Researchers seek to grasp vibrant human issues with scientific procedures. Sociologists do not just sit in their armchairs and spin grand schemes; they go out in the world, observe, talk with people, and systematically analyze existing data to try to understand what is going on and why. We need to differentiate scientific research from everyday knowledge. Our everyday knowledge-gathering strategies can suffer from a number of weaknesses and cannot be called a complete study, analysis, or a scientific fact. It is important that sociologists observe the ethics of their discipline in carrying out research. They have an obligation to protect their research subjects from risk and harm and to protect these subjects’ rights and dignity. They have to consider many things when delving into their research such as -voluntary participation, informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, right to service, etc. To ensure the safety and rights of participants a panel known as Institutional Review Board (IRB) was established. Ethics these days play a much more important role than it did in the days of Tuskegee experiments. As soon as a question arises in someone’s mind another one must follow that traces ethics and morals.

Scientific research involves a systematic process that focuses on being objective and gathering a multitude of information for analysis so that the researcher can come to a conclusion. There are Seven Steps of the Research Process- (1) Defining the research problem; (2) Reviewing the Evidence; (3) Making the problem precise; (4) Working out a decision; (5) Carrying out the research; (6) Interpreting the results; (7) Reporting the findings.

Lets take a look at each of these steps in detail –

(1) Defining the research problem- can be easily defined as selecting a topic for research. Defining the problem involves selecting a general topic for research,