The word ‘research’ has multiple meanings and its precise definition varies from discipline
to discipline and expert to expert. Across disciplines and experts, however, there
seems to be agreement with respect to the functions it performs, that is, to find answers
to your research questions. You can use any of the research methods/approaches to
achieve this objective. These methods range from the fairly informal, based upon clinical
impressions, to the strictly scientific, adhering to the conventional expectations of scientific
procedures. Research means using one of these methods to find answers to your
questions. However, when you say that you are undertaking a research study to find
answers to a question, you are implying that the process being applied: