This book aims to help research practitioners in technology science
avoid some of the most common pitfalls or at least make them easier to
overcome. Many technology scientists put too little weight on how they
conduct their work and should be able to become significantly better at
what they do by being more aware of methodological issues. The book
differs from other related works in two main respects: First, by
focusing on creating, producing, or inventing new artifacts - in other
words, technology science. Second, by describing a general approach to
technology science linking together specialized research methods.
The book consists of 14 chapters. Following the first introductory
chapter are two chapters providing the foundation for the rest of the
book. These chapters clarify the meaning of key concepts and describe an
overall process for technology science. The subsequent chapters 4-11 are
about this process. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 concern problem analysis,
research planning, and hypothesis formulation. The following five
chapters then aim at evaluation. Chapter 7 introduces the concept of
prediction, which plays a fundamental role in evaluating hypotheses.
Chapters 8-10 address the evaluation of universal, existential, and
statistical hypotheses. Chapter 11 concerns quality assurance and
introduces the concepts of validity and reliability. Next, in chapters
12 and 13, we address publishing with an emphasis on the specifics of
technology science. Eventually the last chapter, chapter 14, briefly
introduces the philosophy of science.
The book systematically collects in the form of suggestions,
recommendations, and guidelines the author's 35-year experience as a
researcher, author and reviewer in technology science. It is written for
anyone working in technology science, from master's students to
researchers and supervisors.
