Journey of Research Practice

Abstract

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Journal of Research Practice (JRP). This journal has resulted from a widely shared interest that researchers in different disciplines and professional fields should communicate with each other freely and remain open to learn from each other’s individual journey of research.

The title of this journal may look surprising to some readers. There may even be a legitimate doubt as to whether the journal would take-off at all, the title being so broad and unspecific. On the contrary, to be more optimistic, the journal could meet a long-felt need, i.e., that of bringing researchers, and various forms of organised inquiry, into fruitful connections with each other, without the restrictions imposed by formal disciplinary boundaries.

Research and researchers have been the focus of many discussions in the past. These discussions have proliferated following different threads. There is a logical (and philosophical) thread that seeks to explicate the logic of research and the structure of scientific inquiry, seeking out the rules and methods deployed by researchers in arriving at justifiable results. It also delves into the ideology of scientific research. There is a sociological thread that seeks to understand research communities as social entities and knowledge as a product of social interaction among human beings. There is an institutional or political-economic thread that seeks to understand the workings of regional or national research systems--complete with their councils, funding, and power play. Likewise, there are other threads too, such as research as a space of struggle and resistance, research as a practice of freedom and self-transcendence, etc. There is something to be gained by bringing these threads together, in the hands of researchers themselves, no matter what disciplines or fields they might individually pursue.