J. Clarence Kelly Library   Penn State Greater Allegheny

On this page, you will find a guide to help you develop a strong research methodology for your projects. This guide is divided up into the following sections:

Formal research is the endeavor to collect original data and/or observations and draw new conclusions about a problem or thesis. This is also referred to as "Primary Research."

This is not the same as SECONDARY research, which is commonly done in college courses. For example, the traditional Term Paper assignment is a form of secondary research. Secondary research consists of finding and summarizing data and commentary from existing sources, and does not involve original research or reporting first-hand discoveries.

Explanation of format and content for a formal research report

The required sections include:

• Introduction
  • Introduce the problem and purpose; the thesis
  • Provide definitions of jargon or unclear terminology to be used in the research
• Literature Review
  • Overviews scholarly literature related to your thesis topic (avoid using newspapers or popular magazines for a literature review)
  • Provides a synthesis of ideas, problems, and questions related to your thesis - NOT a mere summary or collection of facts
  • Organized by topic, not by individual source (blends together related studies into a cohesive analysis of the existing research)
  • Relates the exisiting research to YOUR thesis - What is currently known (and NOT known) about this topic? How does your research fit into this area? Why is your research necessary and original? What current gaps in the research will it fill?
• Methods
  • How did you do it? Your data collection methods
• Results
  • The actual numbers: Your collection results including statistics, charts, tables
• Discussion
  • So what does it all mean? What did you learn?
  • How does it compare to information in the Literature Review?
• Conclusion/Recommendations (Optional)
  • What is the significance of your findings?
  • Did you answer any questions about the topic?
  • How could your research be used in the future?
• References
  • Be sure to list ALL sources from the literature review   

Excellent step-by-step overview of the research process, from literature review to design to types of methodology:

Brief Glossary of Research Terminology

The Literature Review is an overview of pre-existing research relating to your problem or thesis. You will use this body of knowledge to understand what studies and information currently exist, and to place your own research in context.

Review the literature written by professionals in your field in scholarly journals. What is a scholarly journal? How do I evaluation resources?

How do I find scholarly journal articles? Search libraries' article databases - use this list of communications related databases

Sample Literature Review using APA style (Purdue's OWL) - includes instructions and guidelines for writing and formatting.

Excerpt from Background Research - The Review of Literature By Karen Vaverka, Stella Fenn - This is a very brief but useful overview of the basic elements of a literature view.

Characterisitcs of a good literature review - a rubric of important elements in a literature review (this is a good starting point, but ask your professor for his or her specific criteria)

Lit Review Basics from PSU

Basics from the University of Toronto

Extensive guide from Central Queensland University Library

What is a Peer Reviewed/Refereed Journal?

How can you tell if a journal is Peer Reviewed/Refereed? use Ulrich's Periodicals Directory to look up the journal title.

If the journal is peer-reviewed, it will say YES next to the statement "Refereed" in the record provided for that journal title.
 

When searching databases, limit the searches to Scholarly, Peer Reviewed and/or Refereed by checking the box so entitled.

HINT: When you find a relevant article, use that article's bibliography/works cited list to locate other related articles for your literature review. This will save you a great deal of time and effort.

This is the description of the procedure and tools you used to obtain new data and/or observations with which you plan to solve or expand your problem/thesis. There are many potential tools and approaches available.

Overview of possible research/data collection methods (survey, interview, focus groups, etc.)

Questions to ask before designing & planning your research

Surveys --

Excellent overview & how-to for using surveys

Guidelines for Survey Design

Tips for making surveys more effective

More survey design tips

Software options for conducting online surveys

Focus Groups --

Excellent overview of methodology

Journal Article about Focus Groups by Jenny Kitzinger

Choosing an appropriate sample size --

Determining sample size for surveys

More math-intensive approach, including calculating for various factors

Related Links --

Common errors made in research

Read about the PEW Research Center's Methodology

Free online survey tool: creates online form and analyzes results www.surveymonkey.com

You can use these library information databases to access surveys and questionnaires conducted by various organizations.

Using these existing surveys as models can help you create your own methodology and data gathering tools.
Click on the name to read the description and access a link to that database.

Sociometrics Social Science Electronic Data Library (SSEDL)

Gallup Brain (Gallup Polls since 1935).

Polls & Surveys through Lexis/Nexis Academic (Click on "REFERENCE" and then "POLLS & SURVEYS" to search the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.)

If you like math, review this article discussing how to calculate statistical viability
of survey response rates. In a nutshell, there isn't a flat minimum response % but an ideal mix of a number of variables.

Some sources say there is no standard for minimum response rate.
see article by T. Johnson and and L. Owens )

Overview of Response Rates issues

Formula for Determining Response Rate
"As defined by CASRO (Frankel, 1983) and other sources (Groves, 1989; Hidiroglou, et al., 1993; Kviz, 1977; Lessler and Kalsbeek, 1992; Massey, 1995), the response rate is the number of complete interviews with reporting units divided by the number of eligible reporting units in the sample."

Accepted Non-response rate?
"The duration of a survey and the response rate are often inversely related. The more time and resources one spends during the fieldwork, the higher the response rate will be. The accepted non-response rate is always a compromise. The often quoted basic thesis is that only two out of the three requirements of low costs, high response rate and fast timetable can be achieved in one survey."
Statistics Finland- Johanna Laiho - Pentti Pietilä - Kari Djerf

View Response Rates for National Surveys:

United States Census 2000 Final Response Rate: 67%

Washington Post 2003 Polls

"the response rate has been about 42 percent " for NSSE 2000: National Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice

"A typical five-day survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, employing standard techniques used by most opinion polling organizations, now obtains interviews with people in fewer than three-in-ten sampled households (27%). "