Abstract

Identification of the various dimensions or components of research projects may be helpful for research students and supervisors confused about the different kinds of project they can undertake. In my experience, research consists of the following dimensions: the nature of the research topic (physical, biological, psychological, behavioral, social), scope of enquiry (single case vs sample of a population), mode of enquiry (observational vs interventionist), methods of acquisition and analysis of data or information (quantitative vs qualitative), ideological stance (objective vs subjective), and political stance (impartial vs partisan). The terms quantitative research and qualitative research and the so-called research paradigms–positivism, interpretivism, radical, and so on–define projects within certain regions of the multidimensional research space. Researchers who choose an unusual region of this space for a project may gain new insights but may struggle to publish in journals devoted to more popular regions. Verf.-Referat