Academic Writing : Justifying Research Methods

Key Points It’s important to justify your research approach/methods with evidence from the literature. Your research approach/methods will depend on what you are investigating and the purpose of the research.   The methods you choose show how you plan to collect, study, and understand your data.

Why do you need to include evidence?

When planning a research project, it is important to show that your choice of methods is supported by evidence. Using evidence from academic sources demonstrates that your approach is not only personal preference but is also trusted and tested in the field. This strengthens your research by linking your plan to best practices and recommendations from other scholars. It also helps readers understand why your method is appropriate for answering your research question. By integrating evidence into your explanation, you make your research design more credible, reliable, and academically sound.

What does it look like? 

Introducing Evidence 

• “As recommended in research ethics literature…”  

• “In line with best practice for qualitative analysis…”  

• “Following established procedures…”  

• “Consistent with research guidelines…”  

Linking to your study plan

• Clearly describe what you will do in your research.  

• Use verbs like will ensure, will require, will analyse, will follow.  

• Example phrases:  

• “all participants will sign a consent form”  

• “semi-structured interview data will undergo thematic analysis and translation”  

• Place the reference next to the evidence, not your actions.  
• Merge evidence and plan into a single logical sentence.  
• Avoid repeating information.  

• Use this template to create your own sentences for any research method, ethical procedure, or data analysis step. The formula is:  

  [Evidence Phrase + Citation] + [Action Verb + Your Plan]