Learn Research Methodology

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I will be creating a course based on what I teach to Bachelor’s students in actuarial science. Generally, I share my passion through different topics such as sports, fashion, theatre, among others. I love helping students create research project questions to solve using quantitative methods.

What is the meaning of “research”?

Research

Research is the systematic process of searching for information to answer a question, solve a problem, or generate new knowledge. It has three main characteristics:

It starts with a problem or a question.
It should be based on evidence.
It has a clear goal.

The research problem

A research problem shows a relationship between variables, is written as a clear question, and can be measured or observed in real life. The problem statement includes five main elements:

Objectives (what the study aims to achieve),
Research questions (what will be analyzed),
Justification (why the study is important),
Feasibility (available resources, scope, and consequences) and
Identifies gaps in knowledge to explore new perspectives.

Hypotheses

A research hypothesis guides the study and indicates what we are trying to prove. It is a tentative explanation of the phenomenon or problem being studied, which can be tested with evidence and either accepted or rejected. There are different types of research hypotheses:

Descriptive hypotheses predict a specific value.
Correlational hypotheses describe relationships between two or more variables.
Group difference hypotheses compare groups.
Causal hypotheses establish cause-and-effect relationships.

Scientific Papers Structure

A scientific text includes the following elements:

It begins with an introduction, where the objective, research question, and hypotheses are presented in a clear and engaging way.
Then, the literature review explains what other researchers have found.
The methods and data section describes how the data will be analyzed, what variables are included, and where the data comes from.
Next, the results present the findings without interpretation, often using tables and graphs.
The discussion compares the results with previous studies and evaluates the hypothesis.
Finally, the conclusions highlight the main findings, explain whether the objective was achieved, and suggest directions for future research.
Do not forget the references!

In Short

Research is a way to understand the world by asking questions and looking for answers using information and evidence. It starts with a clear problem or question that can be observed or measured, and it often explores the relationship between different variables. To study a problem, researchers create hypotheses, which are possible explanations that can be tested and either accepted or rejected. Finally, all this work is organized in a scientific text, which includes an introduction, a review of other studies, the methods used, the results, and the conclusions.