This text is intended for use by students and researchers to fill the lack of accessible literature for the formation of scientific research knowledge indispensable for higher education professionals.
The literature includes many texts from particular research areas. However, almost all of them do not address or only make references to the conceptual and methodological bases that underlie scientific research. This failure is a source of inefficiency in much research.
The initiative to publish this book arose from the need to fill this gap, providing the student and researcher with material that is quite sparse and difficult to access in the literature. Furthermore, many concepts are presented in the literature vaguely and imprecisely, which does not allow the establishment of a coherent and complete conceptual and methodological basis.
This book is a compilation of three articles published by the author.
Chapters 1 and 2 introduce the scientific method and scientific research. Chapter 3 provides a description of scientific research methods and their strategic uses in the sequential phases of each cycle of the application of the scientific method for generating scientific knowledge: synthesis, analysis, and synthesis. These three chapters are considered a necessary introduction to the proper understanding of scientific research and the distinct implications of its methods for the scientific knowledge generated. The relevant literature considered in the development of this book is listed in the Bibliography.
The author thanks the students and researchers whose contributions inspired the creation of this text and were fundamental to better adapting it to its purposes.
