major impact on time requirements. Also, keep in mind that these stages of the research often take a lot longer than originally anticipated.
Another practical implication of time limits is that it will directly impact which time horizon you can use – i.e. longitudinal vs cross-sectional. For example, if you’ve got a 6-month limit for your entire research project, it’s quite unlikely that you’ll be able to adopt a longitudinal time horizon.
Constraint #3: Money
As with so many things, money is another important constraint you’ll need to consider when deciding on your research methodology. While some research designs will cost near zero to execute, others may require a substantial budget.
Some of the costs that may arise include:
Software costs – e.g. survey hosting services, analysis software, etc.
Promotion costs – e.g. advertising a survey to attract respondents
Incentive costs – e.g. providing a prize or cash payment incentive to attract respondents
Equipment rental costs – e.g. recording equipment, lab equipment, etc.
Travel costs
Food & beverages
These are just a handful of costs that can creep into your research budget. Like most projects, the actual costs tend to be higher than the estimates, so be sure to err on the conservative side and expect the unexpected. It’s critically important that you’re honest with yourself about these costs, or you could end up getting stuck midway through your project because you’ve run out of money.
