STRUCTURE AND PROCESS OF RESEARCH IN SPORT SCIENCE, BASED ON THE RESEARCH [622910]

STRUCTURE AND PROCESS OF RESEARCH IN SPORT SCIENCE, BASED ON THE RESEARCH
PLAN

„Sucess doesn’t only require energy and persistence, but also calmness, quick and solid orientation,
observation and balance. All these are needed to aquire and then keep results, as whatever we reach in
sports will quickly vanish should we not keep guard. Thus s port plants the seed of intellect and moral into
the human soul.”(Pierre de Coubertin)

Planning the structure and procedure of the research work is a highly important task, as without the proper
level of preparation, the result of the research becomes questionable. An indispensable and necessary step
in the planning the particular actions is to define the timeframe. It is advisable to define the time -frame of
each step during the preparation of the research plan. This depends on several variables (eg. sample size,
data collection method, data analysis method, the persons conducting the interv iews, etc.), but of course the
time required for a given research also depends on whether it is a cross -sectional or longitudinal
examination. Cross -sectional studies are based on examinations that represent one particular point in time
(a specific date). The researcher conducting a national research to examine the agressivity of professional
male waterpolo players will probably look at only one crosssection in time. Longitudinal research is the
one that is being carried out in the course of a longer tim e span. Babbie (2000) distinguished between three
important types of longitudinal studies:
Trend research looks at processes in time within larger
populations. E.g.: changes in the number of professional sportsmen at cencus surveys.
Cohort studies
look at smaller samples and detect changes of the same sample through time. In most cases cohorts are
formulated according to age groups. E.g. 14 -16 year old female tennis players in 2000.
Panel studies
mean longitudinal research gathering data at differe nt times of the same sample (panel), from the same
people. Thus from time to time it looks at the same sample taken from the whole society or population. The
most common type of research is the cross -sectional type, as they are cheaper and faster,however,
longitudinal examination depict changes in time more precisely.
The suggested process of the research plan is the following (Falus, 2000): 1. Choice of the research topic.
2. Analysing the literature on the topic. 3. Formulating the main hypotheses. 4. Choice of research methods
and tools applicable for the justification or rejection of the hypotheses. 5. Selecting the sample to be
examined. 6. Completing the examination. 7. Data analysis and formulation of general findings. 8.
Publication of resear ch results.

2 .1. Choice of the research topic All scientific research starts with a question, the result of which is the
development of interest. Curiousity is raised in people with interests, as they analyse things around them
from various perspecti ves. One of the most common questions in sport science is „how can I develop my
performance and push my limits?” Such questions originate from the interest, most often determined by the
research environment. The reason for BSc/Msc students’ thesis research is the necessity (the diploma can
not be acquired without a thesis). The topic often depends on the environment of the person preparing the
thesis. During topic choice it should be defined what and why will be examined. The expected result and
(if there i s) the practical applicability of the research also has to be mentioned. „The most important things
at topic choice are the theoretical and practical background and knowledge of the field, which will enable
the student to navigate around important and ins ignificant phenomena, as well as to recognise real
problems” Gyetvai -Kecskemétiné, 1997).

2.2. Analysing the literature on the topic. As in case of all scientific research, the collection and
understanding of already published literature is highly importa nt in sport science research as well.
Unfortunately we often encounter research and articles examining a topic well -examined by international
and Hungarian scientists, still their results are not mentioned. It often happens that experts try to work on
hypo theses that could be easily answered after a thorough literature review. Technically, they put a lot of
effort into finding results that have already been explored and published by valid8 and reliable9 methods.
Thus, to avoid such work, we must explore the relevant literature on the given topic and we have to
understand the published and accepted results by similar researches. Any kind of systematic data collection
can be considered as a research. Generally we make the first step when there isa specific to pic or the
background of a topic that we wish to understand. One can remember only a limited amount of information
about a particular topic, thus the first step of the research is to carry out a literature review. Although
wemight think that we have a uniq ue and revolutionary idea, it is advisable to explore the field first, as it
might be possible that the topic has already raised the interest of others as well. In most cases the literature
review, the understanding of the research topic, and the review of the most important articles might take
years, which is influenced by the aim of the research. Theses, articles, not to mention dissertations all have
different criteria. It is important to select the relevant information from the large scope of available
materials. The process of literature reviews have significantly changed in the age of information technology,
as acquiring information is much faster now. „Literature review generally means that we perform high –
level, critical analysis of the state of ava ilable knowledge on a well -defined topic , and we create synthesis
concerning the topic.” (Falus, 2004)

The following criteria should be considered during the literature review of a chosen topic: 1. The scientific
level of the resource must meet the le vel of interest. The aim of the research, the reliability of expected
results and the place of publication must be considered in all cases. A literature review must emphasise the
works that meet scientific requirements, but other sources of information sho uld also be looked at. Trainers,
teachers and students with a practical problem often believe that popular magazines provide appropriate
information for their question. However, it must be understood that while these resources usually do not
meet the relev ant scientific requirements, they may still contain important and useful information. 2. The
reliability of the source must be decided. One should aim at interpreting the most recent scientific results,
although it cannot mean that new research and result s are necessarily better than older data. If there is an
extensive scope of literature available on a given topic, we suggest to start the selection process with the
abstracts of the articles – this will save a lot of time and effort. 3. The appropriate k ey term should be
defined, that connects the topic with the field of interest. This means the mapping of the key words and
expressions. Their exact definition is highly important, as they will again save us time and energy. The
incorrect choice will have j ust the opposite effect, possibly leading to information overload. 4. Similar
views, problems and concepts should also be considered. Young researchers and students often make the
mistake of shifting the point of view when a new problem arises, or when th ey choose to apply a certain
resource. Keeing the appropriate balance requires a lot of experience.
We look at the process of literature reviews according to Figure 2/2. The first step is to define research
motivation (interest), which is most often indica ted by the environment. This may be grouped into outer –
(e.g. it is obligatory or expected) and inner incentives (e.g. we are led by our own interest). Nowadays the
data mining techniques have two clearly separable parts: traditional (printed) and internet -based searches.
Both techniques belong to the secondary data search group, as their aim is to find and use knowledge that
is already available and published. The most important locations for traditional data mining are libraries

and archives. Archives are generally used during historical researches. The existence of particular libraries
can also be considered a part of the independent institutional system of sport sciences (eg. the library of
University of Pécs, Institute of Physical Education and Sport Sc ience). These libraries keep the handbooks,
course books, course materials, research reports, conference publications, journals, articles, theses, daily
papers and other publications of sport sciences (e.g. publications in Hungarian: Iskolai Testnevelés és Sport,
Testnevelés, Testneveléstudomány, TF Tudományos Közlemények, Kalokagathia, Testnevelés – és
Sportegészségügyi Szemle, Sportorvosi Szemle, A Sport és Testnevelés Időszerű Kérdései, Mesteredző,
Sporttudomány, Magyar Edző, Asztalitenisz, etc.). Comput ers help literature reviews as they provide direct
access to databases. There is no particular location to be mentioned at this data -mining technique, as the
Internet can be accessed from anywhere. The following sources may be used to access Hungarian lite rature
in sport science: www. sporttudomany.hu; www.magyaredzo.hu; www.threef.hu; www.nupi.hu;
www.hupe.hu; www.leistungssport.net. Although there are a lot of advantages to online data mining (eg. it
is fast and cheap), we must emphasise that most of the knowledge available there is published without
reviews, which makes the credibility of a lot of data questionable. After completing literature review with
the traditional (printed) data mining method, there is a need to compress data, which can be achieve d by
preparing notes. With this step we aim to downsize the number of data to minimal, while ensuring clear
references to the original work throughout. Depending on the amount of literature we plan to process, we
may distinguish between keyword highlightin g (extracting) and the card -based method. We deal with a
fairly small amount of literature during keyword higlighting, and our aim is to prepare for a one -time
occasion (e.g. a test or presentation). Here we higlight the most important ideas and key sente nces, of which
we make a list following the process. We use the card -based method when we would like to preserve
information from multiple sources. In this case we do not only note the keyword, but the specific idea itself.
When we interpret longer ideas or quotes, we must precisely define the data of the source as well, so that
we can reference it anytime, so it does not qualify as partial or complete plagiarism. It should be understood
that literature review may result in new questions and it may modify the previous ones, or in case of finding
satisfactory answers, no further questions need to be raised. 2.2.1. Preparation of the reference list The
unambiguous aim of the bibliography and reference list is for resources to be:
identifiable,
and
trace able.

The preparation of a bibliography and references is a necessary task which is often carried out inaccurately.
We describe the process of preparing the reference list based on the manuscript of László Harsányi.10 All
methods, thoughts, figures an d tables are considered to be a reference that originate from another researcher.
In the scientific world everybody aims to protect his own intellectual property, thus plagiarism is one of the
most serious ethical offences. Plagiarism: the partial or comp lete expropriation of intellectual property, by
publishing it under one’s own name. Nowadays there are several methods in use to point out plagiarism.
There are large databases prepared (where articles, handbooks, theses and dissertations are uploaded),
where new texts can be compared to already published ones. If there are matching parts and no references
are given, then it provides ground for suspicion. For this reason, most higher educational institutions require
theses to be submitted not only in a pri nted form but also in an electronic format (CD disk). Similarly to
many other products, intellectual property is also defined by law. In Hungary, the Act No. LXXVI of 1999
defines copyright issues of products of literature, science and art. Furthermore, t his act disposes over free
usage and other limits of copyright, which all must be taken into consideration.