MEANING OF RESEARCH

Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge. One can also define research as a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic. In fact, research is an

art of scientific investigation. The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English lays down the meaning of research as “a careful investigation or inquiry specially through search for new facts in

any branch of knowledge.”

 Redman and Mory define research as a “systematized effort to gain

new knowledge.”

 Some people consider research as a movement, a movement from the known to

the unknown. It is actually a voyage of discovery. We all possess the vital instinct of inquisitiveness for, when the unknown confronts us, we wonder and our inquisitiveness makes us probe and attain

full and fuller understanding of the unknown. This inquisitiveness is the mother of all knowledge and the method, which man employs for obtaining the knowledge of whatever the unknown, can be termed as research.

Research is an academic activity and as such the term should be used in a technical sense.

According to Clifford Woody research comprises defining and redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions; collecting, organising and evaluating data; making deductions and

reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing the conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating hypothesis. D. Slesinger and M. Stephenson in the Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences

define research as “the manipulation of things, concepts or symbols for the purpose of generalising to

extend, correct or verify knowledge, whether that knowledge aids in construction of theory or in the practice of an art.”

 Research is, thus, an original contribution to the existing stock of knowledge

making for its advancement. It is the persuit of truth with the help of study, observation, comparison and experiment.

 In short, the search for knowledge through objective and systematic method of

finding solution to a problem is research. The systematic approach concerning generalisation and the

formulation of a theory is also research. As such the term ‘research’ refers to the systematic method consisting of enunciating the problem, formulating a hypothesis, collecting the facts or data, analysing

the facts and reaching certain conclusions either in the form of solutions(s) towards the concerned

problem or in certain generalisations for some theoretical formulation.

Significance of Research

“All progress is born of inquiry. Doubt is often better than overconfidence, for it leads to inquiry, and

inquiry leads to invention” is a famous Hudson Maxim in context of which the significance of research

can well be understood. Increased amounts of research make progress possible. Research inculcates scientific and inductive thinking and it promotes the development of logical habits of thinking 

and organisation.

Addition to what has been stated above, the significance of research can also be understood keeping in view the following points: 

•  To those students who are to write a master’s or Ph.D. thesis, research may mean a careerism or a way to attain a high position in the social structure; 
•  To professionals in research methodology, research may mean a source of livelihood; 
•  To philosophers and thinkers, research may mean the outlet for new ideas and insights; 
•  To literary men and women, research may mean the development of new styles and creative work; 
•  To analysts and intellectuals, research may mean the generalisations of new theories. 

Thus, research is the fountain of knowledge for the sake of knowledge and an important source

of providing guidelines for solving different business, governmental and social problems. It is a sort of

formal training which enables one to understand the new developments in one’s field in a better way.