Methodology is defined as (1) "a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline", (2) "a particular procedure or set of procedures", or (3) "the analysis of the principles or procedures of inquiry in a particular field" (Merriam–Webster). The common idea here is the collection, the comparative study, and the critique of the individual methods that are used in a given discipline or field of inquiry.

Methodology refers to more than a simple set of methods; rather it refers to the rationale and the philosophical assumptions that underlie a particular study. This is why scholarly literature often includes a section on the methodology of the researchers. This section does more than outline the researchers’ methods (as in, “We conducted a survey of 50 people over a two-week period and subjected the results to statistical analysis,” etc.); it might explain what the researchers’ ontological or epistemological views are. (See ontology , epistomology)

For instance, do the researchers believe in the positivist (see Positivism) paradigm, which holds that truth is out there, waiting to be discovered? In this view, facts exist independently of any theories or human observation. This is very much a view in the Western philosophical tradition, which informs Western science: reality is assumed to be objective – that is, it exists outside of our perceptions of things. And so, in this paradigm, neither the search for truth nor truth itself is problematic; Truth (with a capital "T") is definite and ascertainable. The “men in white coats” conduct an empirical experiment in a lab and then pronounce to the rest of us what they, as “experts,” have discovered.

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RT @pmhut: The Wars Between Project Management Methodologies http://bit.ly/3dnwZD #pmot #pm
arikjones (Arik Jones) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:33:45 -0000
RT @pmhut: The Wars Between Project Management Methodologies http://bit.ly/3dnwZD #pmot #pm
New Methodologies for Searching Distributed Electronic Sources: seminar from the makers of Old Bailey Online http://bit.ly/24XrsN
louBurnard (lou Burnard) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:05:51 -0000
New Methodologies for Searching Distributed Electronic Sources: seminar from the makers of Old Bailey Online http://bit.ly/24XrsN
Testing methodologies - Regression testing - http://cfbloggers.org/?c=35999
cfbloggers (cfbloggers) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:01:10 -0000
Testing methodologies - Regression testing - http://cfbloggers.org/?c=35999
CARA - Methodologies http://tinyurl.com/y94cu9j
joni_xsza (Joni Hardin) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:03:56 -0000
CARA - Methodologies http://tinyurl.com/y94cu9j
Fighting with dynamically delivered cascaded methodologies.
bollocks (bollocks) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:01:17 -0000
Fighting with dynamically delivered cascaded methodologies.
What kind of impact if kids learn "design" methodologies in grade school? In jr. high? In sr. high? Less miserable teenagers, adults?
fujiko_suda (fujiko_suda) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:46:44 -0000
What kind of impact if kids learn "design" methodologies in grade school? In jr. high? In sr. high? Less miserable teenagers, adults?

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