What Are The Goals And Correct Order Of Steps To Perform Scientific Research?

In Thomas Hobbes’s words, ‘science is the knowledge of consequences and dependence of one fact upon another’. And scientific research is an exciting and rewarding process that aims to find and explore innovations that may make the world a better place to live. Broadly, the goal of research in science is to discover laws and formulate theories that can explain natural and social phenomena. In simple words, the research aims to build scientific knowledge to improve our living standards. To achieve the aims, you have to follow a detailed sequence of steps in the correct order. After reading this article till the end, you will be able to know the four main goals of scientific research and the correct way to perform it. Let’s get started:

Goals of scientific research:

Basically, a scientific research method has four main goals: description, prediction, explanation, and application. Without setting any SMART goal, you cannot navigate the shortest path to reach a destination. Thus, the following is a brief description of each of these goals:

Description: Description means the process of defining, classifying, and categorising events, things, or relationships while studying a phenomenon of interest. For example, it helps you in defining the word ‘smog’, find the relationship between smog and lung diseases, and categorise different structural components of smog that make it toxic. 

Prediction: A prediction is an act of forecasting an upcoming event by visualising trends in history. In science or research, researchers use a wide array of pre-defined methods to make predictions by studying variables involved in a phenomenon. Correlation and regression are the most common methods for making good predictions in scientific methods. For example, science helps fish farmers to increase per capita production of fish by introducing the less expensive fish feed and predicting the availability of fish to the common man at cheaper rates in upcoming years.   

Explanation: Explanation is the process of establishing causal relationships among variables to empirically understand the dynamics of a phenomenon, event, and situation.   For example, as per this goal, scientific research helps researchers in understanding and explaining the personal need, financial needs, and social needs of humans and the impact of these needs on their wish to earn a better livelihood. 

Applications: The last and most important goal of research in science is to apply the existing body of knowledge to real-world phenomena. For example, if a physician conducts research to find the medical treatment for monkeypox disease, then its goal must be to provide the treatment readily to common man to improve their health conditions.

Order of steps to conduct scientific research: 

  No one can achieve any of these goals of scientific research until he/she follows a sequence of steps. Especially when you get stuck in a dissertation or feel the need for masters dissertation help, you must align the whole research process by following the below mentioned order of steps to conduct scientific research.

Step # 1: Ask questions

Step # 2: Make observations and formulate a hypothesis

Step # 3: Test hypothesis

Step # 4: Analyse results

Step # 5:  Report results

By following the above-mentioned order to conduct scientific research, you will experience smooth progression towards end results. So, you must start your research by brainstorming a logical set of questions addressing the why, how, what, when, and which aspects of a phenomenon. Starting from the question, you can move on to the formulation of a hypothesis-a tentative statement suggesting the possible outcome of a research. Then, you must enter the most interesting phase of research, which is ‘testing a hypothesis’. By using a number of hypothesis testing techniques like experimentation or interviews, you can test the truth in your hypothesis. Once you are clear about whether the formulated hypothesis reflects the truth or facts, then results extraction will be only a step away from you. That is, you must explain your research problem’s solution in light of the truth revealed by hypothesis testing. Lastly, report the results by exhibiting good written communication skills and pat your back as you have rightly finished the task. 

Final Thoughts:

After all is said and done, we can conclude that scientific research is conducted to achieve one or more specific goals: description, prediction, explanation, and application. However, to conduct it systematically, a series of steps must be followed in the right order. Following a correct order of sequence in steps is necessary as each step purposefully sources the upcoming one that ultimately leads you to the accomplishment of your research goals.