research is...

 

Drawing on an American Educational Research Association presentation by Reid in 1981, Gough (2004) suggests that the purpose of research is not only to "signify an 'endeavor to discover new or collate old facts etc. by scientific study of a subject, [or] course of critical investigation' (Oxford English Dictionary), but also to describe any means by which a discipline or art develops, tests, and renews itself (Reid, 1981, p. 1)." (p. 156)