Methodological Issues in a Research

The methodological issues a researcher faces during research are discussed as follows;

Research Environment

Research environment matters. The main issue researchers face can be the environment. Environmental factors like stable research quality cultures and researchers funding are the most important predictors of research productivity. The issue sometimes is that the factors influencing the research environment are not proven to be favorable for the research.

Solutions

First of all the researcher should be aware of all the factors that are influencing the research environment. Whether positive or negative then determining the scope of the environment could help in eliminating the research environment issue. Pre assessing the quality of the research environment can also be the solution of research environment issue.

Questionnaire Related Issues

Many professionals can face this issue while conducting research. You think that you are doing very well in your research work but even minor problems in the questionnaire can affect the accuracy and can lead to inaccurate results. Wrong questionnaire is one of the most common research methodological issues.

Solutions

Research can avoid this issue by avoiding some mistakes like vague questions, ignoring cultural sensitivities and unclear response choices, not considering the respondent experience and too many open-ended questions.

Interpretation Issues

Interpretation is the core of the research because qualitative research involves the meaning making process. The issue one could face during research work is interpretation and it could ruin all your efforts in a minute. No matter how good you were at your work, your questionnaire was. But if you cannot interpret it well it does not work for good research.

Solutions

The researchers should remember that even if the data is properly collected and analyzed incorrectly. Then interpretation would lead to inaccurate results. Research should pay attention to the good homogeneity and avoid errors and be patient in an impartial manner.

Language Related Issues

Language related issues have always remained an important concern across cultures. When it comes to research work, the main issue that unease the researcher is always language related issue. The term cross-language research describes that a language barrier is present between qualitative researchers and their participants.

Solutions

To overcome language issues the researcher should conduct research with a participant who can speak another language; they have to maintain the integrity and credibility of translated data. And hiring an experienced translator can also be the solution of this methodological issue.

Cultural Difference

Cultural differences affect research and results. Culture has a direct bearing on most theoretical work. For example; demand theory is based on western concept of individual decision making yet in the African context choices are often group based. If this were so, how does one use western theories to assess the behavior of Africans? So, this shows that it is also a major methodological issue in research.

Solutions

This methodological issue of cultural differences could be resolved by staying more in touch and communicating with each other. If it happens the wrong feeling can be erased very easily by understanding and considering each other’s point of view.

Simple Issues

Simple issues are also methodological issues in which when the researcher is not feeling well and has some medical issues.. The researcher fails to convey and the person will lose interest due to this, the outcome is unspecified.

Solutions

So, this methodological issue has a simple solution. If the researcher is not feeling well he should take a break from the research work. He should have proper rest to get back to work with high energy.

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