It’s an uphill climb so it has to has its share of pitfalls. The journey of research is such. However, it is better to take it step by step, one thing at a time. Let me take the chance today to explain to you the hazards and pitfalls of data collection. The most common mistakes that are made by researchers are:
No impetus in the questionnaire: At the time of choosing the problem, as a researcher do not limit your vision to yourself. Broaden your vision and look towards whether the problem you wish to research upon is going to generate new insight in the phenomenon. The answers that you would seek from your research should be targeting more real rather than hypothetical problems.
Pursuing Fads: There are certain topics of research that remain popular in the market for a short duration. These are called as fads. Abstain as a researcher to get carried away towards these fads as your area of research. They have a short lived shelf life and they may die their own death before you even get to complete your research. Spend some time over choosing topics that have more time worthiness and can be of value over years to come.
Visionless data mining: Though the collection of data is a very minute step in the entire research process. But before commencing data collection, you have to ensure to undertake proper planning so as to avoid getting into a soup. All the data collection that is done without any proper planning may lead to imperfect, irrelevant and imperfect data which is wastage of time and effort. Knot up the key that abundance in data is not a substitute for quality in data.
My research was sort of a before-after design and stuck with the after design, when I went for data collection after some intervention, people were used to and many of them did not answered seriously.