What is scientific research?

We explain what scientific research is and what its elements are. In addition, what types of scientific research exist.

1. What is scientific research?

Scientific research is a procedure of reflection, control and criticism that works from a system , and that is proposed to provide new facts, data , relationships or laws in any field of scientific knowledge.

The information that will result will be relevant and reliable (credible), but it cannot be said to be absolutely true: science aims to discover new knowledge , but also to reformulate existing ones, according to advances in the art, Technology and thought .

Those who carry out this kind of research are called scientists, and at the present time, the main limitation is the availability of resources to sustain the research for as long as it demands.

This should be noted, since for a long time the scientific discovery was limited by political or religious issues, which became dogmas against which one could not investigate. In addition, science was not seen as something so necessary for society , but as a more individual process, so it was difficult to find a scientist who receives an income for his activity.

The ethical science is the set of ethical principles that underlie all inquiry in science . It generally contemplates not causing avoidable suffering to experimental animals and respecting the confidentiality of data of individuals.

As for the remuneration for work, most modern countries offer scholarships and incentives for scientific research.

2. Elements of a scientific investigation

Scientific research is composed of three main elements:

• The object  what is investigated, understood as the subject on which it will be investigated. As the knowledge that the man of the world is not complete, here lies the question that all research is historical and spatial. If a new paradigm installs new notions, it is possible that issues that were taken as indubitable in an investigation will be discarded by a new one.
• The middle  the set of appropriate techniques to carry out the investigation. This will also be temporary, but a scientific method has been established with which it is believed that they can be tested and ensure that the propositions are reliable. The mét odo scientific  consists in observing, then collecting the relevant data from this observation, therefrom formulating hypotheses , performing experimentation that finds and therefromprepare a conclusión.En the step hypothesis is where the ability of the scientist intervenes, which may be wrong: in that case, after the conclusionYou can go back and make another alternative hypothesis. Some disciplines, such as historical research, have other kinds of methods that involve primary or secondary sources.
• The purpose of the investigation.  the reasons why the investigation was launched. One part may involve the collection of data (information), another part may be linked to the development and demonstration of a theory or model. The research also aims to obtainauxiliary methodology , and to create new methods or instruments of contrast.

3. Types of scientific research

Scientific research can also be classified from different fields:

• According to its purpose and purpose.  It will be pure research when you try to increase the theoretical knowledge of a subject, while it will be applied research when the knowledge points to an immediate application to reality .
• According to his previous knowledge.  It may be exploratory, descriptive or explanatory: in the first case it will seek an overview of a new topic of study, in the second, it wants to find the structure or operation of something, and in the third, it wants to find the laws that determine those behaviors .
• According to the means to be investigated.  It will be a documentary investigation when it is based on analysis of data obtained from different sources, it will be field research when it will collect the data directly from the place where the event occurs, and it will be experimental when the researcher himself must create the conditions to establish the cause-effect relationship of the phenomenon.