There exist many different research designs from which researchers can choose the ones that are the most likely to suit their studies. The three major research designs exploratory, descriptive, and experimental (“Three types of research design,” 2017). The purpose of exploratory research is to explore and identify ideas and tendencies in order to offer a better and deeper understanding of the explored issue or subject.
The exploratory research includes case analyses, focus groups, experience, and literature surveys (“Three types of research design,” 2017). Descriptive research, according to its name, serves to describe groups of participants or events and other entities (“Three types of research design,” 2017). This type of design is usually based on several goals related to creating and testing hypotheses. In the experimental design, one or more variables are altered for the purpose of tracking the corresponding changes; in that way, the researchers using this approach have the opportunity to control the factor they study.
The researchers choose one design over another based on the specific purposes of their studies by means of matching the designs to the perused goals. Moreover, some of the designs are especially useful in certain spheres of knowledge. In that way, descriptive research is common in business studies, while the experimental design is particularly applicable in criminal justice research (Lum & Yang, 2005). This way, some of the reasons for the choice of designs are related to the explored issues and the spheres of expertise to which they belong.
Research design determines future data collection methods and data analysis instruments. In turn, the instrument and methods applied throughout the course of the research are directly connected to how the selected variables are approached and measured and whether or not the instruments are capable of generating proper results.
References
Lum, C. & Yang, S. M. (2005). Why do evaluation researchers in crime and justice choose non-experimental methods? Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1(2), 191-213.
Three types of research design. (2017). Web.