Importance of Research in PhD
Importance of Research in PhD
In this world, there are innumerable issues and concerns, which need intellectual attention. As for instance, currently the most challenging concerns are related to the outbreak of COVID-19, and the issues related to post-COVID scenario. Every possible domain of human society is highly engaged in struggling for a future that demands extensive research work. The sectors of Art & Music, Economy, Education, Environment, Health, Religion, Sociology, Social media, and Technology are trying to derive innovative and effective solutions for survival. It is here that the relevance of an intellectual way of understanding the concerns and deriving solutions to them, become the in-core responsibility of people with higher education. The importance of research in PhD, in the current scenario is highly significant, especially to add survival strategies for the entire human race.
Research Process
The importance of research in general remains focussed in inventing or discovering solutions to a pre-existing problem. This can be done by anyone related to the respective field. However, the importance of research in PhD makes sense that is far more sensitive than any other general research. The critical analytical strategic implementation of knowledge based on voracious reading and learning process under intellectual speculations are the core elements of a PhD research:
Deductive vs Inductive Reasoning
For a PhD researcher, the importance of research relies on practicality of the analytical approach. There is no room for creating any kind of confusion or non-referred context. Every information added to the research, must get valid approval. The basic task of a PhD research is to offer the best possible way of resolving a concern, by proving the connected process of former research work. It can be based either on deductive or inductive reasoning:
As shown in the figure above, the deductive reasoning in PhD research aims to collect, evaluate, and critically analyse every possible intellectual content, expressed by former researchers. This approach leads to the process of generating relevant hypothesis, which are further authenticated in relation with the research gaps. The derivations lead to appropriate solution. Since, the attained solution has been well scrutinised by the researcher, the importance of research in PhD is validated.
When a PhD researcher faces an intriguing thought, there starts the process of inductive reasoning. In search of a solution for this intriguing thought, the researcher undergoes consistent mode of observing the factors and consequences related to the concern. Since it is not possible to cover the entire global population, the researcher investigates the concern with a samples population. From this sample, a determined pattern is identified by the researcher, and the same pattern leads to either of confirmation or rejection of the intriguing thought. This extensive way of analysis makes the PhD research gain great significance.
Thus, the importance of research in PhD attains higher levels of recognition, as they are the results of exclusive modes of critical analyses. The importance of research in PhD is also very vital as it is based on comparative, descriptive, and correlative ways investigating of both theoretical and empirical data sources.
'Number of Words' vs. 'Value of Research' in PhD Thesis
Have you ever wondered- ‘Why PhD’?
As a student, you must have submitted many dissertations or theses. However, those submissions are not considered as worth as a PhD thesis. It is very confusing to understand why a PhD thesis gets more recognition by the University than any thesis written during under-graduation and post-graduation phase. The answer is actually very simple, though the process is complicated.
A PhD thesis is a matter of adding great value to the field of research, than just a matter of meeting the prescribed number of words. It is the exclusive way of investigating and critically evaluating the subject. It is the value of research, which makes a PhD thesis more distinct against any under-graduate and post-graduate thesis. An under-graduate or post-graduate thesis can be limited in 10,000 to 20,000 words, where as a PhD thesis crosses a limit of 40,000 words in a very ease manner. The reasons for this extensive use of great number of words are its efforts to offer justifications, supporting the justifications, validating the justifications an above all generate an innovative idea from the justified content:
It is true that an under-graduate and post-graduate theses also demand lots of learning and need for creating innovative solutions. However, they are usually limited by number of words. On the other hand, the PhD thesis is not about the number of words, but it all about the huge scope that the researcher needs to manage within a readable content. The limitation of number of words is never a concern to a PhD thesis, as it is more about the substantial and original contribution that the researcher makes in the respective field. It is the ambitious value to generate ‘peer-reviewed publications’ by the PhD thesis that makes it more worth than any other research. The PhD thesis gets evaluated by the University in terms of its brainstorming sessions and path breaking derivations. The value of the research in a PhD thesis gets identified by its capability in creating new ideas, motivating passion for learning, developing innovative results, and offering new skills.
It is therefore, important to understand that ‘value of research’ matters in a PhD thesis rather than the number of words used in it.
