Originality in Research: Contribution and Significance
knowledge is what we understand in separate, or in a series of concepts.
knowledge is justified, it is a true belief, but it should be justified!! Knowledge is not an assumption, it is rather a justified belief.
knowledge is shared by the audience, and evaluated, it is not simply believed.
Contribution: the buzz word is 'impact'
Contribution: advancement of knowledge, the importance of knowledge. It is related to how researchers intervened in their subjects. It is a recontextualisation of theory/ data. By contributing to knowledge, you can expand on an existing model in a substantial way; move a model to a new area, create a new design, and show how your methods moved a specific idea.
You can also combine two ideas to create a new idea, by making your research interdisciplinary.
Originality: must demonstrate the contribution of new knowledge.
In your thesis you can write it as follows:
My original contribution to knowledge is .....
This sentence should appear in: the abstract, the introduction, the discussion, and the conclusion.
It is not an insertion of a sentence, it is a demonstration throughout your literature review that you have established a sufficient understanding of the existing literature. Your question through writing your literature review is: Where is literature now?
Count how many times you have mentioned the word 'contribution' in your thesis.
Significance: 4 strategies, for some the significance is the implications.
S1: The importance of the research questions: why the research is worth doing?
S2: Significance of the findings: why do they matter?
S3: Explain how your research transforms theory.
S4: Explain generalisability or lack or generalizability.
For further explanation check: Tara Brabazon