Research Methodology

Abdinur Ali Mohamed

 Research Support Training
 Guide For Writing Literature
 APA Citation
 Research Design
1. Target Population
2. Sample Size Determination
3. Sampling Methods
What is a literature review?
• A literature review is a comprehensive review of the literature available
for any given research question.
• It is a summary, analysis and evaluation of the literature and an
explanation of what research has already been performed for a research
area.
• Searchers almost never conduct a study in an intellectual vacuum; studies
are usually undertaken within the context of an existing knowledge base.
• Researchers undertake a literature review to familiarize themselves with
the knowledge base.
Purposes of a Literature Review
• Gall, Borg, and Gall (1996) argue that the literature review plays a role
in:
• Distinguishing what has been done from what needs to be done,
• Discovering important variables relevant to the topic,
• Delimiting the research problem,
• Avoiding fruitless approaches,
• Gaining methodological insights,
• Identifying recommendations for further research, and
• Assistance in interpreting study findings.
Types of Literature Reviews
• Context review
• A common type of review in which the author links a specific study to
a larger body of knowledge.
• It often appears at the beginning of a research report and introduces
the study by situating it within a broader framework and showing how
it continues or builds on a developing line of thought or study
Con….
• Historical review
• A specialized review in which the author traces an issue over time. It
can be merged with a theoretical or methodological review to show
how a concept, theory, or research method developed over time.
Con….
• Integrative review.
• A common type of review in which the author presents and summarizes
the current state of knowledge on a topic, highlight in agreements and
disagreements within it.
• This review is often combined with a context review or may be published
as an independent article as a service to other researchers.
Con….
• Methodological review.
• A specialized type of integrative review in which the author compares
and evaluates the relative methodological strength of various studies
and shows how different methodologies (e.g., research designs,
measures, samples) account for different results.
Con….
• Self-study review.
• A review in which an author demonstrates his or her familiarity with a
subject area. It is often part of an educational program or course
requirement.
Con…..
• Theoretical review.
• A specialized review in which the author presents several theories or
concepts focused on the same topic and compares them on the basis of
assumptions, logical consistency, and scope of explanation.
The Steps of the L. Review Process
• Planning: identify the focus, type and scope of the review.
• Reading and Research: collect and read current research on your
topic
• Analyzing: summarize, synthesize, critique, and compare your
sources.
• Drafting: decide how to organize your material.
Planning: What type of L. Review am I going
to write
• Focus: What is the specific thesis, problem, that my literature
review helps to define?
• Type: What type of literature review am I conducting? Will my
review emphasize theory, methodology or policy,
• Scope: What is the scope of material that I will include? What types
of sources will I be using?
 Reading and Research: What material am I
going to use?
• Collect and Read: Collect literature relevant to your topic that fits
within the focus, type and scope
• Use databases, bibliographies, and recommendations from advisers to
identify source material.
• Read the sources carefully enough to understand their main arguments
and relevance to your study.
Analyzing: Summarizing the Major Sources
• Once you have read the source material, consider writing a brief
summary of the text using the following:
• Author name and the date
• Geographical location(area of the study)
• Method used to the study
• Result of the study
• Conclusion/implication
Example
• William and Kiseo(2002) examined leadership in army context in
USA. They used discriminate and factor analysis to refine the
variables. They found that leadership failure is measured to arms
decision refrain from the complaining to the leaders.
Drafting: Organizing Principles
• The most difficult parts of drafting a literature review is deciding how
to organize the information that have been accumulated.
• Organization demonstrates your mastery of the topic and provides
readers with a better sense of the state of research in that field.
• Literature review is organized according to themes, methodologies,
or chronological.
Theme/ Topical
• This approach breaks the field into a number of subfields, subject
areas, or approaches, and discusses them one by one.
• This is the most common way to organize literature reviews.
Study on free trade and economic growth is
organized:
2.2 . Free trade and employment

2.3. Free trade and economic stability

2.4. Free trade and production diversification

Methodological

• This is a variation of topical organization; studies are organized in

terms of the study methodology.
• It is useful when discussing interdisciplinary approaches to a topic or
when discussing a number of studies with a different approach.
Chronological
• this approach lists studies in terms of chronological development; it is
most useful when a field shows clear development over time, either
linear progression of thinking or a linear progression that is
interrupted by a paradigm shift.
• It is useful when historical changes are central to explaining the
topic.
Why Citation
• It is important to cite when borrowing the ideas and thoughts of others for
several reasons.
• Citing sources:
• Builds credibility in your work by showing you are not alone in your
opinions
• Gives you a chance to show that you have an idea about and
investigated the topic
• Gives your reader the information to verify the source or to find more
information on the subject
• Allows to give credit where it is due.
When to Cite
• If you quote an author, even if you are only borrowing a single key
word, you must tell your reader where you found the information.
• You also must cite a source
• if you restate an idea, thesis, or opinion given by an author,
• if you restate an expert's theory or opinion,
• if you use facts that are not common knowledge, or
• if you need to provide an informational or explanatory note.
When Is It Okay Not to Cite?
• Facts that are common knowledge do not have to be cited. For example:
• Business cycle is recurrent that can be managed but can not be avoided
• Expansionary fiscal policy increase employment and cause inflation .
• Statistics and information that can easily be found in several sources and
are not likely to vary from source to source do not have to be cited.
example,
• the population of the Somalia is 10.8 million in 2012 estimates.
• Dictionary definitions that are common knowledge and vary little from
source to source.
 Common Referencing Styles
• APA is an author/date referencing system common in the social sciences; it
uses parenthetical in-text citations to refer readers to the list of references at the
end of the paper.
• MLA system, common in the arts and humanities, is similar to APA in that it
uses parenthetical in-text citations keyed to a List of Works cited at the end of
the paper. The author's last name appears in the text close to the borrowed
material along with a page number rather than the year.
• Chicago notes-bibliography citation system, used by some humanities and
social sciences, signals to the reader by a superscript number at the end of the
sentence that a source has been used.
Continue…
• Vancouver originally came from The International Committee of
Medical Journal Editors. Vancouver style is used mainly in the
medical sciences.
• Harvard style and its many variations are used in law,
natural sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and
medicine.
APA Style
Components of the APA style
• APA requires that information be cited in two different ways:
1. Citations in the Text:
• APA uses the author-date method of citation. The last name of the
author and the date of publication are inserted in the text in the
appropriate place.
• When referencing or summarizing a source, provide the author and
year.
• When quoting or summarizing a particular passage, include the
specific page or paragraph number, as well.
Continue…
• When quoting in your paper, if a direct quote is less than 40 words,
incorporate it into your text and use quotation marks.
• If a direct quote is more than 40 words, make the quotation a
freestanding indented block of text and DO NOT use quotation marks.
• Reference page
• A reference list is at the end of the paper. The reference list should be
on a new page, double spaced, and use the hanging indent method.
In text Citation
1. When using a direct quotation, include the page number of the quote.
• Example:
• Central banks in several of the industrialized countries,
including the USA, Canada and the UK, have clearly
announced their use of the interest rate as the primary monetary
policy instrument (Jagdish, 2000, p. 443).
Continue…
2. When paraphrasing an idea, the citation will include author(s) and
date.
• Author’s name given in the body of your paper:
Lindgren (2001) reported…
• Author’s name not given in the body of your paper:
A study of the comparison process (Lindgren, 2001)
Continue…
3. For electronic sources without page numbers, use the abbreviation
para. If the paragraph number is not apparent, cite the section heading
and the paragraph number following it.
• (Myers, 2000, para. 5)
• (Butler, 2000, Conclusion, para. 1)
Continue…
4. Works by multiple authors:
• When a work has 2 authors cite both names every time you reference
the work in the text.
• When a work has three to five authors cite all the author names the
first time the reference occurs and then subsequently include only the
first author followed by et al.
• First citation: Masserton, Slonowski, and Slowinski (1989) state that...
• Subsequent citations: Masserton et al. (1989) state that...
Continue…
5. Works by no identified author:
• When a resource has no named author, cite the first few words of the
reference entry (usually the title).
• Use double quotation marks around the title of an article, chapter, or
Web page. Italicize the title of a periodical, book, brochure, or report.
• The wage rates that monopolies pay, however, are not necessarily different
from competitive levels even though employment levels are (“labor
economics,” 2009).
Reference Page
Continue…
Continue…
 General Rules of APA Style
• Formatting The preferred APA font is a serif typeface such as Times New Roman with 12-
point size. Double space between all lines of text, including the reference list. Have
uniform margins of at least 1 in. (2.54 cm) on all sides.

• Hanging indents should be used for the reference list entries.This means thatall
lines after the first lineof each entry should be indented one half inch from the left
merging

• Arrange reference list entries in alphabetical order. Use only the initial(s) of the
author's given name, not the full name, with a space between the initials.

•References cited in the textmust appear in the reference list andvice versa
Research Methodology
Introduction
• State that name of the chapter.
• Content of the chapter
• It is the list of the titles contained by this chapter
Example
• This is the third chapter of the study of transformational leadership
and Organizational citizenship behavior. The chapter provides
methodology that will be under taken in this research. Chapter
contains to research design, research population, sample size
determination, sampling technique, data gathering procedure,
research instrument, data analysis, reliability and validity, ethical
consideration and research limitation.
Research Design
• A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting a
research project. It details the procedures necessary for obtaining the
information needed to structure or solve research problems.
• A research design lays the foundation for conducting the project. A
good research design will ensure that the research project is conducted
effectively and efficiently.
Research design classification
Research Design
• In the research Design, state:
• Choose between quantitative and qualitative
• State type of the research(Descriptive, correlation and explanatory).
• Justify the choice
• Define timing of data(cross sectional vs longitudinal).
• State the previous studies used proposed design
Example
• This study uses quantitative research design. This type of research is
adopted to analyze data quantitatively. So numerical descriptions are
used to interpret the data. Descriptive and correlation types of
research will be applied in this study. First research will give
description regarding to the nature of the respondents and then
correlation between the research variable will be examined.
• Cross sectional data collected once upon time is used to get objectives
of the study. Rossel and Raman(2003) and Marry and Rashad(2014)
have used this design to investigate transformational leadership and
Organizational citizenship behavior.
Research Population
• This is the collection of elements or objects that possess the
information sought by the researcher and about which inferences are
to be made. The target population must be defined precisely.
• Imprecise definition of the target population will result in research that
is ineffective at best and misleading at worst.
• Defining the target population involves translating the problem
definition into a precise statement of who should and should not be
included in the sample.
Target Population
• The target population should be defined in terms of elements,
sampling units, extent and time.
• An element is the object about which or from which the information
is desired. In survey research, the element is usually the respondent.
• A sampling unit is an element, or a unit containing the element.
• Extent refers to the geographical boundaries of the research,
• time refers to the period under consideration
Example
• The target population of this study are 100 supervisors and line
managers. 3 largest banks will be included in this study. Only those
companies in Mogadishu are included in this study, period 2016.
Determine the sampling frame
• A sampling frame is a representation of the elements of the target
population. It consists of a list or set of directions for identifying the
target population.
• Examples of a sampling frame include the telephone book, an
association directory listing the firms in an industry, a customer
database, a mailing list on a database purchased from a commercial
organization, a city directory, or a map.
Cont..
Sample Size Determination

• Several qualitative factors should also be taken into consideration

when determining the sample size. These include:
• The nature of the research
• the number of variables
• the nature of the analysis
• sample sizes used in similar studies
• Proportional, Confidence interval and Yamane methods are used to
determine sample sizes
Proportional Method Formula
Yamane Method
• Yamane (1967) provides a simplified formula to calculate sample
sizes. This formula was used to calculate the sample sizes.