Basic concepts
What is the first step in a research project?
Topic selection and delimitation
What is a hypothesis?
A tentative answer to a (research) question, which may be true or not depending on the evidences that are later analyzed.
What is a series of procedures and rules to reach an objective? It includes which actions need to be taken, their order, experiments, and reasoning.
Method
What are the main two types of sampling techniques?
Probability sampling: people or elements from a population are chosen randomly.
Non-probability sampling: people or elements from a population are not chosen randomly, but rather by some specific criteria or need.
What is the most commonly used citation and reference stye?
APA (American Psychological Association)
Topic delimitation example:
Why is the following topic not properly delimitated?
"Psychological impact of natural disasters?"
What section of a research protocol states why the research project is relevant, important, necessary, or innovative?
Justification
They are procedures used by methods to operate: data control, data logs, experiments, etc. They specify how the methods are applied.
Techniques
In this sampling technique, everyone has the same chance of being selected for analysis.
Simple random sampling (SRS)
It's put at the end of a research document in its own section, with all of the details about a source used for information in your text.
Example:
Zanno, L.E., Napoli, J.G. (2025). Nanotyrannus and Tyrannosaurus coexisted at the close of the Cretaceous. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09801-6
Reference
Why is a research protocol important?
It outlines the elements of the plan for a research project, specifying and supporting the topic or problem at hand, objectives, methodology, and schedule before performing it.
A __________ allows to give a tentative answer based on previous knowledge and asks about the relationship between different variables.
Research question
What are the two main field techniques?
Observation: watching and exploring your environment of interest, by having contact with your object of study.
Questioning: collecting information from people, such as written or oral statements, opinions, feelings, etc.
What type of sampling is used in the following situation?
A group of UVM high school students is performing a short study about common hobbies for people who are 15-17 years old for a class project. They have limited time, so they apply an online survey through Google Forms for the first 20 students they see during recess.
Convenience sampling
Mention 3 information sources that are reliable for research purposes and 3 sources that are not.
Reliable: scientific articles, textbooks, databases, technical reports, legal texts, etc.
Not reliable: personal blogs, TikTok videos and social media in general, information directly taken from AI, etc.
Mention 3 limitations that can have an impact in reaching research objectives.
Time
Budget
Equipment
Skills
Experience
What information needs to be included in a research schedule?
Actions to be performed and period in which they are done (weeks, months, etc.)
The tools used to perform techniques are called...
Instruments
In this sampling technique, participants refer others. This is useful for hidden populations.
Snowball sampling
It's put in the middle of a text to specify authors and publication years for a source used for information in a research work.
Example: Nanotyrannus was a mid-sized predatory dinosaur (Gilmore, 1946; Zanno & Napoli, 2025)
In-text citation
Mention 3 elements that need to be stated in a research problem.
Affected people
Affected people's objectives or goals
Ways to reach such objectives or goals
Uncertainty about how appropiate those ways are
Environment to which the problem belongs
It's the section of a research protocol that uses previous studies, theories, concepts, evidences, etc., to elaborate on the initial question and support the presented hypothesis.
Theoretical framework
Give 2 examples for instruments used for documentary, field, and experimental purposes.
Documentary instruments: technical reports, specialized textbooks, dictionaries, etc.
Field instruments: field notepads, cameras, survey forms, etc.
Experimental instruments: microscope, chemical reactives, measurement devices, and lab equipment in general.
What is the difference between cluster sampling and stratified samplinng?
In statified sampling, a population is divided into subgroups (strata) and random samples are taken from each.
In cluster sampling, a population is divided into clusters and then entire clusters are randomly selected.
Why the following reference (in APA style) is wrong?
Miller, J.H. & Simpson, C. When did mammoths go extinct? Nature, 612(E1–E3). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05416-3
The publication year (after the authors and before the title) is missing.