SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF RESEARCH & ITS SPECIAL FEATURES

Research produces knowledge which could be used  for the solution of problems as well as for the
generation of universal theories, principles and laws.  But all knowledge is not science. The critical
factor that separates scientific knowledge from other ways of acquiring knowledge is that it uses
scientific approach.  What is this approach? Or what is science?
When most people hear the word  science, the first image that comes to mind is one of test tubes,
computers, rocket ships, and people in white lab coats.  These outward trappings are part of science. 
Some sciences, such as the natural sciences deal with the physical and material world. Some other
sciences involve the study of people – their beliefs, behavior, interactions, attitudes, institutions, and so
forth.  They are sometimes called soft sciences.  This is not that their work is sloppy or lack rigor but
because their subject matter, human social life, is fluid, formidable to observe, and hard to measure
precisely with laboratory instruments.  The subject matter of a science (e.g. human attitudes,
protoplasm, or galaxies) determines the techniques  and instruments (e.g. surveys, microscopes, or
telescopes) used by it. 
 
Science is a way to produce knowledge, which is based on truth and attempts to be universal. In other
words science is a method, a procedure to produce knowledge i.e. discovering universalities/principles,
laws, and theories through the process of observation and re-observation.  Observation here implies that
scientists use “sensory experiences” for the study of the phenomena.  They use their five senses, which
are possessed by every normal human being.  They not only do the observation of a phenomenon but
also repeat the observation, may be several times. The researchers do so because they want to be
accurate and definite about their findings

Re-observation may be made by the same researcher at a different time and place or done by other
professionals at some other time or place. All such observations are made in this universe where a
normal professional human being can go, make the  observation and come back.  Therefore we are
focusing on this universe not on the one hereafter. By repeating the observation, the researchers want to
be definite and positive about their findings. Those  who want to be definite and positive are often
referred to as  positivists. The researchers do not leave their findings into scattered bits and pieces. 
Rather the results are organized, systematized, and made part of the existing body of knowledge; and
this is how the knowledge grows. All this procedure for the creation of knowledge is called a scientific
method, whereby the consequent knowledge may be referred to as scientific knowledge.  In this way
science refers to both a system for producing knowledge and the knowledge produced from that system.
Since the subject matters of the researchers differ, therefore, we have the diversification of different
sciences: broadly natural or physical sciences and human sciences

Methodology of research

Generally speaking, methodology, unlike method (which systematically details a given procedure or process), does not describe specific methods despite the attention given to the nature and kinds of processes to be followed in a given procedure or in attaining an objective. When proper to a study of methodology, such processes constitute a constructive generic framework; thus they may be broken down in sub-processes, combined, or their sequence changed.^[3] As such, methodology may entail a description of generic process or, metaphorically, may be extended to explications of philosophically coherent concepts or theories as they relate to a particular discipline or field of inquiry. By similar reasoning methodology refers to the rationale and/or the philosophical assumptions that underlie a particular study or a particular methodology (for example, the scientific method). In scholarly literature a section on the methodology of the researchers is typically de rigueur.


Research Methodology refers to a back philosophy of research. As an example of methodology in theoretical work, the development of paradigms^[4] satisfies most or all of the criteria for methodology. A paradigm, like an algorithm, is a ‘constructive’ framework, meaning that the so-called construction is a logical, rather than a physical, array of connected or intercalated elements.
From the article constructive logic (known also as intuitionist logic) the author(s) offer a clear and concise formulation of the constructive approach as “practically useful because its restrictions produce proofs that have the existence property, making it also suitable for other forms of mathematical constructivism. Informally, this means that if you have a constructive proof that an object exists, you can turn that constructive proof into an algorithm for generating an example of it [my emphasis].” Recent philosophy has witnessed significant strides in elaborating such paradigmatic metaphysical structures, including the work of Charles Sanders Peirce, Alfred North Whitehead and C. S. Herrman. Herrman in particular requires the metaphysical paradigm to be employed as a methodology suitable to templating empirical reality in the process of scientific investigation.

Meaning of research

Research can be defined as the search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, with an open mind, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method. The primary purpose for basic research (as opposed to applied research) is discovering, interpreting, and the development of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge on a wide variety of scientific matters of our world and the universe.