Three aspects of research and their importance
Research refers to the systematic method of investigation, which is conducted through observations, reading, and testing and the information collected is tested to present the findings in a most logical manner (Sarantakos 2012). The three aspects of a research work are originality, scholar’s contribution or gain and future scope for knowledge and understanding.
Originality – it refers to the new and independent research work. Originality can be defined as the contents that have never been explored before. Dawson (2015) defines originality as doing something that was not done earlier. It can be achieved by exploring a research subject in a new direction or by applying new tools and techniques to gather unprejudiced information.
Scholar’s Contribution or Gain – As stated by Walsham (2006), scholar’s gain refers to the gathering of knowledge through the study. This includes the process of methodology and the aspects of the subject. The scholars gain knowledge by exploring the unknown subject or a known subject in a new direction, applying new tools and methods and interpreting the data in a new method. According to Creswell and Clark (2017), contribution refers to the addition of knowledge by the scholar to the existing information on the research subject through detailed and systematic investigation for the use of others. The knowledge gained during research study is contributed to the existing body of knowledge through new theories, concepts, scientific approach and models or simply basic observations.
Future scope of knowledge and understanding - This aspect includes the relevance or importance of the study in enhancing the overall body of existing knowledge and not only enhancing the researcher’s knowledge about the research methodology. A research study only becomes important when it adds new and significant information to the existing pool of findings, which can create scope for further research or help in taking a useful measure (Sarantakos 2012).
All these aspects are highly important in any research study. A quality research study should always be original in terms of content, direction of exploration or methodology, as there is no point in repeating the work of others (Dawson 2015). At the same time, it should help the scholar not only to gain relevant knowledge on the subject and methods, but also to contribute significantly in the body of knowledge for other scholars to explore. Lastly, since research represents exploration for a purpose, every contribution should have a scope for further exploration on the subject to gain new knowledge. Thus, all the three aspects are equally important.
References
Creswell, J.W. and Clark, V.L.P., 2017. Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Sage publications.
Dawson, C., 2015. Projects in Computing and Information Systems 3rd edn: A Student's Guide.
Sarantakos, S., 2012. Social research. Palgrave Macmillan.
Walsham, G., 2006. Doing interpretive research. European journal of information systems, 15(3), pp.320-330.
