Synopsis of Research Methodologies: A Brief Guide for Pharmacists

Research is a scientific way of answering questions and testing hypothesis in order to generate new knowledge or validate existing knowledge. Pharmacists, other than their functions in dispensing drugs, they could pursue roles in various areas such as clinical research, research and development, quality assurance, and pharmacy practice research. Every investigation has a study design, types of study design used are dependent on types of questions to be answered and types of research (i.e., qualitative or quantitative research). This review presents a brief overview of general quantitative study designs, sampling methods, data collection, and data analysis. Additionally, qualitative study designs, sampling methods, data collection and interviewing process, qualitative data handling and its analysis.