Читать книгу Demystifying Research for Medical and Healthcare Students - John L. Anderson - Страница 15

We are all doing research every day, and we are all learning from it, but we are not all ‘scientists’. For it to be scientific, we have to select a specific area (or field) to research and then we have to be systematic and rigorous in getting our answers to very specific questions. We may search a lot around a subject to find out what has already been researched, and we might, think about where the unanswered questions are and begin to plan our own study. Then we call it ‘research’, we write lots of scientific articles and become famous – I wish!

There are different types and levels of scientific research. I remember being interviewed for a job to do some research in learning difficulties and was surprised to hear the Chair of the interview panel say to me ‘We want real, meaningful research. We are not setting out to count angels on pinheads!’ What did he mean by that? Then I realised that his stereotype of researchers was of ‘academics’ who engaged in what is termed ‘blue skies research’. That is, research which may advance our knowledge, but is of no practical benefit to people on an everyday level. Some people differentiate between ‘applied research’ and ‘blue skies research’. To my mind there is no difference really. At some point and in some way, all research has an application and to try to differentiate which is which is like … trying to count angels on a pinhead!