At 01:38 PM 1/17/2003, Smith, David W. wrote:
For Federal Government sponsored research, there is a definition. An essential part is the development of generalizable knowledge. One of the tests of whether something is research is whether the purpose is to publish a paper reporting the results. If yes, then it is research. This has raised the question of whether program evaluation is research or if a descriptive survey, producing rates and means, is research. It usually is, but there are some gray areas.the govs' definition leaves a lot to be desired ... the fact that you want/try to publish something does NOT make it research
also, most who claim to do "qualitative" research ... would argue with you about "generalizability" ... in fact, when you try to tell them that a good case study is not really generalizable ... they counter: who cares? yet .... they have doctoral students do it and, they try to publish it ...
If the government gives you money to do research, such as from NIH or NSF, then it is research. Some Federal agencies give money for programs, that is, to deliver services. These aren't research.of course, most programs insist that you evaluate the program for which they are given you $$$ .... and, that involves data and, there will be reports to the agency and, perhaps externally too ... is it research then?
.
.
=================================================================
Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the
problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at:
. http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ .
=================================================================
