Microsoft Word research method fm doc

 
Stage 3: DATA HANDLING 
Once the data have been collected and checked for completeness and accuracy, a clear 
procedure should be developed for handling and storing them. Decide if the questionnaires 
are to be numbered; identify the person who will be responsible for storing the data; and how 
they are going to be stored. 
6.9 Methods of data collection 
Having decided on how to design the research study, the next methodological design is how 
to collect information. The most commonly used methods of collecting information 
(quantitative data) are the use of documentary sources, interviews and self-administered 
questionnaires. 
 
The choice of methods of data collection is based on: 
• The accuracy of information they will yield 
• Practical considerations, such as, the need for personnel, time, equipment and other 
facilities, in relation to what is available. 
Accuracy and “practicability” are often inversely correlated. A method providing more 
satisfactory information will often be a more expensive or inconvenient one. Therefore, 
accuracy must be balanced against practical considerations (resources and other practical 
limitations) 
 
The use of documentary sources 
Clinical records and other personal records, death certificates, published mortality statistics, 
census publications, etc. 

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Research methodology 
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Advantages:
• Documents can provide ready made information relatively easily 
• The best means of studying past events. 
 
Disadvantages: 
• Problems of reliability and validity (because the information is collected by a number of 
different persons
who may have used different definitions or methods of obtaining 
data). 
• There is a possibility that errors may occur when the information is extracted from the 
records. (This may be an important source of unreliability if handwritings are difficult 
to read. 
• Since the records are maintained not for research purposes, but for clinical, 
administrative or other ends, the information required may not be recorded at all, or 
only partly recorded.