Different Types of Research

Historical Research

Seeks to reconstruct the past objectively, based on reliable documentary evidence. It applies not only to history but also to the natural sciences, law, medicine, or any other social science discipline.

1. It depends on primary and secondary sources.
2. Submits the data to internal and external criticism.

Descriptive Research

Includes description and is a form of study to find out who, what, where, when, how, and why about the subject of study or area of interest. It explains the features of any set of subjects.

1. It is interested in describing.
2. It is not interested in explaining.

Experimental Research

Allows a more secure establishment of cause and effect. It involves manipulating an unproven experimental variable under rigorously tested conditions to describe how or why a particular situation or event occurs.

1. Uses experimental and control groups.
2. The investigator handles the alleged causal factor.
3. Uses random procedures for the selection and assignment of subjects and treatment.
4. It is artificial and restrictive.

Exploratory Research

Its aim is to examine an issue or research problem that has rarely been studied or has not been addressed before. It serves to familiarize oneself with relatively unknown phenomena.

1. Formulates problems for further studies or for developing more precise hypotheses.
2. Establishes priorities for future research.
3. Collects information about a problem, which is then used for a particular specialized study.
4. Increases awareness about the problem.
5. Clarifies concepts.

Explanatory Research

Goes beyond the description of concepts or phenomena or the establishment of relations between concepts. It addresses the causes of physical or social events.

1. The focus is on explaining why a phenomenon occurs and under what conditions it occurs, or why two or more variables are related.
2. It is more structured than other kinds of research and includes their purposes (exploration, description, and correlation), providing a sense of understanding of the phenomenon.

Documentary Research

It involves learning the techniques of organization and management of work with documents and procedures for developing different forms of this kind of research. It is research done through consulting documents.

1. It takes different forms, the most common being: monographs, essays, reports, statistics, research reports, job training, records, history, historiography, science, and technique.
2. Documentary research for the study of social science literature is divided into periodicals, audiographics, video, and iconography.

Field Research

It is performed in real-time at the place where the phenomenon under study occurs.

1. It refers to a study in a real situation, where no one can detect the possible consequences of the investigation.

Mixed Research

Involves the procedures and techniques of documentary research and field research.

1. It is one of the most frequently used in applied research in the social sciences.

Retrospective Research

Applied to the particular study of past events, facts, or events, not necessarily in chronological order.

1. It can be reproduced, reducing and/or rationalizing the duration of certain investigations that include a history stretching back into the past.

Prospective Research

Evolutionary schemes proposed in a distant time horizon beyond 20 years (roughly corresponding to a generation). It is presented as both a product and an act of production chained to a mechanism of relative stability following a determinism. It reveals the general laws of order on which the forecast development is based.

1. It gives insight into what has been studied in depth.
2. Serves to plan more extensive investigations.
3. It does not make generalizations.

Ex Post Facto Research

Seeks to establish cause-and-effect relationships after the effect has occurred and its cause lies in the past.

1. From an observed effect, the cause is investigated in the past.
2. Useful in situations where one cannot manipulate variables.
3. It is not safe to establish causal relationships.

Quasi-Experimental Research

Studies cause-and-effect relationships but not under strict control of all factors that may affect the test.

1. Suitable for natural situations that cannot be rigorously experimentally controlled.

Comparative Research

Based on reviewing the implementation of the scientific method used in each type of investigation, according to the traditional classification used, i.e., those consistent with previous research models and designs. In this kind of research, the methodological factor is fundamental, justifying the comparison process of facts or phenomena using the scientific method.

For example:

1. In comparative historical research, emphasis is applied to the analysis of historical sources, i.e., the comparison of similarities and differences in the characteristics of these sources.
2. In descriptive research, emphasis is applied to the analysis of data with which events or facts occur. Because of similarities, it is necessary to describe them systematically to avoid possible errors in their management.

Participatory Research

Aims to determine a methodology applicable to all sorts of studies to solve problems in different areas of development. It summarizes the various processes used in scientific methodology and unifies theory and the most appropriate instruments for productive research in marginal populations in regions needing concrete and effective solutions.

1. Its functionality is based on how the scientific method is applied to research in difficult environments and with people with low skills and resources.
2. From the reality of a community selected for study, reflective dialogue is encouraged to enable the analysis of each internal and external factor that makes up that community, to produce a critical consciousness in each of its members to react and act to meet their needs.

Evaluative Research

Primarily used as a model for applying research methods to evaluate the efficiency of programs of action in society. Its purpose is to measure the results of a particular program in light of the goals set for it, to make decisions for projection and planning for the future.

1. It is applied taking into account social research methods, which are valid for different types of research since its foundation is the scientific method.
2. What distinguishes it from other investigative processes is not the method or field of study but its intent, i.e., the purpose for which it takes place.

Case Study Research

Intensively studies a unique subject or situation.

1. It gives insight into what has been studied in depth.
2. Serves to plan more extensive investigations.
3. It does not make generalizations.

Correlational Research

Determines the variation in some factors in relation to others (covariation).

Suitable for establishing statistical relationships between features or phenomena but does not directly establish causal relationships between them.