[MUSIC]. Welcome, my name is Dr. Simon Rofe. I'm the co-instructor of the MOOC Understanding Research Method. Each week we're going to be providing a commentary to a series of video interviews that we've conducted. These interviews will be conducted with a range of people involved in academic enterprise, from undergraduates through to senior professors. We can learn something from each of them. We asked similar set of questions to each of the interviewees. And to start with, we're going to talk about the question: what is research? And what constitutes research, good research questions? >> What we found particularly interesting while listening to all of our contributors is that they all seem to have different definitions of doing research and being a researcher. But at the same time they collectively point to a certain themes. One of them is that research is not just about reading a lot of books and finding a lot of, gathering a lot of, existing information. It is instead adding, maybe small and specific, yet original, contribution to that existing body of knowledge. So, research is about you posing a question which has to be, which has to have to have relevance to the world that we are living in. And why looking for the answer, or an answer, you have to be, as systematic as you can be. So, Simon, if I had asked the same question to you, how would you have answered? >> Well, it certainly is a challenging question. I think the thing that strikes me most about understanding research is the balance between what's achievable. And also, the contribution is going to make. So, research must have a, a finite end at some point. And I think that's something to recognize at the outset, which people often don't. So, thinking about those remarks that I've made, and also the content of the videos that you're going to watch. Please do take the time to look through the different, videos, as many as you can during the course of the week. And post your comments on the discussion forum. We look forward to hearing from you. [MUSIC]. >> What is a good research? I would say is starting off of a question. And ending with a question. >> What makes it social science as opposed to journalism, or something like that, would be the fact that we collect it in a way which is as systematic as you can possibly be, hopefully, and we try and say something a little bit beyond the data itself. >> There are plenty of questions that we might think are definitively answered because there's a, a consensus about the answer to the extent that it seems to be commonly understood. What the answer of a particular question is. Of course you can always find that the answer needs to be rethought in light of trends that change or contemporary events or processes. >> So, it's thinking time, it's writing time, it's reading, and it's the combination of those things as a kind of method to explore a problem. >> I think it's a balance between, being really narrow and then being broad. because if it's already too broad, then you're not, yeah, you're going to have some problems with researching that. And, if it's already too narrow, like, you don't have enough sources to do a good research. >> For me, research is, as I suppose it is for, for, for most academics and for yourself, it, it's obviously systematic enquiry. To try to understand something. To try and gain insight in, into something. Or indeed, to try and solve a problem. So it is important to keep in mind that good research questions develop throughout the project actually. You can even keep modifying them.