Learn about the decisions you’ll need to make when choosing a study design, from the research philosophy to the particular data analysis methods.

Saunders’ research onion

The phrase “peeling the onion” is often used to describe the process of slowly revealing the truth about something, layer by layer. For example, imagine that you are trying to solve a mystery. You might start by looking at the big picture, then zoom in and look at the details, then zoom out again to see the big picture, and so on. Slowly uncovering the truth is like peeling an onion, layer by layer.

What is Saunders’ 2007 research onion?

The 2007 research onion is a model developed by Dr John W. Creswell and Dr Steve D. Saunders that helps researchers design their research projects. The onion comprises six layers, starting with the innermost layer of philosophical assumptions, moving outward through methodology, data collection, data analysis, and finally, the conclusion. This model helps help researchers determine what type of research design is most appropriate for their project and what methods and data will be most helpful in answering their research question.

The first layer of the onion is philosophical assumptions. This is where researchers will need to identify the assumptions that they are making about the nature of reality and knowledge. These assumptions will guide the rest of the research project, so it is essential to be clear about them from the outset. The second layer is methodology. This is where researchers will need to decide what type of research design is most appropriate for their project. This will involve choosing between qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as between experimental and non-experimental designs.

The third layer is data collection. This is where researchers must decide what type of data they will collect and how they will collect it. This will involve choosing between primary and secondary data and qualitative and quantitative data. The fourth layer is data analysis. This is where researchers will need to decide how they will analyse the collected data. This will involve choosing between qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods. Finally, the fifth layer is the conclusion. This is where researchers will need to draw conclusions from their data and determine their research implications for theory and practice.

The layers of Saunders’ research onion

Saunders’ 2007 research Onion is a model that helps researchers plan and structure their research. It is based on the idea that six elements need to be considered when planning research:

• The research questions
• The research objectives
• The research strategy
• The data collection methods
• The data analysis methods
• The research findings.

Each of these elements is represented by a layer of the onion, with the research question at the centre and the other elements progressively surrounding it. From the early planning stage until the drafting of the final results, the model may be employed at various points during the research process. It is beneficial for helping researchers to think about how their different choices will impact their research overall direction and outcome.

One of the main advantages of the model is that it forces researchers to consider all aspects of their research before starting, which can save a lot of time and effort later on. It can also help identify potential problems early on, so they can be addressed before they cause too much damage. While the model is not perfect and will not work for every research project, it is a valuable tool that can help make the research process simpler and more effective.

Onion Layer 1: Research Philosophy

Philosophy is the topmost layer of Saunders’ research onion. Philosophy is information that has previously been gathered and published, usually in some form. Sources for this information include books, journal papers, and online databases. This might be founded on a specific theoretical viewpoint, like an ontological or epistemological one. The nature of reality and what people are genuinely capable of knowing and understanding can be described as ontology, or the “what” and “how” of knowledge. Exists a single objective reality, for example, or is reality relative to each person? Think about how The Matrix depicts virtual reality.

Contrarily, epistemology is concerned with how we acquire knowledge, how to define reality and the limits of our knowledge, and how to study and understand things. This is obviously oversimplified, but it’s a great place to start; ontology and epistemology will be handled later.

Let’s analyse three key research philosophies that are founded on diverse ontological and epistemological foundations after cutting through the fluff:

• Positivism
• Constructionism
• Pragmatism

Although these are the only research philosophies, they are the most common and provide a useful starting point for understanding the variety of concepts.

 Positivism – Positivism is a philosophical and methodological approach that emphasises using scientific methods to study social phenomena. Positivists believe that social phenomena can be studied scientifically and that knowledge about them can be acquired through applying the scientific method.

Positivism has its roots in the work of the French philosopher Augusta Comte, who argued that all knowledge is acquired through the scientific method and that all social phenomena can be studied scientifically. Comte’s positivism was later elaborated on and refined by other thinkers, including the German sociologist Max Weber

The growth of social science has been significantly influenced by positivism. It has helped shape the way social scientists think about the nature of social phenomena and the methods that can be used to study them.

Some social scientists have criticised positivism because it is too deterministic and fails to consider the role of human agency in shaping social phenomena. Nonetheless, positivism remains a robust and influential approach in the social sciences.

Constructionism – Constructionism is a research philosophy that holds that the meaning of a phenomenon is best understood through the interpretation of the experiences and perspectives of those affected by it. In other words, Constructionism is based on the idea that reality is socially constructed and that there is no single objective truth.

One example of Constructionism in action is a study that seeks to understand how people experience a particular phenomenon, such as poverty. For example, researchers using a Constructionism approach would interview people living in poverty and ask them about their experiences. To better understand how poverty impacts people’s daily lives, they would also consult other sources, such as diaries.

Another example of interpretivism is a study examining how people interpret a law or policy. For instance, a researcher might interview people about their understanding of a new law that requires all businesses to provide health insurance to their employees. The researcher would then interpret the data to understand how people make sense of the law and how it affects their lives.

Pragmatism – Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that emphasises the practical application of ideas over theoretical or abstract speculation. Pragmatists believe that knowledge is always provisional and that truth is relative. They contend that the only way to gain accurate knowledge about something is to test it in the real world and see how it works.

Pragmatic philosophy originated in the work of American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914). Peirce developed the idea of pragmatism to understand how we know things and how we can acquire new knowledge. He argued that the meaning of a concept is not fixed or static but is constantly evolving and changing as we use it and test it in different ways.

Pragmatism has influenced several fields, including politics, sociology, economics, and education. In each of these areas, pragmatists have argued that we must take a practical, experimental approach to problem-solving.

For example, in education, pragmatists have advocated for an approach to learning that emphasises active, hands-on experience over rote memorisation. In politics, pragmatists have argued that incremental reform is the best way to achieve progress.

In conclusion, research philosophy serves as the foundation for all research endeavours and contains the ontological and epistemological suppositions of the researcher. Therefore, considering which philosophy to embrace in light of the nature of your research is the first step in constructing your research approach.

Onion Layer 2: Research Approach

When conducting research, it is essential to consider the different approaches that can be taken. Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses, so choosing the most appropriate approach for the question being asked is essential. For example, if a researcher wants to comprehend how individuals make decisions, they might use a qualitative approach such as interviews or focus groups. On the other hand, if a researcher is interested in understanding how people’s attitudes towards a particular issue change over time, they might use a quantitative approach such as a survey.

There are many different research approaches, but some of the most common are described below.

Qualitative research approaches focus on understanding phenomena from the participants’ perspective. This type of research is often used to explore new or complex topics. In addition, qualitative approaches are often used to generate hypotheses or to understand the experiences and perspectives of participants. Focus groups, participant observation, and interviews are typical qualitative research methods.

Quantitative research approaches are those that focus on measuring and analysing numerical data. This type of research is often used to test hypotheses or examine relationships between variables. In addition, quantitative approaches are often used to collect data that can be analysed using statistical methods. Some common quantitative research approaches include surveys, experiments, and data.

In conclusion, deductive and inductive research methodologies are used. You need to evaluate the kind of research you hope to do to choose the best approach for your study. Consider whether your research will add to an existing body of knowledge or whether you’ll be looking into a topic that may not necessarily have a foundation in earlier studies. The first suggests a deductive strategy, and the second is an inductive strategy.

 Onion Layer 3: Research Strategy

We’ve mainly examined abstract and intangible characteristics of the onion up to this point. It’s time to expand that onion by one more layer and move on to research strategy, which is more useful. Depending on the goals of the investigation, a variety of methods are described in this area of the research paper. Let’s look at a few ways you can use it.

• Experimental studies
• Action study
• Case study investigation
• Based hypothesis
• Ethnography
• Archival analysis

Experimental studies – To assess the connection between factors, exploratory examination incorporates transforming one variable, the free factor, to check whether another variable, the reliant variable, changes. Trial and error are utilised to affirm, deny, or support a review hypothesis. This study technique sticks to the essentials of the logical cycle and is done in a controlled setting, like a research centre. The exploratory examination is rational since it tries to test laid out hypotheses instead of fostering new ones. Expecting that data must be investigated unbiasedly and aside from external components like climate or culture, the exploratory review follows the positivist examination reasoning.

A trial study assesses the impacts of the specific brand on a regular eating regimen on the off chance that you hypothesised that a specific brand of canine food could expand a canine’s protein levels. To put it another way, you could confirm your hypothesis.

For this situation, you would have two gatherings: the benchmark group, which comprises canines whose diets had not been adjusted, and the trial treatment bunch, which comprises little guys who took care of the brand you expected to study. The protein levels in the two gatherings would then be contrasted to affirm your speculation.

Action research – Activity research is the accompanying: Action research consolidates advancing by preparing for itself and activity, which is the least demanding method for characterising it. Unlike controlled settings like a lab, activity research is done in genuine circumstances like a school, clinic, work environment, and so on. Activity research helps with teaching scholastics about issues or blemishes in certifiable experiences. Activity research, otherwise called participatory activity exploration, or PAR, centres vigorously around the members and the people engaged with the subject being inspected.

Local area intercession for treatment, cultivating, schooling, or some other design is an outline of PAR. The people group, or the members, helps the scientist try their hypothesis. The people group then talked about the discoveries to decide how to work on the mediation. Until the intercession impeccably serves the local area, the system is rehashed. As such, an issue is furnished with a proper arrangement delivered through the collaboration between the specialist and local area member input.

This examination is ordinarily utilised in the sociologies, especially in callings where individuals need to get better at their identity and what they do. However, activity research is often utilised in subjective examination and rarely used in quantitative exploration. This is because the activity research utilises language and connections instead of insights and figures, as shown in the models above.

Case study research – A contextual analysis is exhaustive, inside and out, assessing a solitary subject, like an individual, a group, an association, an event, peculiarity, or an issue. In this exploration, the subject is inspected to understand issues in a helpful circumstance. Here, the objective is to acquire exhaustive information on the review’s setting instead of fundamentally summing up the discoveries.

Because of the significance of considering the social climate and culture while conducting contextual analysis research, this kind of examination is frequently subjective and will generally be inductive. Furthermore, a contextual investigation research, for the most part, utilises an interpretive way of thinking because the scientist’s suppositions and understanding are significant. For example, research on the political assessments of a specific gathering of people should consider the country’s present political environment and whatever other conditions that would impact members to have a specific assessment.

Grounded theory – The grounded hypothesis comes straightaway. Allow the proof to represent themselves while fostering a grounded hypothesis. In other words, while utilising a grounded hypothesis, you permit current realities to direct the production of a new plastic hypothesis, model, or system. The speculation you assemble depends on the information consistent with its name. In this way, the ground hypothesis is beneficial for studying subjects that are either neglected or understudied.

Even though it can likewise utilise quantitative information and an inductive strategy, a grounded hypothesis research is fundamentally subjective. This kind of exploration regularly begins with contrasting various arrangements of information with recognised examples, and ends are accepted from the concentrate overall without attempting to squeeze the outcomes into a current hypothesis or system.

For example, if you somehow managed to concentrate on the folklore of an unfamiliar culture utilising relics, you wouldn’t begin your examination with any thoughts or speculations; all things being equal, you would fabricate them as you look into the subject.

Ethnography – In ethnography, individuals are seen in their traditional settings while significance is surmised from their social connections. Ethnography aims to record the members’ abstract view of the world and see it according to their viewpoint.

For example, you could use ethnography to look at cooperation and grasp the members’ emotional encounters on the off chance you were keen on exploring collaborations on a psychological well-being message board.

For example, ethnography could empower you to foster a mind-boggling, detailed depiction of the social ways of behaving of the gathering by submerging yourself locally, as opposed to simply seeing from an external perspective, to explore the way of behaving, language, and convictions of a secluded Amazonian clan.

Because the idea of ethnography typically embraces an inductive, subjective, and interpretive research approach. There are certain exemptions for this standard, for example, David Shafer’s idea of quantitative ethnography.

Archival research – The authentic examination is the last, yet not the least. A document research procedure utilises prior materials, and importance is then evolved through examining this information. This approach can use assets like original copies and reports and is appropriate for verifiable exploration.

For example, you could involve middle age original copies and archives as your principal wellspring of information on the off chance that you were keen on how individuals had an outlook on evidently heavenly occasions at that point. As may be obvious, there are various choices for research methodologies. Your venture’s most ideal choice will still be up in the air by your exploration’s objectives and goals and the choices you make on your examination approach.

Onion Layer 4: Choices

They might have been somewhat more unequivocal, wouldn’t you say? The following layer of the review onion is named decisions. Anyway, picking the number of subjective or quantitative information types, you’ll utilise in your exploration is all that should be finished in this layer. Mono, blended, and multi-technique are the three other options.

We should check them out now.

If you select a mono method, you will just utilise one kind of information, either subjective or quantitative. For example, suppose you needed to survey members’ points of view and assessments of the café. In that case, you could use a subjective procedure while leading a review investigating how a local area had an outlook on a specific pizza eatery.

You would utilise a blended techniques procedure if you utilised quantitative and subjective information. Involving, for example, involving presentation as an aide, you could likewise need to decide the number of inhabitants of a local area that devour specific pizza assortments. To achieve this, you might lead a review to accumulate quantitative information, examine the discoveries measurably, and produce quantitative outcomes notwithstanding your subjective ones.

Multi-strategy comes last. Rather than just a single quantitative procedure and one subjective methodology, you would utilise a more impressive assortment of approaches while utilising a multi-strategy approach. For example, topical and content examinations are two instances of subjective strategies that may be utilised in a review that looks at documents from a specific culture. You could likewise utilise quantitative strategies to examine mathematical information.

The ideal choice here will depend on the sort of your examination as well as your exploration objectives and goals, very much as it does with the wide range of various levels of the exploration onion. There is likewise the down-to-earth element of reasonability, or, all the more explicitly, what kind of information can you access given your constraints.

Onion Layer 5: Time factor

The fifth and last layer of the onion is level time. Here you look at how the events in your story are connected in time. Could it be said that they are occurring at the same time? With hardly a pause in between? Over a significant period? Flat time is a significant component in understanding the occasions of your story and how they fit together. Ponder how you could feel while wasting time via virtual entertainment. I’m keen on investigating images’ language and how it changes through time. You would have to accumulate information for this review at different time frames, potentially more than half a month, months, or even years. Subsequently, you would utilise a longitudinal period. While analysing changes and advancements over time, this choice is beneficial.

All things being equal, you would utilise a cross-sectional time skyline to explore the language utilised in images at a particular second, say in 2020. Here information is assembled at a solitary second in time. Like this, your objective isn’t to follow the development of a language yet rather to distinguish its present status. The emphasis is on the time of assortment, not the information. In this manner, it may be subjective, quantitative, or a blend of both. The essential choice standards for picking the time skyline are the idea of your exploration and your examination points and targets, much like the wide range of choices. Moreover, you should consider common sense contemplations, for example, how much time you need to complete your exploration, especially on the off chance that you are composing a paper or proposition.

Onion Layer 6: methods and strategies

The strategies and methods that will be employed to gather and analyse data make up the sixth layer of the research onion. Choosing the study design, data collecting strategies, and data analysis methodologies are all part of this process. This layer also involves ethical considerations and ensuring that the research is feasible. Finally, we arrive at the centre of the onion, when decisions about particular approaches and procedures must be made based on the research’s actual practical considerations.

Here, precisely, you’ll:

• Choose what information you’ll gather and how you’ll get it, such as if you’ll run a survey. How about confidential interviews?
• Decide on your sampling strategies, such as convenience, random, or snowball sampling.
• Choose the data analysis method that you’ll use to address your study issues.
• Create the tools you’ll need for your research, like questions for surveys or interviews.

The philosophy, research strategy, research methodologies, and time horizon are just a few of the various layers of the research onion that must coexist harmoniously with these methods and procedures.

For instance, it’s unlikely that you’ll utilise interviews to collect your data if you’re employing a deductive, quantitative research technique because surveys are far better suited for obtaining high-volume, numerical data. You must thus ensure that the decisions you make at each layer of your onion are consistent with the others and, more crucially, that they are compatible with the aims and objectives of your study.

 Let’s Recap: Research Onion

The research onion outlines the numerous interwoven choices you’ll need to make while creating your research strategy. These include:

• Your research’s research philosophy is the collection of assumptions that underpin positivism, interpretivism, and pragmatism.
• Research methodologies, including inductive, deductive, qualitative, and quantitative methods.
• Research strategies, including experimental, action, case study, and other research methods.
• Options: whether to utilise a single method, a combination of methods, or many approaches.
• Time factor – the number of cross-sectional or longitudinal time points at which you will collect your data
• Methods and processes for data collection, analysis, sample techniques, etc.

You should start cooking now that the onion has been peeled. The most crucial thing to remember is that creating your research technique begins with clearly defining your research aims and objectives. So, before you start peeling, be sure they are.