Quantitative research design

This paper is the third in a series of articles about research methods. Previous papers in this series have focused on research paradigms (Davies and Fisher, 2018) and the research process (Fisher and Bloomfield, 2019). The aim of this article is to explain what is meant by research design and to discuss the four different types of research design that are commonly used in quantitative research. How a researcher designs, structures and implements a study can affect the research findings and is an important consideration regarding bias. It is therefore important that nurses reading and critiquing research papers have a sound understanding of the concept of research design and are able to identify any flaws in the study design that may interfere with reported study findings.