identify the research problemdetermine the purpose of the studyformulate the research questionreview the literaturedevelop a theoretical/conceptual frameworkidentify the study assumptionsacknowledge the limitations of the studyformulate the hypothesisdefine the study variables/termsselect the research designidentify the populationselect the sampleconduct a pilot studycollect the data organize the data for analysisanalyze the datainterpret the findingscommunicate the findingsutilize the findings

An area where knowledge is needed to advance the practice of nursing

The specific question that the researcher expects to be answered in a study.

A characteristic or attribute of a person or object that differs among the persons or objects being studied (e.g., age, blood type)

Beliefs that are held to be true but have not necessarily been proven; assumptions may be explicit or implicit.

Weaknesses in a study; uncontrolled variables (extraneous variables). limit generizability in findings

A statement of the predicted relationship between two or more variables.

contains population and variables

The “cause” or the variable thought to influence the dependent variable; in experimental research it is the variable manipulated by the researcher.

The “effect”; a response or behavior that is influenced by the independent variable; sometimes called the criterion variable.

contains the direction of the researcher’s expectation of the study results

A dictionary or theoretical definition of an abstract idea that is being studied by the researcher.

The definition of a variable that identifies how the variable will be observed or measured.

The overall plan for gathering data in a research study.

can be classified as qualitative or quantitativecan also be classified as experimental or nonexperimental

A complete set of persons or objects that possess some common characteristic of interest to the researcher.

The entire group of people or objects to which the researcher wishes to generalize the findings of a study.also called “universe”

The group of people or objects that is available to the researcher for a particular study

A subset of the population that is selected to represent the population and used to make generalizations about the population

A small-scale trial run of an actual research study.

The pieces of information or facts collected during a research studywho-when-where-what-how

all authors agree on the following number of steps in conducting quantitative research: there are no set number of steps

there may be some shifting back and forth between the steps

one of the main purposes of conducting a review of the literature before carrying out a research project is to determine existing knowledge on the topic

all studies are based on assumptions

the plan for how a study will be conducted is called the design

a small group selected from a larger group to participate in a study is known as the sample

early in the research project

a score above 40 on the Nieswiadomy Anxiety Inventory

the final step of the research process, for the researcher, is to utilize the findings

journals