Social Research Design and Analysis: Tourism Research Methods Analysis

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This report provides an analysis of social research design and methodology, focusing on research in the field of tourism. The study compares two journal articles: one examining the mix of research methods used in leading tourism journals from 2000-2009 and the other discussing research methods in tourism. The report highlights the importance of a clear research structure, including the research question, methodology, and conclusion. The first journal article, which employs a quantitative approach, is praised for its clear structure and methodological rigor, while the second article, which is more descriptive and theoretical, is criticized for its lack of a clear research question and conclusion. The report emphasizes the need for well-defined research questions, appropriate methodologies, and structured conclusions in research papers. The comparison highlights the advantages of quantitative methods for analyzing the frequency of research methods, and the potential limitations of purely qualitative or descriptive approaches. The analysis concludes that the first paper is well structured and provides a clear conceptual framework, unlike the second paper, which lacks clarity and a defined structure.
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Running head: SOCIAL RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
Social Research Design and Analysis
Name of the student
Name of the University
Authors note
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SOCIAL RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
The design and analysis in social research need to have some common and important
features in it. In this essay the researcher will review two journals and try to analyse the
research requirements in social studies. The first journal is about the types of research that
have been pursued in the tourism industry. The second journal talks about the research
methods adopted in tourism studies. Both of the journals have the common theme of tourism
studies. The first journal is written by Alison Dunn and Mark Wickham and the title of the
paper is “The mix of research methods in the leading tourism journals: 2000-2009”. Another
research is done by Gheorghe Cheia and his research paper is titled as “RESEARCH
METHODS IN TOURISM”. This study evaluates the relevancy and appropriateness of the
research questions and how effectively and methodologically the researches papers have been
developed.
As opined by Walliman (2017), it is the requirement of a quality research paper to
have clear and distinctive parts in their paper. The divisions in the paper would be helpful for
the readers as they could understand the structured flow of information. First papers elected
for this study i.e. “The mix of research methods in the leading tourism journals: 2000-2009”,
has a clear research question developed in the later part of literature review. This paper is
well structured as it has distinctly marked the introduction, literature review, research
methodology, and discussion and conclusion parts. Research question is clearly stated as
“What was the mix of research methodologies published in the three leading tourism journals
during the period from 2000 to 2009?” (Dunn and Wickham). The author clearly states the
rationale of his study that this study wants to mark the present research methodologies that
are been used by the experts in tourism journals. The stakeholders of the study and their
benefits from this research work has been indicated by the authors. The researchers state that
their study would be helpful for the tourism journals and the tourism industry researchers.
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SOCIAL RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
The stakeholders could response more clearly about their role for better quality articles in this
field of study.
On the other hand, the second journal by Gheorghe CHEIA does not have the
structural clearance at all. The research paper do not state the rationale and research question
carefully. The readers of the paper would find it difficult to understand the nature of the study
without rationale (Fletcher, 2017). The introduction part of this paper is quite long and the
author tried to give an overview of the ideas related to tourism and its research. Right after
the introduction part, the author starts the discussion of the several research methods used in
tourism industry. Though, there is an indication in the paper that this is directed to the people
who are attached to the tourism business. Some of them might be the theoretical researcher
and the other group might be the industrialist who put these researches in practical practice.
The arguments are based on the previous researches and provides direct quotation from their
works. This paper dose have a detailed observations on the research methods in tourism
industry but the structure and research purposes are not quite clear to the readers.
Comparison can be made between these two selected papers for their explanation of
methodology chosen. The research methodology of this study discipline has massive
importance. The first paper is about the research methods that are been flowed in the past and
contemporary researches. The authors take the instance from the articles that are been
published in three renowned journals from year span of 2000 to 2009. This research is done
in quantitative method. Data are been collected from the secondary resources that is the
published articles in selected journals. The researchers should give a clear explanation that
they are going to evaluate the research works that are done in this context and what kind of
methodology is used in them (McCusker & Gunaydin, 2015) the research methodology for
this study has been described step by step. The number of articles and their nature are been
categorised for the analysis. This has been done in quantitative method. The quantitative data
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SOCIAL RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
has been analysed and discussed in the discussion part. Elaborated explanation and discussion
has given the study prominence. The authors has adopted critical realist approach for this
study. In this paper it is stated that quantitative researches are not enough for this field of
study and that may impose some limitations in the outcomes.
When we compare the second paper with the first one the lack of theoretical approach
becomes clear. In the second paper, the research approach is empirical and descriptive. A
large part of the study is based on the theories. The study has been done completely using the
secondary resources. It is a qualitative research that narrates the methods used in tourism
industry. The problem with this paper is that research methods are been used but they have
been completely out of context sometimes. The researchers has talked about research
methods but he could not connect them with the research topic throughout the discussion.
The study becomes more of a general observation than one on the tourism industry. The
research methodology and the approach need to be connected with the research requirements.
The researchers set their research methods according to nature of data required, scope of
analysis and the outcome they are aiming at. Keeping that into account it could be said that
the second research article is based more on the conceptual aspects. The paper carries a
comparison between the theoretical and practical study of the tourism industry development.
As the work is developed on the observation, theories and previous research results, the
approach is certainly theoretical and conceptual.
The research question in the first paper indicates that this study will be based on the
articles and their nature that are been published in three renowned journals of tourism. The
authors have collected the information of the methods used in these articles and made their
analysis with it. The study implied quantitative method and categorised the articles according
to their methodology to reach their conclusions. Therefore, to determine the numbers of what
kind of research method is used in what articles, quantitative data analysis is right approach.
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SOCIAL RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
The authors first have collected information about the journals and their articles. A total
number of 1617 articles were been selected for this study purpose. In the methodology
section, the authors have given a detailed account of their work process. The research
approach is very much effective for the study and could not be done in any other method. The
researcher has also discussed that the data used in this research is huge and using qualitative
approach for representing them could be a challenging task. The researchers argued that
mixed and qualitative researches has been dominated by the quantitative research in the field.
To establish the statement they have done their research on previously published papers. As
the research needed to focus on the number of papers and their methodology, that cannot be
determined in theoretical or conceptual approach.
The other paper is designed on conceptual reading and analysis. The paper implied
secondary research method and the approach is theoretical. Qualitative research data analysis
has been done in that work. It is quite evident that the study could be done in mixed method.
Mixed method is the research approach where the researcher applies quantitative as well as
qualitative data analysis for the result. The method of a paper need to be determined
according to the research aim and question. The paper tries to analyse the methods that are
used in the tourism industry research. Author argues that the practical phenomena of these
methods are quite different than the academic approach. The determination of the fact could
be done through some primary and quantitative research as well. The researcher had the
scope to use multiple research techniques and approaches to complete the study. There is no
clear discussion about the study approach and research time or method throughout the paper.
A well-developed research paper should have a clear section division for the clarity of his
approach towards the topic (Lune & Berg, 2016). This paper do not have built its research
question in the beginning and therefore, one could not mark this a quality standard of paper
writing.
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SOCIAL RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
Conclusion of a research paper is the most important part as it gives the study an
appropriate ending. According to Kumar, (2019), a good research paper must have the
conclusion part that would state the outcomes and understanding derived from the discussion
of the topic. The first paper has a conclusion that is derived from the discussion and data
analysis. This part addressed to the research question built in the first part of the research and
justifies it. The conclusion of the first paper is that there are still a scarcity of qualitative and
mixed research in the field. The main reason of this is also stated to justify the conclusive
sentence. The tourism industry deals with big data and information that could be easily
presented in quantitative method rather than mixed or qualitative methods. Literature have
minor roles in the tourism study. The authors argued that the dominance of quantitative
researches would carry on in this domain unless mixed and qualitative researches are been
encouraged in this discipline. They said that the high research work should get some word
constrain relaxation so that the qualitative researches could be carried on tourism industry.
Qualitative researches have better impact on the discipline if they are done with reliable data
resources. The paper concludes issues in the tourism industry could not be addressed
completely with the help of quantitative research only. This paper has a conclusion that is
quite clearly focused on the research question and answers the issues effectively.
The other paper the conclusion of the research is not stated distinctly. The problem
statement of this paper is not built. It is written in general way without any specific structure
of research papers. The arguments are built in the introduction part and those have instances
from previous works in the field. While explaining the methods in first part, the author argues
that tourism phenomena is studied in academia as well as in practical industrial areas. The
discussion than states the methodology of research in general and tried to connect it with
tourism industry. There is no conclusion in this paper which means the research finding are
not been moulded in an appropriate approach.
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SOCIAL RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
This could be concluded form this discussion that, an appropriate research structure is
necessary to give the research better dimensions. Both of the papers talk about the research
methods that re adopted in the tourism industry, but the basic difference lies in the
presentation of the work. The first one of the selected article has a distinctive and clear
conceptual framework. The paper first has an introduction to the study and frames a question
for research. It has described the method that has been adopted to compete the study. This
paper ends with a conclusion that connects the findings with the research question. The
second paper is not quite well-structured and lacks the clarity of presentation. The author of
this paper talks about the research that has been done in the industry and academic level in
tourism industry. The research has been done using qualitative analysis and theoretical
approach. The explanation of the methods are there but they are represented in general way.
The author has not mentioned anything about the research method that he is going to use for
his research. The paper do not have any research question or any conclusion part. It is
presented in a general descriptive way and lacked the basic structure of traditional research
paper. The readers remain unaware of the direction of the arguments that are presented in this
study. To conclude, it could be said that a designed research could be more focused and
worthy for its readers.
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References
CHEIA, G. (2010). RESEARCH METHODS IN TOURISM. GEOREVIEW: Scientific
Annals of Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava. Geography Series, 19(2), 81-94.
Retrieved from: http://georeview.ro/ojs/index.php/revista/article/viewFile/98/94
Dunn, A., & Wickham, M. (2012). The mix of research methods in the leading tourism
journals: 2000-2009. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 10(1), 8-16.
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https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark_Wickham2/publication/286136545_The_
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journals-2000-2009.pdf
Fletcher, A. J. (2017). Applying critical realism in qualitative research: methodology meets
method. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(2), 181-194.
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