Definition of Research

DEST define research for the purposes of the Publication Collection as comprising of:

• creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications
• any activity classified as research which is characterised by originality; it should have investigation as a primary objective and should have the potential to produce results that are sufficiently general for humanity's stock of knowledge (theoretical and/or practical) to be recognisably increased. Most higher education research work would qualify as research
• pure basic research, strategic basic research, applied research and experimental development.

Activities that support research and meet this definition of research include:

• provision of professional, technical, administrative or clerical support and/or assistance to staff directly engaged in research
• management of staff who are either directly engaged in research or are providing professional, technical or clerical support or assistance to those staff
• activities of students undertaking postgraduate research courses
• development of postgraduate research courses
• supervision of students undertaking postgraduate research courses.

Activities that do not support research must be excluded, such as:

• preparation for teaching
• scientific and technical information services
• general purpose or routine data collection
• standardisation and routine testing
• feasibility studies (except into research and experimental development projects)
• specialised routine medical care
• commercial, legal and administrative aspects of patenting, copyright or licensing activities
• routine computer programming, systems work or software maintenance (research and experimental development into applications software, new programming languages and new operating systems would normally meet the definition of research).