Book contents
- The Production of Knowledge
- Strategies for Social Inquiry
- The Production of Knowledge
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Detailed Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Discovery
- 2 Exploratory Research
- 3 Research Cycles
- Part II Publishing
- Part III Transparency and Reproducibility
- Part IV Appraisal
- Part V Diversity
- Part VI Conclusions
- References
- Index
2 - Exploratory Research
from Part I - Discovery
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 March 2020
- The Production of Knowledge
- Strategies for Social Inquiry
- The Production of Knowledge
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Detailed Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Discovery
- 2 Exploratory Research
- 3 Research Cycles
- Part II Publishing
- Part III Transparency and Reproducibility
- Part IV Appraisal
- Part V Diversity
- Part VI Conclusions
- References
- Index
Summary
Exploratory research is an attempt to discover something new and interesting by working through a research topic and is the soul of good research. Exploratory studies, a type of exploratory research, tend to fall into two categories: those that make a tentative first analysis of a new topic and those that propose new ideas or generate new hypotheses on an old topic. This chapter examines the history of exploratory studies, offers a typology of exploratory studies, and proposes a new type of exploratory study that is especially helpful for theorizing empirical material at an early stage. It argues that exploratory studies are an important part of a social scientist’s toolkit.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Production of KnowledgeEnhancing Progress in Social Science, pp. 17 - 41Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
- 107
- Cited by