Results
The fact that an approach is ‘scientific’ according to some clearly formulated criterion therefore is no guarantee that it will succeed.
(Feyerabend, 2010, p. 258)
Researchers must report their findings in a complete and honest fashion, without misrepresenting what they have done or intentionally misleading others about the nature of their findings.
(Leedy & Ormrod, 2016, p. 336)
The main objective of the results section is to present and neutrally describe the analytical output and findings from the study, but not yet interpret them.
(Fox & Jennings, 2014, p. 138)
Results
The informatin presented in the Results section should be a continuation of previous sections and lead into the following sections. The Results section should present only findings that relate to the study’s research questions and hypotheses, making the appropriate connections to previous sections (Introduction, Literature Review, Theoretical Foundation, Method). All other findings should be eliminated and considered not relevant to the study. In addition, these findings are to be ‘presented with little commentary in terms of the literature or the implications of your findings’ (Bryman, 2008, p. 665). The information presented in the Results section should be unaltered: ‘The results section should purely present and describe the output of the analyses ‘as you found it” (Fox & Jennings, 20140, p. 146). Implications are to be placed in the Discussion section that follows, not in the Results section, thereby connecting the Results section to the sections that follow (Discussion, Future Research, Conclusion).
(Turner, 2019, p. 324)
Objective
The main objective of the results setion is to present and neutrally describe the analytical output and findings from the study, but not yet interpret them.
(Hahn Fox & Jennings, 2014, p. 138)
It’s Results
The Results section is just that: results…. This section should contain nothing but the results. No methods, no discussion. There is a temptation to remind the reader about the details of the experiment performed or the method used to generate the results, especially if it has been several pages since the Methods section ended. Method, study, and experimental details should not be restated in the Results section.
(Annesley, 2010, p. 1069)
As You Found It
The results seciton should purely present and describe the output of the analyses ‘as you found it.’ No interpretation or extended discussion of the results is needed.
(Hahn Fox & Jennings, 2014, p. 146)
Results Only, Not an Explanation
When reporting results, authors feel an urge to comment on the results, e.g., how the results compared with prior work, were consistent with what was predicted in another paper, or explained the reason that a marker is increased in a diseas. The interprtation or analysis of the results, however, belongs in the Discussion section. In the Results section you can describe what the data show, in the Discussion section you describe what the data mean.
(Annesley, 2010, p. 1069)
General Questions to ask for Qualitative Studies
- Did the report include a detailed description that gives a thorough sense of how variaous individuals responded to the interview questions and how they behaved?
- Was the research report written in a style that brings to life the phenomenon being studied?
- Did the report present any specific questions or hypotheses that emerged from the data that were collected?
- If any quantiative data were collected, were they described and analyzed appropriately?
- Did the researchers establish a strong chain of evidence?
- Did the researchers use member checking to ensure that the information they presented about field participants was accurate and reflected field participants’ perceptions?
(Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2010, pp. 543-544)
General Questions to ask for Quantitative Studies
- Were appropriate statistical techniques used, and were they used correctly?
- Was the practical significance of the statistical results considered?
(Gall, Gallm & Borg, 2010, p. 539)
Results – Qualitative
The Results section is the ‘main event’ of the article. All of the carefully constructed material in the Introduction and Method has prepared readers to launch into the results with openess and confidence that they are about to learn something new about the topic and understand it in a deeper, more complex, and nuanced way. At the beginning of the Results section, the readers should be excited to learn about what the atuhors have found and should be prepared to be ‘wowed’ by the authors’ contribution.
It is often useful to provide an overview or road map of the findings in the beginning of the Results section. It is here that authors can briefly illustrate for the readers how the Results section is organized and how the different components of the results fit together or tell a story. Regarding length, the REsults section should typically constitute approximately 30%-35% of the overall manuscrip (about 10-13 pages of a 35-page manuscript).
(Goldberg & Allen, 2015, p. 12)
Presentation of the Data
This is where the authors must summariz/synthesize large amounts of data. This can be done in a number of ways:
- typologies
- categoris
- quantifications
- charts
- graphical presentations
- interviewees’ words quoted verbatim
Integrating Theory
Authors need to be transparent in how they draw on their theoretical foundation and should infuse the theory throughout the Restuls section. How does the theory describe the results?
Thick Description
Providing a thick description communicates the connections between the theoretical foundation and the results.
Thick description refers to the authors’ task of integrating both descriptive and interpretive commentary when presenting qualitative findings.
(Goldberg & Allen, 2015, p. 15)
Use of Participant Quotes
Participant quotes can be used to illustrate specific themes or categories identified from the data. Quotes can be used to provide additional evidence of these themes/categories.
There needs to be a balance:
To be most effective, quotes should be used to illustrate a given them or phenomenon, but they should not dominate the Results section. In other words, a good REsults section begins by describing a theme in sufficiently rich and descriptive detail that it stands on its own without quotes. The quotes are presented as illustrations of that theme (or concept or class of participants).
(Golberg & Allen, 2015, p. 14)
APA Guidelines for Qualitative Research
Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS)
Results:
- Describe researh findings (e.g., themes, categories, narratives) and the meaning and understandings that the researcher has derived from the data analysis.
- Demonstrate the analytic process of reaching findings (e.g., quotes, excerpts of data).
- Present research findings in a way that is compatible with the study design.
- Present synthesizing illustrations (e.g., diagrams, tables, models), if useful in organizing and conveying findings. Photographs or links to videos can be used.
Results – Quantitative
The Results section should provide an adequate and complete description of the main findings of the work carried out. It is suggested to avoid the repetition of the same exact content of the Tables or Figures and to leave the interpretation of the results of the findings to the Discussion section. The main messages and details of the Results section should be provided in the Figures and Tables. No interpretation should be provided in this section.
The resulst section should be seen as a mirror of the methods: for every method provided, there should be a corresponding results. Subheadings can be included and some suggestions might be: recruitment/responses, characteristics of the sample, findings from primary analyses, secondary analyses and additional findings. Exact p values should be presented and must always be shown together with the estimates and confidence intervals. There should be a consistency with the number of decimal places presented in the results section and in the tables. It is common to present one or two decimal places. Always present the absolute number of cases, in addition to relative measures (e.g., percentage was 22%-33/150-).
(Forero et al., 2020, p. 3/8)
Type of Analysis
For each type of analysis, there are specific procedures and criteria for presenting the results. Know what is expected for the type of analysis that you are conducting.
Consult the following for information on how to present the results for a specific type of analysis:
- Purdue Owl Writing the Experimental Report
- APA Writing up your results
APA guidelines for the Results Section
- Participant Flow
- Recruitment
- Statistics and Data Analysis
Consult APA for specific guidelines. A summary table is provided at the following link:
https://apastyle.apa.org/jars/quant-table-1.pdf
Results – Mixed Methods
Indicate how the qualitative and quantitative results were ‘mixed’ or integrated (e.g., discussion; tables of joint displays; graphs; data transformation in which one form of data is transformed to the other, such as qualitative text, codes, themes are transformed into quantitative counts or variables).