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Research Project Guide

How To Write The Methods Section of Research Paper In 9 Easy Steps

Master the methods section of your research paper in just 9 easy steps. Get clear guidance to enhance your writing!

Oct 29, 2024

Starting a research project can feel like wandering in a foreign city without a map. You need a plan, a clear path, and tools to guide you through the chaos. That's where the methods section of your research paper comes in. It's your blueprint, laying out the precise steps you took to test your hypothesis and collect your data. This guide will show you how to craft a clear, concise methods section to help understand how to start a research project on the right foot and finish your research quickly and efficiently.

You'll learn how to choose the correct research methods, describe them in detail, and anticipate any potential challenges you may face. By the end, you'll thoroughly understand how to write a methods section that will help you achieve your research goals and produce a well-organized and easy-to-read paper.

What Is The Methods Section of the Research

Correct Order of Methods Section

Examples of methods section of research paper, different formats of methods section, supercharge your researching ability with otio — try otio for free today, what is the methods section of the research paper.

man showing his efforts - Methods Section of Research Paper

The methods section of a research paper is indispensable. It’s where you map out exactly what you did, how, and what you used to get it done. This section is about the details—consider it your experimental playbook. After the introduction sets the stage, the methods section takes the baton and runs with it, laying down the steps before getting into results and discussion. You’ll want to state what actions you took, the techniques you used, the tools and equipment involved, and even why you chose specific protocols or software. The aim is to provide a clear, replicable path so that others can follow your footsteps or at least understand how you arrived at your conclusions.

Why is the Methods Section So Crucial?

The methods section holds the keys to understanding the reliability and validity of any study. It allows readers to judge your research's trustworthiness and, if needed, replicate your findings. This section is like a blueprint; it not only supports your study's context and authenticity but also plays a vital role in the success of your paper. If your methods section is lacking, expect early rejections or a slew of revisions during the publication process. Reviewers often scrutinize this section to assess the robustness of your research protocol and data analysis. The methods section is your opportunity to show off your research chops and field expertise.

woman typing on laptop - Methods Section of Research Paper

1. Research Design: Crafting Your Strategy

Your research design is the backbone of your study, defining your overall strategy for addressing your research question. Whether you choose an experimental, observational, qualitative, or mixed-methods approach, explaining why this method is legitimate within your discipline is crucial. Explain why it's the most effective approach to your research questions or objectives. This information may sometimes appear in the opening paragraph of the Methods section rather than as a separate subsection.

2. Ethical Approval: Crossing the T’s and Dotting the I’s

Every study must adhere to ethical guidelines, and you must specify which governing board or regulatory body approved your study. If an Institutional Review Board (IRB) gives the green light, provide the approval number assigned to your project.

3. Setting: Finding the Perfect Spot

Detail how you determined your research location and why it suits your project. If you have any previous connection or institutional affiliation with this spot, mention it here.

4. Participants: Who’s in the Study?

Explain when, where, and how you recruited participants. Were they aware of the study’s true purpose? Describe your selection criteria and demographic characteristics. If applicable, discuss the representativeness of your sample, intended sample size, initial and final sample sizes, and any dropouts.

5. Instruments: Tools of the Trade

Describe the instrument in detail if you used a survey, questionnaire, or interview questions. Specify whether you created or used an existing one, and cite it if applicable. Discuss who administered it, how many questions it included, the topics covered, question types, and measured variables. Provide evidence of the instrument’s reliability and validity. If you used multiple instruments, consider separate subheadings.

6. Procedure(s)/Intervention: What Happened During the Study?

If your study involved an experiment or intervention, provide a comprehensive description. Discuss group divisions, control groups, sorting methods, the experiment’s location, duration, and session count. Explain who delivered the intervention, participant interaction, instructions, apparatuses, and clinical treatments or educational interventions.

7. Data Collection: Capturing the Details

For qualitative studies, describe your data collection protocol . Specify who collected the data, in what form, over what period, and how it was recorded and stored. Address any steps taken to ensure reflexivity consistency and limit bias.

8. Data Analysis: Making Sense of It All

All essential details are whether your data were transformed for analysis, who analyzed and interpreted it, and what software was used. Outline statistical tests, scoring methods, missing data, excluded data, and how coding categories or themes were developed. This information may appear in some fields at the beginning of the results section.

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2. Knowing the Guidelines Inside Out

Before writing your methods section, study the author's instructions for your target journal. Follow the guidelines meticulously. For instance, you might need to change the section heading from “Materials and Methods” to “ Patients and the Method ,” depending on the journal. Some journals may prefer not to disclose the names of institutions in open-label reports. You might also need to adhere to specific style guides, like the APA format. Using standardized checklists for different study types for biomedical research can help ensure you cover all essential details.

3. Weaving a Cohesive Narrative

The experiments in your methods section should be presented logically to help readers understand the development of your study. Organizing methods chronologically is effective. For a clinical trial, you might start with the study’s setting and timeline, then detail patient recruitment, study design, randomization, group assignments, interventions, and data collection and analysis techniques.

4. Aligning with the Results

To enhance readability, align the order of your methods with the results. This coherence will guide readers through your findings more smoothly.

5. Adding Clarity with Subheadings

Break down the methods section using subheadings for each experiment. This structure aids readers in following along. You can use the specific objective of each experiment as a subheading or the experiment's name if applicable.

6. Details, Details, Details

Include every detail you considered when designing the study or collecting data, as minor variations can impact results and interpretation. For outcome measures, provide information on validity and reliability and cite existing literature to support these measures. Describe materials, equipment, or stimuli used, and don’t forget to mention sample size estimation and potential calculation if relevant.

7. Ethical Considerations

Address ethical approval early in the methods section. Specify whether your study was approved by an ethics committee or institutional review board and whether you obtained informed consent from participants or guardians.

8. Specifying Variables Clearly

Identify control, independent, dependent, and extraneous variables that might influence your study’s results. For example, if your research involves teaching methods, prior knowledge of the topic could be an extraneous variable.

9. Detailing Statistical Analysis

Describe all statistical tests, significance levels, and software used. Consult with a biostatistician, and mention if their recommendations informed your analysis. Provide justification for the statistical methods chosen, such as why you opted for a one-tailed or two-tailed analysis.

person infront of laptop - Methods Section of Research Paper

Defining Your Participants with Precision

When detailing your Methods section , clarity is critical. Start by describing your sample like this: "We recruited 879 adults, aged 18 to 28, with 56% identifying as female. All participants had completed a minimum of 12 years of education. We obtained ethical approval from the university's board and recruited participants online through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). We targeted a geographically diverse group from the Midwest using a screening survey. Each participant received $5 upon completion."

Calculating Sample Size and Ensuring Power

Determining your sample size is crucial. Explain it clearly: "Using a sample size calculator, we determined that at least 783 participants were needed to detect a correlation coefficient of ±.1 with 80% power and a significance level of .05."

Outlining Your Materials

Describe the tools you used in your study. For example: "Our primary outcome measures were religiosity and trust in science. Religiosity refers to involvement in religious traditions, while trust in science reflects confidence in scientific research. We also examined if gender and parental education levels predicted religiosity."

Measuring Religiosity

Explain how you measured your variables: "We assessed religiosity using the Centrality of Religiosity scale (Huber, 2003), which includes 15 questions across five subscales. An example item is, 'How often do you feel that something divine intervenes in your life?' Responses range from 1 (very often) to 5 (never), with an internal consistency of .83."

Assessing Trust in Science

Describe your other measures similarly: "We measured trust in science using the General Trust in Science index (McCright et al., 2013). This consists of four items rated on a scale from 1 (completely distrust) to 5 (completely trust). An example question is, 'To what extent do you trust scientists to produce unbiased and accurate knowledge?' The index has an internal consistency of .8."

Detailing Your Procedure

Walk readers through your process: "Participants completed the survey online via Qualtrics, which included demographic questions, the Centrality of Religiosity scale , an unrelated anagram task, and the General Trust in Science index. We included the filler task to prevent priming effects, and an attention check was embedded within the religiosity scale."

Analyzing Your Data

Finally, explain your analysis methods: "We used Pearson's correlation coefficient to assess the relationship between religiosity and trust in science. A t-test evaluated the significance of the correlation. We conducted multiple linear regression for the secondary hypothesis to see if parental education and gender predicted religiosity."

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person typing - Methods Section of Research Paper

Here are various ways to structure the methods section of a research paper. Your choice will depend on your field, research design, and how you want to communicate your process.

1. IMRAD Format: The Classic Approach

Widely used in science and medical research , this format breaks down the methods into clear subsections:

Participants

Provide details about who was involved, including demographics and how they were chosen.

Materials/Measures

Describe the tools, tests, or questionnaires used.

Outline the steps taken, including any experimental changes.

Explain the methods for statistical or qualitative analysis.

2. Chronological Format: Step-by-Step Guidance

This approach works well for studies that follow a sequence, such as those in social sciences or historical research. Organize the section by the order of each method, specifying timing and duration for phases like data collection.

3. Thematic Organization: Grouping by Themes

This format is ideal for qualitative studies. It groups methods by themes, and it's advantageous in ethnographic research. You can explain data collection and analysis by theme, showing how each area was explored.

4. Comparative Approach: Juxtaposing Methods

Use this format for studies comparing two or more methods, populations, or locations. Describe each method separately, then explain the reasoning behind the comparison and how you conducted it.

5. Subsection Approach: Handling Complexity

Break the methods into subsections for complex studies like mixed methods or engineering research. Describe quantitative and qualitative methods separately and include a section on how these data types were integrated.

6. Diagrammatic Format: Visualizing the Process

Use a flowchart or diagram to summarize your process in fields like engineering or biomedical science. Follow this with detailed explanations of each step, which is helpful if your protocol is complicated.

7. Protocol-Based Format: Sticking to the Script

In clinical trials or laboratory studies, detail the specific protocols or procedures followed. Cite published protocols if applicable, and describe interventions, controls, and how blinding or randomization was handled.

8. Case Study Format: Focusing on Specifics

For case studies, begin with the selection and background of each case. List your data sources, then describe how data was collected and analyzed, often comparing across cases.

Choose the format that best suits your study and communicates your methods to readers.

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How to Start a Methods Section in Research? [with Examples]

The examples below are from 76,350 full-text PubMed research papers that I analyzed in order to explore common ways to start the Materials and Methods section.

Research papers included in this analysis were selected at random from those uploaded to PubMed Central between the years 2016 and 2021. I used the BioC API to download the data (see the References section below).

Examples of how to start writing the Methods section

The Methods section is the recipe for the study: it should provide the reader enough information to replicate the study without looking elsewhere. [for more information, see: How to Write & Publish a Research Paper: Step-by-Step Guide ]

The Methods section can:

1. Start by mentioning the approvals acquired to conduct the study

For example:

“ The study protocol was approved by the institutional research commissions of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH; Basel, Switzerland) and the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS; Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire). Ethical approval was granted by the ethics committee of Basel (EKBB; reference no. 316/08), and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Côte d’Ivoire (reference no. 124/MESRS/DGRSIT/YKS/sac).” Source: taken from the Methods section of this PubMed article

2. Start by mentioning the study design

“This cross-sectional study was performed among students and staff of one of the largest government-funded universities in Malaysia.” Source: taken from the Methods section of this PubMed article

3. Start by mentioning the date, duration, and place of the study

“This cross-sectional study was a part of the Student Mental Health Survey that was conducted at Akita University between May 20 and June 16, 2020 .” Source: taken from the Methods section of this PubMed article

4. Start by mentioning the source of the data

“ This study used three datasets from the 2007, 2013–14, and 2018 Zambian Demographic Health Surveys (DHS).” Source: taken from the Methods section of this PubMed article

5. Start by mentioning the sample size

“Data were acquired on 30 patients with schizophrenia and 30 healthy controls .” Source: taken from the Methods section of this PubMed article

6. Start by justifying the use of the main material or method

“ In order to describe the infectious disease progression we use the minimal and prototypical SIR model.” Source: taken from the Methods section of this PubMed article

Common words used to start a Methods section

Here’s a list of the most common words used at the beginning of the Methods section:

“This study was approved by…”
“This study was conducted at…”
“This was a retrospective study…”
“This cross-sectional study was conducted…”
“This study was conducted in accordance…”
“This study was performed in accordance…”
“All procedures were approved by the…”
“Written informed consent was obtained from…”
Comeau DC, Wei CH, Islamaj Doğan R, and Lu Z. PMC text mining subset in BioC: about 3 million full text articles and growing, Bioinformatics , btz070, 2019.