Background Research

Writing a Good Study Background Purpose This resource is intended to help you learn to do the following:

• To develop a good study background including study needs and setting. • To formulate research question(s) or research problem(s). • To justify study significance and rationale. • To establish limitations of the study.

Writing the Study Background Writing the study background paper presents you with the opportunity to dig deeper (research) into the gap(s) that you identified as lacking in the healthcare field as it relates to "information governance," and crafting potential solutions, or creating avenues for further research in this area.

So what does a good study background look like?

The study background combines elements of a typical study introduction, including crafting the research problem(s)/question(s), and providing justification for the study within appropriate scope/study limitations.

Study Introduction: The purpose of the study introduction is to demonstrate the value of your research through creativity and originality. You will be providing a short description of what you intend to research and establishing to what area of research your work belongs. In other words, it provides the study's context. In this case, the need to fix or consider fixing the gap that you have identified in "healthcare information governance." The key question that you try to answer here is:

So what?

Your introduction should set the tone, sparking interest in the subject and drawing the reader into wanting to know more about your topic.

The Research Problem(s)/Question(s): There is no point conducting research if you are not trying to solve a problem or frame an environment that could lead to solving the problem. Sometimes, you may simply be updating the extant literature in the field, and subsequently creating a potential boulevard for future researchers to navigate. Other times, in the case of applied research, your results could help to develop new policies, or strategies that are applicable to a particular issue or industry.

Your research problem or question addresses the specific issue(s) that you are trying to resolve. For example, you may ask questions such as:

• To what extent is enterprise information management a key to successful information governance in healthcare?

• What is the best approach to protecting healthcare information assets held in cloud- based systems?

• To what extent is policy development a critical requirement for effective information governance in healthcare?

Justification of the study: Your study's justification proves why it is important to research this issue and address the problem or question you had initially posed. Although you are not conducting a literature review at this point, it is absolutely fine to reference previous research in this area, or point to issues in the industry that may be addressed through this research. At this point, you are highlighting the potential contributions of your research. A good study justification should answer the following questions:

• Who cares? • To what extent do the findings of the study make a difference? • Why are the results important to the field, hence justifying why it's important to

conduct the research? • What are the implications of not conducting the research and finding answers to the

research questions?

Scope/Study Limitations: It is important that you appropriately scope your research within the limitations of your capability, allotted time frames or specifications that you have little or no control over. You will not be able to research all aspects of your study, no matter how fascinating the topic might be. Studying too wide a research topic is impractical, but could spur the beginning of future research. Therefore, your study's limitations sets the boundaries.