Definition of Research

The word research is derived from the Latin word meaning to know. It is a systematic and a replicable process which identifies and defines problems, within specified boundaries. It employs well designed method to collect the data and analyses the results. It disseminates the findings to contribute to generalizeable knowledge.

The five characteristics of research presented below will be examined in greater detail later are:

1. systematic problem solving which identifies variables and tests relationships between them
2. logical, so procedures can be duplicated or understood by others
3. empirical, so decisions are based on data collected
4. reductive, so it investigates a small sample which can be generalized to a larger population
5. replicable, so others may test the findings by repeating it