Research Skills: What They Are and Why You Need Them

Throughout your career, research skills can help you, no matter your job or interests. In your personal life, research skills might help you solve problems or answer questions. Research skills for students are a big part of college life. They can help you learn new things, communicate more clearly, and support your work. Learn more about the different types of research skills and tips for improving your own skills, whether you need them as a learner, an employee, or just for everyday life.

Types of research skills

Conducting research involves a set of skills and abilities that allow you to search for, collect, analyze, and evaluate information. You can use several ways to do this, and your chosen methods will depend on the problem you're trying to solve. 

Data collection

Data collection refers to the process of collecting information to conduct your research. You can collect data from a person, online articles and databases, books, magazines, encyclopedias, journals, and published studies. 

Interviewing

Interviewing is a way to collect first-party data. A variety of job roles use this research skill. For example, a marketing manager may conduct interviews and focus groups to research how people like a product, or a journalist might interview people to gather information for a story. 

Note-taking

Note-taking is a valuable research skill for several job roles and for studying. It involves summarizing and writing down key points when listening to speakers, watching videos, or reading. The more detailed and accurate your notes are, the more useful they are for analysis and relaying information to others. 

Critical thinking

A good researcher has excellent critical thinking skills. Using critical thinking in research helps you interpret various sources, data, information, and arguments to form theories backed by credible evidence. It also helps you understand different information, draw conclusions, and make connections. 

Organization

Being organized is an important research skill. To analyze findings and draw conclusions, you need to plan your processes, set goals, and manage your time. You also need to pay close attention to detail so you remember key points and easily spot patterns. 

Communication 

Clearly communicating findings is a large part of research. You will use communication skills when conducting research through interviewing and running focus groups. You will likely communicate your research findings by writing reports or articles or delivering presentations.

Why are research skills important for your career?

Research skills can help you no matter what career path you take because many jobs involve solving problems or evaluating existing ideas and products to come up with new, innovative solutions. Some examples include:

• Market research: Marketers often conduct research on markets, customer bases, and competitors to target products to the appropriate customer.

• Finance and accounting: Working in finance involves problem-solving, discovering, plotting, and analyzing data, looking for patterns and inconsistencies, and researching the reasons behind these.

• Product design: With research skills, you can understand common user pain points and analyze existing products to create a product for the market.

• Science: Research is a large part of any science-related role. Your research skills help you conduct experiments, recognize patterns, and develop hypotheses you can prove or disprove through evidence.

Tips for improving your research skills

You’ll likely learn research skills in school and college, then build on them in the workplace and everyday life. If you want to consciously work on your research skills, you can use them while reading books, using library databases, browsing online publications, and beyond. Consider the following tips for improving your research skills.

Be open-minded.

You might hope to find a certain idea in your research, but always stay open-minded and accept that you might discover something new that you hadn’t considered. It’s important to keep your mind open to all results rather than researching to verify your own theory.

Get organized.

Before starting any research, take some time to get organized. Make a plan to outline the information you want to find, the questions you need to ask, and how to gather your data. Then, create a timeline for completing each piece of your research. Consider using a mind map to get your ideas on paper and see connections between your findings before creating a structure. 

It’s also helpful to organize your findings by categories. Using a filing system (online or paper-based), online bookmarks, and note-taking apps can help you keep track of your research. 

Start broad and get more specific.

With so much information available, the key is to start broad to build a basic understanding of your topic, then use this information to get more specific with the information you gather. As you learn more about your topic and understand which sources are most credible, you can get more niche with what you look for. 

Check sources.

You can easily access many sources, but some may be unreliable or biased. It’s vital that you check all sources to ensure they are credible. Check the expertise of the author, the reputation of the website or journal, and whether the author or publication has any conflicts of interest that keep them from being unbiased. Always use more than one source to support a point to give more confidence in its validity. 

Use multiple sources.

Effective research considers multiple sources and arguments. Valid research involves finding reliable sources and comparing them with others. If a study produces results that other sources confirm, it will likely be valid. 

Use advanced research methods.

Sometimes, you’ll need to use advanced research methods. Advanced research methods are a more formal, scholarly approach to research. They include creating a hypothesis to investigate or stating the reader’s assumptions before beginning research. This is the kind of structured approach that academic research takes.

Getting started with Coursera

Research skills are valuable for practically all careers and can help you with your studies and personal life. They help you gather information and solve problems. To build on your research skills, consider exploring some online courses on Coursera, such as Understanding Research Methods, part of the University of London's Market Research Specialization, or Research Methodologies, delivered by Queen Mary University of London.