"Research"

[jabberwock]

I see this word thrown around all the time. I want to open a discussion on the reality of this word in order to better understand what people know about the scientific method. My wife is currently "researching" kitchen counter tops... I am a scientist by education and profession (my wife is a freshwater biologist and certified emeritus ecologist).

The question is:
What is "Research"?

 

[Miami Reef]

Great topic! Definitely following this one!

 

[Twiztidninja]

I gotta go with gathering anecdotal data from others and forming opinions yourself

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I'd say research is the gathering of information through observations or experimentation which I know is a very broad definition but the question doesn't take into account what the research is for or trying to discover.

 

[firechild]

I see this word thrown around all the time. I want to open a discussion on the reality of this word in order to better understand what people know about the scientific method. My wife is currently "researching" kitchen counter tops... I am a scientist by education and profession (my wife is a freshwater biologist and certified emeritus ecologist).

The question is:
What is "Research"?

The word research can mean different things in different contexts. It's no different to a word like "theory" which has very different meanings in legal, colloquial and scientific contexts. The first 2 options can be used to describe research, which can be described as the process of obtaining new and reliable information about the subject. The key is reliability. Performing experiments to test a hypothesis is a great way to do research but reading the work of others is equally useful depending on whether reliable information exists. Research is not "the truth", it is a method of finding truths and dismissing untruths.

 

[Dorsetsteve]

Is this one of those things were the term means something to you and the use or overuse to your minds eye in a colloquial context is annoying?
Because in reality it means all those things, the context is key.

Over use of the word like is a common one people like to sneer upon but looking deeper at it, linguists have found far more about that simple word and how we use it. These things can annoy us, but does it matter and are we just annoying ourselves…

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Is this one of those things were the term means something to you and the use or overuse to your minds eye in a colloquial context is annoying?
Because in reality it means all those things, the context is key.

Over use of the word like is a common one people like to sneer upon but looking deeper at it, linguists have found far more about that simple word and how we use it. These things can annoy us, but does it matter and are we just annoying ourselves…

Definitions do matter although to what degree depends upon the circumstances. I know a guy who is always talking about how everything in science is just a theory and he heavily implies that a scientific theory is no better than a coin flip. Misuse of words like this not only breed misinformation but promote misunderstandings as well. And yeah most of the time we do let it get to us and frustrate us more than needed but imo definitions do matter.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

"Research" is tagging @Randy Holmes-Farley or @Jay Hemdal in a post and hoping they chime in...
Which is 4 out of 5 of your bullet points...

 

[Dorsetsteve]

Definitions do matter although to what degree depends upon the circumstances. I know a guy who is always talking about how everything in science is just a theory and he heavily implies that a scientific theory is no better than a coin flip. Misuse of words like this not only breed misinformation but promote misunderstandings as well. And yeah most of the time we do let it get to us and frustrate us more than needed but imo definitions do matter.

Completely agree but the definition is flexible. You can apply the wrong one for the context which is misleading but to use the example “my wife is research the kitchen worktop” we all broadly know what that means.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Completely agree but the definition is flexible. You can apply the wrong one for the context which is misleading but to use the example “my wife is research the kitchen worktop” we all broadly know what that means.

Agreed. My reply wasn't specifically in response to OP, you asked if the use/misuse of the word matters which is what I was responding to.

 

[Dorsetsteve]

Agreed. My reply wasn't specifically in response to OP, you asked if the use/misuse of the word matters which is what I was responding to.

Sorry I’m a lazy reader :lol:

 

[Bladezz]

I see this word thrown around all the time. I want to open a discussion on the reality of this word in order to better understand what people know about the scientific method. My wife is currently "researching" kitchen counter tops... I am a scientist by education and profession (my wife is a freshwater biologist and certified emeritus ecologist).

The question is:
What is "Research"?

I would say all of those... We look up a topic most of us using the internet, gather feedback from those here on this site and maybe our LFS professionals, we learn along the way, we experiment (maybe not employing the whole scientific method) and we hope all of this leads to the truth or the result we were looking for.

 

[i cant think]

Honestly I find research to be what you want it to be. It doesn’t really have a definite thing it is.

You can’t really do a whole scientific method in terms of what fish will go with what fish as EVERY fish is different, you never find two identical specimens (Maybe you’ll find two genetically identical specimens but not two identical in terms of personality specimens).

 

[Dburr1014]

Research means different things to different people.
To RHF it probably means scientific method.
To someone else it means internet.
ECT, ECT, ECT....


To me it's internet, information from others, reading, trying my own experiments, and hopefully landing on the truth. But that is how I describe my learning process.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I see this word thrown around all the time. I want to open a discussion on the reality of this word in order to better understand what people know about the scientific method. My wife is currently "researching" kitchen counter tops... I am a scientist by education and profession (my wife is a freshwater biologist and certified emeritus ecologist).

The question is:
What is "Research"?

Research for me is developing a theory, read articles on the subject to identify if the particular research have been done before and if not follow up with practical tests to verify the results of the theory.

 

[firechild]

Research means different things to different people.
To RHF it probably means scientific method.
To someone else it means internet.
ECT, ECT, ECT....


To me it's internet, information from others, reading, trying my own experiments, and hopefully landing on the truth. But that is how I describe my learning process.

Contrary to what many may understand (or misunderstand), scientists spend a lot of time reading the research of others (and yes, this happens mostly on the internet these days). That is part of the research process. Have a read of a research paper and see how many citations there are to the work of others.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Here's my .02:

• Research = gathering data
• Viable research = gathering data that is both relevant and reliable (usually reliant on verifiable quantitative and/or qualitative research)
• Scientific research = research done through the scientific method (again, this could be carried out using quantitative or qualitative methodology depending on the type of topic being researched and the resources available)

In a hobby like ours, access to data done through peer-reviewed scientific study may be inaccessible due to lack of resources (funding, tools, etc) or lack of interest in the scientific community (so far). This can make quantitative research difficult. However, in many cases a broad review of anecdotal information can be helpful and may be the foundational building block of good qualitative research.

 

[kronos571]

There are different kinds of research, even in the science field. There is basic research, where new things are learned that weren’t generally known before - knowledge is expanded. There is also applied research, where a very specific question is answered to solve a specific problem in the real world. There’s empirical (observational, experimental, “objective”) and non-empirical (“subjective”). All of these different types have different uses that can still be valuable.

I think that what you might be getting at is that people often use the incorrect methods to gather information or incorrectly make assumptions or interpretations of the information they do gather that ultimately end up with false or misleading conclusions. Sometimes people don’t recognize that they even have a problem to investigate and solve. Indeed, this is a major problem. Hopefully, in this group, it just leads to setbacks and not major failures that affect livestock.

It would be interesting to hear how different people approach different problems. And how often those approaches lead to (objective and subjective) success. Then we might all improve ourselves at our ability to solve problems.

 

[fish farmer]

I see this word thrown around all the time. I want to open a discussion on the reality of this word in order to better understand what people know about the scientific method. My wife is currently "researching" kitchen counter tops... I am a scientist by education and profession (my wife is a freshwater biologist and certified emeritus ecologist).

The question is:
What is "Research"?

Contrary to what many may understand (or misunderstand), scientists spend a lot of time reading the research of others (and yes, this happens mostly on the internet these days). That is part of the research process. Have a read of a research paper and see how many citations there are to the work of others.

During my undergrad studies in Fisheries I did several research papers which were pretty much exercises in reading information from other's work and proper use of citations.

 

[SaJon]

I see this word thrown around all the time. I want to open a discussion on the reality of this word in order to better understand what people know about the scientific method. My wife is currently "researching" kitchen counter tops... I am a scientist by education and profession (my wife is a freshwater biologist and certified emeritus ecologist).

The question is:
What is "Research"?

What comes to mind when I think of research for example, is studying why 10 different people took 10 different roads and ended up at the same destination then deciding for myself which was the better route to take. Haha