximum
information. Hence it can be concluded the selection of research design
upon research problem and the nature of research.

The major features and the characteristics of a good

research design are -

1) Objectivity
2) Reliability
3) Validity
4) Generalisability
5) Accuracy

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1) Objectivity –

The objectivity refers to the ability of research instruments

to give conclusions that are free from the observer’s personal biases. A
good research design should able to select those instruments only that
provides objective conclusions. Usually it believed that the objectivity
pretty easy, but it to be difficult during the execution of research and
data analysis. The findings are said to be objective when they pertain to
the method of data collection and the scoring of the responses. The
objectivity in respect of the procedure may be judged by the degree of
agreement between the final scores assigned to various persons by more
than one independent observer. The more the agreement among the
observers the more objective are the observation, recording and
evaluation of the responses. Therefore, a good research design should
permit fairly objective measuring instruments in which every observer
visualizing a performance comes to the same conclusion.

2) Reliability -

Another essential feature of a good research design is the

reliability of responses. The instruments used in research should be able
to provide the similar responses to a question asked from a respondent.
If the response varies the instruments is considered unreliable. In the
other words the reliability of research design is measured in the terms of
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consistency in responses. The question of reliability of knowledge is
usually raised when the presence of a problem arouses in the knower a
demand, not only for something more than mere conjecture, but for
something for which it shall be useful in a given situation and perhaps
in other similar situations. Reliable knowledge means any claim that is
substantiated as trustworthy for a given purpose.

3) Validity –

An important characteristic of good research design is its

ability to answer the questions in the way that it was intended to it
should focus on the objective and validity of the research. It makes the
specific arrangements or plan for that objective. The degree of
generalisability is known in terms of the replicability and
reproducibility of the findings in spite of different measures and settings
respectively.

4) Accuracy –

Accuracy means that in each process in research has been

taken accurately. It is also the degree to which each research process
instrument and tool is related to each other. Accuracy is also measures
whether the research tools have been selected in best possible manner,
research produce and it show the research problem or not.

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5) Generalisability –

The degree of generalisability is known in terms of the

replicability and reproducibility of the findings in spite of different
measures and settings respectively. A research design is said have
generalisable if the outcome of research is applicable.

A research design is said to generalisable if the outcome

of research is applicable on bigger population from which the sample is
selected. A research design can be made generalisable by properly
defining the population, selecting the sample very carefully, analyzing
the statistical data appropriately and by preparing it methodologically.
Therefore the more the outcomes are generalisable that more efficient in
research design. So these are the features of criteria of a good research
design and should follow while in research.

Components of Research Design –

The primary intent behind the research design is to

help avoid the situation in which the evidence doesn’t address the
primary research questions. A research design is concerned with a
logical problem and not a logistical problem. The research design
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components apply to all types of qualitative, deductive research,
whether in the physical or social sciences. The challenge of research
design is mainly depends upon following purposes of study on
aspects mentioned below.

1) What is observe

2) Whom to observe

3) Why to observe

4) How to observe

5) How to record observation

6) How to analyze observation

7) What inferences can be drawn

Once the researcher has sufficient understanding about

the above mentioned aspects, now it is the time to resort the job of
planning a research design. It is suggested that the researcher should
proceeds step by step in following order.

1) Tittle of research work

2) Purpose of study

3) Review of literature

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 4) Statement of the problem

5) Scope of study

6) Objective of study

7) Conceptualization & of terms used in investigation

8) Variables

9) Formulation of Hypothesis

10) Selection of Sample

11) Data Collection

12) Data Processing

13) Data Analysis

14) Tabulation of results

15) Verification of results

16) Conclusions

17) Suggestions for further research

18) Bibliography

19) Summary of report

So, these are the necessary steps a researcher should follow while
conducting his/her research.

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Elements of Research Design :-

1)) Selection of Research Problem

As regards the selection of topic for research, anything

that is social and empirical is a relevant problem for social research.The
factors which affect the decisions on selection of topic in social sciences
are -

(i) The structure and state of a discipline

(ii) Social problems

(iii) Other determinants like the availability of grants for

particular themes, the popularity and prestige of the particular area ‘of
research, public interest and motivation of the researcher etc.

(iv) Practical considerations.

2) Selection of Units of Analysis

Determination of the units of analysis is a key factor in

social research. In general, the purpose of the study dictates the
selection of the appropriate unit of analysis. The objects or events or
entities under investigation are referred to as units of analysis in social
sciences. This is one of the important steps in research design.

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 3) Choice of Variables

Since a social scientist is primarily interested in studying

the relationship among some characteristics or properties of the
observed units which are subject to variation over cases, over time or
over both cases and time, it is necessary for a researcher to decide which
variables should be the focus of research. Explanatory variables are
known as the variables under focus. They are of two types dependent
and independent. The former one is the variable the researcher is
interested in explaining and predicting. Dependent variable is the
presumed effect. The independent variable is the presumed cause.The
extraneous variables are those which are not the direct focus of research.
Those are of two types: controlled and uncontrolled. The controlled
variables are held constant or prevented from varying during the course
of observation. Apart from the above classification of the variables, a
typology of quantitative and qualitative variables is also made. Whereas
a quantitative variable implies values or categories consisting of
numbers, qualitative variables represent certain qualities, attributes or
discrete categories.

4) Identification of Relationship

In real terms, very many social researchers directly aim at

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developing and testing relationships, apart from gaining familiarity of a
phenomenon or description of communities or groups or exploration of
a situation or event. However, on the whole, research findings largely
depend on particular anticipated relationships. Therefore, identification
of the anticipated relationship and the guiding theoretical premises
assume greater importance.

Types of Research Design :-

There are various types of research designs on the basis of

nature of investigation and data collection methods. So let us discuss the
different types of research designs.

TYPES OF RESEARCH DESIGN

Experimental Research Descriptive Research

Exploratory Research

Case Study Design Survey Method

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1) Experimental Research Design –

The concept of experimental design in sociological

research refers to systematic study of human relations by making the
observations under conditions of control. In the words of Jahoda and
Cook, ‘an experiment maybe considered as a way of organizing the
collection of evidence so as to permit one to make inference about the
tenability of a hypothesis. According to Chapin, “experiment is simply
observation under controlled conditions. When observation alone fails
to disclose the factors that operate in a given problem, it is necessary for
the scientist to resort to experiment”. Experimental design enables the
researcher to draw causal inferences. It also smoothens, the observation
of independent variable causing assumed effect. The three components
of experimental design are: comparison, manipulation, and control.

2) Exploratory Research Design –

The main purpose of exploratory study is to gather

information which will help in future for formulation of a precise
research problem. On the basis of the collected facts the researcher may
be able to formulate sound hypotheses for further research. It may also
enable the researcher to get himself acquainted with the phenomena
which he expects to investigate at a later stage. The aim of an
exploratory or formulative study may be clarification of concepts,
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establishing priorities for future research and collection of data about
the actual conditions which affect an intended research. The
requirements of exploratory designs are –

• Review of pertinent literature

• Experience survey
• Analysis of insight stimulating cases.

3) Descriptive Research Design -

The purpose of descriptive type of design is to describe

some event, situation, people, group or community or some phenomena.
Fundamentally, it is a fact finding exercise which focuses on relatively
far dimensions of a well defined entity, aiming at precise and systematic
measurement of some dimensions of a phenomenon. Usually a
descriptive design involves detailed numerical descriptions, such as
distribution of the population of a community by age, sex, caste or
education.

The researcher may also take recourse to descriptive

design for estimating the proportion of people in a particular
geographical locality in respect of their specific views or attitudes.

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4) Case Study Design –

This type of research design calls for a comprehensive

and exhaustive analysis of a single case. Stakes(1995) observes, case
study is concerned with the complexity and particular nature of the case
in question. Commonly, a case study is taken as a study of a single
location, community or organization. The case study research design
have evolved over the past few years as a useful tool for investigating
trends and specific situations in many scientific disciplines. The case
study research design is also useful for testing whether scientific
theories and models actually work in the real world. You may come out
with a great computer model for describing how the ecosystem of a rock
pool works but it is only by trying it out on a real life pool that you can
see if it is a realistic simulation. For psychologists, anthropologists and
social scientists they have been regarded as a valid method of research
for many years. Scientists are sometimes guilty of becoming bogged
down in the general picture and it is sometimes important to understand
specific cases and ensure a more holistic approach to research.

5) Survey Method –
Survey research designs are procedures in quantitative
research in which investigators administer a survey to a sample or to the
entire population of people to describe the attitudes, behaviors and
characteristics of the population.
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Evaluation of Research Design :-

The primary question is evaluating a research design

pertain to the reliability and relevance of a data and their analysis.
Therefore before carring out a research work the researcher should
verifies the following observations.

• How to perished are the observations

• Can another researcher repeat the observations
• How explicit are the hypothesis
• Have the problems and hypothesis being stated in operational
terms scientifically
• Has the plan of research being presented in detail so that its logic
appearate
• Do the data satisfied the demands of topic
• Do the research designs ensures a comparison that is not subject to
alternative interpretation

Significance and Advantages of Research Design :-

The features and significance of research design had far

reaching advantages which played most crucial role in the part of
research. Let us discuss.
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 1) It enables a researcher to consider beforehand the various decisions
to made.
2) it is an outline that specify the sources and types of information
relevant to research questions.
3) It is a blueprint specifying the methods to be adopted for gathering
and analyzing data.
4) Wastage of time and money can minimize.
5) Optimum reliability is achieved.
6) Helps in giving useful conclusions & theories.

Importance of Research Design :-

• It reduce cost.
• It facilitate the smooth scaling.
• It helps in relevant data collection and analysis.
• Assist how to research operations.
• It helps in getting reviews from experts.
• It provides direction to executive.

The above mentioned points can be summarized. Research design is

necessary because it makes possible the smooth sailing of the various
research procedures, thereby creation research as professional as
possible and thus the research design played important role in research.
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Conclusion :-

Research design is a blue print of any research study. It

ensures against wasteful expenditure of money, time and energy. To
design is to plan, that is, designing is the process of making decisions
before the situation arises. It is thus, a process of deliberate anticipation,
directed towards bringing an expected situation under control. The task
of designing research is a sequential process involving a number of
clearly delineated steps. There are some variations in the number of
steps, their names and their sequence suggested by different writers but
design of research and sampling are the most important aspects and
inevitable part of the social research.

After a discussion of the need and purpose, its functions

are discussed. There are different kinds of research designs based on a
number of factors. You have to choose one depending upon the purpose
of your research work.

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 REFERENCES :-

1) Kothari, C.R. (2004). Research Methodology. New Age Publishers, New Delhi.
2) Dasgupta, Sugata. (1967). Methodology of Social Science. Gandhian Institute
Studies, New Delhi.
3) Tondon, B.C. (1979). Research Methodology in Social Sciences. Chaitanya
Publishers, Allahabad.
4) Ahuja, R. (2007). Research Methods. Rawat Publications, Jaipur.
5) Bhandarkar, P.L. Wilkinson, T.S. (2010). Himalayan Publishers, New Delhi.
6) Paterson, Lindasy. (2012). Principles of Research Design in Social Scinces.
Rotledge publishers, New York.
7) Simon, J. (1969). Basic Research Methods in Social Science. Routledge Publishers,
New York.

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