Research is the scientific and systematic way for searching in-depth information about certain geographical or social phenomena to reach a conclusion.
In other words, Research Is the careful collection of data/information based on a problem, analyzing the data and making conclusion out of those collected. Or Research is a scientific and systematic process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting data basing on a certain phenomena.
RESEARCH DATA
Is a body of information about a particular problem
TYPES/SOURCES OF DATA IN RESEARCH
i) Primary source/data is the original data collected directly from the field, they are obtained through interviews, questionnaires, observation and focus group discussion.
ii) Secondary sources/data is the data collected from documents. Example; through books, journals, economics, survey, census report, official report

The following are disadvantages of research
- it consumes a lot of time hence the researcher can not do other things. research is the process which involve finding the research problem, preparing research design and methodology, collecting data and issuing research report, these activities takes time and may hinder the researcher from performing other activities such as teaching and looking after his or her family
- it is expensive to conduct research since sometimes it needs funds to hire research assistant, money for transportation, and money to print and distribute the questionnaire
- some findings may be useless and confusing to the community
- the researcher may concentrate on a single problem leaving many other problems unsolved for example attention on HIV/AIDS ignoring education
- research is confined only to intellectuals thus making it inapplicable in illiterate societies’

characteristics of research process
- it must be controlled: in order to reliably establish a cause and effect relationship, it is sometimes important to design a study in such a way that enables you to link cause and effect and vice versa so that you can study the extent of the impact of the cause and effect
- it must be rigorous
- it must be systematic
- it must be valid and verifiable
- it must be empirical
- it must be critical: critical scrutiny of the procedures used and the methods employed is crucial to research enquiry. the process adopted and procedures used must be able to withstand critical scrutiny
strength and weakness of quantitative research
strength
- it is objective
- more reliable and valid
- use of statistical techniques facilitate sophisticated analysis of data
- the numerical data can be analysed in quick and easy way
- quantitative research are replicable
- quantitative experiment are useful for testing the result
weaknesses
- quantitative research requires a large number of respondents. it is assumed that the larger the sample is the more accurate the results reflect the characteristics of research population
- it is costly this is due to the fact that it need more respondents as compared to qualitative research
- contextual factors to help interpret the results or to explain variation are usually ignored
- much information are difficult to gather using structured research instruments
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