The traditional IMRaD format
Introduction: What is the research about? What research
has been done on this topic in the past?
Method: How was the research done?
Results: What were the findings?
and
Discussion: What do the results mean? What
recommendations follow from the results?
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The research report
The Hourglass Analogy
A research paper is like an hourglass
The introduction goes from
general to specific
The method and results
are specific throughout
The discussion goes from
specific to general
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The paper is coherent from beginning to end
Writing the introduction
Once upon a time…
Explain the significance of the topic
 Why is this topic important?
 Use current events, interesting statistics, and/or hypothetical examples
 First sentences are important
 Try to capture the reader’s interest (aka The Hook!)
Review literature on past studies to explain what is known about the topic
 5-6 articles (minimum)
 Avoid plagiarism! Minimal quotes! Paraphrase!
 Use APA citation style (authors’ last names, date)
 Do not cite articles by referring to their titles
 Put page #s in citations only for direct quotes, and in that case put quotation
marks around quoted material
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Writing the introduction
Once upon a time…
Develop and present theoretical explanations for your hypotheses
 Why are you predicting the expected relations? What is your rationale?
Provide evidence to support your reasoning
 If past studies have found what you predict, report those findings to support
your hypotheses
End the Introduction section with your hypotheses
 Make the hypotheses directional, unless you can make a compelling case
for why it is impossible to predict which way things will go
Write clearly, without jargon, but be precise, and use proper variable labels
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Reviewing the literature
The weight of evidence
Check multiple databases/search engines
 Google Scholar
 ProQuest ABI/Inform
 Ebsco Business Source Complete
 PsycInfo
 PubMed
 Ebsco Academic Search Complete
 Education Source
 ERIC on ProQuest
Ask a librarian! We have
excellent librarians who
are available to help you.
Focus on high quality sources
 Make sure your sources are peer-reviewed
 Focus on empirical papers (as per Assignment 1)
 Look for reviews or meta-analyses to get broad background on your topic
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Reporting the method
Detailing what was done and how
Participants (i.e., who was in your study)
 Report the sampling approach
 Report the number of participants and response rate
 Report demographic characteristics of participants
 Relevant to external validity
Procedure (i.e., the research design)
 Report information about ethical procedures
 Report the type of research (e.g., lab experiment, field study)
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Reporting the method
Detailing what was done and how
Measures (i.e., how you measured your variables)
 Describe the measure for each variable in your hypotheses
 Include # of survey items per variable, response scale per
variable, and sample item for each variable
 Provide citations for previously published scales
 Look at the survey coding key to find citations
 Report reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) of multi-item measures
 What to do if reliability is low?
When a variable was measured with multiple
items, you need to compute the index and
use the index in your data analyses.
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Reporting the method
Within the methods, use the following headings
Method
Participants
<paragraph describing study sample>
Procedure
<paragraph describing study procedures>
Measures
<paragraph describing how variable 1 was measured>
<paragraph describing how variable 2 was measured>
<paragraph describing how variable 3 was measured>
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Response rates
**Revised**
Employee Workplace Survey
Asked
Responded
1728
1077
62%
Report the relevant response rate in your research report
Is gender a variable in one of your hypotheses?
Check out JASP Handout 4 in Moodle on filtering
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Reporting the results
What was found?
Include descriptive statistics to give readers a “feel for the data”
 Frequencies for variables on nominal or ordinal scale
 Mean and SD for variables on interval or ratio scale
Present findings in user-friendly prose, with statistical support
 Make sure you include value of test statistic (t, F, r, etc., round to 2 decimal
places)
 Report exact value of p (p = .XX, round to 2 decimal places)
 Exception: if p < 0.005, report 3 decimals (p = .00X) instead of p = 0.00
 Exception: if p < .001, report p < .001
 State if results are significant, marginally significant, or non-significant
 State if each hypothesis is supported or not
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Reporting the results
What was found?
 Review the templates provided in class exercises
 Avoid common blunders that students make in reporting results.
 Look back at slides from class 7!
 Do NOT paste JASP tables into the Results section of your
report
 Report all relevant results in the results section
 If you need tables, make them yourself. Use templates provided
in class.
 Be sure to paste all JASP output into your appendix. This is
required to verify that analyses were done correctly
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Writing the discussion
What’s it all mean?
Discuss results of each hypothesis test
 Discuss both supported and unsupported hypotheses
 Mention whether your results are consistent with past studies
Present practical recommendations
 Say what companies, organizations, managers, employees,
Universities, teachers, or students should do (differently)
considering your results
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Writing the discussion
What’s it all mean?
Discuss limitations of the research
 Address threats to internal validity
 Address concerns about external validity
 Discuss reliability of measures, if problematic
Talk about future research
 What questions should researchers try to answer next about your topic?
 How could research use more rigorous methods?
End on a positive note!
 Last sentences are important, but don’t claim to have solved world
problems
 What do you want people to remember about your study?
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Other parts of the report
Make it Professional
Reference List
 Include full citation for all articles mentioned
 Remember that library databases are not sources
Write title and abstract last
 Title: not too long; catchy but informative
 Abstract: 50-100 words
14
Words of advice
Write in simple language.
Be clear.
Use jargon only for
technical aspects.
Use headings and subheadings to provide
structure.
Write in the past tense.
Write concisely!
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Look at published empirical
studies as models:
“Morisano et al.” & “Refreshing
Work” may also be helpful
Stay within the word limit:
1400 words
(excluding abstract, references,
and appendices)
Look carefully at the instructions
Easiest way to lose marks is to not do what is asked of you
If you have not read the instructions
for the assignment carefully, now is
the time!
Pay special attention to p. 3 which
provides the evaluation breakdown
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So why study research methods?
Hint: it’s not because you must
Knowing the research process…
…gives you tools to generate evidence-based recommendations
…makes you a savvier consumer of information
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Doing research
 Focus on variables that can be the basis of useful
interventions
 Recognize that asking useful questions is more
important than getting results that support your
hypotheses
 Take care in developing surveys and analyzing
survey data
 Write technical reports that are user-friendly as well
as methodologically sophisticated
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Using research done by others
Advocate for evidence-based management
 Management actions that use up-to-date research
findings are a powerful guide for decision making
 Go back to primary sources; technical reports can
be evaluated better than journalistic reports for
internal and external validity
Many companies do not rely on evidence
 This is your competitive advantage!
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Summary of learning objectives
 Technical research reports tend to follow a standard
IMRaD format
 It is important to be precise and transparent when
reporting your research
 Evidence-based management is a powerful tool
You now have some expertise in research methods. Use it!
Read original scientific works. Be skeptical about reports of
research findings that provide little information. Demand
evidence to support recommendations.
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