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Social Research Tool

Gather conversations, posts and articles from the web to find answers about the world using a social research tool.

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Social Research Tool

What is Social Research?

Social research is the systematic investigation of social issues through observation or interaction. It is an interdisciplinary and collaborative process that draws on knowledge from various social sciences, including sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, communication studies, economics, and history. Social research methods can be qualitative or quantitative and can involve interviews, surveys, focus groups, case studies, and participant observation.

A wide range of questions can be subject to social research, from the influence of religion on voting behaviour to the impact of new tax laws on employment. It involves collecting, analyzing and organizing data which can be used for commercial or academic research.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is a method used to gather and analyze data through a non-numeric or qualitative approach. It can be seen as a way of understanding the world by gaining a more holistic understanding of a phenomenon.

Qualitative research is a broad term used to describe the body of research concerned with the study of human experience and the meaning that individuals or groups ascribe to that experience. Qualitative research may be contrasted with quantitative research, primarily concerned with establishing causal relationships between variables.

Qualitative research has its roots in social research and was a response to quantitative methods. In the social sciences, qualitative research is a systematic way of understanding the meaning people assign to their experiences. In other fields, qualitative research is a means of exploring new ideas, issues, and areas of inquiry and may be used in conjunction with other methods to gain a fuller understanding of a particular phenomenon.

Qualitative Research
Quantitative Research

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is a systematic, objective and reproducible process for collecting and analyzing numerical data. It focuses on numbers, including statistics and quantitative analysis of data.

In a broad sense, quantitative research is a method of inquiry that relies on quantitative measures and quantitative analysis. In a narrower sense, it is a method of inquiry that relies on statistical methods. Quantitative research may also be called objective research, objective inquiry, objective method, or empirical research.

Quantitative analysis is used to study the data's behaviour and formulate predictions based on the observed data. Quantitative analysis can be used to make decisions based on a set of criteria, and it can be used to determine which data is essential and which data is not.

Quantitative Research vs Qualitative Research

While qualitative research emphasizes the meaning, interpretation, and personal involvement of the researcher, quantitative research emphasizes the objectivity of numbers and observable, measurable, and testable phenomena.

Qualitative research focuses on the individual case; it is based on small sample sizes but is more time-consuming and labour-intensive compering to quantitative research. Quantitative research focuses on the population; it requires large sample sizes but costs less than qualitative research.

Primary Research

Primary research is conducted for the first time in a given area, as opposed to secondary research, which uses existing research. Primary research aims to generate new knowledge, and primary research is often undertaken to answer a specific research question.

Primary research is conducted by the investigator and the investigator alone, and not by a secondary source. In the primary research, the investigator may make use of secondary sources of information, such as interviews, surveys, or other types of qualitative or quantitative research, but only to the extent necessary to conduct the primary research. In the primary research, the investigator must have conducted all of the research and analysis of the research results and must have reported on the findings.

The primary investigator should also be responsible for making all data, findings, and other materials from the study available to the public. Primary research may be contrasted with secondary research, which uses already existing research and analysis.

Primary Research
Secondary Research

Secondary Research

Secondary research searches and reviews existing sources, such as books, documents, periodicals, electronic databases, and statistical records. The results of secondary research are called secondary data.

Secondary research is often conducted to find information unavailable in primary sources. For example, a government official might be interested in determining whether a company has paid a fine for environmental violations. In this case, the government official would use secondary research to find the company's environmental record. This research would be conducted by searching the company's financial statements, news releases, and corporate documents.

Secondary research is often used in academic research and is often conducted to help answer research questions. In this case, the researcher searches for secondary sources and then reviews them to determine if they contain information that can help answer the research question. If so, the researcher extracts this information and presents it as a report or paper.

Free Social Research Tool

Kimola offers a robust Social Listening Platform to gather conversations, posts and articles from the web to answer questions about the world. It's designed for marketers, strategists and researchers.

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Create a free account on Kimola Analytics to start tracking conversations on the web.

1
Setup Setup

Setup your account by adding keywords or links to track the web and scrape conversations.

2
Listen Listen

Enjoy Kimola's beautifully designed dashboard to browse, filter and search in conversations.

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Frequently Asked Questions
  • Social research seeks to describe social patterns and trends. Despite the research method followed by sociologists, the most common purposes of research are exploration, description and explanation. For example, a sociologist might want to describe how people's perceptions of inequality in the United States have changed over time. In this case, the sociologist might conduct surveys, focus groups or social listening to explore, for exploration, description and explanation.

  • Social research is the systematic, critical investigation, by trained observers, of human behaviour, to develop generalizations that can be applied to a larger group or the whole human race. It is a form of social study, but it is a specialized form in which the observer makes a special effort to obtain data that will lead to objective conclusions.

  • Case studies, community-based participatory research, field research, focus groups, interviews, surveys, usability testing, quantitative research, and qualitative research are the most known research types.

  • Social research is not limited to studies that can be carried on in the field or a laboratory. It includes studies in which the investigator himself uses the materials he collects, studies in which he collects the materials and uses the records, and studies in which he uses records or information that others have collected.