RESEARCH REPORT: CHARACTERISTICS, STRUCTURE, EXAMPLES - SCIENCE - 2024

An investigation report consists of a document that must be presented after an investigation on a specific topic has been completed. This report aims to answer a series of questions of academic interest in order to broaden the knowledge on this subject.

In addition, the report must contain data from different information sources, such as surveys, interviews, books or any other electronic means. The investigator must always ensure that the information is reliable and professional in nature.

Investigation reports are submitted after the completion of an investigative process. Source: pixabay.com

Like any other written work, the research report should be structured in a logical and precise order, according to which ideas are clearly expressed. Likewise, the work must have a good presentation and its content must be supported with arguments and references that validate what the researcher wishes to prove.

Research reports are widely used in all disciplines of knowledge, as well as at almost all educational levels (secondary, undergraduate, graduate, master's and doctorate). Consequently, it is one of the most widely used evaluation methods in the academic and research system.

With technological and digital advances, these reports have not lost their validity; in fact they have evolved notoriously thanks to the facilities offered by technology to access all kinds of information. Currently researchers have more facilities to carry out their work.

characteristics

An investigative work or report has the following main characteristics:

Clarity of thought and language

Clarity of thought and language are among the most essential characteristics of a research report. It is important to emphasize that research is a thought process that begins even before choosing the subject of study.

The investigator's power of reasoning is the effective tool for the decisions that must be made throughout the process. This process requires patient, deep, and alert thinking.

In this way, clear thinking results in clear writing. As much as possible, sentences should be simple and important points should be highlighted in small paragraphs. This clarity will make it easy for the reader to understand what the author of the report means.

Conceptual clarity

Another characteristic of a research report is its conceptual clarity. The concepts in a study must be defined and explained. In general, dictionary explanations are almost never adequate for investigative purposes.

Therefore, it is important to be very explicit, even with terminology that appears to be very simple. It should be taken into account that the same term can have different definitions in the different areas of knowledge.

Explicit statement of the research problem

The research report must explicitly and unambiguously establish the problem studied. In the case of quantitative research, the problem statement must specify the variables and the population under study.

This approach can be done in a declarative or question form. For its part, in qualitative research, the approach is much broader and indicates the general purpose of the study.

Organization and format

Investigation reports must observe certain standards of format and organization. The details of the format (type and size of font, margins, way of citing sources, presentation of the list of references, among others), are regulated by each institution.

On the other hand, other characteristics, such as the general organization, reflect the expectations of the scientific community. Thus, the report is expected to contain a general summary, introduction (with background and motivation for the study), materials and methods, results, and analysis of results.

Use of citations and reference list

It is very common that when conducting an investigation the intellectual property of another author is used. A citation should be appropriately included in research reports when referenced, summarized, paraphrased, or quoted from another source. There are multiple formats for dating styles, and they vary by academic discipline.

Also, the report must contain the list of references. These offer all the information necessary to locate the sources.

objective

The objective of a research report is that it becomes a reliable and valuable source of information, that provides news on a particular topic and that can be used by other researchers interested in these approaches.

Objectivity

Research reports must be objective in nature, so the researcher cannot be subject to prejudice or personal evaluations. Due to this, it is recommended to apply a scientific methodology based on data collection and observation.

Precise and clear

An investigative report is mainly characterized by being precise and clear. This means that the researcher must present the information in such a way that the reading of his ideas does not allow confusion or misunderstandings. For this reason, it is recommended to develop an introductory section in which the methodology and objectives of the work are explained.

General structure of an investigation report

Every investigation report must have the following elements:

Introduction

This section clearly and briefly mentions the subject of the research (generally from the formulation of a question), the objective or objectives of the work and the contextualization, which refers to the state of the question and the methodological steps that the researcher will follow to carry out the work.

Methodology

The following aspects should be described in this area of ​​the report:

- The procedure that had to be followed to carry out the investigation (observations, newspaper investigation, interview, surveys, among other elements).

- The subjects or objects that were investigated. If it is a psychological or sociological investigation, the subjects may be children or parents, among others; if it is a more theoretical investigation such as the study of a literary work, the researcher must establish the books he used).

- The steps that were carried out to obtain the data that were subsequently processed and analyzed.

Results procedure and discussion

In this section, the data obtained must be described in a synthetic way. In the case of a work with a particularly theoretical focus, this section should include an analysis of the collected sources.

For example, if the report deals with the dreamlike element in Salvador Dalí's paintings, this fragment would place the pertinent theory on surrealism and its relationship with dreams and the human unconscious.

On the other hand, if it is a report prepared with surveys and statistics, it is recommended to include a graphic language that facilitates the understanding of the data, such as drawings, diagrams, maps, tables or tables.

This type of report is used especially to know some characteristics of a certain group of the population, such as their language or their educational level, among other aspects. For example, they can also be used to investigate how a certain disease or vice affects a society.

The final discussion is carried out referring to the main objectives of the work; The background information obtained through the literature review should also be mentioned.

Conclusions and recommendations

After the analysis, the conclusions of the investigation are established. These are usually presented as a summary, briefly describing the results obtained.

In addition, in this fragment of the report, recommendations for future research can be added, so the researcher must remain open to other possible readings, observations and interpretations.

Likewise, in the conclusions the implications of the work are also analyzed, it is indicated if the initial questions were resolved and it is determined if the objectives of the research were met.

References

In this part of the report, a list of all the sources that were consulted to prepare the investigation should be prepared; These must be very specific so that those who are interested can locate them.

Usually the name of the author, the year of publication of the source and the title are placed. If it was extracted from a book or other physical material, the publisher is placed; if it was extracted from a digital medium, the name of the web page is placed.

Annexes

In the annexes are usually placed the surveys prepared, some graphics or other material that has been used to carry out the work. In certain cases, photographs or fragments are placed that are attractive to the report's readers.

Presentation modalities

When speaking of presentation modalities, reference is made to the way in which a research report can be presented or published.

At present there are many ways of exhibiting an investigative work: from articles in specialized magazines of certain disciplines, to books or newspaper articles. After having reviewed its text and having consulted it with a jury, the researcher can choose the following presentation methods:

Articles in specialized or academic journals

Academic journals are peer-reviewed periodicals that address content on a particular topic. They generally have an academic editor and an editorial committee.

Likewise, these magazines allow the introduction and presentation of new investigative works, as well as their possible criticism. An example of an academic journal are scientific journals, whose main focus is science and are made up of articles that address different natural or laboratory-generated phenomena.

Two types of academic reports

There are two types of papers published in academic journals. The first is the requested one, which occurs when a person is invited to present their report, either by direct contact or through a general call.

The second is unsolicited, in which a person submits their text for possible publication without having been previously contacted by the editorial team.

After receiving the report, editors and experts must determine whether or not the work will be presented in the journal.

Newspaper articles

Newspaper articles are a genre of journalism whose purpose is to make known some facts of collective interest, either in the political sphere or in the social sphere.

The writing of a newspaper article is straightforward, since the issues generally should not be explained in depth but must be expressed from a precise point of view through which the reader can see what the main implications are and thus can forge their own opinion about the content.

In addition, newspaper articles are not very long, so they do not require a high level of argumentation. They can be based on short but useful data that encourages the reader to keep looking for information.

Investigative reports can be presented as newspaper articles; However, before being published they must be modified by the researcher or by the editor of the newspaper in order for the text to adapt to the requirements of the printed medium.

Generally, a shorter version of the investigative report is published, in which the language used is less technical. In the case of statistical reports, it may happen that the newspaper decides to attach the graphs of the work so that the reader can better understand the information.

For example, many scientists make research reports that are presented in the newspaper because they are of collective interest, as in the case of certain diseases that arise as a result of rains or climate change, among other reasons.

Informational signs or posters

Research reports can also be presented from informative posters or posters, in which the text will be accompanied by colorful images and photographs.

This modality is used frequently during lectures and works effectively as support material during exhibitions.

In order to be presented on a poster, the research report must be summarized in short paragraphs. In addition, the main objectives have to be placed as bullets, since this speeds up the reading of the listeners or interested parties. Despite these modifications, the text must not lose its objectivity and professionalism.

books

There are many publishers, both physical and virtual, that are in charge of publishing volumes in which different investigative reports can be found. This means that they are compilation books in which different texts that contributed something important to a certain discipline are listed.

This type of modality is used frequently in humanistic disciplines; for example, in the area of ​​literature there are books dedicated to certain artistic currents in which different reports are included that address the same subject from different perspectives.

If the researcher decides to opt for this presentation, the text does not have to be modified, except for some small details that are left to the editor's discretion. Similarly, if the research report is very extensive, it is likely that it can be presented in an independent and non-compilation book.

Examples

It should be added that research reports can be prepared on any academic topic. The main requirement is that the objectives of the work and the contributions it will make to the academic discipline must be clear.

Consequently, research reports can be designed for any area of ​​knowledge, such as computer science, sociology, literature, linguistics and chemistry, among other disciplines.

Below is a brief, hypothetical study that works to exemplify a research report in very general lines:

Title

Introduction

The present work aimed to know how certain forms of teaching produced different academic results.

For this, two methods were implemented: attending class and carrying out practices at home. This experiment was carried out on one hundred students from the school of psychology.

Methodology

One hundred students volunteered to participate in the experiment. Each was assigned a list of duties to perform.

Regarding the materials, they were provided with the text by Ángel Lama entitled Historia de la psicología (1995), which contains the topics explained during the investigation.

Process

By means of a system of variables, two independent variables could be established: attendance at classes and practical work at home.

Before starting the experiment, the participants were advised that the objective was to know the improvement in academic performance through the application of these two variables.

Likewise, at the time of the exam, those students who had not complied with the assignment were told to leave the classroom, in order to avoid anomalies in the final results.

Conclusions

Finally, the results of the exams showed that attending classes together with the continuous practices developed at home significantly increased the academic performance of the students.

References

1. Manterola, C. (2007) How to present the results of a scientific investigation? Retrieved on July 25, 2019 from Scielo: scielo.conicyt.cl
2. Montero, L. (sf.) Example of a research report. Retrieved on July 25, 2019 from Aula Fácil: aulafacil.com
3. SA (sf) Definition of investigation report. Retrieved on July 25, 2019 from Definition, concept and meaning: definition.de
4. SA (sf) Effective investigation reports. Retrieved on July 25, 2019 from UCOP: ucop.edu
5. SA (sf) How to write the investigation report. Retrieved on July 25, 2019 from Top Set: kelvintopset.com
6. SA (nd) Investigation report what is an investigation report? Retrieved on July 25, 2019 from GC Resources: gc.initelabs.com