PurposeSyBBURE SearleJune 01, 2026

Welcome

PurposeSyBBURE SearleJune 01, 2026

You may find yourself reading this post because you either aren’t sure about research just yet and need some perspective or you are a completer and just want to go through every section. This post will cover not only the purpose of this guide (which doesn’t take too long to explain), but also the purpose of doing research, in general (which is much more philosophical).

Let’s start with the purpose of this guide!

Purpose of this Guide

One reason we wanted to create this was because after you teach the same thing even a few times, you tend to start forgetting important pieces. We’ve been doing different (and the same) training modules since the summer of 2006. That is a long time and we’ve amassed a large amount of research training materials. This guide is a way to ensure that there is always a resource for you to go to, that it’s available whenever you need it (not just when we happen to be going over a topic), and that it covers all the points we can sometimes forget.

Give us some grace though, this guide isn’t perfect and is a work in progress. This means that if you see something that’s obviously messed up, tell us! If you think something is missing, we’ve either not gotten there or didn’t think of it, so mention that too! And if you ever feel super good about an area of research training and want to contribute to the guide either by making a new section or expanding on/adding perspective to an existing section, we welcome that.

Ok, let’s move on to the headier part…

Purpose of Research

Where would we be without people observing the world, asking questions, trying to find answers, and using these answers to make the world a better place? Probably still trying to make fire, which I think means we just wouldn’t exist. So…that means we need to do research to propel the existence of humans. That’s a big claim, but I think it’s true at least on some level. All types of research allow us to come to an understanding of everything and anything around us, of us, of our interactions with everything around us. This is, admittedly, a very human-centric perspective, and one could argue that by studying everything around us, we might perturb it in a harmful way without even realizing it. You probably shouldn’t do research if you aren’t open to considering the implications of any and all actions you take. I’ll continue with the assumption that your ethics are robust and you regularly debate in your head whether or not the things you contribute to will net positive or negative. Some research focuses on understanding or answering a question—this is basic research (aka, fundamental, discovery-based research). Sometimes it is purely for the sake of curiosity and sometimes it extends into being able to use that discovery or answer to do something. Applied research focuses on solving problems and improving us and everything around us. These types of research purposes are complimentary, regardless of the disagreements the division tends to cause.

So, we have 1) build understanding, 2) solve problems. Try to not mess anything up while observing or create more problems than we can solve. If you like these things, keep reading. If not, find something else to do with your time.

Mentality

Now we’ve talked about the general purpose, let’s dig into the mentality. Researchers are observers, explorers, tinkerers, theorists, testers, iterators, innovators, repeaters, repeaters (yes, I meant that duplicate, it’s a joke). We are ok with uncertainty, with constantly second-guessing ourselves, with things not working, and with mentally struggling with why things aren’t working. We are relentless in our pursuits of the unknown and are willing to invest time, regardless of what comes from it (sometimes it’s nothing). We often aren’t looking for some big paycheck and tend to be mixed in terms of how we view the impact of our work. I have friends who are committed to discovery-based work and view that as the way to make the most impact. 50+ years later that one discovery they make might have a huge impact. I, personally, need shorter timelines and focus more on the applied research. Some researchers are committed to the output of their work being solely through publications and presentations, while others need to see their work translated and/or commercialized.

Depending on what part of the research enterprise you’re in, you might do very different things from someone in another part. Some researchers do hands on science, whether it’s actually tangible or not. Some come up with ideas, secure funding, and then try to tell everyone else what to do (even if they don’t know how to do it themselves). Some researchers do a mix of both. Then, there are people who are a part of the research enterprise that go to great lengths to ensure everyone can get things done, like people who help manage grants and make sure we are all in compliance with regulatory things.

I suppose the take away is that regardless of your exact mentality, if you are intrigued by research, there might be a role for you that doesn’t take upending who you are. It does take effort to find that fit though. Starting with some hands-on research experience is a great way to launch that search.

Not everything is perfect

Research is hard, whether you are the hands-on person or the person pushing the ideas. Designing studies, executing studies…we area limited by what’s reasonable, feasible, and ethical to do. There is often no perfect control for your experiment (at least not until we find those parallel worlds), no way to hold all other variables constant expect the one you want to perturb, and no way to ensure you always see everything. We do the work as robustly as we can, but admit the errors and flaws (or at least we should). Knowing that nothing is ever definitive, but needing to try to find answers despite that is the researcher’s constant struggle and perhaps their most universal characteristic.

People do research almost because of a compulsion, a need to understand things and/or to make things better. It is a purpose not a profession for many of us, but it is also the most challenging thing to do (I say this having limited experience doing other things, so take it for what it is). This, however, is why we do it.

Ultimately, you have to understand yourself, your goals, your drivers, and your motivations to know if research is for you in one way or another, so take a look at some of these links and hold what you read against who you are.