Hallmarks of Research

Main characteristics which will distinguish scientific research from common research.

1. Purposiveness

“Research should have a definite aim or purpose.”

2. Rigor

”A good theoretical base and sound methodological design give rigor to the research. Rigor indicates carefulness and degree of exactitude in research.”

3. Testability

”Scientific research lends itself to testing the logically developed hypothesis to see whether or not data support the educated conjecture or hypothesis.”

4. Replicability

”The results of the test of the hypothesis should be supported again and again when the same type of research is conducted in other similar circumstances.”

5. Precision and Confidence

”Precision refers to the closeness of the findings to reality based on a sample. Precision reflects the degree of exactness and accuracy of the results on the basis of samples. Also known as the confidence interval in statistics.

Confidence refers to the probability that our estimation is correct so that we can confidently claim that 95% of the time our results will be true and there is only 5% chance of our results being false.”Main characteristics which will distinguish scientific research from common research.

6. Objectivity

”The conclusion drawn through the interpretation of the results of data analysis should be objective that is, they should be based on facts of the findings derived from actual data and not on our own subjective or emotional values.”

7. Generalizability

”It refers to the scope of replicability of the research findings in one organizational setting to others, the wider the range of replicability of the solution generated by the research the more useful the research is to the user.”

8. Parsimony

”Simplicity in explaining the phenomenon or problem that occur in generating the solutions of the problem is preferred as compared to complex research framework.