Overview
There are typically three or four major subsections in the Methods section, although there can be more, which are separated by headings:
- Participants. This brief section describes the people who will participate in your study (they should be called “participants,” not “subjects”). Research Design. Are you doing qualitative or quantitative research; is it exploratory, descriptive or explanatory? Explain why you are using this type of study and what you plan to explore, describe, or explain (again tie it to the literature review). Do you plan to use interventions, interviews, behavior observation, questionnaires, etc.? What subtype of each do you plan to employ (e.g., structured vs. unstructured interviews or closed vs. open-ended questions)? State your rationale for your approach (lit. review). List all of your variables, which ones are independent or dependent? What level of measurement do you plan to use for each variable? This is not an exhaustive list, nor are these chronological questions to be answered.
- Instrumentation. This section describes the tests or instruments used to collect data. Do you plan to use a standardized instrument or design your own? How does this instrument affect issues of reliability and validity (discuss)? Discuss instrument biases. Identify independent & dependent variables. Discuss how this instrument will be scored.
- Procedure. This section describes in great detail the data-collection procedures. Describe how participants will be recruited, whether they will participate alone or in groups, how you will obtain informed consent, what they will bee asked to do, how they will be compensated for their participation, etc. You should describe the procedure in a way that another researcher could conduct the same study (i.e., replicate it) just by reading about the procedure.
- Data Analysis Plan. What statistics do you plan to collect: descriptive/univariate statistics (frequency, etc.) Inferential statistics (Pearson’s r, ANOVA, etc.) Bivariate, multivariate statistics, and how do you plan to do your analysis?
- Ethical Consideration (Human Participants Protections). When and how will you submit for Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval? What safeguards are in place in your study to protect human participants? Consider both emotional and/or physical harm. Consider who the participants are and if children or some other vulnerable population. What steps are you taking to insure informed consent? Provide a copy of any introductory letter and consent forms in the appendix.
- Assumptions. What do you need to take for granted to answer your question or test your hypothesis? (e.g. honest responses from participants, typical population, etc.).
- Limitations. Now that you have an idea (from your literature review) how broad your topic could be, tell the reader what it is that you are deliberately not going to study. What aspects of the problem are outside your interests at this point (or for this paper)? Then, if you had 3 years and $1,000,000 what are some of the things you could or would improve about your design, sample, analysis, etc.
This should be at least 4 complete pages (double-spaced)