The Research Process: The Seven-Stage Model
The shortest complete statement of the research process anywhere in the supplied material, and the spine most of this library hangs off. Read it once for the sequence, then read it again for the three things it leaves out.
The seven stages, as the source states them
The supplied teaching source introduces the process with one sentence and a numbered list. The sentence is doing as much work as the list, because it sets the status of the model before the list sets its content.
The governing verb is tend to. The source is reporting a regularity it has observed in how research projects run — not issuing a procedure, and not claiming that a project which runs the stages in a different order has gone wrong. That distinction shapes everything else on this page.
- Problem
- Literature
- Purpose and framework
- Questions
- Data
- Analysis
- Report
What each stage is actually for
The source elaborates five of the seven stages in its own prose and passes over the other two with the label alone. The table keeps those two categories visibly apart, because a stage the source names but does not explain is a place where you are on your own.
THE SEVEN STAGES AND WHAT THE SOURCE ADDS TO EACH
| # | Stage, in the source's wording | What the source adds | What you should be holding at the end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Identification of research problem | "Most researches begin with a general statement of the problem, or rather, the purpose for engaging in the study." | A general statement of the problem, written down |
| 2 | Literature review | Identifies the context and any flaws or gaps in previous research, which provides justification for the study | A justification for your study, expressed as a gap somebody else left |
| 3 | Specifying the purpose of research and establishing the conceptual framework | No elaboration at this point in the source | A stated purpose, and the concepts your study will work with |
| 4 | Determine specific research questions or hypotheses | Gaps identified by the researcher "will probably generate a more focussed research question or hypothesis" | One question, or one hypothesis, you can state without hedging |
| 5 | Data collection | "Once the research question has been developed it becomes a process of specifying sourcing and collecting data." | Data gathered against a design fixed before collection started |
| 6 | Analysing and interpreting the data | "Then begins the more functional tasks of analysing that data, and interpreting your results." | Findings, and a defensible reading of what they mean |
| 7 | Reporting and evaluating research | "Finally the research and evaluation process needs to be written up as a report." | A written report, and an assessment of the research itself |
Column three quotes or closely paraphrases the supplied teaching source. Column four is our reading; the source does not state outputs for its stages.
Note what stage three bundles. Specifying a purpose and establishing a conceptual framework are two different pieces of work, joined by an and, and neither is unpacked here. The conceptual framework is treated at length elsewhere in the same material, which is why it has a page of its own.
The qualification the source attaches to its own model
Two claims sit inside that sentence. The first is about the model: it describes the whole, not the parts. The second is narrower and more demanding — your question will change, and the thing that changes it is evidence.
That is an uncomfortable instruction for anyone used to delivery work, because it says the artefact that fixes your scope is expected to move while the work is in flight. The way to hold both ideas at once is to freeze the question for the duration of a collection round and reopen it only between rounds.
Where the literature review actually sits
The list puts the literature review at position two — after the problem, before the question. The source's own prose then complicates that ordering twice.
So the review follows the problem statement, precedes the question, and is the mechanism that produces the question. Read together, it is less a stage than a continuing activity that the other stages are scheduled around.
Reading the numbered list literally
- The problem is identified first, out of your own knowledge of the field
- The review follows, to justify a problem you already hold
- The question is determined at stage four, after purpose and framework are settled
- The review is finished before collection begins
Reading the source's prose
- A review is often run across a subject area before any question exists
- Gaps found in that review generate the focussed question
- The question keeps evolving as evidence accumulates
- The review therefore has to stay open long enough to keep generating
Neither reading is wrong, because the source contains both. Practically: start reading early, keep reading, and make sure you can name the gap your question answers. The routine for doing that sits on checking the literature.
Three things the seven stages leave out
The omissions are as informative as the list. Each of the three below is covered somewhere in the supplied material — just not in this model, which means a project run purely against these seven stages will miss them.
Present in the material, absent from the model
Method selection is implied, never staged
The list moves from determining questions straight to collecting data. Choosing a methodology and choosing collection methods are given no stage of their own, although the same material devotes whole sections to both. See designing your research.
Clearance does not appear at all
Nothing among the seven covers ethical review or approval to collect. The ten-step model in the same material inserts it as a numbered step, positioned before any data is gathered. See seeking ethics clearance.
The process ends at the report
Stage seven closes with reporting and evaluating. What becomes of the data afterwards is outside this model and appears only in the longer one. See writing the report and storing the data.
Using the seven stages on a work-based project
The model earns its keep as a diagnostic rather than a plan. Its best use is answering the question "what am I actually doing right now, and what does that mean I cannot yet do?" The rules below follow from the source's stages; the source does not set them out.
Locating yourself in the model
How to tell the model is working for you
Pre-flight on the process itself
- You can name the stage you are in, and the one thing that has to be true before you leave it
- Your problem statement exists as text, not as an understanding you carry around
- The gap your question answers is traceable to something you read, and you can point at it
- You have decided what freezes the question and what is allowed to reopen it
- Design, ethics and data storage are on your plan even though this model does not name them
- Half your remaining time is set aside for writing, not for collecting
One last framing. The seven stages tell you what has to happen; the longer model in the same material tells you what has to happen for a thesis, which is not identical. If you are working towards an examined piece of research, read this page alongside the ten-step thesis model and use the longer list as the controlling one.
What to carry forward
- Seven stages: problem, literature, purpose and framework, questions, data, analysis, report. The source says projects tend to follow them, which is a description rather than a rule.
- The source qualifies its own model as an ever-changing process. Expect the question to move, and keep a dated record of what moved it.
- The literature review is not fixed at position two — it is what produces the question, and it stays open longer than the list suggests.
- There is no design stage, no ethics stage and no storage stage here. Two of the three appear in the ten-step model; plan for all three regardless.
- Use the seven as a diagnostic for where you are, not as a schedule you can put dates against.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to run the seven stages in order?
The source does not require it. It says research projects tend to follow the steps, then explicitly asks you to view them as an ever-changing process rather than a fixed set. In practice most stages have a prerequisite — you cannot analyse data you have not collected — but the ordering of problem, literature and question is genuinely fluid in the source's own account.
Why is there no ethics stage in the seven-stage model?
The supplied teaching source does not say. Ethics is absent from this list but appears as a numbered step in the longer ten-step model in the same material, positioned before data gathering. Treat the omission as a limitation of this particular model, not as permission to collect without clearance.
How long should each stage take?
The source gives no durations for the seven stages. The only timing guidance anywhere in the material is a general rule offered when discussing research design: plan roughly half your time for doing the research and the other half for writing and rewriting.
Is the literature review stage two or is it continuous?
Both readings are supported by the source. It numbers the review as stage two, but also states that a review is often conducted before a research question is identified and that gaps found in it generate the question. The practical resolution is to start reading early and keep the review open until your question stops moving.
What is the difference between this model and the ten-step model?
The seven-stage version is the compact statement of the general research process. The ten-step version is the longer, thesis-oriented sequence from the same material, and it adds separate steps for reviewing the topic, designing the research, obtaining ethics clearance and storing the data. The two do not map cleanly onto each other, and the longer page sets out exactly where they diverge.
References and source attribution
- Bryman, A. 2016, Social Research Methods, 5th ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford (listed among the source's references).
- Naoum, S. G. 2013, Dissertation Research & Writing for Construction Students, 3rd ed., Routledge (set as the introductory reading, pp. 1–6).
- O'Leary, Z. 2017, The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project, 3rd ed., Sage Publications, London (listed among the source's references).
- The supplied teaching source: master's-level teaching material introducing research methods for project management, supplied as study notes and accompanying slides. The seven-stage list and its qualification are quoted from that material.
Suggested questions for Ask KEVOS
- What are the seven stages of the research process in this library's source material?
- Why does the source call the research process ever-changing rather than fixed?
- How does the seven-stage model differ from the ten-step thesis model?
- Where does the literature review sit in the research process, and why is that unclear?
- What is missing from the seven-stage model that I still need to plan for?