Types of Research

Types of Research

There are many different ways for research to be carried out: these will be determined by many factors, such as the information you have access to, the experience of the researchers involved and the level of evidence that is required for your purposes. If you would like to discuss the research that would be most suitable for your work, please contact the Research Excellence Support Team (REST).

Exploratory research: The researcher does not explicitly state hypotheses. The researcher conducts a study and examines data to generate hypotheses to be tested in future research.

Quantitative research: Involves the collection and analysis of numerical data. Numbers and statistics are used to classify features of the data and to construct statistical models. Quantitative research can be explanatory or exploratory, although most quantitative research studies are designed to test hypotheses.