Navigating the Research Landscape: A Guide to the Selection of the Right Research Design

Abstract

Research design, which is a plan or framework for conducting an investigatory study, engrosses the ways for collecting and analyzing data. It is circumspectly planned in advance as it influences the quality and validity of the research outcomes. There are broadly three sorts of research designs, namely quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research designs. Quantitative research designs involve the collection and analysis of numerical data, qualitative research designs include the collection and analysis of non-numerical data, such as words, images, and observations, and mixed methods research designs embrace both qualitative and quantitative data. There are also certain types of research designs under these major research designs, and a researcher normally has to select one of them to carry out his/ her research study. The key objective of this article is to navigate the research landscape and provide a concise guide to the selection of the right research design. This article based on the secondary qualitative data employs books and journal articles as the sources of data. Based on an analysis of some prominent works in the field of research, this article offers an overview of research designs and discusses its main types. It will provide the researchers with a clear guideline to the selection of the right research design.It will assist research neophytes in particular and other researchers in general.

Conceptualisation and Contextualisation of Mixed-Methods Research: A Review

“…The analysis of the various conceptualisation of mixed methods by most authors and scholars revealed that mixed methods is situated within the context of both research designs and types of research, although it was not expressly listed among the types of research (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2007Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2010;Ary et al, 2010;Kumar, 2008;Cohen et al, 2018;Tobi & Kampen, 2018;Asenahabi, 2019;Neelam, 2020;Sato, 2022;Adeniji et al, 2022;Egunjobi, 2022;Love et al, 2022;Igiebor & Okonmah, 2022;Taherdoost, 2022;Abubakar & Ahmad, 2023: Hampson & McKinley, 2023Otieno & Owino, 2023;Hagan, Spillane & Curran, 2023;Sharma et al, 2023). However, there are authors on research methodologies who classified mixed methods as a research design with designs such as convergent parallel, exploratory, explanatory, sequential, transformative, and embedded (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003;Abosede & Onanuga, 2016;Creswell & Creswell, 2017;Creswell, 2018;Tobi & Kampen, 2018;Asenahabi, 2019;Dawadi et al, 2021;Adeniji et al, 2022;Igiebor & Okonmah, 2022;Otieno & Owino, 2023;Sharma et al, 2023).…”

“…Also, some authors view mixed methods from the point of a research approach or research strategy that can be used for any type of research (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004;Singh, 2011;Trochim et al, 2015;Gliner et al, 2017;Cohen et al, 2018;Tobi & Kampen, 2018;Dawadi et al, 2021;Adeniji et al, 2022;Love et al, 2022;Mattar & Ramos, 2022;Taherdoost, 2022;Igiebor & Okonmah, 2022;Sato, 2022;Pashaie et al, 2023;Sharma et al, 2023). Some other authors described mixed methods as a research methodology (Dawadi et al, 2021;Mattar & Ramos, 2022;Igiebor & Okonmah, 2022;Pashaie et al, 2023) (See Table 3).…”