Plan your Research Design

Choosing the appropriate research design

Research design is the plan for how you will conduct your entire research project. The research design gives attention to the research topic, purpose and scope, and specifies the type of study best suited to answer your research question. It also incorporates the relevant data collection and analysis procedures.

• Journal Article: Patricia McInerney, Anushka Ajith and Deidre Pretorius et al. Considerations for choosing a research design. WJCM. 2024. Vol. 6(3):171-174.

Types of Research Designs

In primary care research, several research designs are commonly used to address diverse clinical and community health questions. These designs can be broadly categorized into quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches.

Designing Relevant Research

Research is most relevant when it focuses on real-world problems by generating evidence that informs practice, policy or interventions. IDrawing on qualitative, quantitative, and mixed‑method approaches, it is designed to meet practical research objectives within specific contexts. This goal‑oriented form of inquiry prioritizes actionable insights, enabling researchers to translate theory into practice. By doing so, relevant research supports informed decision‑making, policy development, and meaningful improvements in professional and organizational practice.

Often in primary care, our research impacts and serves a specific community/group of people and there are other considerations that we need to adhere to. Check out the pages on Integrated Knowledge Translation Page and EDI-IR for More information.

Decolonizing Research Methodologies

Decolonizing research is a process of conducting research with Indigenous communities that places Indigenous voices and epistemologies at the center. There is no fixed path for decolonizing research methodologies, publications in the section provide a broad framework for decolonizing methodologies. For resources on delcolonizing research paradigms, check out the EDI-IR page.

• Presentation: Indigenous Ways of Knowing: How should we conduct research together? – Dr. Amy Montour, Research Knowledge  and Skill Builder [Video | Slides]
• Book: Smith, L. T. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples.
• Journal Article: Gerlach, A. (2018). Thinking and researching relationally: Enacting decolonizing methodologies with an indigenous early childhood program in Canada. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17(1), 1609406918776075.
• Journal article: Kandasamy, S., Jonathan, Y., Majid, U., Farrah, K., & Vanstone, M. (2021). Indigenous women’s experiences of cervical cancer screening: Incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing into a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative research. Global Public Health, 1-14.
• Presentation: Indigenous Data Ownership – Research Data Canada Webinar
• Presentation: Research involving Indigenous Communities – Renee Corbiere, Research Huddle [Video | Slides]

Community-Engaged Research

Type of partnership approach where individuals as patients or communities are engaged in research as members of the research team to help shape the research priorities, scope, implementation and outcomes.

• Guide: PERC Advisory Board (October 2017). Building Patient Engagement in Research: A Guide for Research Teams. A product of the INSPIRE-PHC Patient Engagement Resource Centre (PERC)
• Presentation: Working with the experts – involving people with lived and living experience in research by Dr. Claire Bodkin and Jammy Pierre, Research Knowledge and Skill Builder [Slides | Video | Resources]
• Presentation: Community engagement in DFM prison health research: practices and reflections by Dr. Fiona Kouyoumdjian and Lindsay Jennings, Research Knowledge and Skill Builder [Video | Slides]

Other types of scholarship

These research designs can be used for other scholarly activities beyond research. Check out this document to determine what kind of scholarship your work is and determine whether your work requires ethics approval.

• Guide: Guiding Questions to Determine Whether Your Research Requires Ethics Approval, Toronto Metropolitan University

Quality Improvement

• Presentation: QI in Primary Care — When, how, and how is it different from research? by Drs. Dale Guenter and Kathryn Cottrell [Video | Slides]

Evaluation

• Presentation: Exploring Evaluation by Ms. Rachel Harris [Slides]