Empirical Research

Empirical research uses information gathered from primary sources to answer a research question. You may recall from reading about scholarly articles that empirical research reports are a major subgenre of scholarly article. Empirical research reports are also, essentially, a very specialized type of argument of fact.

Different disciplines engage in empirical research in slightly different ways; this chapter presents empirical research as it is typically addressed in the natural and social sciences. Scholars in fields like literature, art, philosophy, and history also conduct empirical research (primarily analyzing texts or other artifacts), but they often don’t quite follow the standard structure that I describe in this chapter. However, you technically can use this structure for any type of empirical research; it just wouldn’t be the conventional way it’s done in the humanities.

Empirical Research Questions

Empirical research starts with a question that you want to answer and that can be answered empirically. (Refer back to the chapter on Arguments of Fact for more about empirical evidence.) You will probably start first with a broad topic or question and gradually narrow that question down as you consider the following issues:

• What are you able to find relevant, scholarly secondary sources about?
• What can you realistically accomplish with the time and other resources you have?
• What kind(s) of primary source data are you interested in collecting?

The remaining sections of the chapter walk you through the process of identifying and refining your research question, collecting your data, and writing up your final report. You’ll probably go more or less in order, but keep in mind that it’s very normal – and often necessary – to jump back and forth between steps.

Selecting a Research Question

A good first step to picking a good research question (called an RQ for short) is to just start by listing topics that are interesting to you. Be open-minded in this phase. Include things that you think are cool or interesting, that you’re curious about, or that you may be already know a lot about. Once you have this list, pick the 3-4 ideas that you’re most interested in pursuing. Don’t worry yet about whether they’ll actually work; odds are they’ll need some refinement, no matter what. It is possible that none of your top 3-4 ideas will end up working out, in which case you can always come back to your larger list, but that’s pretty uncommon.

As noted above, you will need to use scholarly sources to provide background and context for your research, so a good next step is a library search to see what’s out there on these 3-4 topics. Your topics are probably broad, and you can use this search to help you narrow them down, too.

As you review the sources available on your topic, you should focus on recent scholarly articles, and more specifically on empirical research reports. Pay attention to the research questions they address and the methods they use, as you could potentially use these as models for your own work. You should also be looking for themes, or recurring ideas that pop up in multiple articles. These themes should help you understand what areas of the topic are currently being explored by scholars.

As you work, jot down potential research questions that come to mind. You may find that a topic that started out as a favorite isn’t really offering you any great ideas for empirical research, and that’s fine. Hopefully, though, you end up with a list of at least few research questions that seem interesting to you.

Deciding on a Research Method

Your next step is to consider whether and how you can use primary research to answer these research questions. Your research method is how you plan to collect data from primary sources to answer your research question. What constitutes a primary source largely depends on what you are doing with the source. Primary source material is anything that provides firsthand evidence to answer a research question. It is distinct from the kinds of sources you are probably used to using, which are typically secondary sources that provide someone else’s – usually an expert’s – information, arguments, or analysis.

You collect primary source data directly, typically by interviewing or surveying people, by designing and running experiments, by carefully observing settings or events, or by finding and examining artifacts or texts.

The following examples illustrate the relationships among research questions, primary sources, and secondary sources. Note how, in every case, the primary source provides direct information to answer the research question, while the secondary sources may provide either other people’s attempts to answer the same question or background information about the topic(s) involved.

• Research Question: How did Depression-era newspaper articles describe the economy?
  • Primary Sources: Depression-era newspaper articles
  • Secondary Sources: Books and articles about the economy, the Depression, and/or newspapers
• Research Question: How do college students feel about the college bookstore?
  • Primary Sources: College student ratings of their experiences with the bookstore (collected via survey) and/or college student comments about the bookstore (collected via interview or from online reviews)
  • Secondary Sources: Books and articles about college students, college bookstores, and/or customer satisfaction
• Research Question: How much faster are people at solving crossword puzzles when they are well-rested compared to when they are tired?
  • Primary Source: Data collected by observing and timing both well-rested and tired people solving crossword puzzles (experimental data)
  • Secondary Sources: Books and articles about rest and cognitive function and/or about crossword puzzles
• Research Question: How much time does the average shopper spend in the dollar section at Target?
  • Primary Source: Data collected from observing and timing people in the dollar section at Target
  • Secondary Sources: Books and articles about consumer behavior, story layout/design, and so on
• Research Question: What is the underlying message of the book Mansfield Park by Jane Austen?
  • Primary Source: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
  • Secondary Sources: Books and articles about Mansfield Park, Jane Austen, themes in Georgian novels, and literary analysis

Note that though it is technically possible for nonfiction articles or books about a topic to serve as primary source material, those scenarios are quite unusual. If you find yourself thinking, “I’m collecting data by reading articles about my topic,” that’s probably not primary research!

A clear idea of your method should incorporate answers to these questions:

• Who or what will you be collecting data from?
• Where, when, and how will you collect that data?

Troubleshooting Your Research Question and Method

There are few common pitfalls students run into at this point in planning their projects. Once you have a research question and method in mind, take a moment to evaluate your idea on the three key criteria described below: alignment, feasibility, and ethics.

Alignment

Students sometimes struggle to make a good “match” (also known as alignment) between their proposed research question and their planned primary source material. For example, you may wonder how having a family member with dementia affects people’s family relationships, and then propose interviewing people who have family members with dementia. However, interviewing people doesn’t tell you directly what the effects are; it only tells you what people say the effects are. People aren’t always honest, unbiased, or accurate, even when describing their own lives. A more appropriate research question for this type of primary source data might be something like, “How do people who have family members with dementia describe the effects on their family relationships?” The difference is subtle, but important; the revised question is one that can actually be answered with information collected by interviewing these people.

Another common error is assuming that any data collected from interviews will always be considered primary source data. However, interviews can be secondary sources. If you interview someone about a topic simply because you want their expertise on it, you are using that person as a secondary source; it’s not really any different from if you cited an article they wrote about the topic. Consider, for example, a scenario where your research question is, “What are the most common hurdles new nurses experience on the job?” You can certainly ask your nursing faculty about this, but the question as written suggests that the most direct information would come from new nurses themselves. You would want to either revise the research question (to something like, “What do nursing faculty believe are the most common hurdles new nurses experience on the job?”) or plan to just interview new nurses instead. (You could still interview experienced nurses, too, but you would either focus the interview on having them describe just their early experiences on the job or use their information as secondary source material.)

To evaluate the alignment of your planned research question and method, consider whether your planned primary source material truly represents the most direct way to find an accurate answer your research question. If it doesn’t, either the research question or the method needs to be revised.

Feasibility

You also need to consider the constraints on your time and other resources. Many students have really ambitious project ideas that would be too big for professional researchers to take on, let alone for a project that will last only a few weeks. Be realistic about the time you have to invest in the project and carefully consider your access to any special tools or skills you might need to conduct the research as you’re envisioning it.

Ethics

Because you’re students and not conducting this research as professionals who intend to publish, you don’t have to go through all of the training and paperwork that professional researchers do. Anyone who conducts research professionally is required to take ethics training and keep their certifications up to date, and they have to submit their research proposals to an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) for research involving animals, or to an Institutional Review Board (IRB) for research involving humans. The IACUC or IRB verifies that their planned research is safe and ethical and provides oversight to make sure the researcher doesn’t violate any rules in the process of conducting research.

However, just because you’re not required to jump through all of those hoops, you should still adhere to the ethical principles of conducting research. In fact, because you do not have the training that professional researchers do, you should be even more careful in some ways. Never do anything invasive or that might cause any distress to your research subjects (human or animal). Sometimes professional researchers have to do these things, but they are carefully trained in minimizing the harm, and they have to justify the need for such research. Your research will not meet that standard.

If you are collecting data involving people in any way, make sure your research plan adheres to the principles of:

• Informed Consent – Be sure to let people know what you are doing and why, and make sure they know they can opt out or change their minds, even if they previously said they would participate. If you plan to collect data from minors, you have a little bit of leeway if those minors are your classmates, but check with your instructor first to be sure; ethical guidelines for research involving minors are very strict.
• Privacy – Respect people’s privacy. Ask permission to use their real names, to record audio or video, and be careful not to provide identifiable information when you report your results. Only conduct observations in public places.

If you are collecting data involving animals, make sure your research plan adheres to the principles of:

• Humane Care – Animals must be provided appropriate care and conditions.
• Noninvasive Procedures – Any procedures should be noninvasive and not cause the animal distress.

A good rule of thumb for animal research is whether you are doing something that might ordinarily be done in the course of normal animal care. For example, I have had students who ran experiments on their own pets testing different methods of training. Trying out ways to train your pets is a perfectly normal thing to do, so I didn’t have any ethical concerns about that project.

Conducting Background Research

Your next step is to start combing through scholarly sources on the topic so you can provide a brief literature review. (Note that literature reviews can also be written as stand-alone essays.) The literature review synthesizes other scholarly work on the topic to accomplish two main tasks:

• To explain the background/history of the topic
• To describe the current state of research on the topic
• When incorporated into your own empirical research report, to provide the justification for your specific research:
  • By showing that the research question is currently relevant/significant
  • By showing that previous studies on the specific question need replication, haven’t been consistent, or do not exist
  • By providing theoretical frameworks or perspectives that guide your study

The literature review should critically analyze and summarize the key findings, theories, and methodologies from prior research related to your topic and question. It demonstrates your comprehensive understanding of the existing knowledge base. The review should highlight gaps, inconsistencies, or areas that need further investigation, making a strong case for why your proposed study is important and fills a void. The literature review essentially lays the groundwork by situating your study within the broader scholarly conversation.

As you work on this background research, you may find that you need or want to revise your research question and/or method. That’s expected and perfectly acceptable. Just make sure your new RQ and method are still aligned, feasible, and ethical.

Collecting Your Data

Be sure to allow plenty of time for this step; it often takes longer than you expect! In fact, you’ll probably have to start collecting your data before you really feel ready to start collecting your data. If it’s possible to do a trial run of your survey or interview questions or of your experimental design before you officially begin collecting data, I highly recommend doing so. It will give you a chance to iron out any little problems before they cause bigger issues later.

Writing the Report

Empirical research reports typically follow a structure that is often abbreviated as IMRD: Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion. In practice, the Conclusion is often consolidated with the Discussion, but I find it useful to think of it as a separate section. The contents of each of these sections are described below, but keep in mind that there are certainly variations on this format.

• Introduction
  • Opening paragraph establishes research area and its significance.
  • Multiple paragraphs of literature review follow.
  • The final paragraph of the introduction section identifies the research question of interest and connects it to the preceding literature review.
• Methods
  • Describes, in detail, the who, what, when, where, and how of data collection.
• Results
  • Presents the data that were collected.
• Discussion
  • Discusses how the data does/does not answer the research question.
  • Connects the study’s findings back to the literature that was covered in the literature review.
• Conclusion
  • Suggests how study’s findings could be applied.
  • Describes limitations of the study.
  • Identifies avenues for future research.

Documenting Your Sources

You will, of course, document your secondary sources in the usual manner. How you document your primary source material varies a bit depending on whether you are following MLA or APA guidelines, and what kind of primary research you conducted. The two tables below describe how to cite your primary research according to MLA (Table 1) and APA (Table 2).

Table 1

MLA Guidelines for Documentation of Primary Source Data

Table 2

APA Guidelines for Documentation of Primary Source Data

Related Writing Projects

• Literature Review
• Empirical Research Report