Features of Research Design

The main focus of a researcher after developing a research problem is to create an accurate design to solve the same. A good research design must be able to reduce the preconceptions and at the same time increase the data reliability. Further, it should be able to provide maximum information and give only negligible experimental errors. A particular research design is meant to solve only a particular problem.

There are several features which make a research design a better one. These include the means to get information, the skill sets of the researcher and his availability, the goal or objective of the concerned problem, the accessibility of time and money required for the research purpose, and finally, the general characteristics of the problem.

A research design comprises of the following parts like the observational design, the sampling design, the statistical design, and the operational design. The observational design denotes the condition in which the observational aspects are created. The sampling design refers to the methods or means to collect the items which are taken for analysis. The statistical design contains the question regarding the analysis of the data and information which is gathered, and finally, the operational design involves the techniques employed to carry out the procedures.

If a research deals with the discovery of insights and ideas, the research design should be able to take into consideration the different facets of the study involved. Likewise, if the research is associated with the relation between variables, the research design should be able precise and offer maximum amount of reliability of data with minimum bias. Anyhow, in practical terms, it is difficult to classify a particular study. In fact, a study could be classified only according to its principal function, thus leading to the development of an appropriate research design.

There are different methods to classify research designs. Some of these are descriptive (surveys, case studies, naturalistic observations), semi-experimental (field experiments and quasi-experiments), correlational (observational study and case-control study), experimental (experiments conducted using random assignments), review (systematic review and literature review), and meta-analytic (meta-analysis).

In some cases, the research designs are segregated in terms of flexible and fixed, qualitative and quantitative aspects, etc. Anyhow, it is not mandatory for the fixed designs to be quantitative or the flexible designs to be qualitative.

To sum it up, a research design is all about the procedures as well as methods used to carry out scientific research. A number of features make a research design a good one, and above all, no particular research design can be used to solve each and every research problem. In other words, it depends upon the nature as well as purpose of the problem in question.