Lets talk about research

Research is a word that is on everyone’s lips these days. “Research suggests”, “Emerging research”, and “I’ve done my research” are phrases that are traded daily, yet I feel they are never actually fully understood. I want to start with the idea that science and research are always evolving.  As we learn more research shifts and molds almost as a living creature.  We build onto it, shape it, and sometimes even contradict it as science progresses. We have seen this vividly over the last couple years.  Most of the time people really don’t care about science and honestly, that’s fine. Leave it to the scientists if you’re not interested. Enjoy the spoils of the people who get paid to do their job and who went to school for it. Since 2020, we have all become a living science project, and as such suddenly there is a gained interest in science. How do I keep safe, how does this work, and all that.  Some even just want to fight science with idolized arbitrary concepts of “freedoms”, but I’m not here to talk about that. This is about research, not caring more about your “ideals” than the greater good of humanity. I am here to clear the air about science and actual research.  As someone who has experience and has taken classes on research techniques, I’d like to take this time today to talk about what research actually is and how to find quality research.

So what is research?  It’s a fancy thing that people who have dedicated their careers to. Researchers have educated backgrounds in writing literary analyses, proposals, grants, processes, and then carrying out the proposed research and publishing research papers, repeating their studies to make sure the results are able to be reproduced, sharing the research with colleagues and the entire world, giving lectures and teaching others about their research, and so on.  Often times they become an absolute expert in the subject and spend their careers on their research.  An entire life dedicated to learning as much as they can about a certain subject matter. Research starts with a literary analysis: what is already out there on the subject.  This generally takes hours upon hours of reading journals, books, other research papers, and articles in reputable publications along with discussion among others in the field. After taking in ALL of the information on a given subject that is already peer-reviewed and published, they begin to write their analysis. These can be 100’s of pages, and their purpose is to explain what we already know on the subject. This gives them a good idea of where the research is lacking, and where to go from this point. From there, they write a research proposal, citing the analysis and similar research, outlining their methods for testing and every single item needed for their experiment, and the needs for this research.  This in itself takes weeks, sometimes years, to come up with and fine tune just right.  When it’s completed they submit their proposals and, if it is accepted, then it’s time to write for funding for the experiments. Research grants are sometimes needed because research is very very VERY expensive. The researchers need stipends to live off of while they dedicate their lives to science, all of the supplies is costly, if there are participants they need compensation for their time, and simply the cost of running the labs. It all adds up. Some facilities provide all of this due to government programs, and some due to private funding. Where money comes from can be a precarious subject that I’ll talk about later. Mind you, this is all in preparation for research, we haven’t even gotten there yet. But now we’re there. Research. Formulating an experiment, conducting the tests, and collecting the data.  After all of this is completed, then a paper is written discussing the experiment, process, methods, data, and results. This is then peer-reviewed and hopefully published if it passes the scrutiny. That my friends is research. Not reading a couple articles. Not hearing it on the news. Actual research.

So where do we find actual research? My first go to is always google scholar.  It is a library of science journals, papers, etc that are funded and peer-reviewed and accepted by the general scientific community. Second, pay attention to the domain link of your research. Make sure it’s from something that sounds sciency like .edu or .gov. Usually .coms aren’t the best for real research. Another good source is published articles on the subject. The writing is going to be swayed, always, toward the bias of the author however they should cite their references either in the article or at the bottom. Those often provide links to the actual research.  When you land on research, be wary of it. See if it states where the funding is coming from. Money talks, and if it’s research on tobacco funded by the owners of tobacco companies, it’s likely not a reliable source.  And that brings me to another point- use MANY different sources before formulating your own opinion. I like to use at least ten different sources myself before making a hard judgement on a subject matter. This omits a bit of what we call “confirmation bias” or seeking out one article that says what you were already feeling or fearing and then sitting back and going “WELL I KNEW IT!” Google which political direction the sources lean and read from both sides.  Also, look up the authors, researchers, and professionals listed in the articles or the research and make sure they have no scandals that discredits their name. This is how we openly read research, but remember reading research is reading, not actually doing research. Also be aware of how things are worded. Research suggests basically means that it’s been observed but not enough to say this is a theory or widely accepted fact. Emerging research hints toward this is a new area of study. Research should be able to be reproduced, and should have years behind it before we jump on the train.

Research is a laborious profession that requires expertise in a subject, tons of reading, weeks of writing, YEARS of experiments, and then even more writing and putting that writing to the test of other professionals in the field. This is a term that should hold prestige, yet we have discredited the term these days due to everyone wanting to say “I’VE DONE MY RESEARCH” when they are just tired of hearing about something they don’t fully understand or are no longer open to a discussion on the current research. Science is ever evolving as a living creature and research is the beating heart of it. Make sure to find reliable sources, check those sources, read many different sources, and formulate an educated opinion based on what you have taken in, and leave the research to the researchers.