Research Projects

Mixed Methods and Triangulation

Combining approaches to compensate for the weaknesses of each - what triangulation means here, the methodological dilemma the source poses, and where the argument stops short.

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 8 min read

Mixed Methods Design: A Worked Example

Sequential explanatory design in practice - survey first, interviews second, with the qualitative sections deliberately mirroring the quantitative ones so the strands actually m…

Narrowing and Scoping a Research Topic

Narrow enough to be interesting, broad enough to find adequate information — the boundary problem, the mind-map sequence, and how to write a title that states its own scope.

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 13 min read

Non-Response and Sampling Bias

The most common threat to a sample, the causal chain the source sets out for how it biases a result, and what you can and cannot do about it after the fact.

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 8 min read

Note-Taking and Bibliographic Records

Capture the full reference the moment you find it, skim before you read, and build a record that survives to the write-up - plus the one instruction in the source worth arguing …

Ontology: Assumptions About the Nature of Reality

Questions about the nature of being, why they sit beneath your method choice, and how to surface the reality assumptions you brought to the project without noticing.

Overcoming Writer's Block

A researcher six weeks from submission who cannot start - and the finding the case never states: every one of her problems is a recording failure, not a research failure.

Overreach in Conclusions

Four examined works whose conclusions claim more than their findings carry - including one that says it disproves a figure it states correctly four times elsewhere.

Peer Review and Blind Review

How blind review works, what it does and does not guarantee, and why the source tells you to weight blind-reviewed journals most heavily when you start a search.

Plagiarism and Research Integrity

Presenting another's work or ideas as your own - why referencing is the entire defence, and the integrity pressures the source names but does not resolve.

Planning Data Management for a Research Project

What a proposal must say about managing data while it is gathered, once it is stored, and afterwards - format, access, entry and the storage obligation behind it.

Population, Sample, Variables and Data

The four terms every quantitative design rests on, defined as the source defines them - and the definition of data that makes a seventh incompatible entry across the six weeks.

Positivism and Post-Positivism

Objectively collected factual data, hypotheses and scientific laws — the positivist position, the post-positivist softening to probable facts, and what each demands of a project…

Post-Project Reviews in R&D

When a review is held, who attends, what is asked, what is produced and what is done with the output - the full anatomy, plus a six-rule conduct checklist.

Presenting Data in Graphs

The data-to-ink principle, the histogram class rule - the week's only formula - and scatter diagrams and line graphs, both named with less construction guidance than tables rece…

Presenting Data in Tables

Effective digits, row and column order, accumulated percentages and ratios - the table construction rules the source gives, which are the most concrete guidance in the week.

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 10 min read

Presenting Tables, Figures and Appendices

In the text or at the back but never both, numbered in order of reference, and clearly separated from raw data - the placement rules and the appendix boundary they imply.

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 13 min read

Primary and Secondary Data Sources

Data you gather yourself against data gathered by others for other purposes — relevance, timeliness, reliability and the interpretation layer you inherit with secondary sources.

Primary and Secondary Research Proposals

Two proposal shapes for two kinds of research, why a secondary-research proposal needs no detailed methodology section, and a terminology clash worth catching.

Proposal Timetable and Resources

Depicting tasks against stages and times, why the timetable is where a proposal quietly fails, and what resources and access have to be established up front.

Proposal Word Limits and Section Balance

Why a limit disciplines the writer, which sections should take the majority - and a section headed word limit whose only stated limit is in pages.

Proposing Your Thesis Structure

A chapter-by-chapter forecast written before the research exists - what it commits you to, and how examined theses show it is never quite what gets built.

Protecting Participants from Harm

Physical and psychological harm, the four risk categories an application must address, researcher safety, and the control-group problem nobody expects.

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 10 min read

Qualitative Analysis and Reporting Quick Reference

The analysis steps, the coding vocabulary, the ten questions, the worked categorisation and the full results-and-discussion guidance, consolidated onto a single reference page.

Qualitative and Quantitative Research Compared

Words versus numbers, judgment versus counting — the two major research designs, what each is good for, and why the choice follows the question rather than preference.

Qualitative Methods: The Commonly Used Set

The qualitative methods the source treats at length, the key terms it attaches to four named approaches, and the requirement that the researcher become accepted as one of the gr…

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 10 min read

Quantitative Research Quick Reference

Every definition, sampling type, rule and figure from the quantitative research week and its set reading on one page, each marked by what kind of claim it is and whose.

Questionnaires and Response Rates

When a postal questionnaire may be used, and the single quantified performance claim in the whole week - an unattributable return figure that must never be read as a benchmark.

R&D Portfolio Displays and Strategy Tables

Four portfolio-level displays that turn a list of candidate projects into a defensible allocation, and the strategy table that generates coherent alternatives to choose between.

R&D Project Evaluation Tools

Five decision-analysis tools applied to R&D project decisions - strategy tables, influence diagrams, sensitivity analysis, decision trees and expected value, with the mechanics …

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 20 min read

R&D Project Management Quick Reference

Every framework, criteria set, formula and classification from the R&D management papers on one page, each marked by what kind of claim it is.

R&D Stage Classification and Aid Intensity

Fundamental research, industrial research and pre-competitive development defined, with the aid intensities and eligible costs attached to each under a framework that expired in…

Reading a Graphical Display

The key aspects to look for in any display, what a distribution is, and the three features of one the source names - having supplied a measure for none of them.

Real Options Valuation of R&D Projects

Four reasons the classical closed-form option-pricing model does not transfer to R&D, the alternative the source proposes, and the conditions under which it holds.

Refining Your Topic Before the Proposal

Revisit topic, literature, conceptualisation and question - the twelve review questions that turn an interesting area into a project you can actually run.

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 11 min read

Reflexivity and the Researcher's Position

The researcher is the instrument, so the instrument has a history - what reflexivity asks of you, and how a position statement is written and where it belongs.

Reporting a Statistic You Did Not Compute

A thesis sets out a correlation coefficient, supplies its formula and an interpretation key, states two results with the wrong sign - and never reports the coefficient itself.

Research Data Storage, Retention and Ownership

Five years minimum, seven where a state government department is involved, three identifiability classes, and who actually owns the data you collect.

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 36 min read

Research Design and Data Quick Reference

Every definition, checklist, question set and rule from the design, qualitative, data collection and quantitative analysis material on one page, each marked by what kind of clai…

Research Ethics as Practised in Published Theses

A 1999 thesis with no ethics apparatus and a 2016 thesis with consent, retention and committee contact embedded in its invitation letter - observed practice, not a requirements …

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 21 min read

Research Ethics Quick Reference

Every principle, right, requirement, application section and retention rule from the ethics material on one page, with what is a requirement and what is an example marked.

Research Integrity in Examined Work

Citations that do not resolve, quantities that contradict, a variable never measured - what eight passed theses show about where integrity actually fails.

Research Methodologies: An Overview

Why different kinds of question require different kinds of approach, the seven methodologies the source defines, and how methodology sits between philosophy and method.

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 24 min read

Research Project Quick Reference

Every table, list and checklist in the supplied source on a single page — the process models, the philosophies, the methodologies, the screening questions and the decision poi…

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 18 min read

Research Proposal Quick Reference

Every component, checklist and question from the proposal material on one page - the two component lists, the scope tests, and the hypothesis rules.

Research Projects16 Aug 2026 · 19 min read

Research Terminology: A Working Glossary

Every term defined in the supplied teaching source, consolidated into one reference — with the conflicting definitions marked rather than reconciled.

Research Themes in Project Management

The fourteen broad themes the source suggests for project management research, what a viable question inside each looks like, and the source's own caveat about the list.

Rigour, Triangulation and Validity in Practice

Three of four triangulation types claimed, a second coder, a standardised instrument used pre and post - what demonstrating rigour actually looked like in an examined qualitativ…