Enhancing Scholarly Communication through Research Culture

Background

The word “research” evolved from the French word recherché, meaning “to examine something thoroughly.” Educational research includes experimental and quasi-experimental research, as well as qualitative, descriptive, and correlation studies. Scientifically based research involves systematic methods that draw on careful observation or experimentation to make valid, credible, reliable, and trustworthy conclusions (Baporikar, 2015a). Research is a vital part of the social tapestry of a modern state as it exhibits diversity of motivation and purpose. It can be an open-ended enquiry into the essence of phenomena, of who we are, individually and collectively, and of the world we inhabit. Research is imperative for many reasons:

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  Research is a way of responding to societal priorities: such as the nature and impacts of climate change and how we might react to them; how to improve human health and well-being - by addressing issues of health, or educational systems or still widespread human poverty; how to develop sustainable energy generation.

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  Research enables derived knowledge, and the people who embody it to contribute to the innovation process and to economic development.

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  Research is a means of preserving, fabricating and resynthesizing existing knowledge and/for creating new knowledge.

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  Research purports and aids in building a knowledge society.

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  Research is a vital pillar of higher education.