Second Step in Conducting Scientific Research

Collecting Data

The second step in scientific research is to collect data. Data collection requires developing a research design or a blueprint of the entire study. It requires taking decisions about the following
four aspects: (a) participants in the study, (b) methods of data collection, (c) tools to be used in research, and (d) procedure for data collection. Depending upon the nature of the study, the researcher has to decide who would be the participants (or informants) in the study. The participants could be children, adolescents, college students, teachers, managers, clinical patients, industrial workers, or any group of individuals in whom/where the phenomenon under investigation is prevalent. The second decision is related to the use of methods of data collection, such as observation method, experimental method, correlational method, case study, etc. The
researcher needs to decide about appropriate tools (for example, interview schedule, observation schedule, questionnaire, etc.) for data collection. The researcher also decides about how the tools need to be administered to collect data (i.e. individual or group). This is followed by actual collection of data.