Проблеми презентації методологічних засад у наукових дослідженнях

Abstract

On the basis of quantitative and qualitative analysis of twenty two dissertations for PhD degree, we studied the methodology-related problems in scientific research. Our study included the following analyses of the empirical sources: estimating the quality of the methodology description in the introduction of dissertations; analysing the correlation between proposed methodology and tasks of the dissertations; estimating the relevance of methodology with the objectives; studying the correlation between the methods indicated in the introduction and the methods actually applied in the main text of dissertations; analysing the relevance of the research procedure; estimating the reliability of the research results. For better indication of the whole situation the outputs of our study were presented in a table. Conclusions were made on the correspondence of the analysed dissertations with the scientific criteria of objectivity, validity, rationality, systematic and methodological relevance. Based on our research, we indicated the following methodology-related problems in scientific research: insufficient description of the relevance of chosen methodology; in some cases the total lack of section with description of the applied methodology; the lack of correlation between tasks and methods; inappropriate use of methods; the lack of correlation between methods described in the introduction and those applied in the main text of the dissertations; the complete or partial absence of the description of research procedure that makes impossible to reproduce the research; the undifferentiated use of terms “method”, “reception”, and “approach”. The presence of these problems makes it difficult to meet the basic requirement for the scientific research, and the objectivity, validity, rationality, systematic and methodological relevance of such research remains questionable. In our view, a scientist who begins the research should already possess certain skills, knowledge and competencies in methodology. The development of these competences lies within the responsibility of the higher educational institutions, but should be also included in students’ and postgraduate/doctoral students’ self-education. Our work is the first empirical-based study that examined the validity and reliability of the methodology applied in scientific research in the field of social communications. It results proves that scientific research in this field need significant improvement in use of methodology.