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Requirements for scientificness

According to the Swedish Nationalencyclopedin (NE, 2008), scientific work is "a systematic and methodical acquisition of knowledge in a particular area", which can be done by "collecting and classifying data, making observations and experiments or interpreting and analyzing available material (for example documents and objects) in order to be able to draw general conclusions and formulate results."

For our subjects a better definition of the scientific approach might be: "the development of new knowledge and innovation with a methodology that ensures reliability of results and relevance." During research we use a scientific methodology. The boundary between investigation, development and research, however, is not clear. Some requirements for scientificness are imposed on a degree project.

  • Statements that are not obvious should be backed up. You can do this by reasoning in such detail that the conclusions can be easily understood. Therefore you should motivate and argue. You can also refer to another source.
  • For facts that you got from another source you must give a reference. This applies even if you just summarize what someone else wrote.
  • Try to relate what you do to the literature and scientific knowledge or positions.
  • You need to carefully distinguish between your own and others' information.
  • You need to carefully distinguish between facts and interpretations of facts.
  • You also need to specify what you have done and what others, such as employees of the client, have done.
  • In the report, you need to describe not only what you came up with, but also what you did to come up with it. It is important that you present the methodology separately from the results and the result separately from the discussion of the results.

On the Codex website you will find ethical rules and guidelines for research. Research ethics has emerged, among other things, as a reaction against disrespectful research on humans and against research misconduct (fabricated, falsified or plagiarized data/results).