Research Methods : Sections Of Scientific Report Flashcards
Explain The Abstract.
> It is the first section of scientific report.
Provides an overview of the entire report, allowing other researchers to quickly scan it and decide if reading it is appropriate for their research area.
Usually 150–200 words.
Explain the Introduction
> Purpose is to provide background information and a rationale for the current research.
It contains a review of previous research relevant to the investigation being carried out as well as the aims and hypotheses of the current study.
Explain The Method.
> The section of the report/journal that contains a detailed description of what the researcher did to conduct their research. Detailed enough to allow someone else to replicate the study.
The design: includes key decisions about research methods. Eg. Is it an experiment or correlation? ? If it’s an experiment, what type (e.g., field or lab) and what experimental design (e.g., repeated measures or independent groups)? If an observation is being used, what type of observation (e.g., controlled or naturalistic)? If a self-report method is being used, what type (e.g., interview or questionnaire?)
Participants/sampling : info about the sampling method.
Apparatus/materials : details of any assessment instruments used and other relevant materials.
Procedure : is a ‘recipe-style’ list of everything that happened in the investigation, from the start to the end. This should include a verbatim record of information given to participants e.g., the standardized instructions.
Ethics : Here the researcher would describe significant ethical issues (e.g., issues around seeking informed consent while withholding the aim of the study from participants) and how they were dealt with (e.g., how participants were told some info about the general aim, and then debriefed after about the full aim and the reasons why the this was initially withheld).
Explain the results.
The results are a section in a report of an investigation where the researcher includes details about
what they found in their investigation. It includes:
• Descriptive statistics (e.g. summary tables, graphs, measures of central tendency and dispersion)
• Inferential statistics (e.g. results of statistical tests, including calculated values, critical values, significance levels and the final outcome: which hypotheses were accepted or rejected.
• If qualitative research has been conducted, the results section would involve description of the categories and themes, along with examples.
Explain The Discussion.
The discussion is the section in a report of an investigation where the researcher interprets the
results of the study and reflects on the investigation.
It is likely to include the following content:
• A summary of the results – This is a verbal (rather than statistical) summary of the results
and what they appear to show.
• Relationship to previous research – The researcher would interpret the results in relation to
what previous research on the topic has found I.e., does this study’s results support or challenge previous research?
• Reflection on methodology – Here the researcher would consider problems within their study e.g., the extent to which extraneous variables were controlled, issues with sampling or
problems with the ecological validity.
• Implications of research – Here the researcher would discuss real-world implications of their research (e.g., should there be a change to the way people a re treated for a mental illness?)
• Suggestions for future research – here the researcher would layu out suggestions for where researchers should conduct future research. It may be that this study’s results raise further questions, or maybe they need replication.
Explain Referencing.
• The reference section of a journal includes full details of any sources, such as journal articles
or books, that are used when writing a report.
• References usually contain some or all of the following information: the name of the author(s), the title of the source (e.g., book or article title), the date of publications, and the publisher
• The two common sources to reference are books and journal articles. The format for referencing each of these is below:
o Book: Author(s) name, date of publication, title of book, place of publication, publisher
o Journal article: Author(s) name, date of publication, title of article, journal title, volume (issue number), page numbers
• Referencing is an important aspect of psychological reports/journals. It allows readers to check where the researcher got their ideas from, and whether they have reported them accurately. It also provides an important check on plagiarism (an academic misdeed, where researchers steal info from other researchers without giving them credit)
