The method section of your research paper lays out the process that you employed in collecting your data or carrying out your experiment. It is especially important for scientific papers or articles that are meant to be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals because of the principle of reproducibility.
The methods section is supposed to provide the information by which the validity of the study is determined or judged. As a result, in this part of your paper, you should provide a concise and accurate description of how the experiment was conducted. In addition, you have to provide the rationale for why particular experimental methods were selected.
In short, the methods section should clearly explain what methodology was used to tackle the problem statement or test the hypotheses, justify the design of the experiment, and give a full description of how data analysis was carried out.
What is the methods section of your paper?
The method section is the part of the paper that describes the process of collecting data or carrying out a scientific experiment. Your Methods or methodology more or less guarantees the validity of your research results. A properly done methodology means that your results are more likely to be valid. By contrast, a sloppily done methodology would give reason to question the validity of your results.
This section goes by several names depending on issues such as the field of study, your professor, or the target journal that you are aiming for. Sometimes it’s simply called Method; sometimes Methodology; and other times Materials and Methods.
The method section has one primary purpose — it allows interested scientists to reproduce experiments and results presented in original research. In science, this principle is referred to as “reproducibility.” Therefore, you must provide a clear and detailed explanation of your methodology.
In short, your methods should be clear enough that other researchers could repeat your experiments if they so wish. However, a well-written and properly thought-out methodology section is not for science papers meant for publication. Research papers in social science and humanities also require that the data collection methods are clearly outlined in detail.
For example, let’s say you are a history student writing a research paper drawing new conclusions about whether or not the Crusaders were justified in the Crusade. You should be able to provide a clear explanation of the sources which you collected the data to draw your new conclusion from. Otherwise, you’ll come across as an amateur speaking from a position of incomplete information.
Here is a list of what your readers should expect from a proper methodology section and that you should remember to include:
A clear and appropriate research design
It should be written in the past tense
It should follow a chronological order
A clearly defined process for collecting data
A justification of the method
A clear definition of the instrument used to collect data
A clear definition of variables as used in the context of the study
Components of a well-written Methods section
It must be said that there are wide-ranging types of research and the appropriate methodology to use also can vary accordingly. For example, the methodology used in a chemistry study would not be the same as that used in the social sciences or psychology.
However, there are universal principles, which we will try to concentrate on in the following passages. Let’s begin by explaining the various steps in writing out your methodological process.
1. Research design/strategy
Research design describes the nature of the study that you carried out. Notice how I said “carried out” instead of “will carry out.” That is because the methodology should always be written in the past tense.
You should be careful to justify why it’s appropriate for your study. This means clarifying how it can answer the hypotheses or research questions explained in the introduction. To ensure that your research design is properly written, consider this list of questions:
Was it an observational study or an experimental design?
Did you rely on quantitative or qualitative research methods or a mixed methods approach?
Did you rely largely on secondary or original data?
Were study subjects humans or animals?
What was the geographic area from which the sample was extracted?
What was the time horizon of the study?
2. Materials
Materials could refer to the scientific instruments and chemicals or substances used in a lab experiment, or it could mean the questionnaires or interviews used to collect data in a behavioral study. Either way, they should be noted in this section.
For experimental or lab-based studies, it is sometimes necessary to even include figures that include pictures or depictions of a new instrument or device specially designed for an experiment. While enough information needs to be included to give a clear understanding of how your methodology relates to your results, you should be careful not to include too much information. It might be necessary to include some of these materials in an appendix.
3. Sampling strategy
Describing your sampling strategy means explaining the context of where the sample was extracted from as well as how your sample relates to the wider population. This is particularly pertinent for behavioral and other social science studies. This includes:
i. Geographic area
If you’re doing a human-based study, did all the participants come from a single country or region?
ii. Sampling methods
Other questions that should be answered relate to the sampling method. Was your sample randomly chosen for example?
Simple random sampling. In this sampling method, there’s an equal chance of every individual being included in the sampling process.
Stratified random sampling. The individuals of each group are also randomly chosen. However, in this sampling method, the population being studied is first separated into groups, with the final sample consisting of members from each subgroup.
Cluster random sampling. This is a sampling method in which a population is separated into clusters. Then, some of these clusters are randomly chosen to be included in the final sample.
Systematic random sampling. This is a random sampling method where samples from a numbered population are selected based on intervals. For example, a researcher can give out a questionnaire to every fifth person who buys a coffee from a cafe.
iii. Time horizon
Time horizon deals with the timeframe within which the data for your study was collected. There are typically two types of studies in relation to time horizons — 1) longitudinal studies and 2) cross-sectional studies. Longitudinal studies are carried out over a lengthy period, where data is collected at specific points in time later to be compared to similar data collected in later or even past periods. Cross-sectional studies, on the other hand, focus on collating data at a specific point in time.
Longitudinal studies. A longitudinal study covers a lengthy period and is typical of certain types of medical research. For example, doctors may wish to examine the effects of diet on health outcomes. To do so, they may set up a research design, where they collate data from two different populations with two different diets (e.g., US-type vs Mediterranean-type diets) over a period of decades. Some of these studies actually last a lifetime and may compare things like heart disease and hypertension rates, mortality rates, diabetes rates, and so on.
Cross-sectional studies. Cross-sectional studies occur at a specific point in time and place. Instead of data being collected over different points in time to be compared, data is compared across experimental conditions and other factors.
4. The ethical standards of your Methods
The ethical standards of your methodology are particularly important when dealing with human or animal subjects. These standards exist to ensure that the rights of either animals or humans are protected when the study is carried out.
Scientists or researchers may have to rely on national or institutional boards for permission to carry out these studies, especially for humans. For animals, there are specific protocols by bodies of experts and specialists that have been established that guarantee their human treatment. In your methods section, you should clearly explain the ethical protocols that you followed and cite them properly.
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Qualitative vs. quantitative research methods
Qualitative and quantitative research methods represent two fundamental approaches to collecting, collating, and analyzing data. They each serve different purposes and use separate techniques.
Quantitative research is typically used in the hard sciences and relies on statistical models and analysis. On the other hand, qualitative methods are associated with the social sciences and humanities and rely more on observation and theory, than statistical methods.
Now this is not to say that humanities and social sciences never make use of quantitative methods. Studies such as psychological studies that measure people's attitudes or opinions regarding certain phenomena can be rigorously quantitative in terms of their methods and design.
Quantitative Research focuses on numerical data to quantify variables and uncover patterns. It addresses the following questions:
How many?
How much?
How often?
Common methods associated with quantitative research include surveys, experiments, and statistical analysis. This approach has several cons:
It is more objective
It is more generalizable for populations
It is more reliable
With quantitative studies, you can rely on rigorous statistical models and analysis to research and carry out analysis for a small sampled population. These results can then be extrapolated or expanded to the wider or more general population.
For instance, a representative population of 500 people can be asked about who they are likely to vote for in a country with a population of five million. If the "sample" population is properly chosen, the researcher can determine the political preferences for the whole country and accurately predict election results.
Qualitative Research relies on non-numerical data to determine underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It seeks to answer "why" and "how" questions. It also provides deeper insights into behaviors and experiences.
Methods typically used in qualitative research include:
Interviews
Focus groups
Observations
Qualitative approaches are typically seen as subjective and context-specific. However, they offer rich, detailed narratives. For example, conducting in-depth interviews with a remote indigenous tribe to understand how they use indigenous plants for medicinal purposes. Another example would be exploring the opinions of foreign students at a university about how well their university caters to their needs.
There are times when both methods can be combined. Understanding the differences between qualitative and quantitative research methods is crucial to make sure that you choose the appropriate approach. You should consider factors such as your research objectives, the nature of the data, and desired outcomes before making the final choice of research methods.
A well-written Methods section determines the validity of your experiment or argument in your research paper or scientific paper. Care should be taken to meticuloulsy recording the processes involved in your argument or processes. This is true for both quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Scientists, fellow researchers, and other colleagues, if they have or want to, should be able to follow your methods and reproduce the same results or outcomes that you obtained. This is especially true for lab-based experiments. However, a properly written Methods section is not just about writing.
If you're a beginning scholar, you should take care to first properly practice proper methods even before you begin to write your scientific paper or article. Even for non-lab-based experiments, the logic of the Methods section should be followed. This means carefully detailing the process by which you came to your conclusions or develop your argument.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, August 06). How to Write a Methods Section. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/how-to-write-the-methods-section |
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