Research Methodology: A Guide for Researchers In Agricultural Science, Social Science and Other Related Fields PDF
Preview Research Methodology: A Guide for Researchers In Agricultural Science, Social Science and Other Related Fields
Pradip Kumar Sahu Research Methodology: A Guide for Researchers in Agricultural Science, Social Science and Other Related Fields Research Methodology: A Guide for Researchers in Agricultural Science, Social Science and Other Related Fields Pradip Kumar Sahu Research Methodology: A Guide for Researchers in Agricultural Science, Social Science and Other Related Fields PradipKumarSahu DepartmentofAgriculturalStatistics BidhanChandraKrishiViswavidyalaya WestBengal India ISBN978-81-322-1019-1 ISBN978-81-322-1020-7(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-81-322-1020-7 SpringerNewDelhiHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2013933139 #SpringerIndia2013 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeor part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway, andtransmissionorinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware, orbysimilarordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped.Exemptedfromthis legalreservationarebriefexcerptsinconnectionwithreviewsorscholarlyanalysisormaterial suppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeingenteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,for exclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework.Duplicationofthispublicationorpartsthereofis permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its currentversion,andpermissionforusemustalwaysbeobtainedfromSpringer.Permissionsfor usemaybeobtainedthroughRightsLinkattheCopyrightClearanceCenter.Violationsareliable toprosecutionundertherespectiveCopyrightLaw. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Whiletheadviceandinformationinthisbookarebelievedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateof publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibilityforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmaybemade.Thepublishermakesnowarranty, expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedherein. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) To My Parents Preface Starting from the initiation of the human civilization, all efforts have remained directed towards improving the quality of life. In the process, “Research,” the search for knowledge, is ever increasing. Huge amount of resourcesindifferentformsisbeingchanneledforthispurpose.Assuch,the importance of research methodology is being felt day by day to have more and more successful research program. The voyage of discovery could bemoremeaningfulifdueattentionisgiventotheartofscientificinvestiga- tion, particularly in designing and meticulous implementation of a research program. Taking all these into consideration, this book has been written in suchawaysothatresearchersinthefieldofagriculture,socialscience,and other fields could get a guideline about the appropriate methodology to be adopted and,intheprocess, themethodsandtechniquestobeusedsoasto havesuccessfulresearchprogram. This book contains 14 chapters altogether. The first two chapters (“Scientific Process and Research” and “Research Process” will help the research students, teachers, and researchers in different fields to get ideas/ conception and also plan better research programs. Chapter 3 (“Research Problem”)willguideresearchersinformulatingaresearchproblemunderthe givensituations.Chapter4(“ResearchDesign”)isaimedatimpartingideas of quality research to researchers so that these could be attributed to a researchprogram.Discussionsofthetypesofvariables,theirmeasurement, and scaling techniques have been made in Chap. 5. In Chap. 6, mainly the techniques of drawing appropriate sample have been discussed. This will help researchers working on heterogeneous population. Different types of dataandtheircollectionmethodologiesarediscussedinChap.7.Tointerpret the data collected, processing and analysis are the most important aspects. Processing of raw data, its scrutiny, and preliminary analytical techniques havebeendiscussedinChap.8.Manyresearchprogramsdealwithproblems that involve hypothesis testing. Details of hypothesis testing techniques, both parametric and nonparametric, are discussed in Chap. 9. Analysis of variance, along with different experimental designs and their analysis, is discussedinChap.10.InChap.11,anattempthasbeenmadetodemonstrate the techniques of analysis of different genetics and breeding related pro- blems.Multipleregressionanalysis,discriminantanalysis,principalcompo- nent analysis, cluster analysis, etc., have been taken up in Chap. 12. The vii viii Preface emphasis has been on how to tackle multivariate problems with the help of computer programs and their interpretations. Instruments are nowadays an indispensiblepartofanyresearchprogram.Anattemptismadetodiscusssome oftheinstruments,precautiontobetakentousethelaboratorysafetymeasures, etc.,inChap.13.Inthischapter,theutilityofacomputerinstatisticalanalysis andthemisuseofstatisticaltheoriesarediscussedinbrief.Inthelastchapter, formulationofprojectproposal,interpretation,preparationoffinalreport,etc., arediscussed.Ineachchapter,theoriesarefollowedbyexamplesfromapplied fields,whichwillhelpthereadersofthisbooktounderstandthetheoriesand applications of specific tools. Attempts have been made to familiarize the problemswithexamplesoneachtopicinalucidmanner.Duringtheprepara- tionofthisvolume,agoodnumberofbooksandarticlesindifferentnational and international journals, have been consulted; efforts have been made to acknowledgeandprovidetheseinthereferencesection.Aninquisitivereader mayfindmorematerialfromtheliteraturecited. To help the students, teachers and researchers in the field of agriculture andotheralliedfieldsremainstheprimeconsiderationinconceptualizingthis book.Sincereeffortshavebeenmadetopresentthematerialinsimplestand easy-to-understand form. Encouragements, suggestions and helps received from my teachers and my colleagues in the Department of Agricultural Statistics, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya are acknowledged sin- cerely. Their valuable suggestions towards improvement of the content helped a lot and are acknowledged sincerely. Dr. BK Senapati, Associate Professor,DepartmentofPlantBreeding,andDrKusalRoy,Departmentof Agricultural Entomology, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, have extended their full support towards the improvement of several chapters of this book. The author sincerely acknowledges the help received from Dr Senapati and Dr Roy. The author is happy to acknowledge the help received from Sri Pradeep Mishra, K Padmanabhan, and Ms Piyali Guha, theresearchstudents,duringthepreparationofthisbook.Thanksaredueto my two daughters, Saswati and Jayati, and their mother Swati for their full cooperation and continuous encouragement during the preparation of this manuscript.Theauthorthankfullyacknowledgetheconstructivesuggestions received from the reviewers towards improvement of the book. Statistical packages used to demonstrate the techniques of analyzing data are also gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also due to M/S Springer Publishers forthepublicationofthisbookandcontinuousmonitoring,helpandsugges- tion during this book project. Help, co-operation, encouragement received fromvariouscorners,whicharenotmentionedabove,theauthorthankfully acknowledge the same. Every effort will be successful if this book is well accepted by the students, teachers, researchers, and other users whom this bookisaimedat.Iamconfidentthatliketheotherbookswrittenbyme,this book will also receive huge appreciation from the readers. Every effort has been made to avoid errors. Constructive suggestions from the readers in improvingthequalityofthisbookwillbehighlyappreciated. DepartmentofAgriculturalStatistics P.K.Sahu BidhanChandraKrishiViswavidyalaya About the Book Thisbookistheoutcomeofmorethan20yearsoftheauthor’sexperiencein teachingandinresearchfield.Thewiderscopeandcoverageofthebookwill helpnotonlythestudents/researchers/professionalsinthefieldofagriculture andallieddisciplinesbutalsotheresearchersandpractitionersinotherfields. Written in a simple and lucid language, the book would appeal to all those whoaremeanttobebenefitedoutofit.Alleffortshavebeenmadetopresent “research,” and its meaning, intention, and usefulness. The book reflects current methodological techniques used in interdisciplinary research, as illustrated by many relevant worked out examples. Designing of research program, selection of variables, collection of data, and their analysis to interpretthedataarediscussedextensively.Statisticaltoolsarecomplemen- ted with real-life examples, making the otherwise complicated subject like statisticsseemsimpler.Attemptshavebeenmadetodemonstratehowauser cansolvetheproblemsusingsimpleacomputer-orientedprogram.Emphasis is placed not only on solving the problems in various fields but also on drawing inferences from the problems. The importance of instruments and computers in research processes and statistical analyses along with their misuse/incorrect use is also discussed to make the user aware about the correct use of specific technique. In all chapters, theories are combined with examples, and steps are enumerated to follow the correct use of the available packages like MSEXCELL, SPSS, SPAR1, STATISTICA and SAS. Utmost care has been taken to present varied range of research pro- blemsalongwiththeirsolutionsinagricultureandalliedfieldswhichwould beofimmenseusetoreaders. ix
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