Your research goals and research question represent the “What” and “Why” of your research 5W’s.
Goals should be S.M.A.R.T: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely, and research goals are no exception. You probably have a goal that’s driven by your priorities for engaging in public opinion data collection. For example, your goal might look like the following:
- I want to know what Canadian researchers need in order to make their research more open and available to the public over the next five years.
Or
- I want to know how people in coastal communities feel about three different potential initiatives aimed at reducing plastic in the ocean. We have to make a recommendation for the preferred initiative in six months’ time.
Your goals will often be tied to your “Why” or the reason for your research, such as needing to draft a policy brief on a specific topic, or a need to take the public temperature on an issue.
Use your goals to inform your research question. The research question is the “What” that you are measuring with your research.
This video from Yale University, discusses how to craft a good qualitative research question (12 mins):
Knowledge Self-Test:
Think of a goal you have for public opinion research. Craft a qualitative research question, then think back to chapter one and decide how you might best answer it. For an extra challenge, make some notes about possible sample strategy and sampling size based on your question and approach.
Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of Chapter 2!