Research methods

This category covers the shape of a quantitative study end to end: identifying a problem worth researching, turning it into a research question, reading and organising the literature, deriving hypotheses from theory rather than from intuition, choosing a design, collecting and analysing data, and writing it up. The posts on research design, on primary and secondary data, on the difference between qualitative and quantitative work, and on independent, dependent, mediating and control variables all sit here.

DoThesis supports quantitative work with surveys and statistics only. So when a post compares qualitative and quantitative approaches, the purpose is to help you see which one your question calls for and why, not to teach interview technique or thematic coding. If your question needs interviews, this is the wrong toolkit, and the post will say so rather than talk you into a survey.

If you already have a topic and want to go straight to the model, read the Research models category next. If the work you are writing is a final-year project, the Graduation thesis category sets out what each chapter is expected to contain.

Where to start. The post on the quantitative research process gives you the whole shape in one read, which is worth doing before committing to anything. Then read the posts on research questions and on hypotheses, because a hypothesis written loosely cannot be tested in the results chapter and you will not find that out until you are already there. The post on variable roles keeps you from drawing a model where one construct is quietly doing two jobs. The posts on primary versus secondary data and on choosing a design are the two to read before you start your methodology chapter, not while you are revising it.