研究とは何か？ - * 研究の基本 * - イリノイ工科大学のLibGuides

What Is Research? - * Research Basics * - LibGuides at Illinois Institute of Technology Skip to Main Content Search this Guide Search * Research Basics *: What Is Research? College-level research can be difficult, even for students who have previously done research. This guide is a great starting point for learning about how to successfully conduct literature-based research, such as secondary research or a literature review. What Is Research? Introduction So What Do We Mean By “Formal Research?” Guide License TL;DR Research and Academic Writing Types of Research | Research Methods Toggle Dropdown Secondary Research | Literature Review Developing Your Topic Outlining Techniques Developing an Effective Search Strategy Toggle Dropdown Where to Find Books, Articles, and Other Sources Using & Evaluating Sources Ethics and Responsible Conduct of Research Common Research Pitfalls to Avoid More Information Paul V. Galvin Library library.iit.edu email: [email protected] Chat with us: Make a research appointment: Make an Appointment Search our FAQ: A good working definition of research might be: Research is the deliberate, purposeful, and systematic gathering of data, information, facts, and/or opinions for the advancement of personal, societal, or overall human knowledge. Based on this definition, we all do research all the time. Most of this research is casual research. Asking friends what they think of different restaurants, looking up reviews of various products online, learning more about celebrities; these are all research. Formal research includes the type of research most people think of when they hear the term “research”: scientists in white coats working in a fully equipped laboratory. But formal research is a much broader category that just this. Most people will never do laboratory research after graduating from college, but almost everybody will have to do some sort of formal research at some point in their careers. So What Do We Mean By “Formal Research?” Casual research is inward facing: it’s done to satisfy our own curiosity or meet our own needs, whether that’s choosing a reliable car or figuring out what to watch on TV. Formal research is outward facing. While it may satisfy our own curiosity, it’s primarily intended to be shared in order to achieve some purpose. That purpose could be anything: finding a cure for cancer, securing funding for a new business, improving some process at your workplace, proving the latest theory in quantum physics, or even just getting a good grade in your Humanities 200 class. What sets formal research apart from casual research is the documentation of where you gathered your information from. This is done in the form of “citations” and “bibliographies.” Citing sources is covered in the section "Citing Your Sources." Formal research also follows certain common patterns depending on what the research is trying to show or prove. These are covered in the section “Types of Research.” This guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License . Next: TL;DR >> Last Updated: Mar 18, 2026 2:05 PM URL: https://guides.library.iit.edu/research_basics Print Page Login to LibApps Subjects: Research Tags: research Research Basics secondary research