Unit 13: Research Goals.
58 Proprietary Research vs. Scholarly Research
In the past, some students have had trouble distinguishing the concepts of proprietary vs. scholarly or primary vs. secondary or basic vs. applied research. This is one reason that we talk about basic vs. applied in Part 2 instead of together in one testing unit. The way we talk about primary, secondary, basic, and applied research they are ALL types of scholarly research, e.g., primary scholarly research, looking through secondary scholarly research. Let’s say that you’re the scholar – Dr. You. Dr. You wants to answer a scientific question. Dr. You does secondary research to determine what we already know before performing their own primary research. We’ll table basic and applied for Part 2. Ah, but, for whom does Dr. You conduct this research?
Learning Objectives
What are the key differences?
Proprietary Research vs Scholarly Research
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- Research that stays within a specific group or organization and is meant to benefit that specific community
- Often used as a tool of persuasion for profit
- The research can be completed by scholars but is not necessarily always done by scholars
- Example: DocMC is hired by Disney to conduct a review of their employees technological capital. DocMC is still a scholar, but in this instance she’s been hired by and will be paid by Disney to conduct research that they need to run their company.
- Example: research statistics used in commercials — “75% of women reported having softer skin after switching to Dove Body wash.”
- Research that stays within a specific group or organization and is meant to benefit that specific community
[Link referenced in lecture video]
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- Research by scholars or experts in a certain field with the intent of sharing with the general public
- Created to expand knowledge of a certain topic or solve real-world issues
- Either Basic (for building theory) or Applied (for solving problems) research [more on this in Part 2: Basic vs Applied]
- Always done by scholars
- Example: A research article by scholars, like Doc MC, investigating college students performance in class when technology is not allowed in lecture. Doc MC plans to publish this research in a scholarly journal.
The bottom line is: think critically about WHO conducted the research and how that might affect the results. What would they have to gain or lose. Take a look at this pop press article. What do you think about the research the article cites?
Example + Article Deconstruction
The pop press article: https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2018-07-27/study-cellphones-laptops-in-the-classroom-lead-to-lower-test-scores
In text: “A study published in the journal Educational Psychology found that students who had cellphones or laptops present while a lesson was being taught scored five percent, or half a letter grade, lower on exams than students who didn’t use electronics”
The blue link leads you to the original study: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01443410.2018.1489046
You would examine-
-the journal: Educational Psychology
An International Journal of Experimental Educational Psychology-the author(s): Arnold L. Glass Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA Correspondenceaglass@rutgers.edu
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3202-5953 & Mengxue Kang(don’t just stop here and say “Rutgers! That place is legit!” Scholars move. Google this Arnold guy and see what he’s up to now.)
Research that stays within a specific group or organization and is meant to benefit that specific community
Research by scholars or experts in a certain field with the intent of sharing with the general public